What Can Educators Learn from Social Game Design in University Online Teaching?

In recent years considerable research efforts have been made to provide evidence for a nexus be-tween game design elements in non-game contexts. Our research presents a new approach to bridge game design elements and educational theory: defining a set of motivational “patterns” used for peda-gogical purposes in university teaching scenarios. To this end, we will build upon preliminary empirical results from a research project called EMPAMOS®. It derived a set of motivational elements frequently used in social game designs. Our hypothesis is that these elements resemble on a structural level and are directly transferable to motivational factors in online education contexts. Focused on cooperative teaching and learning, we develop a curriculum to enable educators to im-plement motivational molecules from game design in their learning settings. The paper presents basic premises and a preliminary structure of the curriculum. By examining educational settings in terms of a “broken game”, we provide a new perspective on the prerequisites for learning at the university level.