Classcraft as a Resource to Implement Gamification in English-Medium Instruction cal research is needed on the topic (Dicheva, Christo, Agre, & Angelova, 2015; Hamari, Koivisto, &
Sarsa, 2014). More specifically, Hung (2017) remarks that empirical studies on gamification in Higher
Education have showed modest gains in some areas and Hamari et al. (2014) indicate that gamification
effects depend greatly on the context and users.
Other authors suggest that gamification could not be motivating enough and could also discourage
students as they do not find fun to compete with their pairs (Dominguez et al., 2013) while others au-
thors point out that gamification relays in external rewards which can be problematic for students (Hung,
2017; Lee & Hammer, 2011). In addition, gamification is reported to be time and resource-consuming
for teachers (Lee & Hammer, 2011).
SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Gamification can be a great ally for EMI teachers, but in order for it to be successful it requires a great
effort and careful planification. As stated in previous sections, teachers first need to understand the
context of their students and the general atmosphere of the classroom. It is important to remember that
gamification should be voluntary, and and no student should be forced to play. In addition, if any student
who was reluctant to play on first instance is willing to play once the gamification has started teachers
should allow them to join the game. Secondly, the learning objectives should be clearly defined, and
specific learning goals should be set. To this aim, Classcraft Quests can result very useful as teacher can
plan their curriculum in advance and prepare Quests prior to the starting of the gamification experience.
Once the gamification experience is thoroughly designed considering students’ expectations, available
resources, reward and penalty systems, duration, etc. it should be presented to students with enough
time for them to explore and to get familiar with the game. Teachers should keep in mind that their work
has not finished when the gamification experience starts, as they have to give feedback to students and
supervise the development of the game to make any necessary changes such as reorganizing teams, or
adjusting the points of the reward or penalty systems. Finally, gamification proposals must serve both the
interests of the students−getting rewards, acknowledgement, fun, etc.−and those of the teacher−foster
students’ performance, improve classroom atmosphere, etc. Consequently, it is essential to balance these
two aspects in order to ensure success.
