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PLAYING WITH PROCESS

Playing with Process:

Gamification, Post-Process Pedagogy, and the Future of Writing Centers
Molly Starkweather and Bri Neves
Kaplan University and Georgia College and State University

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Abstract
Writing centers are uniquely positioned to create educational content for an entire campus
writing initiatives. Centers are especially well suited to help students discover their own unique
writing processes, and with the ever-growing digital presence of online tutoring, centers can
personalize a students learning experience to fit a variety of learning lifestyles. The movement
of gamification, or increasing the playful challenges and pleasure in higher education, fits into
writing centers, as games are also designed for a personalized and unique experience for the
player. Playing with Process is a game in the early stages of development for students to
gamify a writing assignment and make up a unique writing process through a Choose Your
Own Adventure game structure. Molly Wright Starkweather, a full time Writing Center tutor at
Kaplan University, and a former composition student, Briana Neves, will present a how to in
developing similar games for writing centers as well as for specific assignments in writingintensive courses.

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As we consider the future of writing centers, we see the landscape of online tutoring.
Technology in teaching, and indeed online writing instruction and online coaching in writing
centers, is still frontier-like for many of us. I myself am considered a hybrid of digital immigrant
and digital native, being born on the cusp of the generation gap for digital learners, way back in
1983. As alien as this online environment can seem to even a digital native, the benefits that
technology can afford us in writing support for students are truly moving us forward.
Interestingly enough, some of us have seen that, as students are given more and more access to
information, they have less and less motivation to actually put it into practice. It might be easier
than ever to research using quality sources of information, but it might be more difficult than
ever to get students engaged with searching for those quality sources. As the old saying goes,
You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it think. Or is that drink?
So how do we bridge the gap between showing our students the plentiful waters of word
processing, brainstorming activities, multimodal writing exercises, and much moreand getting
students excited enough to actually take a sip and try things out? While our problems with
motivation have come at the same time as a growth in online writing resources, that very same
digital landscape is where we can find ways to get students engaged. One major innovation in
educational technology has been described as gamification. Gamification for educational
design happens when a course, a learning activity, or a writing exercise is situated in a game or
game-like atmosphere, encouraging students to enjoy the process of becoming educated, to have
fun. Researchers like Michele Dickey, Deanne Gute and Gary Gute have explored bringing game
design into the classroom, and the results are promising for those of us wanting to facilitate highenergy, focused activities for student writers.

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In teaching writing as a process, we find ourselves reaching another frontier, going
beyond the writing process as described in the five or six steps shown in every writing guide
students come across. The textbook description of the writing process shows that the process is
fixed, that you begin with pre-writing or brainstorming, transition smoothly to drafting, then on
to revising, then editing, and you finish by publishing or sending a project. In his 2008 article
What should we do with post-process theory? Matthew Heard describes post-process theory as
[setting] itself apart from predecessors by claiming that the very nature of written
communication has been misunderstood until now as a closed system that might eventually be
captured with enough training, practice, and rules (284). By understanding writing as a learning
activity rather than as a skill to be mastered by following a prescribed formula, we in writing
centers can empower students to experiment with different exercises to engage them in writingas-learning. One of the best ways to get students involved in writing-as-learning in an online
environment is gamification.
Unfortunately, writing papers is not always appealing to students; in fact, students are
often bogged down by the idea of just getting their paper done. Focus within student
communities is often fixated on the product rather than the process of the essay; gamification
reverses the emphasis to process over product. This is because the application of knowledge is
just as if not more important than the acquisition of knowledge, which is also known as
performance before competence, as described by scholars like James Paul Gee (2005).
Students are sometimes not engaged in or motivated to explore their own writing process, much
less recognize the significance for doing so. However, if designed carefully, gamification can
appeal to all students, especially in composition.

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Because students sometimes think that the writing process is too difficult or complex to
pursue, critics may argue that gaming might over-complicate the process. However, just because
an assignment is made more difficult or complex by adding a game element does not mean a
student cannot learn it. The key to engaging students is to tailor the game to the individual
students and challenge them rather than overwhelm them. In this tailoring there must be an
adequate balance of work and play, which is a critical component of self efficacy theory.
According to Breen and Lindsay, Self Efficacy Theory "...proposes that individuals engage in
behavior if it increases their feelings of competence, control, or effectiveness" (695). Once
students feel that they can engage in the writing process, they will want to set goals for
themselves. Dahlgren and Pramling's (1985) work indicates that students often have goals
beyond what the faculty expect, and if the faculty can get to know those goals and can in some
way share those goals with the student, the student will not only take course-related goals more
seriously, but the student will strive to improve in all areas of life. One interesting factor in how
students set learning goals and engage in writing is what learning style (or styles) they have.
Students with different learning styles do not always grasp everything that is involved in
writing a paper, including just coming up with ideas, time management, or learning mechanics
(or lower order concerns). Often students are not aware that they have a particular learning
style that can amplify the best way to engage in writing-as-learning. Students need to understand
how they can relate to their work and the creation of it. Games, however, can alleviate this
problem because they encompass many sensory learning styles students might use in exploring
the writing process. Verbal instructions such as Read the paper out loud to yourself speak to
auditory learners. Charts, graphs, webs, pictures, and animations provide aid to the visual
learners. By making a Choose Your Own Adventure game, we in writing centers can facilitate

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students to pick exercises based in part on learning style. Finally, there are times when students
do not always feel that they get enough feedback on their writing process and are not always able
to gauge their level of improvement. Thankfully, feedback through gamification is part of the
process, especially in a Choose Your Own Adventure game that includes steps like I need to
email my instructor for feedback on this revised thesis statement. Gamification can help
instructors measure student improvement. As students progress in identifying and familiarizing
themselves with their own writing process, they will be more easily able to track how much
progress they are making in their writing. As Gute and Gute state, "Flow is its own reward," the
reward merely being the pure satisfaction of doing it (195). This, in turn, helps students to
receive adequate feedback on their writing process, which according to Gute and Gute "...is a
prerequisite for flow" (201). A game that deals with motivating students to become better writers
has to include opportunities to ask for feedback, since there are no right or wrong answers inside
the game itself: "A defining trait of flow states that participants can utilize feedback as it arises
and therefore feel a sense of control" (209). This feedback is used as a means to self-control, not
as orders to follow. How can we use language to encourage students to use feedback rather than
to follow it? Gute and Gute relay to us that we can encourage students by our own enthusiasm:
"Instructors' enthusiasm for their content areas ideally will help inspire enthusiasm and facilitate
students' concentration" (204). How can we inspire this sort of contagious enthusiasm in the
game that will spill over to students?

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Works Cited
Breen, R. and Lindsay, R. (2002). Different disciplines require different motivation for
student success. Research in Higher Education, 43(6), 693-725. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40197280
Dahlgren, L. O. and Pramling, I. (1985). Conceptions of knowledge, professionalism and
contemporary problems in some professional academic subcultures.
Studies in Higher Education, 10, 163-172.
Gee, J. P. (2005). Good video games and good learning. Phi Kappa Phi Forum, 85(2),
33-37. Retrieved from
http://www.phikappaphi.org/web/Publications/PKP_Forum.html
Gute, D. and Gute, G. (2008). Flow writing in the Liberal Arts Core and Across the
Disciplines: A vehicle for confronting and transforming academic disengagement.
Journal of General Education, 57(4), 191-222. doi: 10.1353/jge0.0026