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technology Gamifying The Classroom THE ARTICLE "Game On," on page 24 of this issue, high- lights how Duke University used gamification to encour- age excitement about its programs and brand. But busi- ness professors also are using the concept to get students excited about learning—and to get them to learn better. This fall, Kevin Werbach, associate professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, is teaching an undergraduate course on how to apply gamification to business areas such as marketing, human resources, sustainability, customer engagement, and innovation. For the first time, he's also using the concept as a teach- ing and learning tool. There are myriad ways to use gamification in class, explains Werbach. Educators can create a narrative which sends students on a "quest" to collect tokens when a goal is achieved, build classes around popu- lar board games like Monopoly, or set up a system in which students earn badges or points. Werbach uses a badge system in his classroom. To administer the game, he has partnered with Badgeville: The Behavior Platform, a company that helps organizations such as Deloitte, Samsung, and NBC apply social gaming to their marketing and educational goals. "I'm sure my first effort will involve mistakes," Werbach says, "but I'm excited to see how students respond to what I've put together for the course and learn from there." One educator who served as a model for Werbach as he designed his approach to gamification is Steven John- son, an assistant professor of management information systems at Temple University's Fox School of Business in Philadelphia. Johnson has used gamification in his social media innovation course for three semesters. Johnson presents his gamification system to students as a "Social Media Innovation Quest." Students earn points for different activities and receive badges at certain levels, which include "rookie," "ace," "magnificent," and "virtuoso." Although quest points don't count toward students' final grades, some assigned activities can help students earn quest points. Johnson uses the blog platform WordPress and its Achievements plug-in, which awards badges and points B-Schools Consolidate Their Approaches to IT A GROWING INTEREST in technology-based business education is leading to a gradual consolidation and integration of IT topics in business school programs. That's what data indicate in the Business School Ques- tionnaire (BSQ), AACSB International's annual survey of its members. From 2007–2008 to 2011–2012, the BSQ shows that the number of b-school IT directors has stayed relatively steady. However, the number of dedicated fac- ulty specializing in computer informa- tion science and management informa- 52 November/December 2012 BizEd tion science (CIS/MIS) has shown a small but significant decline. This year, schools reported 166 fewer IT fac- ulty—their numbers decreased from 9.8 percent of total faculty to 8.7 percent. The number of dedicated CIS/MIS programs also declined. What's causing this trend? It could be that business schools now view tech-oriented topics such as busi- ness analytics, Web development, and social media as important to all business graduates, not just those who specialize in IT, according to AACSB's Research and Knowledge Services staff. Skills usually taught in CIS/MIS courses are now BLUE JEAN IMAGES/GLOW IMAGES