Class-wide tasks
A class-wide task is a tool for tracking student's progress through a task (or sequence of tasks) and ensuring feedback is provided to every person who completes them. You can use this whenever you are directing everyone in the class to work either individually or in groups on a preset task or sequence of tasks, such as drawing a diagram or attempting a coding exercise.
The intention of this feature is not to take over how the task is conducted. Whatever instructions and resources are needed by students and however they actually attempt and complete the task will need to be handled outside Gameface.
Gameface is simply used by students to keep you up-to-date with their progress through the task(s), and by you to give students feedback and rewards when they complete them.
Launching tasks
Class-wide tasks can be launched from either the presenter view or the remote control by opening the main menu and selecting Start task. A popup will open that allows you to specify whether the task should be completed individually or in groups, whether the task is split into subtasks or not. You can specify the reward that students will receive when they complete a task/subtask, and the reward/penalty they will receive if they complete it to a good, ok or poor standard.
Once you hit Start Task, the player screens, presenter screen and remote control will update as follows:
- The player screens will show a summary of the available rewards, and provide players with the ability to indicate when they have started/completed the task. When there are multiple subtasks (as shown above) there will be a separate entry for each subtask that players can navigate between.
- The presenter screen will show a progress bar of the proportion of players/groups that have started (in light green) or completed (in dark green) each subtask. A red exclamation mark will also show in the top right corner if there are any players who are awaiting feedback for a completed task or subtask.
- The remote control will show a task progress indicator below each player or group. The indicator shows one symbol for each task/subtask, and the symbol will indicate whether the task/subtask has been started or completed, and what feedback it has received (if any). The figure below provides a key for all the progress symbols you might see.
Bear in mind that you will need to provide feedback to every individual or group who completes each task or subtask. Make sure you provide enough time to do so.
For the sake of efficiency:
- Don't be too granular with your use of subtasks. Make sure each subtask represents a solid amount of work.
- For large classes, avoid setting individual tasks because it much more efficient to give feedback to each group rather than each individual.
Consider providing students with a stretch goal by flagging the last subtask in a sequence as a bonus one. This will give the fast students something to keep them busy, without negatively impacting the scores of students who progress more slowly.
Tracking progress
While a class-wide task is underway, the projector screen will provide progress bars showing the proportion of the class that is attempting (light green) or has completed (dark green) each subtask.
The remote control will also update to show a series of status icons—one for each subtask—under each attendee (for individual tasks) or group (for group tasks). The possible icons are:
the subtask has not been started
the subtask is in progress
the task has been completed and is awaiting teacher feedback
the task has been completed and given good feedback
the task has been completed and given ok feedback
the task has been completed and given poor feedback
Wander the room constantly, and prioritise giving help to individuals or groups who are falling behind.
Look out for individuals or groups who forget to update their progress. You can either remind them to update progress themselves, or you can update it for them.
Providing feedback
You will need to provide players and groups with feedback as they complete tasks/subtasks. A prominent red icon will be shown at the top right of the presenter screen and the remote control whenever player or group is waiting for your feedback.
Tapping this alert indicator in the remote control will bring up a list of the specific players or groups who are waiting for feedback, as shown in the figure above. Tapping on one of these notifications will open a popup that shows the faces of the players who are awaiting feedback (so you can locate them in class) and emoticons for rating the completed task as poor, ok or good. Alternatively you can ask the students to try again.
You can bring up this same popup for any player/group at any time by tapping on their progress indicator, in case you need to review or update their progress/feedback.
Make sure you are actually present with the students whenever you give them a rating, and justify your rating with oral feedback.
Ask students to try again rather than giving a poor rating, unless it is clear that they have run out of time or motivation to do better.
Finalizing the task
When you (and the class) is ready, click Close task on the remote control or presenter view to move on.
Do not close a task until you are confident that all students have had a chance to complete the tasks and have their work reviewed by teaching staff, or you have completely run out of time to do so.