Gamification Delivery Systems Comparison

     The first gamification delivery system that I researched was 3D Game Lab (Rezzly). This platform allows students to complete quests to accumulate XP and level up. It allows collaboration through the grouping of teams and the discussion board feature. Teachers can allow students to have a ton of choice in choosing quests and completing quests at their pace or they can dictate quests in order. Different elements can unlock quests for students (XP accrual, completing certain quests, etc.). When completing quests, teachers can submit feedback after students have completed quests or send the quest submission back for adjustment. This is a great classroom organizational tool and way to measure student mastery. It provides student a gaming feel which creates an 'addictive' participation in classroom activities when using Rezzly.

     Classcraft is a program that was initially mainly geared towards classroom management, but has been enhanced to include classroom delivery and objective mastery. Students can gain or lose XP or health points based off of behavioral activities or classroom quests completed. Classcraft has a really cool presentational aspect. For example, users can defeat monsters by eliminating the monsters health points when answering questions on a review game. Students can receive punishments or rewards as a group, but there is no inherent group programs that I know of with classcraft. Student quests can be self-paced or completed in order as determined by the instructor. Students can take on different roles/characters within the game with have different strengths of powers.

     Breakout edu is a breakout/puzzle game platform for teachers and students. Teachers can create or utilize puzzle games made relating to their content and assign them to students. Students can also create 'breakouts' themselves for much higher-order thinking. Of the three, Breakout Edu is the least comprehensive as a gamification platform. Teachers can set-up classes and students can only be given access to breakouts after they have completed previous breakouts. However, there is no pure 'XP' or 'leveling up' type capabilities that other platforms offer. If assigned multiple breakouts, students can choose which breakouts to complete first.

     Conclusion: In conclusion, I wish that I could create a combination of 3D Gamelab and Classcraft. Classcraft is amazing visually and has a lot of awesome components, but I have found through experience that it is sometimes 'too much' for students in understanding what they need to do (steps for completion, what dictates increase of health points and XP, etc.). 3D Gamelab is solid visually, but doesn't compare to Classcraft in this respect. However, I believe that 3D Gamelab would be a little clearer to students. Both are solid options, but have their best qualities. I think that a teacher would do wonderfully with either with proper planning and diligent use.

	3D Game Lab	Classcraft	Breakout EDU
Price	The educator membership is $12.95 per month or $34.95 per quarter (3 months) or $119.40 per year.   The legendary educator membership (including teacher camps) is $79.95 per quarter or $245 per year.	Basic membership is free.   Premium membership is either $96 billed annually or $12 billed month-to-month. Premium membership includes student analytics, personalized learning quests, interactive class tools, and extra gear & pets which is not included in the basic membership.  School and district membership – A quote must be requested from classcraft. It includes everything in basic and premium membership, but also school dashboard, school climate index, enhanced security, phone support, and custom PD support.	Classroom kit and 1 year access code - $275  1 year online access platform only - $75  School-wide access code 1-25 teachers - $500  School-wide access code 26 – 50 teachers - $1000  School-wide access code 51 – 125 teachers - $1500
Collaboration	3D Game Lab has a discussion feature where students can contribute to discussion forums. Students also can participate in 3D Game Lab on teams. Lastly, teachers can gear their quests with requirements for students to collaborate with each other.	Students can receive group rewards and group punishments. It is cool when you have every group has a specific role (healer, warrior, mage, etc.) which each has specific capabilities within the game. Partcipants can be organized into teams. Teachers can make quests into group activities themselves, but it is not inherently a part of the game.	Students are able to collaborate by participating in breakout with each other (pulling desks together, etc.), but the platform does not have a function geared towards team quests or anything like that.
Leveling Up	Teachers can establish levels based on XP. As students acquire the required number of XP, they can level up to the next level.	Students have both health points and XP. Students can gain or lose health points or XP as reward or punishment. Students receive XP and health points based on behaviorally aspects or by completing quests online.	There is not a leveling up access, but users can create breakouts that can only be accessed when other breakouts are completed. So, there is an ‘unlock’ element there.
Quests	Students can participate in quests that allow for student choice and display student progress. Students submit quests to an instructor who can provide feedback if the quest is not completely fulfilled.	Students can participate in quests on the program. Quests can be self-paced or directed by the instructor. They utilize a map in displaying these quests.	Students participate in breakouts or content related puzzle games where they unlock locks to solve puzzles using hints.
Pace and Direction	Students can acquire XP through quests and make decisions on the order that they complete quests (or the teacher can predetermine quest order).	Teachers can utilize self-paced quests or allow students to choose direction or it can be dictated by the teacher.	Students can choose which breakouts to participate in when multiple are unlocked to them.

Top Hat vs. Nearpod

     Though Top Hat and Nearpod are both venues for content delivery and wonderful tools for formative assessment, they have plenty of differences. Top Hat is more geared towards use by college professors and college students. Like Nearpod, Top Hat has the features of asking questions in various formats to record answers of students and pose discussion questions that can be answers. Top Hat has a cool feature of grading the discussion participation either by participation or graded for correctness. Top Hat offers a testing feature (for $10) where you can have tests securely taken on the Top Hat website or app. Top Hat has a whiteboard sketch feature which is great for visual accompaniment for lectures for professors. Like Nearpod, Top Hat has the ability to put presentations online. On Top Hat, they can either attach a file or create a presentation through the 'slides' feature. Like Nearpod, Top Hat allows users to embed questions, discussions, or polls within presentations. Top Hat has a feature that allows professors to link courses with existing online textbooks (with paid membership or additional fees per linked textbook to course). Unlike Nearpod, Top Hat has an attendance feature. Students can 'check in' to lectures so that professors can know who is present.

     Nearpod is a little bit more geared towards the secondary and elementary level. One cool feature that I found on Nearpod that I could not find on Top Hat was virtual field trips. With Nearpod, students can visually take virtual field trips that can be used with virtual technology implements like v.r. goggles. Nearpod offers access to pre-made lesson plans that are arranged by topic, subject, or grade level. When you create lessons, you can add to the collection of resources that can be accessed by Nearpod teachers everywhere. Like Top Hat, Nearpod has the features of presentation where users are able to embed videos, images, websites, etc, without the clicking on a link and the pause of waiting for a website, video, etc. to open. Like Top Hat, Nearpod has formative assessment features such as polls, discussion questions, and quiz questions (of various formats).

	Nearpod	Top Hat
Formative Assessment Features	Teachers can utilize various types of questions (fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, short answer, etc.) that can be embedded into lessons. Results can be displayed for teacher use and for class use. Users can respond anonymously.	Teachers can utilize various types of questions (fill-in-the-blank, multiple choice, short answer, etc.) that can be embedded into lessons. Results can be displayed for teacher use and for class use. Users can respond anonymously.
Discussion Features	Students can contribute to discussion questions to create in-depth discussions. Discussions can be embedded in presentations or posted separately.	Students can contribute to discussion questions to create in-depth discussions. Discussions can be embedded in presentations or posted separately. There can be an assessment component of discussions which give students credit for participating or for correctness or a combination of both.
Presentation Features	Users are able to upload previously made presentations into the presentation feature of the app. Users are able to embed pictures, videos, websites, etc. To presentations rather than just linking them. These presentations can be shared with students.	Users are able to upload previously made presentations into the presentation feature of the app. Users are able to embed pictures, videos, websites, etc. To presentations rather than just linking them. These presentations can be shared with students.
Attendance Features	There is no deliberate attendance feature on the app, but a teacher could create a poll or question each day to record attendance.	There is an attendance feature where students can check-in to a given class or lecture. This is very beneficial for professors with extremely large classes and multiple classes.
Virtual Field Trips	Users are granted access to a variety of virtual field trips which can be viewed in collaboration with virtual reality implements.	There is no virtual field trip feature, but videos can be embedded to try to recreate this feature.
Online Lessons	Users are given access to a large number of pre-made lessons which are arranged by topic, subject, and/or grade level. Users can access and use these lessons.	There is no clear sharing of lessons on Top Hat. However, there are pre-made courses geared towards existing textbooks (discussed below).
Linking Lessons to Textbooks	Though there is no inherent linking of course content to existing textbooks, lessons can be created that are geared towards a textbook that a teacher is using.	There are pre-made courses that are already linked to existing college-level textbooks. However, this feature costs money whether you buy a membership for access or pay for an individual course (which professors can ask their students to do).
Whiteboard Sketch	There is a whiteboard sketch feature. Users can create visual how-to's such as working math problems.	There is no whiteboard sketch feature per say, but users can embed videos with visual demonstrations or user other apps and embed results within a given presentation.
Cost	Paid for by students (usually).   $26 – 1 semester  $36 – 1 year  $75 – 4 years  $10 for tests	Many features are free for use of up to 30 students. This app is usually paid for by the teacher, school, or district.   GOLD - $120 per year per teacher