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San Joaquin Valley College Unveils 'Gamified' Career Academy

The private California college will offer digital games, puzzles and lessons tailored to a student's personal assessment and field of study, aiming to boost student engagement with more immersive and enjoyable content.

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San Joaquin Valley College has launched a new online hub called the Career Academy, featuring hundreds of digital games, puzzles and lesson modules tailored to course content across all of its online programs to boost student engagement, a recent announcement said.

According to a news release, the online portal will integrate course, program and institutional outcomes into an "interactive lifelong learning hub” of gamified content, where remote students will be able to collaborate on course activities and participate in a variety of game-like lessons designed to make their subjects more immersive and enjoyable.

The launch of the Career Academy comes as higher education institutions and K-12 schools alike embrace the “gamification” of learning, with the goal of using interactive digital content such as AR/VR technology to increase remote student participation and performance.

Noting the potential of game mechanics to make learning more enjoyable and engaging, the announcement said, the hub will offer students access to content and activities tailored to their program and overall assessment.

“Many forward-thinking institutions have experimented with gamifying courses with great success,” said Corporate Director of eLearning Curriculum, Instruction and Student Services Pat Fox, in a public statement. “At SJVC, however, we have created a fully integrated system that leverages data from the time students start their orientation throughout their program, to deliver the best choices of games to the student at just the right time. Students are very excited by the wide range of content, so much so that most students play far more games than are required to fulfill their professionalism requirement … Today, the student on top of the leaderboard has earned 131 game badges!”

According to the announcement, the new Career Academy is available to all online students in the SJVC's Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene, Bachelor of Science in Construction Management, Bachelor of Science in Health Care Management, Bachelor of Science in Respiratory Therapy, Associate of Science in Construction Management, Associate of Science in Health Studies, Certificate or Associate of Science in Information Technology, Certificate or Associate of Science in Business Office Administration, and Certificate or Associate of Science in Human Resources Administration programs, among other courses.