Gamifying intercultural telecollaboration tasks for pre-mobility students

At a recent TeCoLa3 project conference, Colpaert (2017) declared: “there is not enough evidence to suggest that technology has a direct effect on learning, not even virtual worlds. No, not even games... My hypothesis is... that the added value of technology depends on the designs of your learning environment on the one hand... and what I will talk about on task design on the other”. This position paper argues that gamification may be effectively employed in engaging students’ participation in pre-mobility preparation telecollaborative programmes, paying particular attention to environment and task design. Such preparation involves carrying out telecollaborative tasks with international partners and peers. Participation is voluntary and one of the biggest challenges in completing the set tasks results from the initial mismatch or ‘non-fit’ of pair partners. We present issues and ideas surrounding the possible gamification of task design in order to motivate students, to build an ‘expectancy-value framework’ (Dörnyei, 1998), and to remain engaged throughout the pre-mobility telecollaborative project.