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Abstract: Squire claims that a good game encourages good learning that "enables us to become knowledge producers [which] gives us robust ideas to think with, and propels us toward participation in social practices" (2013). Inspired and intrigued by the possibilities of using game environments as learning spaces, which can lead to social changes (McGonigal, 2011), the instructional designers at the University of British Columbia ventured into the "unknown" and transformed a "traditional" online course on adult education into a role-playing game. This paper explores the notion of gamification in a higher education setting, what it means in terms of instructors' teaching practice, and how it changes student experience. The paper describes how game elements were incorporated into a course. The goals were to 1) engage students by creating a responsive feedback system, and 2) empower students by allowing them to customize the game experience based on their learning style and interest in the topics. The game space designed for the students enabled them to explore and try different things, and also realize that their work mattered. The paper focuses on the process and challenges of "gamifying" academic content and outlines the elements that make the game successful and sustainable. The designers purposefully avoided creating a virtual world or environment similar to an MMORPG, or investing a significant amount of funding and time into creating a space where only experienced gamers would feel comfortable. The new gamified version of the course needed to be low-tech, but enable high-social learning. The goal was to increase student engagement in the course, especially their interaction with one another, without technology getting in the way of their learning. The course was therefore taken out of the structured and formal LMS and transferred into the more flexible and social WordPress environment. The students took on two roles: 1) the role of reporters who were required to write about adult education issues and respond to different tasks set out by their Editor in Chief, and 2) the role of readers who responded to the written articles. Together, they were contributing and building the newspaper "Adult Educator Weekly". The design of the course enabled students to receive timely feedback from their peers, which made the students feel their writing was relevant...