Gamification of Learning

The elements of gamification

What if you could harness all the excitement, joy, and perseverance people exhibit while
playing a game into nongame experiences?,. Like marketing a product, teaching a
lesson, or engaging someone on your website. What if game elements and mechanics
could be applied to nongame situations, with the result being increased engagement
and motivation? These are the ideas behind the concept of gamification. Gamification is
the process of using game elements, game mechanics, and game thinking to engage
people, motivate action, promote learning, or solve problems. Most of us, although
probably not completely aware of it, have experienced some type of gamification.
You've probably earned loyalty points for participating in a shopping program or even a
frequent flyer program. You may have downloaded a fitness app for your smartphone
and then encouraged to create goals and track progress against those goals. You may
have even tried to improve your memory by participating in game-like exercises on a
regular basis. In each instance, elements of games outside of a traditional game
environment motivate us to action. Sometimes, it's points, sometimes it's visual
feedback, and sometimes it's the aspect of fun. This is gamification. One way to
understand gamification is to break down a familiar game into its components, and
elements, and mechanics to see how these individual pieces can be applied outside of
the game space. So let’s take a look at the classic game, Monopoly. Monopoly is a
board game where players try to take over the entire board which consists of various
properties. This is accomplished by rolling dice, landing on, and purchasing spaces on
the game board. Then once an opposing player lands on the space, having them pay
rent based on whether or not you've built houses or hotels on the space. Elements of
chance are introduced by both the roll of the dice and the cards labeled Chance. As the
game goes on, the player who makes the most money or gains the most property, or
forces everyone else into bankruptcy wins. Breaking apart the game, we can see
immediately that there is the element of competition. One player is competing against
the others to get the most property. But there's also the element of cooperation, as
players can barter for different properties. Naturally, there's the risk of losing the game.
There's the element of points, which in this case, is represented by money. Whoever
has the most points, money, ultimately wins. The game has pieces, a race car, a top
hat, and other iconic elements. These pieces represent the player and are a kind of
avatar. Spaces can have houses or hotels which indicate different levels. You can know
who's winning and who's losing, which provides a type of a leader board. The element
of chance is demonstrated by the mechanics of dice and cards. The element of
aesthetics is presented, as you have different colored spaces on the board. There are
clear goals and clear rules about what a player can and cannot do. All these are
elements and mechanics of games. Competition, cooperation, points, avatars, levels,
leaderboards, chance, risk, aesthetics, rules, and clear objectives. Not every game has
every element or mechanic. They have a combination of these items. Gamification is
applying these elements and mechanics individually, and sometimes together outside of
a traditional game.

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Game thinking
Gamification is not just about game elements or game mechanics. Gamification is also
about thinking like a game designer. It is about game thinking. Game thinking is
approaching the design and process from the perspective of actions and activities.
Applying the mechanics of games to nongame situations. Games demand action. They
encourage engagement. They require the player to do something. And not just activity
for activity's sake. Actions in games lead to meaningful outcomes, while the player
typically navigates some sort of risk. Meaningful game outcomes involve overcoming
challenges and solving problems through thoughtful decision making. Good games and
by extension good gamification involve challenges, risks and meaningful outcomes that
impact an audience member, prospective client or learner. Gamification is not bounded
by technology or the need to be delivered online. It doesn't have to be digital. Instead,
gamification is a design sensibility. It's a way of designing an engaging and motivating
experience. It is a method of taking the best from games and applying game
sensibilities outside of the traditional game environment. While result of gamification is
often fun, the ultimate outcome behind developing a gamified approach is increasing
engagement and motivation.

Games vs. gamification

The concept of gamification is gaining momentum in everything from marketing to
website development and even learning environments. But often the concept of
gamification is confused with two very closely related concepts. Games and simulations.
While games and simulations and gamification share many common traits. They really
are not the same thing. So it's important to understand the difference between these
three types of activities. Let's start by looking at the concept of a game. What is a
game? The answer is not as straightforward as you might imagine. Tic-tac-toe is a
simple game. It involves placing X's and O's on a piece of paper. All you need is a fellow
player, a piece of paper, a pencil, and you're ready to go. Tic Tac Toe is considered a
game. But so is the well-known game Halo or any other video game which is played on
a video game console involving avatars, controllers, and occasionally, playing
opponents over the Internet. In between, there are thousands of additional experiences
like playing Monopoly, rugby, darts, Mario Kart, and even the game Jacks, and they're
all considered a game. So it's not the fact that something is digital or electronic that
makes it a game. It's not the addition or lack of a ball, bat, or puck. Something else turns
an experience into a game. One of those elements is the idea of a specific goal. In fact,
having a goal is a necessary ingredient for converting a playful activity into a game. Two
children can be blissfully playing in a swimming pool, splashing each other, and this is
considered play. But when one asks the other to race from one side of the pool to the
other, the playing is done and it is now a game with clear winners, losers, and defined
outcomes. So having an objective is a critical element in defining a game, but that's not

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the only element required. Games also have specific rules. In the swimming pool, for
example, the racers have to be in the water. You can't get out of the pool and run to the
other side, that would be cheating. So, a game has rules. It also has to be challenging.
If one swimmer is overwhelmingly better than the other swimmer, both quickly become
bored and uninterested in competing against one another. An element of challenge
must be present. The challenge is not a real world challenge in that making it to the
other end of the pool is meaningless outside the confines of the game. There's no
external value in going from one end of the pool to the other. There's no food at the
other end, no paycheck, no prize, it's just the act of competing against yourself and a
friend. In this way, a game is an abstraction. So combining these elements together, we
can define a game as a system in which players engage in an abstract challenge
defined by rules, interactivity, and feedback that results in a quantifiable outcome or
objective, often eliciting an emotional reaction. The system has a clear beginning,
middle, and end in which the learner dedicates specific time to engage in the game.
Additionally, games are a certain form of isolation from other activities. It's hard to play a
board game while exercising on a treadmill.

Games, gamification, and simulations

Closely related to a game and often confused with the concept of games is the idea of a
simulation which occurs apart from other activities. A simulation is a realistic controlled
risk environment where learners can practice specific behaviors or decisions, and
experience the impacts of their behaviors and or those decisions. The most familiar type
is that of a flight simulator, where a pilot simulates taking off, landing, and other
aeronautical maneuvers. In addition to flight simulators, there are many types of
simulations. Ranging from simulations of equipment and software, to simulations of
interpersonal experiences, like a leadership simulation where a learner is given the
opportunity to practice providing feedback and direction to subordinates. Simulations
can be conducted in both an online environment and in a face to face environment.
When done face to face, they're often called role plays. And while a simulation may
contain game elements, such as earning points for the right action taken, the focus is
really on a realistic experience of the person operating the simulation. The idea is that
they are practicing realistic, not abstract skills that they intend to apply to real situations.
Which brings us back to gamification and an interesting question, which is how many
game elements can be added to a gamification experience before that experience
becomes a game. There's no hard and fast rule on when a gamification experience
changes into a game. In thinking about whether the experience you are trying to create
is a game, gamification or simulation, think of the activities of the person, what they
envision as an end goal, and where they will be having that experience. These criteria
and the definitions we discuss will help you determine the differences among games,
gamification and simulations

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Content gamification
Just as there're different types of games from Tic-tac-toe to Halo-type games, there are
different types of gamification.
One type of gamification is called content gamification. Content gamification is the
application of game elements, game mechanics, and game thinkings to alter the content
to make it more game like. Content is made more game like by taking common
elements of games and applying them to information or material that needs to be
learned or understood. Often, elements such as story, challenge, curiosity, mystery and
characters are used to transform the material and give it a more game like feel. So you
might add the element of story to a series of math or algebra problems to place the
student in a fantasy context. Or you might create a mystery that needs to be solved by
gathering evidence throughout a lecture. Or by finding hidden pieces of information on a
website. The idea is not to create an entire game, but to strategically add game
elements to engage people and motivate action. Here's an example of the conversion of
a traditional instruction into content gamification. The original instruction was
traditionally design. The three-day face-to-face class was about conducting an internal
investigation. The instruction started with well-written, measurable instructional
objectives, followed by a discussion of terms and jargon, and then a model that needed
to be followed to conduct an investigation. And then a discussion of all the forms that
needed to be completed during an investigation. And finally, a role-play of a small part
of conducting an investigation. We entirely changed the three-day session. The first day
the learners walked into the room, before any instruction, they were presented with a
challenge. You're conducting an investigation and a coworker has just walked into your
office and accused your boss of embezzling $30,000. What do you do first? We added
the elements of story and mystery, and from that point forward, the learners were part of
the story. They took on the role of the investigator. They started asking questions, trying
to find the appropriate forms and searching for the correct method of conducting the
investigation. When they needed help, the instructor provided guidance. In the end, the
learners covered the same information as in the original three-day lecture class. But
through the elements of mystery, story, and challenge, they conducted an investigation
themselves and internalized much of the policies and procedures. In the non-gamified
instruction, they learned about how to conduct an investigation. In the gamified version,
they actually conducted an investigation. They learned how to actually do an
investigation, not about how to do an investigation. In this example, the elements
borrowed from games are the elements of challenge, story, immediate feedback,
opportunity to fail, and the sense of unknown or mystery. These elements, common in
many games, were applied to the content of conducting an investigation and ended up
transforming the learning from passive to an active process. This is the concept of

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content gamification, making the content more game like by adding game elements and
applying game thinking.

Structural gamification
In contrast to content gamification, is structural gamification.
Structural gamification is the application of game elements to propel a learner through
content, with no alteration or changes to the content. The content does not become
game like, only the structure around the content. A common implementation of this type
of gamification, is to take the scoring elements of video games such as points, levels,
badges and leaderboards, and apply them to an instructional context. So, if you watch a
15 minute video, you could earn 100 points. If you watch enough videos, you can earn a
spot on a leaderboard. And then if you get to the top of the leaderboard two weeks in a
row, you could earn a badge titled something like Two Week Streak. Throughout the
entire time, the instruction is not reformatted or changed. You just earn additional things
for watching the content. And, most often, for answering questions about the content,
and correctly responding to quiz type questions. Which might be in the form of a
multiple choice question, or a drag and drop exercise, or even a hangman type game
within the content of an online gamified experience. A typical example of structural
gamification in a learning context, is when a learner receives content to be learned
through a quiz type game on a daily basis, for a two week period via email or through a
mobile app. The student receives an email with a quiz question containing content to be
learned. If they answer correctly, they earn points and progress toward earning a digital
badge. If they answer incorrectly, the student is immediately presented a short
instructional piece, designed specifically to address the topic covered in the initial
question. Questions are repeated at various intervals, until the student demonstrates
mastery of the topic. The entire process might take only 30 to 90 seconds each day,
and could be done either at the beginning or end of the day. As the students are
progressing through the content, the number of questions they answer correctly are
indicated on a leaderboard, enabling learners to assess their progress relative to others.
Structural gamification seems to be the most common type of gamification, because it is
relatively easy to create. It's possible to easily create a structure, or purchase an off-the-
shelf structure, which applies points to certain activities of the learner, within a limited
amount of time. However it's important to keep in mind that simply adding points,
badges, and leaderboards, what's referred to as PBLs, doesn't motivate the learners for
very long. It's important to intelligently apply these elements. It should be a mixture of
internally motivating learners to go through the content, and externally incentivizing
them. The element to keep in mind is that it requires careful application of the points,
badges and leaderboards, to get the most out of structural gamification.

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Gamification in sales training
Let's look at gamification in action. One of the struggles many organizations have is
keeping their sales forces up to date on new products and new product functionality.
However, with the constant addition of new tools and new functionality, continually
bombarding a sales force with online or stand-up courses can become burdensome.
That was the problem faced by Exact Target. Exact Target is a global marketing
organization focused on digital marketing tools, email, mobile, social and web. It's part
of salesforce.com. Exact Target is a leading cloud marketing platform used by more
than 6,000, including Coca Cola, Gap and Nike. For over a decade, Exact Target has
been working to serve and inspire marketers in all industries and all organization sizes
by helping them better communicate with their customers. Being marketers at their core,
Exact Target has always believed in the power of relevant and targeted marketing
communications. Exact Target implemented a gamified solution because they were
introducing a new product, Mobile Connect, and wanted to bring the sales force up to
speed on the features and functionality of the product. They implemented a gamified
solution called the Knowledge Guru, created by an Indianapolis-based company,
Bottom Line Performance. The learners log into the gamification platform via the
internet. The entire solution is hosted in the cloud. When learners enter the gamification
platform for the first time, they get a narrative that explains how it works. This is using
the story element of gamification. The player must ascend the mountain for each topic.
The game consists of three paths up the mountain to deliver a scroll of wisdom to the
guru. Three paths, a different scroll each time. The game's mountains are the
instructional topics to cover. Each mountain has learning objectives associated with it.
Learners must answer questions about product knowledge. If players answer correctly,
their score goes up. If they answer incorrectly, their score goes down, as shown in this
example. There are consequences, just like in real life. The Guru game engine used to
create and house the Mobile Connect game has a detailed back-end allowing specific
tracking of designated information. It enables a supervisor, learning professional or
other vested stakeholder to see how learners are performing on each individual
question. Here's an example of such a report. If needed, the game can offer ad hoc
support based on these results. An administrator can even drill down to see how a
specific player is performing and determine what they've accomplished, where they
struggled, and how much time they spent playing the Knowledge Guru platform. The
immediate benefit of this gamified solution over a traditional training tool is it's allure.
People wanted to play the Knowledge Guru. They didn't always want to attend a training
session. The result for the business was that of all the launches done in the two years
previous to the Mobile Connect launch, the sales team built one of the quickest
pipelines for this product. And the knowledge learned reduced calls to the help line. The
gamification approach improved product knowledge and helped the team build the sales
pipeline while simultaneously reducing call response times. As you can see,

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gamification can be used for all types of learning content, including training for a sales
force.

Gamification in retail training

Let's examine how one company implemented gamification to help solve two common
problems within retail organizations. Pep Boys, a full service automotive after-market
retail chain, headquartered in Philadelphia, wanted to improve safety and reduce
inventory shrinkage. Pep Boys has over 700 stores in 35 states, and Puerto Rico.
Those stores have more than 7,000 service bays. The team at Pep Boys had instituted
a robust store level awareness program, that included posters, monthly manager-led
meetings, and huddles to explain the need for safety and loss awareness. The results
were typical. Immediately after an intervention, safety increased, and inventory losses
decreased. Unfortunately, after a short time, employees were not retaining or
operationalizing the learning. With over 19,000 employees undergoing the training, it’s
becoming important to find a way to make the learning stick over a longer period of
time. To address the issue, Pep Boys implemented a gamification platform called
Axonify. They rolled the platform out to the associates who receive daily reinforcement
of the monthly safety and loss prevention training they receive through a quiz type
game. Associates log in and agree to buy an avatar and then pick a game. These
associates then answer quick targeted questions related to risk, loss prevention, safety,
and operational policies and procedures. If they answered correctly, they played a slot
machine game titled Quiz to win for a chance to win cash prizes. If they answered
incorrectly, the system immediately presented a short training piece designed to
address the topics covered in the initial question. Questions repeated at various
intervals until the associate demonstrated mastery of the topic. The entire process takes
less than two minutes each day, and associates do it either at the beginning of a shift or
during down time during the day. The entire system is designed to engage the learner.
Now that prodem implementation is complete, Pep Boys has a voluntary participation
rate of over 95%. With the increase in safety awareness in the stores and service
centers, safety incidences and claim counts are reduced by more than 45%, even with
an increase in the number of stores and employees. The entire culture is shifted with
safety becoming a top focus throughout the organization. In addition, contributions to
shrinkage, such as shoplifting, organized crime, administrative errors and employee
theft have all decreased substantially. An additional benefit includes consistency of
content. In all the stores, the same content is delivered in the same manner to everyone
through gamification. The gamified approach motivates associates to engage with the
safety and loss prevention content on a daily basis. As shown in this case study,
gamification when applied properly helps organizations meet specific, strategic, and
tactical goals.

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Gamification in the classroom
Gamification can be done online, but it can also be done in the classroom as well. Here
is an example of how content gamification has been used in the classroom to teach
about leadership. Let's look in on the classroom and notice what happens during the
presentation. Hi, everyone. Welcome to class and welcome to The Case of the
Ineffective Leader. What we're going to do today is learn about leadership by following a
detective as he solves a few cases. So, we're going to get started. I'm going to ask you
to take out your texting machines and go ahead and send some text messages. So I'm
going to give you a question and then a code, and you're going to respond with that
code. You can respond either via texting, as I said before, or if you want to on your
computer, you can go to the web address and go ahead and respond to the question
that way. And for those of you who don't have any technology or aren't able to use
technology, you can go ahead and participate through observation. So you can observe
the process, take notes for the debrief and look for information about leadership as we
discuss it. So, let's get started with the Case of the Ineffective Leader. It was a quiet
Monday morning, very quiet, almost too. Well, you get the point. Then out of nowhere,
she flew into my office like a boss who had a problem that needed to be solved. Hi,
boss. I've got a problem that I need to solve. She wanted to know why team leadership
was ineffective and why we weren't getting the job done. We need effective leaders, she
said. Well, let me investigate and let me see what I can discover. Good. Take the new
person here and go see Ivan. Ivan, the informant. I think he went to a conference on the
subject. Here's where you come in. Help me figure out these clues and help me figure
them out fast. So, the first thing I'm going to ask you to do is choose your disguise. So,
you can choose a red, blue, green, or orange disguise. So go ahead and take your text
devices and go ahead and choose one of the codes. So if it's blue, it's blue zero one,
red zero one, green zero one, or orange zero one. And let me tell you, blue won last
time so I don't know if that's going to influence your decision or not. Okay, so it looks
like we've got a blue, green and orange detectives. So, let's go ahead and see which
detective solves the case. Let's get going. Now we need to find Ivan, the informant. I
knew one of his old haunts. He was about as friendly as a fly at a fly-strip convention.
Hello, clueless. Look, I'm going to ask you some questions. The right answer will give
you a clue about effective leadership. True or false, leaders need to articulate their
vision through words, not through actions. So, go ahead and if you think that's true, type
TRUE01. If you think that's false, type FALSE01. So go ahead and take a moment and
type in what you think in terms of true or false. We'll see which detective team got the
answer right. So, it looks like most people are saying false as the answer to this
question. And looks like everyone say false, so let's check it out. And indeed, good
leaders act as a model of the vision that they wish to see. Good leaders let their actions
serve as their example. So, words are not as critical as action. People judge you more
by what you do than what you say. So, as a person wanting to become an effective

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leader, make sure that your actions strongly reflect your beliefs and try as much as you
can to make your actions congruent with your words. That makes for effective
leadership. So, next clue. Do effective leaders immediately punish failure or do they
view failure as an inevitable event? Something that might happen, it's really something
that we want to look at. So, if you think you should immediately punish failure, type
PUNISH01. If you think failure's a normal part of what happens in any kind of
organization, go ahead and type NORMAL01. So, it looks like we've got some people
saying normal. Some people saying fun, punish. It looks like we've got a few more
people saying punish the failure. It's actually not what we want to do. We want to
actually accept failures. Failures happen. What matters is how you deal with that failure.
So as a leader, you have to let failure happen or people won't take chances. They won't
take risks. They'll only work in tight parameters and not really work at their peak
because they're too worried about failure. So you've gotta accept and allow failure as a
normal part of the leadership process. Time for a recap with the boss. She looked a little
frantic. She wanted to know one more thing. I want to know one more thing. What did
we discover about leadership? So, what were some of the things that you discovered
today about leadership. Anyone? Yes. >> Your actions have to be congruent with your
words. >> Okay, yes. Actions need to be congruent with your words. Good. What else?
>> Failure should be expected. >> Failure should be expected, yes. Okay, good. Yes,
those are two key leadership things that we need to understand. So now the question,
which detective team solved the mystery? Oh, looks like the blue team won once again.
Good job to the blue team. Great stuff, folks. You really seem to have cracked the case
on what makes an effective leader. As you can see, the elements of story, character
and challenge were all part of this abbreviated example of how content gamification can
be used within the classroom.

Scaffolding
In this section we're going to talk about some of the theories behind the concept of
gamification. If you're familiar with learning theories you'll recognize these theories,
because the same concepts that make games fun and engaging are the same concepts
that make learning engaging. As you go through these theories, I've created a
worksheet to help you apply some of these theories to your own creation of gamified
instruction. You can find this worksheet, titled Theories in the exercise files for this
course. Keep the worksheet handy as you begin to design instruction using the theories
we discuss in this chapter. Many elements of gamification can be directly linked to
learning theories. For example in gamification receiving hints, finding helpful clues,
earning points for specific actions, and the need to apply more skill to master a new
level are similar to the educational concept of scaffolding. Scaffolding is the application
of strategic educational strategies and techniques to move a learner from his or her
current level of knowledge to the next logical level. Scaffolding techniques can include,

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but are not limited to, hints, checklist, clues, prompts and even parsing content into
small units to aid learning. For best results, instruction using scaffolding, should
gradually withdraw the scaffolding to enhance application of what was learned. In
gamification, scaffolding can be in the form of a live peer, an instructor, a mentor, or it
can be in the form of computer system prompts, clues and hints. Scaffolding provides
support, functions as a learning tool, extends the range of the learner, and permits the
accomplishment of tasks not otherwise possible. It is the instructional help that allows a
learner to learn new knowledge. Scaffolding provides the support a learner needs to
move from one level of understanding or knowledge to the next level. The use of
scaffolding within gamification is often associated with the use of levels, progress bars
or rewards in the forms of achievements and visual feedback. These visible indications
of progress let the student know how they are doing, and helps them to maintain
interest in the instruction as he or she moves from level to level. In gamification, the
levels usually become more challenging with less help and support as the learner
moves toward the end. And the skills they exhibit at the final level would not be
developed without the experience of playing the preceding levels of the gamification
experience. Scaffolding within a gamified environment, helps a learner figure out the
task at hand through the help of hints, rewards for certain behaviors, and through
guidance. It can be most helpful when it's provided exactly at the moment of learner
need. A form of scaffolding in a gamified environment would be when a learner was
going through course material and encounters a multiple choice question that they must
answer. The learner may not know which of the four answers is correct. The gamified
system could provide a lifeline that would allow the learner to eliminate two choices, to
help narrow the answer down for that student. Or the lifeline could provide a hint or
content that would provide insights to the learner, that would help them to correctly
answer that question. As you are designing a gamified learning event make sure that
you carefully consider how you can help move the learner from what he or she doesn't
know, to a state of having gained knowledge with the use of scaffolding. As you're
implementing gamification within your learning environment, apply scaffolding in the
following ways. Provide hints or clues that are available when the learner gets stuck.
These can be tied to learner attempts, such as after three tries, a hint appears, or the
learner can choose to receive a hint at any time. Provide the learner with a chance to
narrow choices through life lines. Polling others, or even through the system eliminating
false choices. Gradually withdraw scaffolding as the learner progresses through the
content and gains knowledge. Always allow the learner to receive help or scaffolding if
he or she needs it. Learners can become frustrated if they feel they can't move through
the learning content. Scaffolding can be an important gamification element that moves a
learner from point A to point B.

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Self-determination theory
A large part of gamification is the idea of motivation. Gamification helps to motivate
learners to move them through, and engage them with content. But, what motivates
people, and why do elements of games seem to be so motivating? There are several
theories of motivation. One such theory is called the Self-Determination Theory. This
theory has been used to describe motivation in a broad range of human activities
including sports, health care, religion, work, and education. The theory basically has
three elements. The first is that people are motivated when they feel they have a sense
of control, and are able to determine the outcome of their actions, this is called
autonomy. Second, people are motivated when they feel competent. They are able to
see themselves mastering a task or information. This is competence or mastery. The
third is that people want to feel connected to other people. This is called relatedness. So
people are motivated when they feel in control, believe they can master a concept or
task, and are socially interacting with others. Researchers have found evidence that the
psychological pull of games is largely due to the inclusion of these components. And
that the components not only motivate further play but, they also enhance psychological
wellness. Gamification which uses parts of games can have the same impact. Let's take
a closer look at the elements of self-determination theory. To design effective
gamification for learning, the designer needs to allow a learner to make decisions that
have an impact on a learner's experience. The decision can be simple, such as, should I
try a ten point question or a five point question? Or the decision can have more impact,
such as which leadership strategy will help me achieve my desired goal. The process of
allowing the learner to make decisions within a gamified environment motivates the
learner, because the learner feels they are influencing what is happening. The second
element, competence, can be achieved by providing the learner small bits of information
for them to learn, rewarding them for learning that small piece of information, and then
providing them with another small bit of information. The content must be set up from
least to most difficult. This allows a learner to work their way up to the more difficult
information while gaining confidence in their abilities. Following this process provides
the learner with a sense of mastery and accomplishment. The most effective design of
gamification is to craft the experience so the learner stays at the edge of competence.
The content is just the right level of difficulty so the learner feels challenged but no so
difficult that they feel they can't master the content. The final element relatedness or
social connection involves elements such as leaderboards or badges to connect one
learner to another. People like to experience events with others so they can discuss
what happened, compare notes, and reflect with others about their experience. When
you develop gamification experiences, keep in mind the three elements of Self-
Determination Theory. Autonomy, Competence and Social Connectedness. These three
elements provide an appropriate outline for creating motivational learning experiences.
As you're implementing gamification within your learning environment, apply Self-

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Determination Theory in the following ways. Give the learner meaningful choices to
make. Establish the gamified learning in a progression from simple to more complex
units of small instruction. So a learner can master fundamental knowledge before
moving on to a more difficult knowledge. Celebrate through rewards, points, or badges
the mastery of the content. Provide opportunities for learners to share successes and to
show off rewards through social channels such as leader boards, sharing trophies and
badges and achievements. Use social media like Facebook or LinkedIn. Self-
determination theory is a great frame work as you develop gamified learning and
instruction

Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Gamification and its application to learning environments is not without a bit of
controversy. The area of controversy surrounding gamification is the argument of
intrinsic motivation versus extrinsic motivation. It is argued that gamification relies too
much on external factors to motivate learners and not enough on internal factors. So
let's back up a moment and define both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic
motivation is when someone is motivated by internal factors, such as wanting to partake
in an activity because it provides satisfaction. Or taking part in an activity, because it
provides an opportunity to learn or for the feeling of accomplishment that the activity
evokes. Intrinsic motivation in gamification would come from a learner mastering new
content, feeling a sense of accomplishment and having a sense of control over their
own actions. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is when an activity is undertaken
simply to earn a reward or to avoid punishment. With extrinsic motivation, a person is
not motivated by internal factors. Instead, they are motivated solely by the prospect of
earning a reward at the end of an activity. Extrinsic motivation consists of the learner
receiving points, earning badges and gathering trophies for learning, content and feeling
good about the reward, but not about the learning. Extrinsic rewards tend to work best,
when the learners do not have an inherent interest in the subject matter or don't see the
initial value of the learning content. Critics of gamification argue that gamification is all
about external rewards, the extrinsic motivation. And therefore, after the external
motivation goes away, the learner will stop being interested. Because a reward no
longer exists and if gamification is only focus on external rewards that can indeed be the
case. However, it's not as simple as extrinsic motivation is bad and intrinsic motivation
is good. They are not polar opposites as many people think. And in fact, both intrinsic
and extrinsic motivation coexist in many educational settings. For example, if someone
is studying to become a certified computer operator, they might be doing it. Because
being certified, looks good on a resume and they'll get a raise at their job. So we could
say, they are extrinsically motivated. But they might also be studying, because they
enjoy mastering the content. Engaging with the subject matter and feel good about
improving themselves. These are all intrinsic elements of motivation. When designing

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effective instruction using gamification, the best approach is to craft both intrinsic and
extrinsic rewards into the experience. As you are implementing gamification, strive for a
balance between extrinsic and intrinsic motivational elements in the following ways. Use
a point or reward system to both motivate the learner and to give them feedback as to
how well they perform a task. The points or rewards, will be extrinsic motivation and the
feedback on performance will be the intrinsic motivation. If a task or activity is seen as
having low initial value or interest for the learners, rely more heavily on extrinsic
motivation. If the activity is of initial high value, use feedback, sense of accomplishment
and self-confidence to motivate the learner. Whenever possible, combine both intrinsic
motivational elements like mastery, opportunities for a series of small successes and a
sense of accomplishment with extrinsic elements, such as points, badges and trophies.
Keep in mind that different learners may be motivated differently to approach the
content. Some may be intrinsically motivated and some extrinsically motivated. So
having both elements increases the likelihood of engaging the learners. The proper
balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation will balance your gamification efforts and
keep learners motivated to learn.

Spaced retrieval and practice

Have you ever crammed for a test? Sure, you do well on the test the next day. But two
days later, three days later, you no longer remember the content. Cramming works well
for short term memory. But it doesn't work well for long term retention of information.
That's why many, but not all. Gamification efforts take advantage of the research-based
concept of distributed learning. Distributed learning basically means studying a little bit
of content at a time over a long period of time, rather than cramming the content all at
once in a eight hour training day, for example. With distributive learning, the learner
receives a little bit of content to be learned one day. And then a little bit more the next
day and a little bit more the day after that. It turns out that distributing the learning over
time leads to better recall of the information later on. Over a period of time, the learner
receives the same information as cramming, but is spread out. And the spreading out of
the content to be learned is what makes it easier and more efficient to recall. This is
helpful for two reasons. The first is it helps avoid learner fatigue. Often, when learning a
lot of information all at one time, the learner can get overwhelmed and the learning
process can actually slow down because of the amount of content. This is called learner
fatigue. The second problem was trying to learn a lot of information at one time is that
the preceding information and the subsequent information interfere with what you're
trying to learn at that time. The content you are trying to learn becomes mixed together.
Making it harder to memorize the information and then recall it at a later time. Learning
a little bit at a time, however means that the learner has time for deeper processing of
content. And can therefore, remember it more clearly when asked to recall. Working
closely with the concept of distributed learning is another concept used in many

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gamification applications, but not all. And that's the idea of retrieval practice, which is
basically testing or quizzing of the learner. This testing process works better than having
the learners either reread or re-listen to the content. The process of forcing them to
recall the content, creates strong links to the content. Positive results from this
technique have been demonstrated with many diverse groups across many diverse
ages. And one study showed that retrieval practice alone improved recall performance
by as much as 20%. The practice of quizzing the learner is frequently used in
gamification applications. The learner's provided with a question and he or she must
answer the question to earn desired points. Or answer a series of questions to level up.
In fact, many gamification applications involve a combination of space retrieval and
retrieval practice and it turns out that, that can be a powerful combination. One study
combined distributive practice and testing techniques, improve retention from 35 to 60%
for students in the subject matter of anatomy and physiology. So when creating a
gamified application or implementing gamification into your organization, strongly
consider the application of both distributed practice and testing of learners. This
combination provides robust learning opportunities and is one reason why gamification
can be so effective for learning. It will hope to keep in mind these tips. If possible,
deliver content to the learners using a distributed approach. A little bit of contents
delivered over time. The ideal time between content being delivered is about 24 hours.
But even if 24 hours isn't possible, some spacing between delivery of content via an
email or mobile application would be helpful. A combination of delivering a few quiz
questions over distribute period of time with a little content over time is one of the most
powerful ways of helping the learner to learn and remember the content. In conclusion,
consider spacing out your instruction to provide the most memorable learning elements
and quizzing your learners provides great reinforcement of learning.

Episodic memory
Gamification is strongly tied to emotions. Emotions related to winning, or even some
emotions related to not winning. But either way, emotion is a critical part of the
gamification experience. One of the reasons for this is because memory and recalling
information can be tied to emotion. Much of this is related to something called episodic
memory. Episodic memory contains information about life experiences. Information that
is associated with a particular time or place, and is typically tied to strong emotions. The
information that you are in Philadelphia for New Year's Eve celebrating at Penn's
Landing, or that you're at your brother's apartment for your surprise 50th birthday party
is episodic memory. A person is able to remember certain times and places because
they have particular meaning and associated emotion such as a major sports event, a
reunion with lost relatives, or even a particularly compelling instructional event. Episodic
memories are stored in such a way that each memory is identified by a personal tag.
Typically, such memories are recalled through association with particular time or place

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intend to be vivid as they're recalled. With gamification, the possibility of creating
episodic memory is very strong. Designing an effective gamificiation experience means
tapping into a learner's emotions. The importance of episodic memory for learning and
gamification is to provide an emotionally charged way for the learner to quickly and
easily recall information related to the application of the knowledge presented with the
gamification approach. The excitement of being involved in a gamification experience
and the elements of engagement can help draw in the learner and help solidify the
content being provided through emotion. The one thing to keep in mind is to be careful
about creating negative emotional experiences with gamification. I've had a situation
where learner was so caught up in winning with gamification, that she lost all concept of
the learning goals. Her focus was only on winning, leading to negative feelings when
she was not as successful as she had hoped. As a result, she shut down and was
unable to learn the required information because her focus and emotions were tied only
to winning. This means that when developing gamified solutions, an important design
criteria needs to be a focus on the learning and not just the game. These two elements
need to coexist, or the experience doesn't work. If it's too much like a game, then only
the game elements will be the focus, and the learner will become too caught up in
winning which might cause negative associations with the learning experience. On the
other hand, if the gamification effort becomes too focused on learning, then the
motivational and engaging aspects of the game become lost. The experience for the
learner becomes too focused on the learning effort and answering questions, and they
will quickly lose interest and no longer be engaged. Gamification requires a careful
balance between emotions and learning elements. When crafting a gamification
experience, think of creating a great emotional experience, and do what you can to
reduce the likelihood of negative reactions due to losing or feeling overly frustrated. As
you're implementing gamification within your learning environment, think of the following
ways to encourage episodic memory. Think of the methods to add fun and emotion to
your gamified learning solution. Have funny characters or witty sayings. Juxtapose two
things that normally don't go together such as zombies and retail sales. Be careful not to
make the losing state too dramatic or humiliating. Celebrate wins, but don't spend too
much time on winning or losing. Have unexpected surprises within the gamified
learning. Add an element of chance or uncertainty. Balance game and learning
elements so the gamified solution doesn't become too skewed in one direction or
another. Episodic memory is not an easy thing to trigger within a learner, but you can
design your gamification approach to help make episodic memory more likely.

Race and escape

Effective gamification requires understanding the dynamics that underlie games. To
help with that understanding, I've created a worksheet you can use to follow along as
we discuss various game dynamics in this section. You'll find the worksheet title

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Dynamics in the Exercise Files for this course. Importantly, I'd like you to think about
games that you've played or experiences that you've had, then corporate these
dynamics. And then consider how applying those dynamics to the learning that you are
creating can make it more game like and more engaging. This thought process will help
you with your game thinking and make you a better developer of gamification for
learning and instruction. There are many formats that can be used for gamifying
learning experiences. Understanding the right format will help you design the right
experience. One such format is that of a simple race. The racing format involves one or
more individuals competing to cross some type of finish line or competing to be the first
person to complete a task or a mission. This can be a traditional racing game, where
one car is racing against another. Or it can be a game where two players are racing
from one end of the game board to the other. Other examples of the racing format
would be Mario Kart or Gran Turismo or even a game like Chutes and Ladders, where
the objective of the game is to reach the endpoint before your opponent. In a
gamification experience or racing format would be when learners are racing others to
complete a task or to learn certain information. Usually in this format, a learner doesn't
cross a finish line. More often, they rise to the top of a leaderboard or are recognized for
accomplishing a task first. The variation of the racing format is the escape format. In this
format, learners or players are moving away from a threat or a danger rather than
toward a finish line or completion. Games that involve escape include running with the
bulls, the Spanish tradition where hundreds of people attempt to avoid being gouged by
bulls running through the streets. Admittedly, it's a pretty high-stake example. An
example that's a little tamer is the board game Forbidden Island. Forbidden Island is a
cooperative game, where players attempt to get off of an island that's sinking. In order
to escape the island, the players must work together to first gather treasures and then
they must cooperate to find a helicopter to escape. In a gamification example, it may be
that players need to complete a certain number of learning activities before they're
eaten by zombies. The players who are able to escape, would end up on a leader board
or as one zombie themed experienced called it, the living board. For example, in the
game Typing of the Dead, the player must type in words quickly and correctly in order to
escape a zombie attack. When thinking about using a racing format or an escape format
for your gamification effort, you want to ensure that you match the type of learning that
needs to occur with the right type of gamification format. For example, if a learner needs
to recall information quickly, a racing game provides a good format. If the learner is
usually in a stressful situation and he or she needs to act quickly to avoid problems or
complications, an escape format would help to reinforce the transferability of that
knowledge from the gamified learning environment to the actual environment.
As you are implementing gamification within your learning environment, consider the
following when creating a racing or escape game. Clearly define if the learners are
escaping from a condition or racing to a finish line or endpoint. Establish clear rules, so

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the learners know what is allowable during the race to the finish or while escaping and
what is not allowed during the process. Decide if there are incremental winners in the
racing format. For example, can someone win for the day? You know, make it to the
finish line on the first day or is it one large overall race? It's better to have smaller,
incremental races than one large race. Racing or escaping can both be powerful
motivational formats for your gamified learning event.

Collecting, acquiring, and allocating resources

Collecting, acquiring, and allocating resources are all variations of a game dynamic that
can be used in the gamification of learning. The collecting dynamic is one where the
player attempts to collect pieces, cards or other items during the gamification
experience. The person who collects the most wins. An example of this type of game is
Trivial Pursuit. In that game, the player answers questions based on the color their
piece landed on after they roll the dice. The player who answers a question of each
color and collects all the necessary pie pieces wins the game. A variation of the collect
to win format is the collect to gain an advantage format. In a game like Pokemon, the
player who collects the most cards has an advantage, because they're able to play
more diverse cards against an opponent. In a gamified learning example, a learner may
need to collect facts, concepts or other pieces of knowledge to win. The collecting of the
pieces of knowledge over time propels the person to the position of winner. Sometimes
a treasure hunt format is used where the learner must collect treasure or information at
various stops or locations. Resource or territory acquisition is similar to collecting. But
involves both acquiring and taking items from others through various game play
mechanisms. Examples of these types of games include Risk, where players compete
to take over the world by acquiring different countries. Monopoly's also a game where
the player attempts to acquire properties. Many war games are some type of territory
acquisition. Allocating resources, on the other hand, is when a player has a limited
amount of resources and must carefully consider the use of those resources to win the
game. An example of this would be the Settlers of Catan game, where players collect
resources based on the location of their cities. Once resources are collected, they can
be allocated for the purchase of roads, cities, and other required elements to help win
the game. The entire game is based off the careful allocation of finite resources. In a
gamification example, a player can be allocated a certain amount of resources that must
be turned in to receive a reward. The resources could be information or course content
to be learned, each learner would receive an inadequate amount of resources or course
content in the beginning. The learners would then need to negotiate with other learners
to obtain all the information required. Usually, information is parsed by categories. So,
they need to obtain some information within each of the pre-defined categories. The
learner must decide what resources can be traded, and what resources should be
collected.

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As you are implementing gamification within your learning environment, consider the
following when using the concepts of collecting, acquiring, and allocating resources.
Often, a gamification experience will contain a combination of collecting, resource
acquisition, and resource allocation. Keep the rules as simple as possible to help avoid
confusion and to clarify what can be traded, acquired, or collected. In resource
allocation games, it is important to ensure the right number of resources is available. If
you have too many or too few of a particular resource, the learners may not be able to
gather all the resources, and therefore, might not learn all the content. So when
considering how to create the right game dynamic for your gamification effort, keep in
mind the much used collecting, acquiring, and allocation dynamic.

Mystery and discovery

A common and popular format for many games is the element of mystery. In this format,
the player must discover the clues to solve a mystery or must explore a strange place to
find items they need for success. An example of a game using mystery is the board
game Clue. In the game, the player must solve the mystery of a murder. The player
goes from room to room on a game board. Collecting evidence to make the final
proclamation of who actually committed the murder. The entire premise of the game is
to solve the mystery. An electronic version of solving a mystery is evident in the game,
L.A. Noire. The video game is set in Los Angeles in 1947. In the game, the player must
solve a number of cases by scanning crime scenes for clues, following up on leads and
even interrogating suspects. The more the case is solved, the more the video game
content is revealed. A discovery game is similar to a mystery game format. Using the
same convention of the player needing to learn certain information to solve a puzzle or
to learn a certain outcome. In the mid-1990s, the popular discovery-based game Myst
was released. Myst puts the player in the role of a stranger on an island who sees
everything through a first person perspective. The player must then find clues to reveal
the story of the island. The game has several endings depending on the course of
action the player takes. The allure of mystery and discovery games is that humans don't
like open loops. They want to have information presented in a nice, neat pattern.
Question asked and question answered. A mystery creates an unknown situation,
drawing in the learner and encouraging them to make the unknown, known. So learners
become motivated and engaged, because they don't want to have an open loop. In a
gamification learning example, a learner may need to solve clues to learn new content.
The clues may contain information that when taken together, provide a new learning
opportunity. The learner continues through the gamification event, because he or she
wants to find all the pieces, to close the loop, to solve the mystery. There are several
ways to create mystery within a gamified environment. Start with questions. Often, in a
learning environment. Instruction starts with the learning objective, such as you will
learn three effective leadership traits. Unfortunately, a learning objective is a closed loop

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and does not pull the learner in. A better method is to start with a question, such as do
you know the top three leadership traits? This is an open loop, the learner now wants to
discover if he or she knows what the top three traits are. The question creates an open
loop the learner needs to close. Another technique is to provide incomplete information.
The learner encounters some of the content needed for success, but not all the content.
The learner can then discover the necessary information, by searching in specific
locations. Going on certain quests, where information is revealed or by collaborating
with other learners.
As you are implementing gamification within your learning environment, consider the
following when using the format of mystery and discovery. Use questions to drive the
learner through the content. Make it clear that the answers or information the learner's
seeking can be found within the content if they know where to look. Space the clues and
information out proportionately, so that the learner is discovering clues or information at
fairly regular intervals. Too long or too short a time between discovering clues can be
boring or frustrating for the learner. Good spacing is important. The idea of solving a
mystery or discovering new information is good for any job or task, where the learner
will have to do some type of investigation to find the root of a problem or to make
decisions based on what they discovered.

Strategy
Strategy games are a popular type of game that requires players to outwit and
outmaneuver fellow players through careful decision making, planning several moves
ahead and attempting to predict outcomes. Perhaps one of the best-known strategy
games is chess. Chess is a strategy game where two players move pieces with several
different capabilities around the board in an attempt to checkmate their opponent. The
strategy of chess requires taking into account many different factors such as the
position of your own king, the position of the opponent's king, the number of pawns
remaining on each side, what other pieces are available, diagonal trajectories toward
opponent's pieces and open spaces, just to name a few. Another popular strategy board
game is Stratego. In this game two players establish an abstracted battlefield with
Marshalls, Miners, Bombs, Colonels, Scouts, and other military positions. The goal of
the game is to capture your opponent's flag, which is hidden on the opponent's side of
the board. The game requires a defensive strategy, which involves determining where
the opponent has hidden their flag, and an offensive strategy to hide your own flag. The
game also includes the concepts of incomplete information and discovery. When a
player attacks an opponent’s piece, he or she discovers the value of that piece which
can help determine future moves. One of the best-known computer strategy games is
Sid Meier's Civilization series. The game includes the concepts of strategic thinking in
terms of the activities of the player which revolve around exploring, expanding,
exploiting, and exterminating opponents. The game offers multiple paths to victory,

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including diplomacy, culture, economic, and military victory, among others. The idea is
to strategize a method of conquering the world. In a gamification learning example, a
learner may need to strategize to successfully complete the gamification experience.
For example, a situation might be engineered where the learner needs to make a series
of difficult decisions based on an economic strategy, a marketing strategy or
combination of the strategies, and through the learning process, decides what tradeoffs
are acceptable and what tradeoffs are not acceptable. You can even engineer
something like the no-win situation from the original Star Trek series, the Kobayashi
Maru. The Kobayashi Maru is a test to see how a starship captain reacts to a difficult
situation. The test involves a situation where a spaceship, The Kobayashi Maru, has
traveled into a forbidden zone, the Klingon neutral zone. And any starship attempting a
rescue would be in violation of a peace treaty and be attacked. But if the starship
captain does nothing, all the people on the Kobayashi Maru will die. The test is the
decision. Let the crew of the ship die, or risk intergalactic war.
As you are implementing gamification within your learning environment consider the
following when creating a strategy-based gamification event. Include trade-offs and
force the learner to make decisions based on those trade-offs. Establish situations
where the learner has to predict the outcome. Reward learners for correctly determining
an opponent's next move or decision. Reveal information a little at a time to influence
and shape a player's strategic decision-making. Provide knowledge or information that
can help the learners manage complexity and the relationship among variables. Reward
learners for developing a solution that was not previously considered as a winning
outcome. Thinking strategically is a valuable skill, and one that can be implemented
effectively in a gamified learning event.

Constructing and creating

Utilizing resources to build or create something new or unique requires thinking
creatively and the ability to plan several steps ahead. These attributes are all used in
games that involve construction or creation. There are several game examples that use
the concept of construction for gameplay. One is the classic board game, Mousetrap. In
that game, players first work together to build an overly complex and complicated
mousetrap by landing on build spaces and creating part of the trap. Once the trap has
been completed, if a player lands on a turn the crank space and an opposing player is
on the cheese wheel space, the player turns the crank to start the operation of the
mousetrap. And if the trap is set up correctly, the opposing player's mouse gets caught
in the cage and is out of the game. A video game example is Minecraft. In this electronic
game, players are able to build all types of things out of textured cubes in a 3-D world.
The core gameplay revolves around placing and breaking blocks. Blocks can be
arranged on a grid and represent different materials like ores, dirt, stone, tree trunks
and even water. Players gather materials and place them in a pattern of their choice.

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The open world aspect of Minecraft allows a player to create virtually anything they can
imagine. Players have built stadiums, buildings, vehicles, artwork and many other
wonderful creations. Another example of a construction game is Roller-coaster Tycoon.
In this electronic game, the player's task is to build and maintain a successful
amusement park. To achieve success, the player has the ability to place rides in the
park such as merry-go-rounds and Ferris wheels, as well as other rides. The player also
has the ability to build roller coasters. The roller coaster can be custom-built by the
player. The player can choose the type of track, the curve of the track and other
elements to create the roller coaster they desire. The coasters can be mild or wild,
depending on how the player decides to string together the track for the coaster. A
virtual 3-D world version of a construction game is Second Life. In Second Life, players
are provided with land and a toolkit to build their own structures, vehicles and even
clothes based on building blocks they call prims. Prims are short for the term primitives,
which are basic geometric shapes. In learning examples, building structures can be
used to teach mathematics or geometrical concepts. Instructors have even had students
write essays or stories about the creations they've developed in Minecraft. And
gamification examples provide the learner with an opportunity to earn elements to build
something of interest to the learner, such as a building or a vehicle. Earning items to
place on one's property can be an engaging process, as well as deciding what building
blocks to put into place and how to craft the desired item being constructed.
As you're implementing gamification within your learning environment, consider the
following when thinking about building or constructing. Provide opportunities for learners
to share their creations in a public space so they can show off what they've created.
Provide simple and specific instructions for basic building. Allow flexibility in what can be
built. Provide plenty of time for the building process. If the time allocated is too short,
learners will feel like they can never complete the structure they're trying to build.
Building and constructing is an engaging process. People like to view and show off
items they've created. Adding the construction dimension to gamification can be
motivating as learners work to create unique structures.

Pattern recognition
Many games involve creating, identifying or predicting a pattern. This is a common
element in many basic and electronic games. It is also an important element for many
professional and academic skills. Pattern recognition is the ability to recognize order in
chaos or to see relationships in disjointed information. Patterns can be found in
concepts, ideas, series of words, symbols, numbers and images. They can also be
found in behavior, economics and historical events. In every discipline, patterns are
crucial for predicting the future, estimating the right course of action and determining
diagnostic steps. Engineers use patterns to create objects. Psychologists use patterns
to help patients. Lawyers use patterns to help settle cases and researchers use patterns

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to fight disease. A simple example of pattern recognition is Tic-Tac-Toe. In the game,
the player attempts to align three Xs or three Os before an opponent can do the same.
This process requires the player to both focus on the pattern he or she is creating, as
well as focusing on the pattern of the opposing player. In Tic-Tac-Toe if both players are
adept at pattern recognition, the game ends in a stalemate. The same concept has
been carried into electronic games like the popular Candy Crush. In the Candy Crush
game, the goal is to find patterns and align different candies. When the candy is
aligned, it disappears and the candies around fall into place. A similar concept is using
Tetris, where the players work quickly to align shapes to create solid lines across the
game screen. When a solid line is accomplished, the line disappears and the pieces
move closer to the bottom. Another non-electronic version of pattern matching is
Connect Four, where a player attempts to connect checker pieces on a vertical game
board. The player who connects four first, wins the game. An example of pattern
recognition in gamification might be to teach a salesperson to recognize customer
buying patterns. The learner might be rewarded for identifying statements that support a
certain buying pattern. In teaching history, a learner might be asked to identify the
pattern of behavior of a certain country or a group of countries that led to armed conflict.
Adding pattern identification and creation in the gamified learning events, provides
challenge to learners and is motivational as the learners work to identify what makes a
pattern.
As you are implementing gamification within your learning environment, consider the
following when thinking about pattern recognition. Start with simple patterns and then
work toward more complex patterns. Start with more tangible patterns and then work
toward more abstract patterns. Provide multiple opportunities to recognize a pattern. For
more knowledgeable learners, patterns can be more obscure. For learners who are
newer with the subject matter, keep the patterns more basic. Pattern recognition
provides a challenge and an opportunity to engage learners, as they work to see what
patterns emerge from the information or data provided to them.

Goals, rules, and objectives

Effective gamification requires understanding game elements. To help with that
understanding, I've created a worksheet you can use to follow along as we discuss
various game elements in this section. You'll find the worksheet titled Elements in the
exercise files for this course. Applying elements carefully is what separates good
gamification from poorly done gamification. An important part of gamification of learning
and instruction is to establish clear goals, the introduction of a goal as purpose, focus
and measurable outcomes. A goal provides a method of measuring the quality of
gamified interactions. In many gamified learning environments, goals are clear and
visible, both figuratively and literally. Visually understanding how far you are from a goal
provides incentive, feedback and an indication of progress, as well as a measurement

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against others. Hey, I scored 21,001 in that game. That's one better than you. The goal
is the primary device for determining level of effort, strategies, moves, and ultimately,
who wins. The goal sustains the game and keeps the players moving forward. A goal
gives a player the freedom and autonomy to pursue it using different approaches and
methods. Knowing the goal, one can apply different techniques to achieve the goal. It
seems counterintuitive, but clear goals like retrieve the treasure by answering the
questions provides the player with choices. You can go directly to the treasure chest
and fight the dragon guarding it or you can go through the forest and collect the
necessary weaponry to beat the dragon. Or you can build a flying machine and pass the
dragon altogether, answer the questions and collect the treasure. But goals have to be
well structured and sequenced to have meaning and to motivate players to achieve
those goals. In instructional terms, you have to create a terminal goal and support that
goal with a series of enabling objectives. These objectives serve as small, incremental
steps that allow a player to move from one accomplishment to the next. Having sub-
goals which lead to a larger goal are an important part of providing sustained
engagement. To help ensure that goals are obtained fairly, within the proper
parameters, rules are established. At its simplest form, gamification is a set of defined
rules. These are rules indicating the maximum number of points that can be earned,
rules describing how to score points, rules indicating what is allowable and what is not
allowable. These are operational rules. The operational rules describe how the
gamification experience works. When you learn that collecting 2,000 tokens allows you
to buy a cooler snowboard, that's an operational rule. So is learning that you can't take
your turn until everyone else has taken their turn. Working hand-in-hand with goals and
rules in the case of gamification for learning an instruction is the idea of learning
objectives. A learning objective is what you want the learner to know or be able to do as
a result of the gamification experience. It's important to keep in mind that you may have
a gamification goal, a goal for the game like find the treasure, and also have a learning
goal like identify the six guidelines of effective leadership. Both can exist in a gamified
environment and be highly related to one another, but they're not the same thing. As
you're implementing gamification within your learning environment, consider the
following when developing the goals, rules and objectives. Make sure your goals are
clear and explicit so that everyone knows what they are. Make the rules as simple as
possible so the learner doesn't become confused. Learning objectives and gamification
goals do not need to be the same. A gamification goal might be to slay the dragon,
while the learning goal is to learn how to properly read a map. Goals, rules and
objectives are important foundational elements of gamification and need to be carefully
considered as part of the overall gamification effort.

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Conflict, competition, and cooperation
Gamification can involve conflict, competition, or cooperation. In many cases, a
combination of two or more of these elements. A conflict is a challenge provided by a
meaningful opponent. To win a challenge, the player must actively defeat the opponent
and see who'll be the last player standing. Conflict can also be between a player and
the environment. It could be that elements of the game attempt to thwart the player,
such as non-player characters shooting at the player or obstacles suddenly appearing.
With conflict, the idea is to become a winner while voiding a loss at the hands of the
opponent. In an educational setting, conflict is not the most productive means of
motivating learners. Other choices are better. One better choice is the concept of
competition. Competition occurs when the opponents are constrained from impeding
each other and instead devote their entire effort to optimizing their own performance.
This is a more appropriate approach for motivation within a learning environment. A
common example of competition occurs in racing games. Two players race to the finish
line and each tries to go as quickly as possible, but they don't interfere with the other
player. Winning is accomplished by being faster, cleverer, or more skilled than the
opponents, and not by inflicting harm on their opponent. When establishing a
competitive environment among learners, research indicates that keeping the group of
competitors small is better. If a person is placed on a leaderboard with an entire school,
they'll be less motivated. But if they're on a leader board with a smaller group, such as
one class or one department, they're more likely to compete. This is called the N-effect.
Keep the number of competitors relatively small for optimum engagement. Use groups
or sub groups, within a learning situation, cooperation is often the type of gamification
environment that is most engaging and motivating for the majority of learners.
Cooperation is the act of working with others to achieve a positive outcome. This is the
social aspect of games and gamification that many players enjoy. Having learners work
together to achieve a learning goal or to compete against other teams can be highly
motivational, because individual learners feel that they are contributing to the larger goal
of helping their team. Working together and achieving a goal is the winning state of
cooperative play. The game Forbidden Island uses cooperation as a strategy, where all
the players of the game are working with each other to gather treasure and get off an
island before it sinks. While it's helpful to consider the elements of conflict, competition,
and cooperation separately, often, good design includes a balance of two or more of
these elements. Educational gamification often includes competition among teams, but
cooperation of players within each team. As you are implementing gamification within
your learning environment, consider the following related to competition, cooperation,
and conflict. Competition and cooperation are the most effective from an instructional
perspective. When deciding on the number of learners competing against each other,
keep the numbers relatively small. Consider fostering cooperation among players when
designing a gamification experience. Team competition helps learners develop a sense

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of motivation, because they don't want to let their team down. They're working for the
team and not just for themselves. A basic design of any gamification effort starts with
the consideration of how learners are interacting with one another. Carefully weigh the
pros and cons of competition, cooperation, and conflict to determine the best design for
your situation

Types of feedback
One feature of video games, boardgames and gamification have over traditional
learning environments is the frequency and intensity of feedback. Feedback in games
and gamification is almost constant. There are several types of feedback that can be
valuable in gamification. One type of feedback is conformational feedback.
Conformational feedback is designed to indicate the degree of rightness or wrongness
of a response, action or activity. Conformational feedback immediately informs a learner
if he or she did the right thing, the wrong thing or if they are somewhere in the middle.
But it doesn't tell a learner how to correct the action. For example, if you're playing a
video game as a spy and you enter a door an alarm goes off. And bad guys instantly
become alert, you know you went in the wrong door. The feedback of the alarm does
not provide specific instructions. It doesn't indicate you should do x instead of y. Instead,
the player suffers or rejoices in the consequences of the actions taken. And then they
can decide what to do based on that feedback. Another form of feedback provides
guidance. This type of feedback guides the learner toward the instructional outcome. It's
called corrective feedback. If the learner did the wrong thing, he or she will be
prompted, guided or pointed to a more appropriate action or activity. In the case of
corrective feedback, when you open a door and the alarm went off, the game might
flash a message. The alarm will alert the guards. Next time, look for an open window.
Explanatory feedback is corrective. But in addition to providing the correct answer,
explanatory feedback also includes relevant information about why an answer is
incorrect. Explanatory feedback explains the right answer. It provides a detailed
explanation to the learner. With explanatory feedback upon opening the door and
sounding the alarm, you might receive the same message as before. The alarm will
alert guards. Next time, look for an open window you might have passed on the way to
the door. But in addition, you'll also receive the information. That often doors within
military facilities are alarmed. Always look on the outside of the door for a possible
indication that it has an alarm, such as a warning label, trip wire or nearby alarm bell.
Another form of feedback is diagnostic. Diagnostic feedback attempts to diagnose why
an incorrect response was chosen. It attempts to correct common misperceptions or
ideas. With diagnostic feedback in our spy adventure, the game might inform the learner
that yes, doors seem like a natural option of entry into a building. However, not all doors
are good entry points into buildings and some are alarmed. The feedback would
continue and tell the learner that in this case, you failed to observe the signs indicating

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the door was alarmed. The signs you should have looked out for was small warning
labels and a nearby alarm bell. Feedback can also be natural or artificial. Natural
feedback is when the learner receives the same type of feedback, he or she would in
the natural world. Artificial feedback is when the learner receives feedback in the form of
text or an explanation that would not occur in the real world. Like flashing text above a
door saying, do not enter.
As you're implementing gamification within your learning environment, consider the
following when designing feedback. Choose the feedback carefully, by deciding how
much feedback is required to move the learner toward the learning goal. Determine if a
combination of one or more types of feedback is required. Often, it's a good idea to
include a mix of feedback through the experience. Not all feedback requires a rich
explanation. Sometimes, conformational feedback is enough. Choose a combination of
natural and artificial feedback. Feedback is an important element in gamification.
Consider the different types of feedback and which are best for the instruction you are
providing.

Rewards and achievements

One decision designers of gamification have to consider is the earning of rewards by
players, and when to recognize player achievements. Achievements and rewards
contribute to the engagement and motivation of learners. Understanding how reward
structures work and how to integrate these structures into gamification efforts is
important. Rewards and achievements have a role to play as an integral part of
gamification. However, it's important to not let rewards and achievements become the
sole focus of the gamification effort. One common question is, should the learner be
rewarded for completing an activity? Or should the learner be rewarded for how well
they've completed an activity? A completion achievement is awarded to a learner for
simply completing a task. It doesn't measure the quality of the completion or how well it
was completed. It only measures whether or not the learner completed the task. It may
or may not require skill to earn the completion achievement. For example, sometimes a
learner's given points just for logging into a system or the computer. If the learner
already knows how to log in, and he or she is not being taught that particular skill, then
the act of logging in is a completion achievement. A Completion Achievement is
valuable in that it tells a learner a task has been finished, but not how well the learner
did in completing the task. No valuation of the skill is needed to complete the task. On
the other hand a measurement achievement is given to the learner for completing a task
to a certain degree. The measurement can be against another learner's performance,
the learner's own performance, or some standard set by game designers. An example
of this would be the star rating used in Angry Birds, which gives the player a number of
stars based on how well they beat a level. A measurement achievement can be likened
to feedback because it's evaluative in nature, and informs the learner how well he or

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she is doing. The literature regarding the use of feedback in training and education
indicates that feedback in the form of measurement achievements is beneficial to
learners because it allows them to reflect on their own performance in relation to goals
they set for themselves. This reflection increases the learner's perception of their
competence, which in turn increases their motivation. The overuse of achievements can
create an artificial ceiling for performance. Once learners have earned a reward or a
specific achievement, they are unlikely to continue on with the task that they were
persuaded to do. For gamification developers, this translates into the replay value of
their game. Also, using too many rewards makes learners less likely to take risks, as
they don't want to hurt their chances of being rewarded. This is especially relevant to
achievements used in environments where learners should be encouraged to engage in
creative and experimental play. When using achievements and awards in gamification
the best practices include. Using measurement achievements instead of completion
achievements to increase intrinsic motivation through feedback. Don't provide too many
rewards. It can actually demotivate the learner in terms of exploring the gamification
environment. Consider using rewards and achievements as a method of encouraging
replayability. It is generally better to link activities within the game to rewards than to
have random rewards. When implemented properly rewards and achievements can
have a powerful effect on motivating learners.

Points, badges, and leaderboards

While there's more to gamification than points, badges, and leaderboards such as
storytelling, feedback loops, and mystery. Those elements are important for helping to
motivate and engage learners. Points help a player identify how far she's progressed
through a gamification experience. Points can be used for a variety of purposes within
gamification. They can be used to reward progress and correct answers. They can be a
way of achieving social status by displaying them to others, and in some cases, they
can be used to unlock content and even spend as currency to obtain virtual or even
physical goods. The accumulation of points is often displayed on a leaderboard. A
leaderboard is a list of top scorers in a game. So whoever played the game could see
all the players’ names or initials and scores. It’s a simple device but can be a powerful
motivator to play again and again. Leaderboard provide players a chance to socially
interact in discussions around the game and around the high scores. It also provides
bragging rights and social capital to the individuals who achieved the high scores. When
designing a leaderboard for gamification, there are a number of considerations for
creating the most effective leaderboard. If the organization is large, having an unedited
list of everyone in the organization in order from best score to worst, may not be as
motivating as you had hoped. For example, if you like to run and run on the weekends,
as a weekend warrior, being on the list with the world's fastest man would not be
motivational. In fact, it might be de-motivational because there's no way an average

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person could catch the world's fastest man. However, being on a leaderboard with a
group of friends might be highly motivational, because those are people you are able to
compete against. In addition to leaderboards, games also provide players with instant
reward in the form of badges. Badges are typically awarded for nonlinear
accomplishments within a game. This can be a scoring streak, or it can be for collecting
items within the game that aren't essential to winning, but a side mission or an extra
adventure in the game. Badges can encourage players to explore the game
environment. There are two views on badges. One is to make them as easy to get as
possible early in the game, so players are hooked and want to continue playing. The
other school of thought is to avoid easy badges that are not related to activities that are
rewarding in and of themselves. However in general, it is better to link activities within
the game to a reward than to have random rewards. Giving a few badges early is okay,
but too many and they become meaningless. As you are implementing gamification
within your learning environment, consider the following when integrating points badges
and leaderboards. Allow learners to choose their own friends to place on a personalized
leaderboard. Structure the leaderboard by territory or department to allow individual
contributions to a larger goal. Don't overwhelm your learners with complicated point
systems, keep it simple. Provide points for everything you want to manage. For
example, if you need to manage correct answers and speed, give points for both, so
one doesn't overshadow the other. Aim for balance. Use points as currency to give
learners more autonomy over how they're rewarded for their efforts. Making earned
achievements viewable to other learners is a powerful incentive. Let learners display a
few achievements that they're proud of to increase motivation. Badges are good for
showing non-linear progress through content. Levels are good for showing linear
progress. Points badges and leaderboards can play key roles within gamification if
they're applied carefully and thoughtfully to the learning process.

Levels
Playing a game that is too difficult is not fun. Playing a game that's too easy is not fun
either. Therefore, the quandary for gamification is to create an experience that is not too
hard or too easy. But when developing for a broad audience with unknown skill sets, the
task becomes even more daunting. How do you create a gamification experience that
appropriately challenges players at multiple levels of expertise and experience? The
answer is to create a solution that is both easy and hard through the use of different
levels of entry. By providing an easy, intermediate and difficult level of the same game,
more players are able to enjoy and partake in the game play. It's easiest to create the
hardest level first. Then move on to creating the novice level and then the middle level.
Otherwise, it's hard to judge the proper degree of difficulty for the middle level where the
majority of players spend their time. Start by creating an extremely difficult level,
designed for more experienced players with faster bad guys, more challenging puzzles

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and less time to complete the levels. Then move on to creating the novice level. Where
everything is slower, help bubbles pop-up on the screen and provide guidance and
challenges are more manageable. This level appeals to novices who are just trying to
learn how the game works and who need simple challenges and basic assistance as
they play the game. The third level created is usually the intermediate level, which is
aimed at the middle level of difficulty providing the gamespace where most players will
play. The three levels also increase the re-playability of the gamification effort. Once
someone defeats the game at the easy level, he or she may challenge himself with the
hardest level and see how they'll do under those difficult circumstances. This concept of
creating three different game play levels can be easily transferred to the creation of
gamification. When creating a gamification event, consider designing three levels of
interaction. You can easily develop intermediate and hard levels, which can be effective
for catching the attention of a wide audience. Designing three levels makes it more
accessible to learners and may encourage them to replay the experience. Another three
level approach is to create a demonstration practice and test mode with each level
providing different information and a different challenge. If you're creating a game to
teach one how to use a piece of equipment or how to conduct an interview, you might
want to create one level where the learner watches a demonstration of the proper
procedure and technique. This provides the learner with knowledge and information. In
essence, the first level provides the instruction and teaching needed to perform the task.
This level would be for someone who was a complete novice. The next level would be
the practice level, where the learner is given guidance and feedback on, whether or not
he or she is performing the right task. This mode might provide arrows, hints,
instructions, highlights and advice to the learner as he or she follows the procedure.
This level would give enough help to guide the learner toward achieving the goal.
Finally, create a test or free play mode where the learners are not given any guidance.
They just have to play the game independently and are either successful or not. This
would be the level of the most difficulty. But it would also be a chance for the learners to
apply what they're learning directly to the task at hand in a similar environment to what
they would actually be doing on the job or in the classroom. As you are considering
levels of difficulties within your gamification effort, keep in mind the following. Create a
beginner, intermediate and advanced level. Allow the learner to choose what level to
use to enter the game. Consider designing a free play level to allow exploration. Start
the gamification effort with a tutorial level. So, learners can use the experience to learn
what they should be doing. Providing different entry levels accommodates the different
abilities and experiences of a group of learners. Ensuring that your effort has wide
appeal to the intended audience.

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Storytelling
While not all games have a story behind them, storytelling can play an important role in
gamification. Stories have been used for centuries to pass information from one person
to another, and to guide behavior and thinking. The combination of a video game and
storytelling provides an interactive story which engages and moves the player forward.
Well-designed educational games blend a task related story with interactive game
elements to help the learner learn the desired behaviors, actions and thinking patterns
that support the desired outcome within a particular context. Games can provide a
visual and narrative context for player performance. A game provides a place for the
player to practice activities as they directly relate to the narrative of his or her job or
academic learning goals. Adding game elements and involving the learner in the story
can make the learning even more powerful and memorable. A well-crafted game based
story focused on helping the learner to solve problems, educates learners, and is easily
recalled when the actual situation arises. Storytelling within an instructional game allows
learners a vicarious experience through the story which they can apply to the work
situation or learning environment. The elements that make this possible are Characters,
Plot, something happens, Tension and Resolution. Adding these elements together
creates an effective story to accompany the elements of the game. Story elements are
not only engaging but they guide the learner through the game as he or she attempts to
fulfill the story elements and obtain the goal of the game. A story within a video game
typically unfolds with a character encountering a problem or a situation. The problem
builds tension in the story as the character may not know what to do or how to react or
worse, may do the wrong thing. Then, a solution is offered in the form of a colleague, a
moment of inspiration or an idea, or even reading an important piece of information. And
then the results are presented in a positive manner. This simple structure can be used
for game-based story scenarios to help learners understand what they must do to be
successful in their environment. It's as if a wise mentor, faculty member, or co-worker is
telling them the best method to deal with the situation. When interweaving a story in
your gamified learning keep in mind the following. Make the characters in the story
similar to the learner so learners can relate. Create a clear beginning, middle, and end
of the story. Provide enough detail to allow the learner to become immersed, but you
don't need to provide elaborate details. Learners can read between the lines to help fill
in the story. Generally, instructional stories used for learning should end happily and on
a positive note. Stories are an integral part of many games and can play an important
part in helping to provide the context for learning.

Failure and replayability

The do-over in board games or card games and the replay button in video games is an
important element that is often overlooked in learning situations. In gamification in
games, trying again is not a bad thing. In many educational and learning situations, it's

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framed as a bad thing. The replay button or do-over gives the player permission to fail.
And in games, failure is an option and a good one. Allowing a player to fail with minimal
consequences, encourages exploration, curiosity and discovery based learning.
Knowing that you can always restart the game provides a sense of freedom. And
players take advantage of that freedom, by placing their character into danger to see
what will happen. By using a tactic like running out into the open to learn where the
enemies are hiding or even spending too much on one resource and not enough on
another to determine the consequences. Games provide the opportunity to explore a set
of rules. To test hypotheses and to remember which approaches were successful and
which ones failed. This process can also lead to effective learning. In games and
gamification unlike many other activities, exploring failure and what failure means is a
valued approach. Players enjoy failures in a game or at least use them to progress. The
idea of failure is part of the game ethos. No one expects to successfully navigate and
win a game the first time he or she plays it. In fact, people expect to fail and often look
forward to the lessons learned during the failure process. In fact, failure adds an
additional level of content to the game or gamification. Because it makes a player
reconsider his or her approach to mastering content or winning the game. The necessity
to approach the game differently than originally planned, adds to the game and expands
the playability of the game. This is because often two or more approaches are viable to
successfully navigate in the game. And the player, once made aware of a failed
approach is free to explore multiple options for success. Many games and gamification
events have mechanisms built-in for overcoming repeated failure. Often, these games
provide an option to temporarily level down to an easier level. To complete a mission or
provide progressively more prescriptive hints or corrective feedback after repeated
attempts by a player. These mechanisms are put into place because game designers
know that if a player cannot overcome failure, he or she will eventually quit the game
and never return. Failure is only an option up to a point, then progress needs to be
aided by the game itself. This can be in the form of a lifeline, corrective or diagnostic
feedback or even a highlighted arrow pointing the player in the right direction. Finally, it
should be noted that winning without failure or a do-over is often a dissatisfying
experience. Struggle leads to triumph. Without struggle, there is no triumph for the
learner. For a learner to feel a sense of accomplishment, he or she must feel that the
difficulty was overcome and that knowledge was earned. Failing several times before
success, instills the feeling of accomplishments once a winning state is achieved. The
act of failing multiple times makes the act of winning more pleasurable.
As you are implementing gamification within your learning environment, include many
options for do-overs or replayability. Let the learner know at the beginning of the
gamification event that they will receive multiple chances for success. This can be in the
form of starting with multiple lives or even multiple chances. Don't make failure
permanent. If a learner makes a mistake or gives the wrong answer, provide another

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opportunity to change the outcome. Provide multiple paths to success. Don't just have
one way to achieve victory. Encourage exploration and failure by designing replayability
into your gamification event from the beginning.

Scoring
Scoring is a large part of gamification. It can help determine the success or failure of
your effort. Therefore, designers must carefully consider the formulas and approach
they take for scoring learners. Without scoring, it's difficult for learners to judge their own
performance and progress within a gamified event. So here are four things you should
consider when it comes to scoring.
First, make scoring and winning transparent. Avoid complicated algorithms or formulas.
The learner should be able to link, directly, their actions and activities to a score. So,
they need to know what they need to do, to be successful. Make sure to determine what
happens in various scoring scenarios ahead of time. Run scenarios to see what
happens. If a learner gets every question wrong or every question right, or skips every
question. Yes, it might seem like a scenario will never happen, but if you could imagine
it, the learners will do it. You want to know of any potential problems ahead of time, not
during the process.
Second, use scoring to drive behavior. The score in gamification should indicate what is
valued. Learners will strive to do whatever activity leads to scoring. So if you want
learners to value an activity and perform a certain behavior, link that behavior to the
score.
Third, consider more than one dimension for scoring. Having more than one dimension
for scoring, allows you to measure multiple behaviors or skills of the learner. It is often
times hard to capture all the information you need in just one type of score. Having a
score, for example, for accuracy and speed, will ensure that one skill will not be
sacrificed for another. Multiple score or inputs into scores, help ensure that activities of
the learner are balanced.
Fourth, tie the score to learning improvements, not just game activities. A common
mistake many people make when creating a gamified learner experience, is neglecting
to tie a score to learning outcomes. Too often a novice designer will link a game activity
with a score, rather than a learning activity. Make sure that what is rewarded, and how
the learner earns points in the experience, is something tied to learning, such as making
the correct decision or answering a question correctly. Don't tie the score to something
not learning-related, like rolling a ten on a pair of dice. Scoring is a critical part of
gamification. Keeping these concepts in mind will help you create the right scoring
structure for your gamified instruction

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Thinking like a game designer: Part one
An important aspect of creating a gamified learning experience is to think like a game
designer. Game designers create worlds to entertain people, drawing on story, design
and character. When we create gamified content, we're creating a world to teach people
using similar techniques. Here are a few ideas for thinking like a game designer. These
ideas will help you to create engaging and motivating instruction using the concepts
from game designers.
Start the instruction with action. Good games start with action. When designing learning,
follow the same format, don't start with a list of objectives. Start with a learner making a
decision. Moving from point a to point b or selecting a plan of action. Involve the learner
immediately in the learning process. Don't have them read content for the first ten
screens. Have them make decisions and take action.
Create a sense of mystery within the instruction. In essence mystery is the what
happened and why element in learning. For example not knowing the location of a
hidden key to open a door or not knowing where to find information about a companies
safety policy. Mystery arouses curiosity within the learner, and can motivate the learner
to fill in gaps and locate discrepancies in information. Learners are motivated to learn
when they don't know everything. Think of titles like The Mystery Of The Perplexed
Scientist or The Case Of The Incomplete Equation or The Missing Piece Of History or
even The Elusive Sales Close. Use mystery to draw in the learner, and encourage her
to explore content from several angles.
Learners need to be challenged. Humans enjoy overcoming challenges; it runs in our
DNA. Game makers have leveraged this by challenging players at every opportunity,
from the beginning of the game until the end. Learning modules need to start with a
challenge. For too long, E-learning modules have spoon fed learners with easy
objectives, step by step instructions and ridiculous multiple choice questions. Stop the
madness, start the learning with the challenge, something that is difficult that requires
deep thinking and cannot be achieved by guessing.
Put the learner at mock risk. In a game, a player could be required to start over or lose
all the gold coins collected because of a wrong move. The player has something to risk
when taking an action or making a decision. Learning needs to be the same. Force a
question run in which the learner must get five questions in a row right. If they miss one,
they get an additional five questions. If they get them all right, they're done. Have the
learner be required to start over if he makes an incorrect decision. Set a limit on the
number of attempts before the learner has to start over. Be clever and think of ways that
learners can be at mock risk.

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Make the outcome uncertain. Closely related to risk is putting the learner in a situation
in which they can't predict the outcome. In a learning module, the outcome is more
certain. I'll tab through these screens, encounter a multiple-choice question, get 85%
correct on the quiz, and pass the course. Predictable; instead, add an element of
chance into the learning process. Have the learner bet on the confidence of an answer,
or give him a 50/50 opportunity to get an easy or a hard question. Uncertainty adds
suspense and intrigue, it focuses the learners attention on the task at hand.
Provide opportunities for the learner to demonstrate mastery of content. One thing
games allow a player to do is demonstrate mastery. In many learning designs the only
chance to show any mastery is to answer quiz questions at the end of a module.
Instead, give learners a chance to apply their newly learned content. Give a learner a
series of difficult problems and once they solve one problem give them a visible reward
like a badge and have them move on to the next difficult problem. Increasing the
difficulty level until the final boss problem.
Thinking like a game designer is a good way to start thinking about making instruction
more game like and exciting.

Thinking like a game designer: Part two

When it comes to making your instruction more game-like and exciting, here are even
more ideas of how you can gamify your instruction by thinking like a game designer.
Show visible signs of progress. Games let you see how you're doing. When playing Pac
Man, you know how far along you are by observing how many dots are left on your
screen. Throughout the module, give learners visible signs of moving through the
content. Provide clear evidence that progress has been made. Don't leave progress
reports until the end. Include them often within the instruction. Games provide progress
bars, levels and coins to collect, all items indicating the player's closer to the end goal.
You can even have a non-player character appear and provide a status report to the
learner.
Integrate emotion into the learning. Somehow, in recent years, we've managed to
divorce instructional content from emotional context. We create sterilized bulleted lists
of dos and don'ts. We assume people make decisions about adhering to policy based
on rational algorithms and not normal human emotions. We have stripped learning
modules of humanity and replaced it with policy, terminology and models. Games do the
exact opposite. Games fill the player with emotions ranging from frustration to elation,
from sadness to anger to enthusiastic happiness. They bring out the human in us.
Games are not afraid of human emotion. Games embrace and encourage emotion. It
would be a breath of fresh air if our learning modules borrowed from games and put the
critical element of emotion back into learning.

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Immerse the learner in a story. A particular powerful way to motivate individuals is to
give actions and ideas, meaning, by framing them in an appropriate context. Explain
why the learners are earning points, who they're trying to save, and why they're
searching for a treasure. Remember, gamification works well when it is within a context.
Create a reason why learners should interact with the content that you've created and a
great way to create reason is to create a story.
Don't be afraid of fantasy. Game developers create elaborate fantasy worlds to draw in
players and to place them outside their comfort zones. Even when an area is realistic,
like a battlefield, there are often elements that are made up or are pure fantasy. There
are several valid and research-based reasons for including fantasy as a key element in
a design of games to help people learn.

 Cognitively, a fantasy can help a learner apply old knowledge to understand new
things.
 The learner can take what they know about a subject, like negotiation, and apply
their skills in a new setting within a game to see how those skills work in different
contexts. This allows for the safe testing of a skill and the reinforcement of that
skill.
 If the learner is applying the same cognitive schema within a fantasy-based
game that they would within the actual setting, the skills they are learning or
reinforcing are indeed transferred.
 Another cognitive advantage of fantasy is that it provokes vivid images related to
the material being learned, which improves recall of the material. The learner will
remember the content more effectively if they remember the fantasy elements
that you've created around it.
 Additionally, from an emotional perspective, a fantasy-based game can allow a
person to connect with the learning experiences and not bring in with it real-world
concerns or fears. They don't bring any previous baggage or concerns with them
to the instructional event and they have a more open mind.
Thinking like a game designer and adding elements to your instructional design
borrowed from game designers will help you create instruction that impacts learners and
keeps them fully engaged in the learning process.

Gamification in the classroom

One question I'm often asked is, can gamification be done in the classroom? The
answer is a resounding yes. The techniques and application of gamification can be
integrated into the classroom using several methods from low to high tech. One simple
low tech gamification technique is to create a bingo card and instead of having numbers
of the card, have questions that will be covered during the instruction. Learners can
then listen to the instruction and yell bingo when they have completed the appropriate

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number of spaces on the bingo card by answering the questions. The answers are
verified, and if they get them all right, they win. If not, the game continues.
Another effective low tech method of bringing gamification into the physical classroom
experience is to have learners create a paper based game themselves. This technique
provides a rich opportunity for the learners to really think about the content they are
learning and to decide how to help others learn the content. All the instructor needs is
some flip chart paper, markers, game pieces, dice, spinners, and other game-related
elements and the content. The learners can then be divided into groups and begin the
creation process. Then after the game is created, have a learner switch with other
teams, and play the other team's game, reinforcing the knowledge they are learning.
Getting a little more technology focused, there are several companies that make games
based on common game shows. It is even possible to search the Internet and find
PowerPoint versions of those games.
Another technique using technology is the incorporation of an audience response
system into the classroom. An audience response system or ARS, is a combination of
hardware and software that allow a learner to respond in real time, to a question posed
by an instructor. Sometimes the response system requires a special responding device
but more often than not, it only requires a user's cell phone or a tablet computer.
Regardless of the method of responding, the results of all the audience members are
then displayed on the screen in front of the classroom in real time, so the entire group
can see the aggregated answers. This can be handy for playing a number of games. In
fact, some audience response systems even have games built into the product.
So classroom gamification is not only possible, it's an effective and great technique for
motivating learners. These are just a few of the many ideas. Use your imagination and
the content from this course to integrate gamification into your own classroom.

Gamification in eLearning
Gamification in e-learning is possible through many different methods. There are both
technology tools and design considerations that can be implemented to gamify learning
and instruction.

 The first thing that needs to be done when considering the gamification of e-
learning is to clarify the learning objective and desired outcome. This is no
different from the design of any other type of learning.
 Next, consider what elements will facilitate the learning outcome. Does the outcome
require the use of structural gamification or content gamification? Do you need to
have a story to encompass your instructional message or do you want to provide
points for viewing certain materials that you've curated.

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If you are using structural gamification, chances are you're going to want to use some
off-the-shelf gamification platform that allows you to insert content, assign point values,
and create an easy method for quizzing learners on their knowledge of the topic.
Consider the following when looking for an e-learning gamification platform.

 Look for a system that allows you to control how many points are available for
each activity, that allows you to assign points based on performance, not just
completion.
 Look for a system that allows you to view a leaderboard by individual or by group
or department.
 Also look for a system that allows for the examination of the answers by the
learners so you can see how many learners got a question right, how many got it
wrong, and what the answer percentages were. This insight gives the instructor
knowledge about whether or not the learners are actually learning the material
and the content being presented.
 Look for a system that allows multiple types of content to be uploaded so a
variety of content can be made available to the learners. There are many
commercial platforms that just focus on gamification and many learning
management systems have begun to add game elements to their systems.
The important thing to remember is that you must carefully determine when gamification
makes sense and when it is unnecessary. Gamifying all e-learning experiences for a
learner will result in a loss of the overall effectiveness of gamification. The caution with
many off-the-shelf structural gamification systems is that they can be so easy to add
points, badges and leaderboards that the designer of the e-learning might lose sight of
the purpose for gamification and overdo it. Think through a design and plan the desired
outcomes before embarking on structural gamification. Don't ignore or dismiss it, but
just be cautious. Content gamification is typically not available off-the-shelf. Often, it
requires the design of the learning to be done regardless of underlying technology,
usually some type of authoring tool. The designer needs to be aware of the
technological limitations so she doesn't design content gamification solution that is
beyond the technology's capabilities. Content gamification of e-learning involves crafting
the e-learning module using techniques such as storytelling, challenges, characters and
action. It's possible with an e-learning design to use a combination of both structural and
content gamification. These two methods can be used in conjunction to provide
motivation to the learners and to present the instruction in an interesting and engaging
manner.

When to use gamification

Here are some best practices you need to consider before implementing gamification
within your learning environment.

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Identify success criteria first. Before you begin to Gamify learning events, make sure
you know what constitutes success. Is it 100% participation? Is it students having a
passing grade in the class? Is it measurable business results? Is it a score on a test? If
success is not defined before the Gamification initiative, it's hard to know if or when
success is achieved. It's hard to nail down success. So, make sure, at the beginning,
everyone agrees. What success looks like, and someone writes it down.
Seriously consider alternatives to gamification. This may sound strange coming from a
Gamification advocate. But too many times I've seen easy simple solutions to learning
problems passed over for the latest instructional fad. While I don't think gamification is a
fad I do think that the opportunity for misuse is vast. If an alternative solution is a better
fit use it. Only use gamification as a learning solution when it makes sense and
resonates with the learners.
Create a tie to business or educational needs. All training and learning initiatives should
be tied to a business need, or a specific learning need. But Gamification even more.
You need to make sure that you are legitimately moving the needle on business needs.
And not just using Gamification as a crutch. To support content that is meaningless to
the organization or the individual. And the same is true in an academic environment. Is
the content you proposed to Gamify really necessary?
Provide context within a Gamification Experience. A particularly powerful way to
motivate individuals is to give actions and ideas meaning by framing them within an
appropriate context. Explain why the learners are earning points. Who they are trying to
save and why they are searching for a treasure. Remember, gamification works well
when it's within a context. Create a reason why learners should interact with the content
that you've created.
Base Your Efforts on Sound Instructional Theories. Gamification should be based on
sound academic theories and practices. When implementing Gamification, make sure
that the methods you choose, and the approach you take is grounded in those theories.
And can be supported by research.
Play test the Gamification experience. Before releasing the Gamification program to all
10,000 employees or students, play test it with a small pilot group. You will find flaws,
cheats, and short cuts you never imagined. Humans are among the most creative
creatures on the planet. They will find things you didn't anticipate. Learn about those
elements beforehand. Conduct a play test or two or three.
Monitor learner progress. Once the gamification event is launched, you cannot sit back
and let it unfold without monitoring. Most gamification platforms provide rich back-end
databases. That allows for a close inspection of the process. Take advantage of these
dashboards. Look for players moving unusually fast or slow through the content and

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then find out why. Look for people earning more points than you thought possible. Look
to see if interest if waning or if all the learners are getting something wrong or too much
or too little time is being expended.
One advantage of Gamification platforms is that they provide rich, real-time data.
Leverage that data. If you keep these best practices in mind, you'll have an effective
and even fun Gamification experience.

Next steps
Now comes the fun part. You have a definition of the two types of gamification. You've
seen examples and you've learned about the theories and elements behind
gamification. Now it's time to implement gamification into your own learning and
instruction. It's time to put these ideas into practice.
My first bit of advice is to start playing more games. Play them as a learner and as
someone who wants to use game and game elements to promote learning. Notice the
rewards structure. Understand when the game you are playing is no longer interesting.
Think about the decisions the designer made when deciding how many characters to
include in the game. The elements covered in the story of the game. And when you've
earned enough badges to level up.
Next, get started by creating a paper prototype of your gamification idea. Don't invest a
lot of money and technology before you prove your concept. Create a paper-based
version of your gamified solution. And then have an objective person or two play the
experience and let you know the impact. You will learn a great deal from the play testing
process.
Finally, have fun with the process. Gamification is about putting emotion and fun back
into learning. Humans are naturally curious, naturally disposed to playing games and
natural learners. This combination makes gamification alluring to all types of learners.
Go ahead and create something, experiment intelligently by applying what you have
learned in this course and before long, you'll be creating wonderful and engaging
interactive learning experiences. You'll have gamified your instruction. You've already
done a great deal of work by watching this course, so keep going and remember play
learn and have fun.

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