3. Gamification
The use of game design techniques in non-game
activities (e.g., work, exercise, education, etc.) to
improve engagement, participation, and learning.
5. The Core Drives of Gamification
Meaning
Empowerment
Social Influence
Unpredictability
Avoidance
Scarcity
Ownership
Accomplishment
WHITE
HAT
BLACK
HAT
LEFT
BRAIN
RIGHT
BRAIN
Yu-Kai Chou
6. Epic Meaning and Calling
Fill the room with visuals that focus on the primary subject or
provide inspiration and encouragement
Create a Student Hall of Fame
Provide real-life examples
Give students quests or challenges instead of assignments
Allow for early successes or award “free” extra credit in
ways that make students feel special
Participate in projects that assist a charity
Create a subject-themed “Wikipedia” that is maintained
across many classes
Use the narrative effect of storytelling and motivate
students by making them feel engaged in something
bigger than themselves.
7. Empowerment and Creativity
Create an ala carte menu of course projects and
assignments
Reward success by unlocking a more difficult challenge
Reward risk-taking, creativity, experimentation and
creativity
Give students the tools to design and build what you
hadn’t thought of
Turn your classroom into an Etch-A-Sketch
Make your classroom interactive
Make objectives clear, and offer students multiple ways
to accomplish them. Allow kids to be creators of their
own knowledge, with the teacher becoming an assistant
to the child’s learning journey.
8. Social Influence
Collaborate with others to achieve goals
Engage students in competitions
Use project-based learning where students design
the entire process from brainstorming to publishing.
Put students works on public display
Create assignments designed to go viral
Have ahead of pace students mentor below pace
ones
Use both collaboration and competition between
students, encouraging teamwork and preparing them for
real-life situations.
9. More on Teams
Form Mixed Ability Groups
Age / Major / Achievement / Diversity
Help Groups Bond into Teams
Create a Team Flag / Build Trust / Listen and Participate
Tinker with Struggling Groups
Ask If They Need Help / Teach Active Listening
Instill Competitive Unity
Earn Bonus Points For Unity / Create A Reason to Win
Students can participate in teams to enhance learning,
Healthy teams challenge each other, spurring each other
on to deeper learning.
10. Curiosity and Unpredictability
Tease or preview the content without
giving the whole story
Give out assignments by lottery
Give out unexpected rewards
Use humor and suspense
Introduce an element of chance into the curriculum. As
the instructor, you are in charge of this designed
experience and chance doesn’t have to be random.
11. Loss and Avoidance
Trophies Given To New Winner
Lost Progress
Lose Turn / Grounded
Sunk Cost Tragedy
Scarlet Letter / Dunce Cap
Guilting
Coupons with Expiration Dates
Students must work to avoid losing something they have
gained or an unpleasant result. This “Black Hat”
technique must be done with humor or in a game context
so that it is not demoralizing or humiliating.
12. Scarcity and Impatience
Give a reward to the first 5 students who complete an assignment
Create a “Rewards Card” with special privileges given to students
who have earned a required amount of points
Students must make appointments or check in at fixed intervals to
receive new challenges, missions or announcements
Students must wait a minimum amount of time before they can try a
challenge or assignment again
Create a sense of urgency or immediacy in completing an
assignment
Tackle challenges in a limited amount of time
These techniques emphasize the human desire to strive
and compete for things that seem unavailable in
quantity.
13. Ownership and Possession
Build Items from Scratch
Complete Collection Sets
Recruit Other Students to their Project
“Purchase” Items to Customize Their Workspace
Create Their Own Avatars that Appear on Class
Bulletin Boards
Give students malleable learning tools and resources
that they can customize, or “upgrade” to fit their
approach to learning.
14. Development and Accomplishment
Add a progress bar to online tests
Break large assignments into smaller
deliverables that can be mastered
Turn grades into achievements
Award experience points, badges and
even titles to recognize achievement
“Level up” to unlock content
Post a leaderboard of high achievers
Design learning experiences so that students see visible
progress on a daily basis.
15. Badges For Your
Classroom
Pick Some Targets
Specific Targets
Random Targets
Extraordinary Targets
Create Badges
Make Them Yourself
Use Stickers
classbadges.com
16. Youtopia.com
Classroom management site to help
gamify your classroom
Activities, badges, points, and
leadership boards to motivate and
engage students
Pre-built templates for customizable
lessons
Free for teachers with up to 50 students
17. Edmodo.com
Social networking site for classrooms
Put students into groups in which they can socialize
with each other
Post questions to the group during specific hours
Post interesting articles or video clips and have
students respond by posting comments
Post quizzes and award the top score a badge
Create a scavenger hunt by having students
complete tasks (send a post, reply to a poll, collect
polls, find images)
Sign up for free
18. Play.annenberginnovationlab.
org
Create canvases for self-expression and
learning
Circulate content to encourage shared
knowledge networks
Connect with other learners of shared
interests
Collaborate to foster co-learning and
collective intelligence
Sign up now to become a beta tester
19. Final Points
Mentoring is at the heart of gamification
Emphasize skills and knowledge over information
Design with iteration in mind: one skill builds on the
next, and students need it all to succeed
Call upon students to perform their way to
competence
Create a plan for constant and frequent feedback
Make space work in your favor
Gamification is not a quick fix
Adding gamification elements can be fun!
Left Brain vs Right Brain DrivesIn this Octagon, The Core Drives on the right are considered right brain drives, being more about creativity, self-expression, and social aspects.The Core Drives on the left are considered left brain drives, being more about logic, calculations, and ownership.White Hat vs Black Hat GamificationThe top Core Drives in this Octagon are considered very positive motivations, while the bottom Core Drives are considered more negative motivations.If something is addicting because it lets you express your creativity, makes you feel successful through skill mastery, and gives you a higher sense of meaning, that’s a very positive result of being addicted.On the other hand, if something is addictive because you don’t know what will happen next and you HAVE to find out, you are constantly in fear of losing something, or you think about it all day simply because there are things you can’t have, then it is definitely from the Dark Side of the force of Gamification.Keep in mind that just because something is Black Hat doesn’t mean it’s bad – these are just motivators – and they can be used for productive and healthy results or for evil and manipulation. Gamification techniques simply control the “motivation” to do something but not the purpose of the activity. I personally would LOVE to get addicted to exercising and eating carrots.A good Gamification expert will try to implement all 8 Core Drives on a positive and productive activity so that everyone ends up happier and healthier.
This is the Core Drive where a player believes that he is doing something greater than himself or he was “chosen” to play. An symptom of this is a player that devotes a lot of his time to maintaining a forum or helping to create things for the entire community (think Wikipedia or Open Source projects). This also comes into play when someone has “Beginner’s Luck” – an effect where people believe they have some type of gift that others don’t or believe they were “lucky” to get that amazing sword at the very beginning of the game.
This is when users are addicted to a creative process where they have to repeatedly figure things out and try different combinations. People not only need ways to express their creativity, but they need to be able to see the results of their creativity, receive feedback, and respond in turn. This is why playing with Legos and painting are fun in-and-of themselves and often become Evergreen Mechanics (a good state for Gamification).
This drive incorporates all the social elements that drive people – including: mentorship, acceptance, social responses, companionship, as well as competition and envy. When you see a friend that is amazing at some skill or owns something extraordinary, you become driven to reach the same level. Also, it includes the drive we have to draw closer to people, places, or events that we can relate to.
Generally, this is a harmless drive of wanting to find out what actually happens. Many people watch movies or read novels solely because of this drive. This drive is the primary factor behind Gambling addiction. Researchers have shown that people irrationally want to see what’s next if there is a chance of a positive outcome – even when they know it will most likely be a negative.
This drive is based upon the avoidance of something negative happening. On a small scale, it could be to avoid losing previous work. On a larger scale, it could be to avoid admitting that everything you did up to this point was useless because you are now quitting.
This is the drive of wanting something because you can’t have it. Many games have Appointment Dynamics within them (come back 2 hours later to get your stuff) – the fact that people can’t get something NOW motivates them to think about it all day long. In the early days of Twitter, the service kept going down due to bad infrastructure. However, BECAUSE people couldn’t use Twitter when they wanted to, they wanted to use it even more. When it came back up they rushed to tweet before it went back down.
This is the drive of wanting something because you can’t have it. Many games have Appointment Dynamics within them (come back 2 hours later to get your stuff) – the fact that people can’t get something NOW motivates them to think about it all day long. In the early days of Twitter, the service kept going down due to bad infrastructure. However, BECAUSE people couldn’t use Twitter when they wanted to, they wanted to use it even more. When it came back up they rushed to tweet before it went back down.
This is the internal drive of making progress, developing skills, and eventually overcoming challenges. The word “challenge” here is very important as a badge or trophy without a challenge is not meaningful at all.