Learning Solutions 2015 Gamification Materials

Session 908 – If You Don't Have GAME … Don't Gamify – Valary A Oleinik, Weil Contents © 2015 by VALARY A OLEINIK– All rights reserved

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March 25 – 27, 2015 Orlando, FL

If You Don't Have GAME … Don't Gamify Presented by Valary Oleinik

The following quick sheet provides some highlights from the other session materials and discussion questions that can be used to start a GAME Plan to gamify your learning events and environment.

Gamification shares a number of important concepts with good instructional design. Both undertake to engage and motivate learners and change behaviors. Gamification focuses on the learner's progression and providing an engaging experience which encourages more frequent interaction, a key factor in obtaining and retaining new skills. Perhaps the greatest lesson gamification brings us from game design is the value of frequent feedback to create an engagement loop fueled by dopamine. The cycle of challenge, achievement, and pleasure is vital to keeping a player playing or a learner learning. Gamification supports this process by making progress and achievements visible. Gamification also helps to create the social structure that can support the desire for status, self‐expression, collaboration or competition.

Gamification is "the use of game elements and game design techniques in non‐game contexts." Kevin Werbach

"You aren't going to make games. You're going to make games work for you." Gabe Zichermann

"I came to see games as 'deliberate practice' machines." Raph Koster

"The power of progress is fundamental to human nature, but few managers understand it or know how to leverage progress to boost motivation.” Teresa Amabile

For additional information please contact me. Email me at [email protected] <Valary Oleinik> or tweet me @valarywithawhy Connect with me on other social media sites through http://about.me/valary Check out my curated content on gamification at http://www.scoop.it/t/what‐s‐your‐game‐plan Follow my blog at http://valarywithawhy.tumblr.com

Goals Does your training have clear short‐term and long‐term

goals for the learner? What are the important metrics?

Audience What motivates your learners? What types and frequency of feedback do your learners

find most useful and engaging?

Mechanics How can you make progress and achievements visible for

the learners? Which game mechanics align with your goals and

audience?

Experience How will you monitor and adjust the gamification system

over time? Do you have the human and technical resources to ensure

a good user experience?


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If You Don't Have GAME … Don't Gamify Presented by Valary A Oleinik

Introduction Gamification seems to be everywhere these days. It is a buzzword du jour and was even a runner‐up for

Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2011.[1] Over the past decade, people have hyped it, criticized it,

tried it, succeeded with it, and failed at it. The research firm Gartner suggests that it is in the "trough of

disillusionment" phase of the hype cycle,[2] so what does that mean to those in the learning sphere? It

could mean that it is just the right time to consider using it. There are enough examples and experiences

with it, both good and bad, to start to see how gamification can be a productive tool in our learning

solutions toolkit.

Whether you add gamification to your learning plan or not, having a basic understanding of how it works

may spark other innovative ideas. Gamification can increase engagement and provide a creative

problem solving space when done well, or be a candy‐coated demotivating factor when applied badly.

So should you be using it? Maybe. Like any tool, it can be a robust addition to your toolbox but is not

appropriate for every situation. Gamification may be appropriate for a particular learning event or for

helping to build a learning culture and more collaborative environment for virtual teams within an

organization. In some cases, it may also help bridge the gap between specific courses and performance

support or provide additional pathways to connect learning with other talent management functions

such as evaluations.

So if you do decide to use gamification, having a GAME plan comes in handy. By determining your Goals

and understanding your Audience you can select the appropriate game Mechanics to create the best

user Experience.

What is gamification? Before we can work on the GAME plan, we need to understand a little more about what gamification is

... and is not. Gabe Zichermann sets the stage by saying: "You aren't going to make games. You're going

to make games work for you."[3] The real power in the gamification engine comes from dissecting

games and figuring out what makes them so addictively fun, challenging, and engaging. Creatively

mixing and matching the individual parts can open up countless solutions. However, Jesse Schell warns

us against "chocolification," pointing out that while chocolate may be great on sweets it isn't going to

improve broccoli or staplers.[4] Likewise, gamification isn’t a cure‐all.

Let's start with a very succinct definition put forth by Kevin Werbach who describes gamification as "the

use of game elements and game design techniques in non‐game contexts."[5] Another useful definition

that goes more to the application of gamification comes from Karl Kapp who says that "Gamification is

using game‐based mechanics, aesthetics and game thinking to engage people, motivate action, promote

learning, and solve problems."[6]


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Developing a GAME plan

Goals The first step, before even deciding whether to incorporate gamification into your solution, is to

determine what problem you are try to solve. What is your goal? Until you can answer that question, in

the immortal words of the Monopoly board, “Do not pass Go” or collect anything. One of the most

common mistakes is to decide to gamify before establishing goals. Other misguided notions include

gamifying because it worked in some other situation or because you heard that it makes learning more

fun.

Once you have identified the goal, remember that gamification is an answer, not the answer. Think

about the purpose of the learning and the behaviors you are trying to change. Think about the culture of

the organization. Is there buy‐in? If not, perhaps gamification is not appropriate or needs to be

relabeled as an engagement initiative or motivation support. What metrics are important? What is their

current recognition system? What types of performance support do they have? Perhaps gamification

can help you drive learners to ongoing practice and reduce the effects of the forgetting curve. As we will

see shortly, gamification is tied to motivation, so there could even be opportunities to use it to bridge

some gaps between real training issues and motivation issues.

On a more granular note regarding goals, we should note that there is significant overlap among the

concepts of SMART goals (those that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely), good

instructional design practices (such as well‐written learning objectives), and gamification (which is

extremely data driven allowing for tracking of progress and measurement of achievements). There are

gamification methods and mechanics that align with each of the SMART goal components, and these can

help the learner to visualize their pathway and progression to the achievement of goals. As Jane

McGonigal points out: "Satisfying work [and I would add learning] always starts with two things: a clear

goal and actionable next steps toward achieving that goal."[7] Research in Thomas Malone’s study into

What Makes Things Fun to Learn? supports this pathway of milestones to achievement approach,

finding that having short term goals was superior to having no goals or long‐term goals “in sustaining

performance and interest in the task.”[8]

As an example of how gamification is similar to instructional design, we can pair spaced repetition in

learning design with gamification's practice of breaking larger goals into smaller ones that feed the

engagement loop of challenges and achievements. This also aligns with the way enabling objectives can

lead up to the completion of a terminal objective. As we will see, gamification does not change the

underlying work or learning, but rather it "provides an ephemeral 'game layer' that changes the

experience of work, without redesigning the nature of the actual job."[9]

Audience Once you have established the goals of your project, the next step is to determine who your audience is

and what motivates them. One of the decisions, which will be related to the purpose of the gamification

and audience makeup, will be the right mix of competition, cooperation and individual self‐expression.

There are other breakdowns of your audience you may want to consider. Three concepts that might

inform your choices of which game mechanics might have the greatest appeal to your audience are

player types, intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation, and self‐determination theory.


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Player Types Richard Bartle is often cited in discussions of player types that explain players’ motivations. Each person

will likely identify somewhat with each type but one type generally is dominant. Using the familiar

iconography of a deck of cards, Bartle assigned the following suits:

Achievers love collecting and displaying their treasures so they are the Diamonds. Their gems

are achievement markers and they enjoy the visibility of being prolific contributors to

knowledge bases and forums.

Explorers crave discovery and will spend vast periods of time digging around, making them the

Spades. They are invaluable as beta testers and for getting feedback about how to evolve the

system.

Socializers love people so they are the Hearts of the player world. Although their reasons for

contributing are different than the Achievers, Socializers will share ideas, encourage others, and

participate in discussions. They can be wonderful champions and advocates of the system.

Killers are the most aggressive which makes their assignment to the Clubs self‐explanatory. They

are highly competitive, determined, and want to win. Their passion can help drive action. Like

Achievers they seek status and will keep playing to stay on top. They can also provide foils to

Explorers and Socializers, keeping everyone engaged in discussions.

Other researchers and writers have subsequently tweaked the player type model. One such adaptation

comes from Gamification Evangelist Andrzej Marczewski who expands it to 6 types: Achievers, Free

Spirits, Philanthropists, Socializers, Disruptors, and Players.[10] As shown in the table below, each type is

motivated by different things.

Player Type Motivated By Affirmation Achievers Mastery I improve

Free Spirits Autonomy I control

Philanthropists Purpose I matter

Socializers Relatedness I connect

Disruptors Change I push

Players Rewards I get

The affirmation column, while not part of Marczewski's model has been added to the table to help us

think about how we can deliver learning options that meet various needs. For instance, if someone is

driven by a need to improve, how can we use gamification elements to show them their progress? Or

how can we gamify our environment to better support the needs of those who want to connect with

one another.

Intrinsic versus Extrinsic In our quest to engage our audience we need to figure out what motivates them and what types of

rewards to put into place. Extrinsic motivation uses external rewards (or punishments) to encourage a

change in a person's behavior. Cash, prizes, and grades are familiar examples of this category. Intrinsic

motivation comes from within the person and derives from their interest in doing something for its own

sake. Feelings of accomplishment, status or increased social capital would be some of the intrinsic

rewards that gamification could provide.


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Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are not mutually exclusive. People do things for a variety of reasons

that may draw from both ends of the motivation spectrum. A learner may be extrinsically motivated by

receiving a bonus for completing a course or moving into a new job but that does not preclude intrinsic

motivations such as feeling good about their accomplishments or simply a thirst for knowledge. As Bob

Nelson explained, the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic is that the former lights a fire

underneath someone and the latter sparks a flame within them.[11]

In general, however, extrinsic reward systems are more short‐sighted and may actually serve as

demotivators, crowding out creative solutions that fall outside of the reward structure. There are some

exceptions to the rule. Extrinsic rewards can infuse enough "caffeine" into the system to get participants

over the initial inertia and jump start their participation, especially in situations in which there was no

intrinsic motivation to begin with.[12] However, as with caffeinated beverages, the effects of the

extrinsics are not long lasting and should not generally be used when intrinsic rewards are available.

Self‐determination theory Before we leave the discussion of intrinsic motivation it is useful to consider Edward Deci and Richard

Ryan's self‐determination theory which says that people have three innate psychological needs that

must be met in order to be motivated and in turn productive and happy—autonomy, mastery, and

connectedness. These needs are often mentioned in learner‐centric models, showing once again how

gamification and learning have a good deal of common language.

Autonomy refers to a person's need to have control over aspects of their learning. Mastery refers to a

person's need to progress and feel competent. Again this maps well with gamification, which unlike

games, is focused on a progressive journey and not a final destination of winning. Often mastery can be

tied intrinsic rewards such as providing learners access to additional materials or giving them status

markers or positions such as team leader. Finally connectedness refers to the social needs of individuals.

Learning is a social experience and while it can be done with no or low‐tech options, gamification can

leverage technology to provide excellent collaborative environments.

Mechanics This is the phase where you will find ways to make the goals actionable, design activities that will move

the learner from where they are to where you need them to be, and use game mechanics to overlay the

experience and provide feedback to the learner. The success of a gamified solution is not how much

they played or enjoyed the gamification but whether the behaviors have been changed to meet the

goals. Progression and learning are not possible without adequate feedback, which is a strong suit of

gamification, and one of the main reasons is can be successful.

Those working in education and talent management have spent years trying to coach managers in the

art of providing good feedback. Again, while not a cure‐all, gamification provides an additional tool.

Game designers have perfected the delivery of timely, frequent and relevant feedback and the need for

better and faster feedback has never been greater, as more Millennials enter the workforce. Kris Duggan

reported "those 25 and under have a significant preference for daily feedback."[13] Gabe Zichermann

also provides insights about the expectations of those who grew up in the age of the Internet, video

games, and a constant stream of feedback: “The millennial generation doesn’t suffer from excessive

positive reinforcement— those of us born before them simply received too little. In fact, the millennials

are actually getting the amount of positive reinforcement most humans crave.”[14]


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While there are countless elements that can be borrowed from game design, there are several that

appear in most gamification systems in some form—points, badges, and leaderboards. Understanding

these three can open up a host of creative options. Whichever elements you use, remember that they

are merely symbols of the rewards the learner is receiving; not the rewards themselves. If the rewards

become the focus then learning is probably not happening. Always keep in mind that the game

mechanics are supporting players to the learning event. They help draw in the learner, to keep the

learner engaged, and to help the learner receive feedback and see their progress but they are not the

stars of the show. Points, badges, and leaderboards are tools; you can’t simply sprinkle them atop

learning like fairy dust and expect miracles to occur any more than you can add pretty pictures to

PowerPoint slides and guarantee a great presentation.

Points/Levels At the heart of almost any gamification system are points, which are perhaps the most basic type of

statistics. Just as with grades in classes, there needs to be some way to measure the changes in a

participant’s knowledge and behavior and provide a metric that ties back to the goals. This does not

mean, however, that simply adding a point scale to activities makes it a gamified system or that points

even need to be visible to the learner. The points may simply be used in the background to determine

when a person has advanced to a new level or should receive a certain reward.

Levels satisfy a number of learner desires. They show progression and mastery and can serve as status

markers. From the design side, levels can be part of a scaffolding approach. The early levels may require

few points so the learner can see some progress and get hooked; later levels can have more extensive

achievement requirements. Earning points and leveling up are another form of positive feedback which

in and of itself can increase a learner's intrinsic motivation by making them feel successful and may

support a distributed practice model.

Badges/Progress bars Badges are frequently used to great effect since they provide a way to visualize an accomplishment.

They are generally part of a collection. People are wired to want complete sets of things, so seeing the

slots where future accomplishments will be filled in has a very motivating effect. Badges can serve as

milestones that feed the needs for status and recognition and can help bind communities together

around shared experiences. Some have started referring to badges as micro‐credentials.

Progress bars can be viewed as a type of badge, albeit a dynamic one that shows progression whereas

the previously mentioned badges show completion. As Rajat Paharia, sometimes called the father of

gamification explains, people love a "towards"—the action of progressing towards an accomplishment

or mastery.[15] Some systems have shown greatly improved participation by simply adding a progress

bar. Having constant feedback about where a person stands in a process can be highly motivating.

Research has even found that displaying a person’s progress may change their perception of the

difficulty and duration of a task which can impact their decision as to whether to continue working at it

or abandon the task.[16] When combined with checklists, badges and progress bars can provide a mini

development plan in a larger learning program.

Leaderboards Of the most commonly used gamification elements, perhaps the most prone to misuse is the

leaderboard. While it can provide incentive to do a bit more if someone sees that they are close to


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moving up in the rankings, it can put a slump in productivity and motivation simply by being included in

your solution. For those not in the top slots, it may seem an insurmountable climb they choose to avoid.

One solution is to provide a leaderboard that shows a person's relative position rather than absolute. If

they can self‐select the "friends" they want to compare their progress too, that is even better. This

provides a boost to the social aspect of the gamification and encourages a bit of friendly competition

without being demotivating. Another alternative is to have a leaderboard that resets periodically so

there are multiple opportunities to reach the top. Perhaps you want to show the staff who have

completed the most learning modules in a given month or which office or department has completed

the most tasks.

Experience The final piece of the GAME plan is to examine what the overall experience will be. Sometimes the

gamification will satisfy a targeted need with a clear start and end. Other times the journey will be

ongoing and there will be a need to ensure ways are built into the system that help the learner continue

to be engaged. Gamified solutions provide feedback both to learners and those administering the

program and that feedback should be heeded to help evolve the system. No matter how well conceived

a gamified solution is, it will become stale over time if it remains static. In addition to making course

corrections you may want to build in ways to engage experienced participants to do things like mentor

newer participants thereby spreading their knowledge, decentralizing performance support, and giving

them new ways to be motivated.

Returning to the idea of connectedness, you should examine how your solution will promote social

interactions. Throughout the process it is useful to remember that it is about the people, not the

technology. When possible, provide an opt‐out provision. Games are voluntary by nature; the player

chooses which to play and whether to play. If gamification becomes mandatory fun the experience is

less likely to yield positive results. Also remember that people don't operate in a vacuum; the culture of

the organization is the ultimate game board. In some instances you may not want to use the term

gamification because it does not sound serious enough or will be misunderstood and you may opt for

pitching an engagement program or suggest a motivation initiative.

Conclusion Gamification shares a number of important concepts with good instructional design. Both undertake to

engage and motivate learners and change behaviors. Gamification focuses on the learner's progression

and providing an engaging experience which encourages more frequent interaction, a key factor in

obtaining and retaining new skills. Perhaps the greatest lesson gamification brings us from game design

is the value of frequent feedback to create an engagement loop fueled by dopamine. The cycle of

challenge, achievement, and pleasure is vital to keeping a player playing or a learner learning.

Gamification supports this process by making progress and achievements visible. Gamification also helps

to create the social structure that can support the desire for status, self‐expression, collaboration or

competition.

Gamification in the educational and workplace realms is really in its infancy. With so many individual

game pieces to choose from the only real limitation to how we put them together is our imagination.


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Resources [1] Burke. B. (2014). Gamify: How gamification motivates people to do extraordinary things. Bibliomotion. [Scribd

Edition].

[2] Gartner's 2014 hype cycle for emerging technologies maps the journey to digital business. (August 11, 2014).

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819918

[3] Zichermann, G. & Linder, J. (2013). The gamification revolution: How leaders leverage game mechanics to crush

the competition. McGraw Hill Education [Kindle Edition].

[4] Schell, J. (2013). The secret mechanism. Keynote Speech, DICE Summit 2013. Retrieved from

http://bit.ly/1rdZjng

[5] Werbach, K. & Hunter, D. (2012). For the win: How game thinking can revolutionize your business. Wharton

Digital Press [Kindle Edition].

[6] Kapp. K. (2012). The gamification of learning and instruction: Game‐based methods and strategies for training

and education. Pfeiffer. [Kindle Edition]

[7] McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality is broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world. New

York: Penguin Group.

[8] Malone, T. (1980). What makes things fun to learn? A study of intrinsically motivating computer games.

Cognitive and Instructional Sciences Series. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1B19lwF

[9] Mollick, E. and Rothbard, N. (2013). Mandatory fun: Gamification and the Impact of games at work. Retrieved

from http://bit.ly/1B19lwF

[10] Marczewski, A. (Dec. 9, 2013). Using the gamification user types in the real world. Gamified UK. Retrieved

from http://bit.ly/1DER1Kl

[11] Nelson, B. (2012). Keynote speech. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1oEa5Bd

[12] Pink, D. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Riverhead Books. [Kindle Edition].

[13] Duggan, K. (Mar. 18, 2013). Gamification: The secret weapon of employee engagement. Retrieved from

http://bit.ly/1JwVdPX

[14] Zichermann, G. & Linder, J.

[15] Paharia, R. (Feb. 19, 2010). Driving user behavior with game dynamics and behavioral economics. Seminar on

People, Computers, and Design, Stanford University. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1pAeh4c

[16] Conrad, F., Couper, M., Tourangeau, R., and Peytchev, A. (2010). The impact of progress indicators on task

completion. Retrieved from http://1.usa.gov/17FHwMR


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Additional Resources Fowler, S. (2014). Why motiviating people doesn't work … and what does: The new science of leading, energizing,

and engaging. San Francisco: Berrett‐Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Gamification 101: An introduction to the use of game dynamics to influence behavior. Bunchball Whitepaper,

2010. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1mhFq9x

Lazzaro, N. (2004). Why we play games: Four keys to more emotion without story. Retrieved from

http://bit.ly/19Svwcv

Penenberg, A. (2013). Play at work: How games inspire breakthrough thinking. New York: Portfolio/Penguin.

Prashant, J. (Oct 10, 2013). Celebrating small wins: Keeping the progress bar moving! Retrieved from

http://bit.ly/1voaxI6

Radoff, J. (2011). Game on: Energize your business with social media games. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.

Rigby, S., and Ryan, R. (2011). Glued to games: How video games draw us in and hold us spellbound. Santa Barbara,

California: Praeger, An Imprint of ABC‐CLIO, LLC

Suggested Additional Websites http://www.yukaichou.com

http://www.gamification.co

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/25/scvngr‐game‐mechanics/

http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~hunicke/MDA.pdf

http://www.raphkoster.com/gaming/gdco12/Koster_Raph_Theory_Fun_10.pdf

https://wiki.mozilla.org/images/b/b1/OpenBadges‐Working‐Paper_092011.pdf

http://badgeville.com/wiki/

http://www.gamified.uk/

I’d love to hear from you! There’s a way to connect with me for every taste.

Email me at [email protected] <Valary Oleinik> or tweet me @valarywithawhy

Connect with me on other social media sites through http://about.me/valary

Check out my curated content on gamification at

http://www.scoop.it/t/what‐s‐your‐game‐plan

Follow my blog at http://valarywithawhy.tumblr.com

Documents

Learning Solutions 2015 Gamification Materials