Gamifying Irish-language learning

Geraldine Exton; Liam MurrayUniversity of Limerick,Ireland

Duolingo• www.duolingo.com • Freely

available/inclusive/accessible• Crowdsourcing/Translation• Irish track, August 2014 beta

version• Feedback from users

• Now fully implemented

What is Gamification?•separate from Games: core of the system

Definition:•the use of game design elements in non-game contexts

Deterding

Why Gamification?• Motivational affordances 

•game elements• to increase participation and

engagement of learners

• Connect gamification and motivation

Motivation• Self-Determination Theory

Ryan and Deci

• Three components to be fulfilled: Competence Autonomy Relatedness• Skill mastery • Choice • Social connectedness

Gamification and Motivation

• Taxonomy: –Linking specific game elements to these components of motivation

• Why?–Address criticism

• “slaps” elements all over the place/ ”pointsification”/ ”exploitationware”

–Work the motivational needs into the design

Gamification and MotivationTaxonomy

➢Takes 16 elements found in games

➢Looks at their target behaviours➢Links these to Competence,

Autonomy, Relatedness➢Shows why this is important➢Shows when it occurs in gamified

system

Gamification and MotivationTaxonomy

Game Element Competence Autonomy RelatednessAchievements ●    

Avatars ● ● ●

Badges ●   ●

Boss Fights ●    

Collections ●   ●

Combat ●    

Content-Unlocking ●   ●

Discussion forums ● ● ●

Gifting   ● ●

Leader-boards ●   ●

Levels ● ● ●

Points ●    

Quests ● ● ●

Social Graphs ●   ●

Teams     ●

Virtual Goods ● ● ●

Application to Duolingo

Gamification in Duolingo• 11 out of the 16 elements

present– Highly gamified

Gamification in DuolingoCOMPETENCE• Duolingo home

page: skills tree (achievements)

• High emphasis on mastery of skills

• 9/11 elements fulfil competence needs

Gamification in DuolingoAUTONOMY• Duolingo lingot

store• 4/11 Autonomy-

related• Choice re:

avatars, discussion forums, gifting & virtual goods (lingots)

Gamification in DuolingoRELATEDNESS• Duolingo

discussion page

• Discussion forums: communities of practice

• 9/11 Relatedness

Gamification in DuolingoFrom Taxonomy:• 14/16 Competence

–9 in Duolingo• 6/16 Autonomy

–4 in Duolingo• 12/16 Relatedness

–9 in Duolingo

Gamification in Duolingo• 100 million users (as of June

2015)• Language learning always

looking for ways to motivate learners:• gamification is key to Duolingo

success• Accessible, free, fun• Community of learners helping

each other

ReferencesBogost, I., (2011) Persuasive Games: Exploitationware [online], available: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6366/persuasive_games_exploitationware.php [accessed April 7, 2014]Brathwaite, B., & Schreiber, I. (2008). Challenges for Game Designers, Charles River Media. Inc.,

Rockland, MA.Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From game design elements to gamefulness:

defining gamification. In Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Envisioning Future Media Environments (pp. 9-15). ACM.

Duolingo (2012) Duolingo: Free Language Education for the World [online], available: www.duolingo.com [accessed Feb 24, 2014]

Ferro, L. S., Walz, S. P., & Greuter, S. (2013). Towards personalised, gamified systems: an investigation into game design, personality and player typologies. In Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death (p. 7). ACM.

Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M. & Zubek, R. (2004). MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Design and Game Research. Proceedings of the AAAI Workshop on Challenges in Game AI.

Huotari, K. & Hamari, J. (2012). Defining gamification : a service marketing perspective. Proceeding of the 16th International Academic MindTrek Conference.

Llagostera, E. (2012). On gamification and persuasion. SB Games, Brasilia, Brazil, November 2-4, 2012, 12-21.

Protalinski, E., (2015) 100M users strong, Duolingo raises $45M led by Google at a $470M valuation to grow language-learning platform [online], available: http://venturebeat.com/2015/06/10/100m-users-strong-duolingo-raises-45m-led-by-google-at-a-470m-valuation-to-grow-language-learning-platform/ [accessed August 25, 2015]

Reeves, B., & Read, J. L. (2009) Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete. MA: Boston,: Harvard Business School Publishing.

References

Reinhardt, J., (no date) Developing a Research Agenda for Digital Game-Based L2 Learning [online], available: slat.arizona.edu/sites/slat/files/page/gamesresearchagenda.pptxReeves, B., & Read, J. L. (2009) Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete. MA: Boston,: Harvard Business School Publishing.Reinhardt, J., (no date) Developing a Research Agenda for Digital Game-Based L2 Learning [online], available: slat.arizona.edu/sites/slat/files/page/gamesresearchagenda.pptx[accessed August 18, 2015]Robertson, M., (2010) Can’t Play Won’t Play [online], available: http://hideandseek.net/2010/10/06/cant-play-wont-play/ [accessed April 7, 2014]Robinson, D., & Bellotti, V. (2013). A preliminary taxonomy of gamification elements for varying anticipated commitment. In Proc. ACM CHI 2013 Workshop on Designing Gamification: Creating Gameful and Playful Experiences. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American psychologist, 55(1), 68.Thom, J., Millen, D., & DiMicco, J. (2012). Removing gamification from an enterprise SNS. In Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (pp. 1067-1070). ACM.von Ahn, L., (2014) Duolingo turns two today! [online], available: https://www.duolingo.com/comment/3412629 [accessed January 28, 2015]Werbach, K and Hunter, D, (2012) For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Digital Press