'In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and snap! The job's a game!' - Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins, 1964
Points. Badges. Leaderboards. Chances are, even if you’ve only explored gamification a little, you’ve heard about the PBL trinity. And if you’ve seen any criticism of gamification in education, you’ll probably have noticed that it’s usually centered on the argument that game elements aren’t a good idea because they promote extrinsic motivation.
But are points, badges and leaderboards all there really is to gamification? While they can definitely play a role in gamification when applied well, these elements are just a small part of the gamification story.
What we do know for sure is that school students will often spend hours of their spare time persevering with their favourite video games and honing their gaming skills, so if motivating our students is a struggle then looking at game elements is probably worthy of our attention (Lee & Hammer, 2011; Gee, 2007). But if all we take from videogames is their use of PBL, then we’re missing an opportunity to truly motivate students. Meaningful gamification starts with the idea of play, and of understanding the activity you want to gamify so as to discover where game elements will really make sense to build fun, wonder and play into activities (Nicolson, 2012).
So what does ‘playification’ rather than ‘pointsification’ look like? Some examples that capture a sense of fun and play can be seen in the following videos from The Fun Theory, an initiative that seeks to change behaviour in a positive way through play. Granted, these aren’t education examples, and some of these are experiments rather than realistic long-term solutions, but I hope they’ll inspire you to start thinking about how ordinary activities can be made more fun.
Goal: Encourage people to choose the stairs over the escalator. Solution? Make it fun to walk up the stairs.
Points. Badges. Leaderboards. Chances are, even if you’ve only explored gamification a little, you’ve heard about the PBL trinity. And if you’ve seen any criticism of gamification in education, you’ll probably have noticed that it’s usually centered on the argument that game elements aren’t a good idea because they promote extrinsic motivation.
But are points, badges and leaderboards all there really is to gamification? While they can definitely play a role in gamification when applied well, these elements are just a small part of the gamification story.
What we do know for sure is that school students will often spend hours of their spare time persevering with their favourite video games and honing their gaming skills, so if motivating our students is a struggle then looking at game elements is probably worthy of our attention (Lee & Hammer, 2011; Gee, 2007). But if all we take from videogames is their use of PBL, then we’re missing an opportunity to truly motivate students. Meaningful gamification starts with the idea of play, and of understanding the activity you want to gamify so as to discover where game elements will really make sense to build fun, wonder and play into activities (Nicolson, 2012).
So what does ‘playification’ rather than ‘pointsification’ look like? Some examples that capture a sense of fun and play can be seen in the following videos from The Fun Theory, an initiative that seeks to change behaviour in a positive way through play. Granted, these aren’t education examples, and some of these are experiments rather than realistic long-term solutions, but I hope they’ll inspire you to start thinking about how ordinary activities can be made more fun.
Goal: Encourage people to choose the stairs over the escalator. Solution? Make it fun to walk up the stairs.
Goal: Reduce littering. Solution? Give people a little surprise when they throw something in the bin.
Goal: Encourage drivers to stick to the speed limit. Solution? A new spin on penalty and reward.
Have a go: Can you think of any ways you could encourage play and gamify learning without using points or badges? Share your ideas by posting a comment below!
Image: Mary Poppins by Roswitha Siedelberg
Details of sources cited can be found on the References page.