This slideshow was initially presented at the 2012 New Media Consortium Summer Conference in Cambridge, MA.

1. 20+ Ways to Add
Game-like Elements
to Your Learning Designs
Brett Bixler
Lead Instructional Designer
Penn State University
This presentation by Brett Bixler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

2. Today
• Who am I?
• Intro to the Educational Gaming Commons
• What is Gamification?
• Types of Gamification
• Elements of Gamification
• Examples
• Additional Resources and Communities
• Exercise
• Open Discussion

3. Who am I?
• Lead Instructional Designer
• At PSU since 1984
• Working on bringing best
practices/uses of educational
technology to Penn State
• Founded the Educational
Gaming Commons

4. The Educational
Gaming Commons
• Goal
• Foster research, teaching, and learning around
educational games, virtual worlds, and simulations.
• Staff
• Brett Bixler – Founder and Evangelist
• Chris Stubbs – Manager
• Elizabeth Pyatt – Instructional Designer
• Web – http://gaming.psu.edu
• Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/FBPSUEGC

5. The EGC (contd)
• Projects
• Engagement Initiatives
• One-on-one consultations
• Virtual Worlds Research and Development
• Sponsoring presentations, guest speakers, etc.
• EGC Lab
• Innovative space at PSU containing PCs, game
consoles, and a variety of games, virtual worlds,
and simulations

6. What can I do to make
instruction
more compelling?

7. What is your favorite game?
Why?
What is it about this game
that appeals to you?

8. Gamification??!?
Gamification <> Games!

9. What in the world is gamification and
game-like elements?

10. What’s Going On Here?

11. Gamification Elements
• Gamification
• The use of one or more "gamelike elements"
or dynamics in a non-game context to
improve engagement or change behavior.
• Gamelike Elements
• Pieces or mechanics that make up games.

12. Gamification – Surface-level & Deep
Surface-level Changes
• Change overt parts of course/instruction
• Grades = Levels
• Quiz = Minion
• Test = Boss
• Final = Big Boss
• Assignments = Crafting
• Teams = Guilds
Deep Changes
• Change your activities to include gamelike elements.
• Examples: Team challenges, restructuring content to
optimal challenge.

13. Gamification Elements
Over 25 Elements Exist
Achievements Infinite Gameplay
Appointments Levels
Behavioral Momentum Loss Aversion
Blissful Productivity Lottery
Bonuses Ownership
Cascading Info. Theory Points
Combos Progression
Community Collaboration Quests
Countdown Reward Schedules
Discovery Status
Epic Meaning Urgent Optimism
Free Lunch Virality
From http://gamification.org/wiki/Game_Mechanics

14. “Big” Gamification Elements
• Scaffolding (cascading information
theory & progressive implementation)
• Feedback
• Levels
• Achievements & rewards
• reward success
• points & progress bars
• status/ ranks/badges
• Uncertainty and Expectation
• Flow

15. Cascading Information Theory
• Match the level of task difficulty to the current
ability of the student.
Scaffolding
• Provide just enough support so the student can
accomplish the task. Remove this “scaffolding”
over time.

16. Progressive Implementation
A series of tasks, from simple to complex, that lead
towards the ultimate goal.

17. Levels
• Levels are a system by which players are
rewarded for accumulating points.
• Often features or abilities are unlocked as
players progress to higher levels.
• Levelling is one of the highest components of
motivation for gamers.
Examples
• Real world – Job promotions.
• In a game – Earn enough points.
• A good use – Use levels to show
competencies.

18. Feedback
• Timely informing the student of their
accomplishments/failures.
• Games do this all the time!
• The following all provide feedback.

19. Achievements
• A virtual or physical representation of having
accomplished something.
• Achievements can be easy, difficult, surprising,
funny, accomplished alone or as a group.
• Achievements are a way to give players a way
to brag.

20. Badges
• An overt reward of achievement.
• Meant to be displayed for others to see.
Examples
 Real world – Scouts.
 In a game – Complete a task, earn a badge.
 A good use – Mozilla Badges.

21. Countdown
• The element in which players are only given a
certain amount of time to do something.
• This will create an activity that increases
frenetically until time runs out or the goal is
met.
Examples
 Real world – Limited-time sales.
 In a game – Race to a goal.
 A good use – Mastery quizzes
that can taken as often as needed.

22. Points
• Points are a running numerical value given for
any single action or combination of actions.

23. Progression
Where success is granularly displayed and
measured through the process of completing
itemized tasks. Progress bars!
Examples
• Real world – Coffee cards. Buy 6, get one
free.
• In a game - Progress bars and subtasks. As you level up, you
receive power and better equipment, etc. Progression is
powerful.
• A good use - Drive traffic to local businesses via challenges that
unlock rewards.

24. Switching Gears? - Motivation?
• Defining it is an elusive process, as difficult to
do as grasping a slippery fish in a dark cave.
• Here’s the one I like:
• “The term motivation in psychology is a global
concept for a variety of processes and effects whose
common core is the realization that an organism
selects a particular behavior because of expected
consequences, and then implements it with some
measure of energy, along a particular path.”
(Heckhausen, 1991, p. 9).

25. Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic - From outside you.
Intrinsic - From inside you.
• There is a controversy over gamification and
extrinsic motivation - some say it weakens
intrinsic motivation.
• The fact is there just aren't enough facts to
know this for sure.

26. Uncertainty
• When we can't quite predict something, we
get really excited about it.
• Like driving down a winding vs. straight road.

27. Flow
• The ultimate motivational state, where hours
go by in minutes.
• Achieved by
balancing the
learner’s current
ability with the
difficulty of the
current challenge.

28. So How is Gamification
Happening in Higher Ed?
right now?

29. Surface-level Gamification
Lee Sheldon’s Multiplayer Game Design Class
• Class time is divided between
• fighting monsters (Quizzes, Exams etc.),
• completing quests (Presentations of Games, Research etc.)
• crafting (Personal Game Premises, Game Analysis Papers,
Video Game Concept Document etc.).
• You gain XP by defeating monsters, completing quests
and crafting.

30. XP for a Grade
Grading Procedure
• Start as a Level One avatar. Level Twelve is the max.
Level XP* Letter Grade
Level Twelve 1860 A
Level Eleven 1800 A-
Level Ten 1740 B+
Level Nine 1660 B
Level Eight 1600 B-
Level Seven 1540 C+
Level Six 1460 C
Level Five 1400 C-
Level Two-Four 1340 D
Level One 0 F

31. What Do YOU Think About This?
Is this good, bad, ugly?

32. What Did Students Think?
• Leveling should be evenly spaced out.
• Knowing point values per assignment is gold.
• Avatars are cool, but hard to integrate.
• Guilds make you feel you are part of
something?
http://gamingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/t366-
multiplayer-game-design-post-mortem/

33. What Did Students Think?
• Forcing attention to reading via in-class guild
quizzes was a plus. One question determined at
random via die roll.
• Guild competition during open book midterm
was valued.
• Quests (individual presentations) seem to suffer
the same drawbacks as traditional
presentations.
http://gamingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/t366-
multiplayer-game-design-post-mortem/

34. What Did Students Think?
• Overall - students were uniformly enthusiastic
about the class as game approach. Many wished
that other of their courses could be taught the
same way; and thought the techniques could be
used with just about any subject matter.
• Keep in mind this is a game design class!
http://gamingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/t366-
multiplayer-game-design-post-mortem/

35. Marriage – The Game?

36. An Example of Deep Gamification…
• Course on intro. to new social technologies.
• Do you just present the technologies, or do
you add game-like elements to it?
• Instructor makes teams. Five rounds of play.
The team with the most points wins.
• Google Docs & Forms
• Second Life
• NMC Horizon Report
• Gaming
• Emerging Technologies

37. An Example 2…
• Google Forms
• 1-point level - Individuals can only take the survey once
–You MUST add your CODE to the last question and
answer all the questions to earn all points. URL to the
form.
• 5-point level – each individual can earn 5 points for
their team by creating a Google form (survey) with at
least 3 different question types and sending me the link
to survey to complete it instructorEmail. Put your name
CODE in the title of the survey.

38. An Example 3…
• Emerging Technologies
• 25 points for each team member posting
Watch the video at URL . The speaker asks at one point in
his talk, “If not now, when… if not me, then who???” Your
posting should answer three questions to earn the
points:
• What does the speaker mean by this quote?
• What does it make you think about in light of what you are learning in
this class?
• What does it make you think about outside of this class and why?
• Post your comment to the blog at URL Use your name
CODE to earn points!!!

39. Some Gamification Providers

40. Some Gamification Info. Sites
• Kapp Notes
• http://www.uleduneering.com/kappnotes/
• Gamify
• http://gamify.org
• http://gamification.org/wiki/
• Gamifying Education (new)
• http://www.gamifyingeducation.org/
• The Gamification Summit
• http://www.gsummit.com/
• June 19-21, 2012

41. Gamification Time!

42. Gamification Time!
• Form groups of 2-3 people.
• Pick a subject and a lesson, or use one
of the provide examples.
• Brainstorm on three ways you would
gamify this lesson.
• Don’t sweat the details!

43. Questions?
Thoughts?
gaming@psu.edu
bxb11@psu.edu