The Gamification of Learning and Instruction: The Book Tour Continues

Dr. Karl Kapp has written a new book titled The Gamification of Learning and Instruction.  And it's a great pleasure to be asked by Karl to review the book for his blog book tour.  I don't consider myself a good book reviewer but I enjoy being part of the tour and appreciate him trusting in my ability.

Let me start by saying that I sort of rolled my eyes when I heard there was a book being written on gamification.  It just felt too early.  The term is barely understandable by those who use it regularly, and even less so by those who aren't "into it".

After reading the book I can honestly say that now is the perfect time for this book.  It's a perfect time for the book because the book is good...really good.  Kapp's understanding of instructional design and interest in gaming is well balanced.  He is thorough enough in the research to make his point, but not to the point of boring the reader.  This balanced approach makes the concept of gamified learning understandable to anyone first approaching the topic.  Game designers will learn the learning component of their craft and instructional designers will see game design through their own lens of learning and instruction.

Karl also goes into the practical application of gamification in the workplace and balances the realities of the workplace with the excitement of new bells and whistles.  I think Cammy Bean's stop on the book tour pointed these parts out nicely.

I think we all need to ask ourselves a few questions:
1) Is an interactive Jeopardy game part of this new gamification craze?
2) Are "serious games" the same as gamification?
3) Do I want my LMS to offer badges?
4) Is my learner's job already gamified?
5) Is the business problem I'm trying to solve really a training problem?

I tossed in #5  just because I think we all to often forget to ask that question :)

Read the book.  Learn more about game design.  You will become a better trainer, teacher, designer, and learner.

Personal Note:
My personal thoughts on gaming and instruction vary.  As with all shiny new options in the growing world of tech-based training...IT DEPENDS.  My biggest concern is that games or gamification will be taken ONE thing, one solution.  We have a tendency to put different tech solutions in compartments that are separated from the other options we have.  Building a game is one thing, but utilizing gamification to enhance your training solutions is a completely different thing entirely.

The most important point is that thinking like a game designer might be the only thing we need to do. The final outcome doesn't need to LOOK like a game.  But if we begin to understand the theory behind what makes a game fun and engaging we may be able to look at our course design differently enough to begin making choices that delight our learners.

Is Your eLearning +1

Seems like everything is getting a game mechanic these days: Thumbs up. Thumbs down. Yeah! I'm the Mayor! Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Google has announced the +1 button. I've watched the video but have not yet found the elusive +1 button in my Google.




YouTube.com uses game mechanics. Betcha didn't know that! Check out this Google presentation given by Amy Jo Kim (@amyjokim).


She talks about 5 basic game mechanics: Collecting, Points(Game Points, Social Points, Redeemable Points), Feedback, Exchanges, Customization.There are others but this is a good set to start thinking about. While you're watching the video be thinking about how you might incorporate them into your next corporate learning initiative.  Leave your thoughts in the comments.  Let me know how you plan to +1 your eLearning!

BINARY - There's an App to LEARN that! And its a GAME!

Last week I had the pleasure of chatting with Jerry Bush, Program Manager Learning@CISCO. I must say, it sounds like CISCO has an amazingly innovative culture that allows them to experiment with new technologies and ideas around learning. Check out their Games Arcade. Lots of great desktop games...with a few recently ported over to mobile technologies.

While we had a great conversation in general about eLearning, mobile devices, and serious games, I loved hearing about their new FREE iPhone/iPad app called BINARY. Be aware that there is another binary game app NOT created by CISCO that costs $.99. The CISCO binary game is FREE.

Now, I like to think of myself as having a little bit of geek cred. And of course every self-respecting geek has a full and complete grasp of the ultimate geek language - BINARY....right? Well, I know enough now to know that I only had a simple-man's grasp of what binary is. I knew binary was a string of 1's and 0's. And I also knew that a string of one's and zeros "added" up to a larger number. But I guess that's about as far as my lesser-geek knowledge went. The BINARY game was exactly what I needed to fill in the missing pieces in my knowledge base of binary.

This is the type of content that works great in a game...in my opinion. There are no instructions. You just start playing. Its exactly how I like to learn. The game also helps you learn "the code" in both directions. In some cases you are given the 1' and 0's in the proper positions and asked to give the answer on the right side of the "=" sign. And in other cases you are given the number and then by tapping the 1,0, chicklets you set up the binary code to equal the given number.

Okay, so that doesn't sound like much fun does it? Well, notice in the image above how the different rows are stacked? Yea, they just keep coming. More rows after more rows. This forces you to learn to think in binary...FAST. And what you soon learn is that there are patterns in binary code. So at a certain point you stop "doing the math" and just remember the patterns. Which is exactly how the brain learns to process complex information. But I'll leave the brain science stuff to others. Give it a try. If you already are certain that you know binary then you will still get a good idea how simple game mechanics can make learning fun...and fast.