How to create gamified tools

How to create Gamified Tools

Workshop Outline

I was just asked to design a Workshop for the upcoming Gamification Europe Master Class.

Here are the details of the workshop I will be teaching šŸ™‚

Part 1 (30 minutes)

#Gamification Basics: Getting a sense of direction

  • Motivation
  • RAMP
  • Flow State
  • Game Anatomy

Part 2 (45 minutes)

Foundation: Making sure you have a clear idea of what must be done

  • The Point: What is the problem to solve?
  • The Players: Who is playing and how do they play?
  • The Goal: When do you know the players have achieved the point?

Part 3 (45 minutes)

Dynamics, Mechanics and Aesethics

  • Using the Game Master Framework to setup The Foundation of the tool
  • Learning how to test your system is really working

Part 4 (4~5 hours of practical working)

Making it happen, Developing your first tool

  • Step by step guide to develop a gamified system with evaluation and feedback
  • Deliverable: Wireframe and Instruction booklet of tool.

Part 5 (1 hour)

Breaking the system

  • Evaluation, redirection, misinterpretation and iteration.

 

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote SpeakerĀ & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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Updating Docs

Updating Docs

A lot harder than it seems
OMG! Updating the docs is a lot harder than I thought.

So far you can check the documentation for the following sections:

Now, the LEVELS part of it is HARD, so if you have questions or suggestions let me know. PLEASE.

Anyhow, #gamificaition systems aren’t easy to build if you really want successful environments. Check the table for progression following the LINEAR INCREMENT model from Michael Wu. I will publish a new post exclusively explaining this in the “Teachings from Gamification Europe” series.

 

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote SpeakerĀ & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-height="400" href="https://twitter.com/bletayf">Tweets by Bernardo Letayf</a> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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How not to gamify a classroom – Explained

How not to gamify a classroom – Explained

How not to gamify a classroom

First 10 tips on what NOT to do. It's a long journey, you might need some help.
Before anything, here are all the slides. I’ll try to explain one by one as a lot of people have told me they need the video and/or context to understand them =P
<iframe src="https://www.slideshare.net/BernardoLetayf/slideshelf" width="760px" height="570px" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" style="border:none;" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen></iframe>
If you want to see the video, please click here

Slide 19

Before you move forward: Make sure you understand what RAMP is. That is your compass and it will be the best guide for any decision you make in the future. That is what Slide 19 refers to.

Slide 20

Active cancels are when you are choosing a game-mechanic that ACTIVELY cancels one of the four RAMP elements. You choose to negate autonomy in the classroom, for example.

Passive omissions (left outs) are when you aren’t using them all and forget to include one of the elements. Really easy to forget about RELATEDNESS in the classroom since it’s all designed to negate it.

Slide 21

Rewarding with grades is the first mistake I made. A grade is NOT one thing players should care for. They should be in the class for the learning.

Every class is different, every player is different, so we should reward them differently.

Slide 22

One of the best things you’ll ever do. You need to become an NPC (non-player character) for the players. You are recognized as one who know the way but don’t have the answers to the questions players MUST be asking themselves.

Ever heard of “No one likes a know-it-all”. It applies perfectly to a traditional class and teacher. You are the lore keeper.

Slide 23

Learning only happens when you get a question answered.

Slide 24

Content must be out there for players to find it. Don’t expect them to be active if you are keeping it all for yourself. Lose control already. Thinking that as a teacher you can control the rhythm of players’ learning is how you kill creativity. Let them BE curious. You can always add more content to anything and THAT should be a happy problem.

Slide 25

Players stay together! This concept goes both ways. For those who are willing to do EVERY quest and for those who won’t do any.

If you balance your system correctly, you’ll make sure RELATEDNESS becomes the glue that put players in the same ship. Some may be at the front of it and some in the back but, still, on the same journey and all working together.

Slide 26

Reward players the right way. SAPS comes in handy. Ask @Gabe Zichermann about it or read it here.

Rewarding with grades, is the worst, however, having players that only care for the rewards is the absolute worst. They should be in your class for the learning, the growth. Rewards WILL be there but, they MUST be extra. Make the class experience so rewarding they forget about those candies in the end. Grades will turn out perfect, I guarantee that.

Slide 27

For those who would like to use a Virtual Currency, you need to know this:

Make your players WASTE money. Teach them the value of their effort the hard way. Offer really stupid rewards after a couple of valuable expenses have been bought. Then, right when they feel that earning money is easy, make it harder to get. Not too much, just enough so they learn the lesson.

Use Core Drive 6 Scarcity and Impatience.

Slide 28

Defeat your fears by facing them. Make your players fail so much they won’t think it’s a bad thing anymore. The fear of failure is the reason there are so few entrepreneurs out there.

Let them try a challenge that is a bit too high for their current level without worry. They must learn on every attempt WHY they weren’t able to overcome it and THAT is the idea.

Slide 29

Failure isn’t a bad thing. It’s the best teacher.

It’s not that we aim too high and fail but the opposite. We aim to low and succeed – Michelangelo

Slide 30

This is the reason the #education system is broken. One of our most powerful tools in #gamification is #narrative. An easy way to hold this together is with a theme. That way you’ll connect all content together. Remember this can be the best reward of the class, ironically, even content is the most boring part, it is the most important.

Slide 31

The content is KING.

Design, colors, production level, magic powder. All means nothing if the content isn’t relevant to your players.

Slide 32

My favorite technique.

Treat your players as professionals. They will behave professionally.

Treat them like Pros. Level 1 Pros.

Slide 33

The most important slide on my keynote. This is the reason we are gamifying a class. In life, we can grow all the way to infinity. Why will a school, the industry of “releasing student potential” would limit the players?

Allow ALWAYS place to grow. Make players pull each other to greater heights. Remember the principles of the collective journey.

No one wakes up wanting to learn LESS than the day before. No one wants to feel stupid. Everyone wants to become better. The difference is HOW much better you want to be today than that you of yesterday.

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote SpeakerĀ & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

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Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 3 – Day 1

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 3 – Day 1

Day 1 - after 11am

Part 3 of many

One hour into the conference and we got a well deserved networking coffee break.

I finally had the chance to talk with Dr. Marigo Raftopoulos. I had one of the most rewarding 20 minutes of the event by talking to her about the experience she had with a teacher of her son around 15 years ago.

In Australia, one of the most “progressive” countries in the planet, a teacher, told Marigo: “Not every kid lives up to their potential”.

For me, a #gamification expert specialized in #education this was one thing I hadn’t heard before.

A professional in the field of bringing up the potential of people, was telling me this.

Fortunately, this is the kind of thoughts that drive us forward. This is the kind of world we as #gamification experts are trying to fix.

11:30 am.

Right after our coffee break was over, Joris Beerda presented his keynote on How the Octalysis group empowered the sales team of Procter & Gamble showing outstanding results.Ā As a case study, not much we could’ve drawn out as new techniques, however the results of the project were absolutely outstanding as all Octalysis projects.

11:50

Melinda Jacobs’ flight was cancelled as she was flying from New York and we were unfortunately unableĀ  to see her keynote that day. Thanks to that we had extra minutes with all the speakers from that block, so:

12:10

Toby Beresford came up with a keynote that left most of us breathless when learning how much impact a leaderboard that started with a list of experts from his own perspective in 2012.

For a full list of my insights, check this link šŸ™‚

Fast forward, he became a UN consultant and is active in SKY News as a social media expert. Skills he has transferred into Rise.Global aĀ Social media success tracking platform that serves today as the host of the Gamification Gurus Power Top 100.Ā Yes, it’s the same list from 5 years ago, just that now it works on itself and measures our participation on the #gamification industry through social media.

12: 30

Jan Storgards from REACTOR started his keynote on the struggles from a #gamification solution provider on how to tackle an emerging market of startups that most of the time are focused on deploying their software and leave key features out of the scope where #gamification could actually be well exploited.

One of my favorite takes from the keynote came up as a beautiful phrase that sums up what REACTOR will do for your company and simply put, a phrase we all should use to deploy great solutions and avoid bad clients:

We will add cinnamon to your coffee but we won’t make coffee for you.

Time for lunch. Yep, still Tuesday guys… stay with me šŸ˜€

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote SpeakerĀ & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-height="400" href="https://twitter.com/bletayf">Tweets by Bernardo Letayf</a> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 3 – Day 1

Teachings from Gamification Europe – Part 2 – Day 1

Day 1

Part 2 of many

The conference gathering started around 9 am with many familiar faces all around the place. Glad to see Sylvester Arnab, An Coppens, Michael Wu (finally!) and Alex Chalkias (whom I had only met by facebook).

So after a late arrival we all got setup and receive a great welcome from our very own Pete Jenkins! After a couple of short explanations around where the bathrooms were and how to use the conference app Pete left the floor for someone who was, until then, a mystery to me.

It’s really awesome when you are met with ideas that have been around your head for some time. That’s how the #gamification community feels when we all meet up. At least those were the words from most of the experts in the conference.

Jeff Gomez

The opening keynote was one of the most amazing concepts we all have agreed on. Jeff Gomez presented us with an idea we all must work together to accomplish. The hero’s journey is no longer serving us. Opening concept for all. Great present for “The hero’s journey” theme of the conference.

The collective journey is what we must be working towards to. It’s not a matter of one person saving everybody else but, everyone working together to accomplish and overcome any challenge.

It matches with every problem the world is going through. We keep believing that one great person should come and save us all when in reality we must save ourselves.

You can follow my tweets on the talk in this link

I asked a question to Jeff: “What happens when everyone is special? Then no one is special?”

His answer was even better: We are all special but, it’s no longer about ONE individual but what we can accomplish all together.

My teachings from this talk is simple: The more people that work together, the greater and better the outcome will always be.

My thoughts on my own question are that when we are all special, unless we clear our idea of being the hero and the protagonist of the story, we will keep thinking that one person must be “better” than the rest and we must separate is from the crowd somehow, when, in reality, we should be working on making the WHOLE crowd special.

Oh… it’s not even 11 am at this point.

Bernardo Letayf

Bernardo Letayf

M.B.O. (Mind Behind the Operation)

6th position in the Gamification Gurus Power 100!

Gamification Keynote SpeakerĀ & the mind behind the operation @bluerabbit, a gamification platform for education.

Developed three frameworks to teach/learn how to create gamification systems and build gamified content

Declared a world wide war on grades.

<a class="twitter-timeline" data-height="400" href="https://twitter.com/bletayf">Tweets by Bernardo Letayf</a> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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