I can haz badge now?

Ready for the big news…? I’m officially qualified in Gamification, I’ve done the course! But wait I don’t have a badge…. does that still count? Do my achievements in life mean anything without a collection of pixels displayed in a visually appealing way?

OK, on a serious note, yes I did the recent Gamification course on Coursera with about a million billion other people from across our tiny planet, but now it’s over I wanted to take some time to reflect on the experience.

Overall I

Pick n’ Mix Learning

I’ve always said that games are not the silver bullet, they are not the solution to all your training needs, however they are an important piece of the puzzle. This ‘sweet’ little infographic from team PIXEL highlights how games are just part of the overall training ecosystem.

Why are games good for learning?

Ever wondered what all the fuss is about around serious games? Take a look at the infographic below for an overview of why games are good for learning.

The Gaming Landscape

A critical component of my job is to be able to see my designs from another person’s point of view; someone who doesn’t play games and who doesn’t necessarily understand the rules and expected behaviours of games. It’s important I don’t fall into the trap of believing everyone see’s the world as I do. It’s also part of my job to explain games to non gamers and therefore promote the benefits of serious games. Often the first level of challenge I come across is a belief that a game is a game. Of course those of us in the industry know there are many genres of games, each with its own

What the Gamification of Feedback Means to Learning Design – PDOA (Public Displays of Achievement)

Gamification has spread from marketing to learning and development, and at PIXELearning we’re often asked to design leader boards, badges and public rewards into the feedback mechanism of our Serious Games.

I felt it might be a good time to take a moment to check out the pros and cons of gamifying feedback.

 

So, before I go any further

We’re turning into attention junkies, looking for our next big hit.

We’re now well on the way to being blasé about the term gamification. It’s certainly grabbed peoples attention in a way the term Serious Game never did. I’m glad to see some more balanced discussions about the topic too but there’s still so much that concerns me and so I believe its important to continue the dialogue (beyond purely commercial motivations) and look at the psychology behind the idea. So I thought I’d re-post my response to a recent blog on the power of Gamification, feel free to continue the dialogue, but I certainly won’t be awarding you any points for doing so 😉

Gamification is something that fascinates and concerns me right now. As a psychologist

Flash is dead! OK now get off the band wagon and calm down dear!

If I had a pound for every time someone had told me recently that Flash is dead, I’d take you all out for a pint and tell you about why Flash is far from 6 feet under. But so far, no one has been so generous; so I’ll have to make do and blog about it instead.

Now I’m not a techie and I’m not a coder, and I’m not a business woman, but