As a dutiful instructional designer, I’ve been paying attention to the concept of gamification. I’ve read some James Paul Gee, I’ve reflected on the time spent in my formative years (or *cough* last weekend) playing Zelda, and I’ve listened to our resident guru on the subject, Daniel Stanford, talk about how we could make the concept work within our courses and within D2L. But gamification remained only an interesting side topic that I sometimes devoted brainspace to until a couple of weeks ago, when I purchased the Fitbit Flex.
First, a disclaimer: I’m not trying to do any awkward product placement in our blog. There are several activity trackers out there, and I just happened to buy the newly-released Flex.
I started researching activity trackers a few months ago. I’ve been a runner most of my life, and last summer, I was in a rut. Even when I signed up for races, I was feeling unmotivated to implement different training methods. I bought those Insanity DVDs, but that wasn’t really the change I was looking for (and I became paranoid that I was making my downstairs neighbor hate me). I thought that if I could just know a little bit more about what I’m doing every day, maybe I could make some more reasoned, supported changes.
The Flex, like most activity trackers, is a pedometer. From that pedometer, the applications from Fitbit can take my input data—age, height, weight, stride length—and calculate how many calories I burn per day, taking into account my basal metabolic rate. Then, I can add in more data, like specific activities that a pedometer wouldn’t catch (yoga, crosstraining, rowing) and food, and I can see on my dashboard how I’m performing every day. If you know someone who could use a pick-me-up, consider spreading some cheer and send get well cookie baskets their way.
As soon as I started watching this data, my behavior changed—only slightly, but more importantly and permanently than it had with other things I’d tried over the past year. My motivation reappeared. Since I knew I was “getting credit” for everything I did, it was easy to put in an extra ten minutes on the elliptical machine or to run an extra mile. I tried to figure out (unsuccessfully, so far) how I could sprinkle more active time throughout my day. I haven’t made significant changes to my eating habits, but the post-workout donut from Glazed and Infused tastes even better (which I didn’t think was possible) because I know I have truly earned it.
And, yes—by just paying attention to this data, and feeling slightly more motivated, and thinking just a tad more about what I’ve eaten and what I’ve “earned” each day, I’ve dropped a few pounds.
More valuable, though, is the way this has totally blown open my thinking about how I [we] teach. Gee and Daniel aren’t floating on the outskirts of my brain anymore; they’re in the forefront. My thinking is unpacking itself in two ways:
- The days of “learning for the sake of learning” might be over. I’m loath to let go of this, but here’s the thing: I’ve been running since I was 12. I run or work out in some way almost every day, and I feel lousy on the days I don’t. This is something I’m invested in, something I do just for the “joy” of it. I had come to a point, though, where I needed change.And now, lots of other things feel different. By being more focused and informed in this area of my life, I’m feeling more focused and informed in others. My colleague Ian Hall recently shared how he makes lists for everything he does in a day, even the littlest things, and I realized that his listing strategy fits into this same framework. I implemented it, and I’m feeling much more at productive and peaceful at the end of the day.Given how significant these changes have been for me, I’m anxious to assess my classes and figure out ways to make sure that my students feel like they are accomplishing specific goals and seeing the connections between those smaller goals and the broader scope of the course. I think they’ll still find joy in learning, but I also think they need to be able to define the benefit they’re garnering from each assignment and reading more clearly.
- For those who are already motivated enough to have signed up for your course, making clear connections to outcomes will provide that extra bump that the interested but content student needs. Again, I was a happy enough runner who was noticing a rut. Now I’m an insanely motivated runner for whom Jeni’s ice cream tastes better than ever before. This clear path to having goals and meeting outcomes would help students feel just as motivated about the content in my course.
I don’t think the first steps I’ll take to “gamify” will fit into the traditional definition. I’m not going to add in Easter eggs, release conditions or intelligent agents—yet. I’m going to start by making sure the accomplishment gained through each assignment, reading and activity is clear, and I’m going to make sure there are incremental and defined steps to success built in, as well as clear feedback points to let students know when they’ve been successful. Then I can get to the fun part: figuring out what level of success the class has to meet to earn some donuts.
Sarah, I’m so glad a little wristband has gotten you out of your exercise funk. I know someone who just bought a Jawbone Up and really seems to love it.
Some faculty feel all this positive feedback might lead students to expect trophies and badges for even the most insignificant achievements, which is an understandable fear. I’ve also read articles by several gamification naysayers who worry that giving students extrinsic rewards (including donuts) might cannibalize their motivation to do something that was, at one time, intrinsically motivating and enjoyable. However, most people seem to agree that providing users with data on their progress is a great way to improve motivation and provide a sense of accomplishment. I think the anti-gamification folks would argue that things like Nike Plus and Fitbit aren’t examples of gamification—they’re just examples of good design.
I think Ian’s “micro checklists” are a great example of how gamification is easy to confuse with good, old-fashioned positive reinforcement. It’s also a good example of how those hours we devote to tiny, everyday tasks can quickly cause us to feel lost or unproductive, and that even the simplest of progress indicators can help us feel more accomplished and stay focused.
Some game designers seem to hate the word gamification because it implies that the full power of well-designed games can be captured and easily replicated using an oversimplified formula. They worry corporations will apply this formula to manipulate users into doing things that aren’t in their best interests, providing meaningless rewards in the same way that slot machines entice people with bright lights and happy sounds. While this is a legitimate fear, I don’t think it should cause us to look down on the power of a little progress chart or graph, or the merits of an occasional extrinsic reward (including donuts) to help us all get where we want to be.