Moodle 3.x Developer's Guide

Addicted to learning

If only learning could be as addictive as the latest first person shooter game. If instructional designers and platform developers could use the same psychological techniques and tricks of the mind that games designers use to get players hooked on games then perhaps, so the argument goes, we can get learners hooked on learning in the same way. That, in short, is the foundation of gamification. For example, praising a learner for a job well done can promote renewed effort at the next attempt; cheers from the crowd can encourage an exhausted runner over the finish line. It should be stressed that gamification is a slightly misleading term: gamifying learning is not about making it fun. Gamification is about instructional ...