More than just a game?

I recently read an article on Education Dive and listened to a podcast episode on Hidden Brain by NPR, which got me thinking about motivation. The first piece discusses how colleges are using gamification to engage students while the podcast illustrates the value of non-monetary awards. We’ve all, for the most part, seen how awards can motivate us but what is gamification? Gamification is loosely defined as the implementation of features commonly seen in video games to other practices (i.e. scoring points, leaderboards, etc).

Having worked in sales before, the idea of competitions and awards was not that new to me but the standardization that gamification could offer lit a light bulb in my head. Imagine this. What if there was a school or company-wide system that everyone was a “player” in. This system could not only be used to track projects but also over time to show what type of player you are. Are you the type of player that gets their work done early and therefore has the badge of an “early starter” or are you a person who reads a lot and might have a “frequent reader” badge? You could register every book you’ve read as new skills in your arsenal. Gamification could be utilized not only for project management but as a way to highlight traits in a standardized system.

Would you play this game?

(Originally written in April 2019)