Badges and gamification are two popular strategies to enhance digital learning experiences and outcomes. But how can they also foster social learning and collaboration among learners? In this article, you will learn how these elements can motivate, engage, and reward learners for participating in online communities and networks.
Badges and gamification are both forms of digital recognition and feedback that can be integrated into online courses, platforms, or programs. Badges are visual symbols that represent achievements, skills, or competencies that learners can earn, display, or share. Gamification is the use of game-like elements, such as points, levels, leaderboards, or rewards, to create a fun and challenging learning environment.
You really need to know your audience for a successful launch of badges and/or gamification because if you don't cater to the right motivations, your initiative will be dead before it even takes off. Gamification and badges are best used for competitive teams, where there is pride in showing that you are on top of the leaderboard or have earned the newest badge. Naturally, sales teams or other related groups will thrive with this sort of learning initiative.
In a past life, I was asked to help launch a video game that would assess the proficiency of a new hire. The concept was foreign to me, and so I set off to do some research. I spent time with some professional gamers, a company who had been creating video games for a couple of decades, and a clinical psychologist. They all educated me on the concepts of getting an individual into a state of flow or their true self (kind of). In the case of gaming these organizations built in such a way that it recognizes and takes advantage of an individual’s emotions, which is how they get them to invest so much money at exactly the time they want them to spend. Badges and levels of achievement, make them want to come back for another “fix”.
Badges and gamification can enhance digital learning by providing learners with clear goals, progress indicators, and incentives. They can also appeal to different types of learners, such as those who are motivated by mastery, autonomy, or social recognition. By offering badges and gamification, you can increase learners' engagement, retention, and satisfaction with your digital learning content and activities.
Social learning is the process of learning from and with others, through observation, interaction, or collaboration. Badges and gamification can support social learning by providing learners with the opportunity to connect, communicate, and cooperate with each other. For example, badges can be used to encourage learners to join or create online communities, showcase achievements or skills, recognize contributions or feedback, and enable endorsements. Gamification can also be used to create a sense of competition or cooperation, facilitate social interactions through game-like scenarios or challenges, provide social feedback or rewards, and foster a sense of belonging or identity.
When utilizing badges and gamification for social learning, it is important to consider some best practices. This includes aligning badges and gamification with your learning objectives and outcomes, designing badges and gamification that are relevant, meaningful, and achievable for your learners, providing clear and consistent criteria and instructions for earning badges or points, and balancing badges and gamification with other forms of assessment and feedback. Additionally, offering choices and flexibility for learners to customize their badges or gamification experience, ensuring that badges and gamification are accessible, inclusive, and ethical, as well as evaluating and improving your badges and gamification based on learners' feedback and data are all essential components.
Badges and gamification are popular tools used in social learning. For example, Duolingo uses badges, points, levels, leaderboards, and streaks to motivate learners to practice and improve their skills. Khan Academy rewards learners with badges, points, stars, and progress bars for completing courses, quizzes, or challenges. Open Badges is a standard for creating, issuing, and verifying digital badges that learners can earn, display, or share across different platforms or networks. It also supports learners to discover or join badge-related communities or opportunities. Thus, these examples can be explored or adapted for digital learning projects.
Take time to understand game design and get clear on how you plan on using game elements to drive specific objectives. Don’t assume that a badge or game element will improve social simply because they can. You have to be intentional with why, where, and how they’re used. If you miss this, they may actually have the opposite effect. Not all engagement is created equal and just because elements are there and/or people engage with them doesn’t mean they’re driving a better outcome.