{"id":2586,"date":"2017-01-19T11:36:51","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T11:36:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/welove.netexlearning.com\/en\/?p=2586"},"modified":"2017-01-19T15:39:03","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T15:39:03","slug":"making-gamification-happen-ii-structuring-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/welove.netexlearning.com\/en\/blog\/making-gamification-happen-ii-structuring-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Making gamification happen (II): Structuring for success"},"content":{"rendered":"

In part one of this blog<\/a> we revealed the results of a question asked by Mike Byrne at the recent eLN CONNECT Conference. They suggested that, whilst their remains enormous amounts of goodwill towards gamification and a general belief that it is \u2018getting there\u2019, for most it has far from actually arrived. Now we turn to making it happen.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not hard to understand why moving to a gamified elearning strategy is a challenge. Most organisations today have plenty of elearning content which they are perfectly happy with. Gamification may offer brilliant benefits in terms of learner engagement but it can be complicated to implement.<\/p>\n

Structural gamification\u2019s continual, real-time assessment of progress provides important information to both the learner and the administrators as learners complete portions of content, takes quizzes to gauge knowledge acquisition and move toward the prescribed educational goals. The continual assessment of progress helps identify strengths and weaknesses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are simpler routes to gamification though. One such route was (as far as I can work out) first mooted in a paper by\u00a0 Kapp, Blair, & Mesch in 2013 and taken up again by Karl Kapp in a recent blog<\/a>.\u00a0 Described by them as \u2018structural gamification\u2019, the game-elements are applied to the structure around the content to create pathways for a learner, but without changing the content itself.\u00a0 Instead, the management structure around the content becomes gamified. So typically, in an implementation of this type, the scoring elements of video games, such as points, levels, badges, leader boards and achievements is still adopted. It is just applied externally.<\/p>\n

Structural gamification\u2019s continual, real-time assessment of progress provides important information to both the learner and the administrators as learners complete portions of content, take quizzes to gauge knowledge acquisition and move toward the prescribed educational goals. The continual assessment of progress helps identify strengths and weaknesses.<\/p>\n

This has already begun to emerge as a quicker win for organisations wishing to bring in the benefits of gamification. Some might see this as a kind of \u2018gamification light\u2019 solution. But it can also offer much more to an organisation than gamifying elearning content alone. \u00a0Some of these benefits are critical in overcoming the reasons for the slow adoption of gamification:<\/p>\n