Slides da apresentação do artigo Proposta de Modelo de Referência para Aplicação de Gamification em Ambientes de Aprendizagem Social, Challenges 2013, 16 de julho de 2013, Braga, Portugal.Resumo: A gamification consiste na aplicação de elementos característicos dos videojogos em contextos não lúdicos com o objetivo de aumentar os níveis de envolvimento e de motivação dos participantes em atividades nesses contextos. Para atingir este objetivo tem sido considerada, entre outras, a teoria do fluxo. A educação é apontada como uma das áreas com maior potencial de aplicação de gamification. O crescente uso das tecnologias de informação e de comunicação em contextos educativos e o reconhecimento do potencial pedagógico das aplicações da Web 2.0 levam a que as plataformas de apoio ao ensino sejam candidatas à aplicação elementos de jogos, em particular de jogos sociais. Os elementos a considerar e a forma de os aplicar levaram à necessidade de definição de um modelo de referência que auxilie a aplicação do conceito de gamification. Este artigo apresenta uma proposta de um modelo de referência no seguimento de trabalhos anteriores que identificaram já as suas características gerais.Palavras-chave: Gamification, elementos de jogos, teoria do fluxo, ambientes sociais de aprendizagem, modelo de referênciaAbstract: Gamification is the application of typical elements from video games in non-gaming contexts aiming to increase the levels of engagement and motivation of the participants in activities in those contexts. The ways to achieve this objective have been supported by the flow theory, among others. Education is considered one of the areas with greatest potential for the application of gamification. The increasing use of information and communication technologies in educational contexts and the recognition of the pedagogical potential of Web 2.0 applications, made learning supporting platforms good candidates for the application of game elements, particularly from social games. Choosing which elements to consider and how to apply them led to the necessity of defining a framewok to assist the application of gamification. This paper presents a proposal of such a framework following previous work that has identified its general characteristics.Keywords: Gamification, game elements, flow theory, social learning environments, framework

If you have checked my Linkedin profile , you must be knowing that I have positioned myself as an e-learning consultant now. One of my recent efforts have been towards helping the e-learning division in a top-notch  medical institution solve their problems. The e-learning division has a team of graphic designers and flash developers who help in e-learning development. In its endeavour to promote education and networking,  the medical institution has been publishing e-learning material in their portal and LMS. Currently they have been able to publish only recorded CME sessions. This medical institution wants to publish large number of e-learning programs apart from CME sessions in their LMS.  Let’s review this medical institution’s objective, challenges and how templatized e-learning content might help them solve their problems. Objective A medical institution wants to increase publication of e-learning programs within the organization while cutting short their development timelines and meeting their desired quality criteria. Challenges The major challenge here is producing instructionally sound e-learning material and achieving consistency in e-learning programs. Reasons? The e-learning division is small and comprises of graphic designers and flash developers who have no clue about the subject they are dealing with. There are quite a few departments and quite a few SMEs who provide medical content in the form of PowerPoint presentations which are not self-contained. The SMEs produce e-learning content in their own style. Solution - What’s Ruled Out Use of Rapid E-learning tools - because the medical institution already is investing in flash development and graphic design and do not want to try out anything new. Hiring Instructional Designers - the medical institution does not want to hire more people. Training the e-learning division  - time, effort, money will be huge. Success rates low (the e-learning division wants to be involved only in graphic design, flash development and publishing activities) Possible Solution Set a process for e-learning content development. Create standardized PowerPoint templates for creating instructionally sound e-learning content. Templates must enable creation of instructionally sound content. Templates must  be designed in such a fashion that SMEs have less pain filling the template with subject matter. Provide SMEs with quality checklists and guidelines that helps them meet quality criteria and also evaluate the quality of their PowerPoint presentations. Train SMEs to use the templates, checklists and guidelines and create instructionally sound PowerPoint presentations. Benefits Training will help : SMEs understand Instructional Design basics. Help SMEs  use templates and checklists and work well. Templates will : Help achieve consistency in e-learning programs across the organization. Help achieve desired quality criteria. Speed up the e-learning development process. From a designer’s perspective, templates are boring and cause monotonous work. From an organization’s perspective, templates help them a great deal.

By ruparajgo | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon I have been offering training programs for Instructional Design and all the training programs I have done so far have been classroom training programs. Before I begin my training program, I make sure I do the following: Give people a pretest to assess their current knowledge/skill levels . Interact a lot and try to understand their personality type, their likes and dislikes and learning preferences. This really helps me customize my training program to suit my learner needs and choose the right approach for  my training programs. Now that  I am planning to take my training program online ( via web conferencing), apart from regular pre-training assessments, I am going to give my learners an additional assessment - ONLINE READINESS ASSESSMENT. Why an Online Readiness Assessment? While I want to take my training program online, I also think I must not assume that people will be comfortable and will be ready for an online training program. This is because quite a few people who I have spoken to (in India)  have been reluctant to take an online training program due to various reasons such as: No internet at home Long work hours at office Low bandwidth issues No confidence/not comfortable learning online This is when I thought an online readiness assessment will help me get the right candidates for my online training program.  I spent some time googling for online readiness assessments and found quite a few interesting  assessments designed for students. I particularly liked this online readiness assessment that has questions pertaining to : Time management -  Learner’s readiness to manage  time especially if there are going to be offline activities exercises. Technology -  Details about internet usage , internet speed etc. Class Preferences - Learner’s attitude and preferences when it comes to online lectures, offline activities, online discussions etc. Thanks to Google, I got some good examples of Online Readiness Assessment. Now that I have got a clue,  I would frame some questions to check learner readiness for my online training program Have you done an online readiness assessment? Please share your thoughts here.

If you are into e-learning business, how much should you charge for the e-learning program you develop? If you are buying e-learning, is the price quoted by your e-learning vendor acceptable or questionable? These are common questions and a lot of experts have tried to answer these questions. So presenting to you some interesting articles on the cost of E-learning from the web: Tony Karrer’s Blog Post on E-learning Costs Estimating Costs and Tine in Instructional Design -Donald Clark Costs, Benefits and ROI of  E-learning - e-Learning Centre The Cost of E-learning - Howard B. Schechter Measuring the Total Cost of E-learning - Kevin Kruse If you have a useful resource to share on E-learning Costs, please leave the URL in the Comments section.

Donald Clark has an interesting finding in his blog. So I thought I of sharing that bit of information via T-Bite. So here is the excerpt from Donald Clark’s blog post: It’s has been claimed by the likes of Donald Taylor and Jay Cross, that training must transform itself or risk being ignored. And there is a feeling in the training world that all is not well, and that the deep, dark secret is that training is regarded by many as second-rate, full of odd people delivering oddball stuff using outdated methods. For the first time I’ve seen evidence that this may be true. So I draw your attention to this independent survey of decision makers at 100 of the UKs top 500 companies (by turnover): 70% see inadequate staff skills as barrier to growth 40% see risk of employee skills risk being obsolete 55% claim L&D failing to deliver necessary training 46% doubt L&D can deliver Less than 18% agree that L&D aligned with business (Coleman Parkes Spring 2010) Read more @ Donald Clark’s Blog and do not miss the interesting comments on his post.

In any e-learning development company, storyboards and e-learning courses go through rounds of testing to ensure desired quality levels.  You should find a lot of blog posts on e-learning testing. All these articles talk about the importance of usability testing, learnability testing for e-learning courses. When you talk of e-learning testing,  Instructional Design review is also a critical testing activity that happens in the development phase/storyboarding phase. During Instructional Design review,  you analyse storyboards  to check the following: Is the course meeting the instructional objectives? Is content structuring okay? Have instructional stragies been applied right? How is the instructional flow? How is the quality of the content? How’s the language? Are assessments complete and effective? Is the audio script in sync with onscreen content? Are visual descriptions detailed enough? More… When you review storyboards, here are some things you might do: Completely understand project requirements, target audience, design strategy. Map existing storyboards or work done to the initial requirements and design strategy. It is a good practice to test and evaluate your storyboards  during regular intervals to avoid major issues during the implementation phase. It is even better to provide Instructional Design Review checklists to Instructional Designers just when they are about start storyboarding. This will help you minimize mistakes to a greater extent and save all the time you spend fixing mistakes during the review stage. In this post, let’s try answering some questions about Instructional Design Review checklists and how they can help achieve desired quality levels in e-learning. So what are Instructional Design Review checklists? ID Review Checklists are job aids that specify parameters/guidelines for storyboarding and e-learning content creation. Checklists can be created for specific projects. Instructional Designers can use the checklist to check if the storyboards are meeting the desired quality. What kind of parameters/ guidelines can be included in Instructional Design Review checklists? Lets take the example of templatized e-learning content such as these in the MedlinePlus website. In this case, checklists can specify : Guidelines to design course menu Naming convention for topic titles Limit on number of topics Things to keep in mind while designing the course introduction Instructional Strategies to be used Image and text positioning How much text onscreen allowed? How many assessments to include? Assessment design What are the advantages of Instructional Design Review checklists? You will be able to clearly communicate quality expectations to your Instructional Design team. The work that your Instructional Design team deliver will be better synchronized. You will be able to detect quality issues during the development phase. You will be able to achieve consistency and desired quality levels in e-learning courses. Finally! An Example of Instructional Design Review Checklist Please do share your thoughts on this post and also any Instructional Design checklists freely available on the web.

The most popular definition of gamification is the widely quoted definition from Deterding, Dixon, Khaled and Nacke (2011): "the use of design elements characteristic for games in non-game contexts". This definition can be extended to the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, to drive game like engagement in order to promote desired behaviours.A gamified system can then be defined as any non-game context with the addition of game elements. The purpose of a gamified system is to engage users and influence their behaviours in order to reach the system’s objectives more efficiently. A Gamified SystemIf the context is digital, then the gamified system is some software application incorporating those game elements. The system can be a website or a web application. It can run on a server and be accessed by a computer with a web browser or it can be an app running on a smartphone storing data in the cloud. The system can be built as a gamified system from the start or some piece of gamification software can be added to an existing application. If the context is non-digital, a software system can be used to support the addition of the game elements and to monitor users’ activities. The software system may rely on specific devices or other applications to get the data from the non-digital context or it may need the intervention of a human user.The users of gamified systems, those whose behaviours are to be changed, are called players. Players may have an active or a passive role in their relation to the system. If the context is non-digital, mediators are needed, either human users or some specific device. The system might have other kind of non-player users that act as mediators between the system and the non-game context. Players themselves can also act as mediators having an active role within the gamified system. In digital non-game contexts, gamification platforms like PunchTab, Uplaude or CaptainUp provide tools to power websites, blogs and web applications. These tools can be simple add-ons or plug-ins to monitor and reward the players’ activities. In this approach, users take a passive role since they cannot control what is monitored and just let the system watch their actions.Systems like Nike+, a well-known example of gamification, are non-game, non-digital contexts where a device (a smartphone or other specific device from Nike) act as a mediator, monitoring players' (runners) activities. Another similar example is Zamzee, targeting a younger audience.ClassDojo is an example of a gamified system, where the non-game context is non-digital (a classroom) and a special user (the teacher) monitors the players' (students) activities. ChoreWars is a another example where the special user can also be a player.Lift is a gamified system where players through the web or using an app, can set personal goals to improve their habits (like doing more exercise or drinking more water, the top popular habits). Each player's achievements can be shared with other players. Lift is an example where the players themselves act as mediators, monitoring and registering their own activities. Foodzy is another system where the players act as mediators.(this post is based in a paper recently presented at the PLE Conference 2013 in Berlin - Simões, Redondo, Díaz, Vilas & Aguiar (2013); see also this other post).ReferencesDeterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011). From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining "Gamification, Proceedings of the 15th International Academic MindTrek Conference Envisioning Future Media Environments.Simões, Jorge; Redondo, Rebeca Díaz; Vilas, Ana Fernández; Ademar Aguiar (2013). Using Gamification to Improve Participation in a Social Learning Environment. In: THE PLE CONFERENCE 2013, 2013. Berlim. The PLE Conference 2013 Proceedings (to be published)

"if a resumé or CV is a bunch of claims, Open Badges are a bunch of evidence" Badges are definitely the top game element used in gamified systems (possibly because it is the  easiest one to use). In education, badges have been used for some time. The latest release of Moodle, Moodle 2.5, includes badges. Moodle's badges are compatible with Mozilla Open Badges. A FAQ is available to help teachers awarding them.According to Moodle, badges are a good way of celebrating achievement and showing progress.A free set of badges that can be used in Moodle or in any other website is available at MoodleBadges. Badg.us is a service for creating and issuing badges. Apparently it only works with Mozilla Open Badges. With OpenBadges.me it is also possible to create badges.To know more about badges and how to use them in education scenarios, a MOOC supported by COURSESites is starting in September 9: Welcome to Badges: New Currency for Professional Credentials.A video available in the course overview highlights some of the benefits of badges:Here are some of the key ideas:A badge is a validated indicator of accomplishment, skill, quality or interest that can be earned in any learning environment.The  Open Badge infrastructure will make it easy to issue, display, and manage badges across the web.Digital badges will make the accomplishments of individuals, in online and offline spaces, visible to anyone and averyone including potential employers, educators and communities.Badges can be used in formal and informal learning scenarios. They are a tool to show individual accomplishments and a way to promote lifelong learning. P2PU is an example of an open education project aiming at lifelong and informal learning (and it uses badges). Rails for Zombies is another example of the use of badges to learn Ruby on Rails (in the zombie way :).See also these other posts:Badges & Educação (in portuguese but with some links in english).More on Badges (title in english but contents in portuguese). The MoodleBadge for Creative Thinking

In 1990, Boeing researcher Tom Caudell first coined the term "augmented reality" to describe a digital display used by aircraft electricians that blended virtual graphics onto a physical reality. As for the computer science world’s definition of augmented reality (AR) though, it’s more detailed, but essentially the same: Augmented reality is the interaction of superimposed graphics, audio and other sense enhancements over a real-world environment that’s displayed in real-time. According to Wikipedia " Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery". You will understand the concept of Augmented Reality better when you see it work. So here are some interesting videos that demonstrate how augmented reality works. VIDEO 1 VIDEO 2 ( Courtesy : eLearning Blog Dont Waste Your Time) VIDEO 3 Video 4 (Courtesy: Augmented Reality to Help Military Mechanics Fix Vehicles) More on Augmented Reality Augmented Reality Explained by CommonCraft 35 Awesome Augmented Reality Examples Augmented Reality for Learning: eLearning Technology Resources on Augmented Reality

Once again, the Vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013 is open until Friday 27 September 2013. The list will be revealed on Monday, 30 September 2013. It is possible to vote through the c4lpt website or by tweeting to @C4LPT. Voters much choose 10 tools for learning.This is my choice for 2013:Friday 27 September 2013, and the Top 100 Tools list will be revealed on Monday 30 September 2013. - See more at: http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/voting/#sthash.RUP92mfb.dpufTwo of these tools are gamification tools (Leaderboarded and ClassDojo) that I used before. Moodle is a well known e-learning tool that has been used in several learning scenarios (current release is using badges - see this post). Twitter can also be a very valuable if we choose the right people to follow.Meanwhile, last year's list is available: The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012 (#1 Twitter). For the 2011 list see this post (also, Twitter #1).The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2 The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013 Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012Vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 201Vote for the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013

I receive a lot of queries on how to design Instructor Led Training (ILT)  programs. Such queries most often come from professionals who have experience designing e-learning programs. In my opinion, if you have experience in designing e-learning programs, you can use the same skills to design ILTs  too. You do not need any unique skillsets to design ILTs. All that you need is basic Instructional Design skills, some common sense and some creativity In this post, I will explain - What is an Instructor Led Training program What matters most when you design Instructor Led Training programs What goes into an Instructor Led Training program toolkit What goes into an Instructor Led Training developer toolkit So here we begin! What is an ILT program? An ILT program is a training program that happens in the presence of an instructor or trainer. The instructor may be knowledgeable and experienced in the learning material, but can also be used more for their facilitation skills and ability to deliver material to learners. An instructor/trainer might deliver the training in a : Physical classroom or Virtual classroom What matters most while designing ILTs While basic Instructional Design knowledge/skills is a prerequisite, there are two important things that you should pay attention to while designing ILTs. First  is CONTEXT. You should always keep in mind that the training will happen in a classroom setting (virtual or physical) and a live instructor will interact with the learners. Second is TARGET AUDIENCE. As an instructional designer, you should keep in mind that you are designing training material for both the Instructor and the Learners.  With this in mind, you will be able to work in the right direction. What goes into the ILT program toolkit While I believe there are no hard and fast rules to designing ILT programs, there are standard materials that are part of an ILT toolkit. Let us look at some typical materials that are created for ILTs. We will use this New Employee Orientation material for illustration purpose. An ILT program toolkit has all of the following: A POWER POINT PRESENTATION A power point presentation with the key learning points of the training program is designed for the trainer/instructor. The trainer/instructor speaks/interacts with the learners keeping the power point presentation in focus. The power point presentation is never self-contained or comprehensive and the trainer/instructor fills the gap. The power point presentation typically captures the entire training flow including: Welcome note Training objectives Training agenda Key learning points in each Lesson/Topic Activity/assessment details Summary Next steps Here is a sample powerpoint presentation created for an ILT program: Click on the image to access the complete presentation THE FACILITATOR’S GUIDE The facilitator’s guide is designed for the trainer/instructor who delivers the training program to the learners. This guide has all the information that is essential for a trainer/instructor to effectively conduct the training program. The facilitator’s guide is designed with reference to the powerpoint presentation created for the training  program. A facilitator’s guide typically has: Training overview Training objectives Training agenda Tips on how to prepare to deliver the training List of training materials to keep handy Briefing on training contents/activities When you design the facilitator’s guide you need to keep in mind that you are instructing the trainer/instructor on how to conduct the training program. This includes the following from the trainer’s perspective: What to say When to say What to ask What to show What activities/discussions to conduct PS: Some Instructional Designers  do train the trainer programs via web conferencing or in a physical meeting. Some others also deliver training programs themselves. In either case, the facilitator’s guide is important. Here is a snapshot of a section  from a facilitator’s guide designed for an ILT program that describes how to start the training program: Click on the image to access the complete document THE PARTICIPANTS HANDBOOK The participants handbook is used by the learners during the training program. The instructor usually circulates printed handbooks to the learners before starting the training program. Learners use the handbook for reference during the training program. A participants handbook typically has: Training objectives Training agenda Dos and Donts Key learning points Instructions on how to take the activities Provision to jot down notes, write answers etc. Here are some examples of participants handbook: Key points handout Activity handout Sample participant workbook Things listed above are part of any ILT program. There are some things that an Instructional Designer might require while designing materials for an ILT. These materials will go into the ILT Developer Toolkit. What goes into the ILT Developer toolkit Your ILT toolkit can  have developer support material to help you meet standards and guidelines. The ILT Developer toolkit may have: Getting started guides Language and style guides Templates for power point presentations, facilitator’s guide and participant’s handbook Sample ILT materials Here is an example of an ILT Developer Toolkit. Conclusion With this I conclude my post here and leave it open for comments/discussion. If you have experience designing ILTs, please try to share any of the following here: Tips and tricks Useful ILT resources Some examples of ILTs

(Shared by Zac Fitz-Walter on Gamification Weekly, issue 20)Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion (DGEI): The Potential of Digital Games for Empowerment and Social Inclusion of Groups at Risk of Social and Economic Exclusion: Evidence and Opportunity for Policy (European Comission - Joint Research Centre, Information Society Unit).This report shows the potential of games to support those at risk of social and economic exclusion (Gamification Weekly). The report finds that "games-based approaches offer a particular opportunity to reach people at risk" in particular young people not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs).Gamification, as a new concept is referred. A definition is provided and the relation of gamification with serious games is addressed. Also, the report mentions the potential of using digital games in education.Definition of Gamification (Glossary, page 205):Applying game design elements to non-game activities, often with the goal of engaging people more in these activities.The "Serious Game" and "Gamification" Industries (page 125)(...)However none of these terms has captured the imagination so much as the term ‘Gamification’, a sufficiently vague concept that has served to reinvigorating some of the serious game work, which may be too serious, Gamification focuses on how to exploit the gameplay elements of digital games in applications that are not digital games, but in practice implementations are frequently based in online services and mobile apps. In 2012, Gamification ideas, long used in weight-loss and child motivation, are attracting considerable interest from consultants and policy makers linked to ideas of 'nudging'. However it is not immediately clear whether those with the expertise to develop gamification are game designers or have any relationship with digital games development, and whether the tools of gamification can be considered part of 'serious games and gaming'. However discussion of gamification often end up addressing 'serious games', and proponents of ‘serious games’ are starting to appropriate the term to promote their own work. As Escribano (2012) suggests, conventional and low key use of game approaches has taken a technological turn (Escribano, 2012). One of the key popularisers of the idea through her games and publications is game designer Jane McGonigal, who explicitly developed the idea in developing an online tool with game-based techniques to promote personal empowerment, using the resilience approach. Clearly, the current trend of gamification is closely linked to the potential of ICTs, and the rich tools of digital gaming, and the popularity of the gamification idea focuses attention more clearly on the game like motivational elements of 'serious gaming' rather than the technological elements.(...)Education (page 128)Use of digital games in the education sector is one of the oldest applications of games. From the supply side they can be developed as part of an educational publishing business, and more recently, the elearning industry. However, educational games, according to the report of the EC Engage project122, have always been "low budget, low tech, poor cousins of the computer game industry. Up until recently, very few commercial companies have provided good quality educational games. Historically, these games have been written by teachers and academics who wish to utilize the technology within there teaching, but usually do not have the skill, not the finance, to create a high quality product". This is changing with new expertise, tools andchanging business models for distribution. Games in education can be replacements for text books and other media, or tools for game-making and a more radical gamified approach to teaching and learning. Serious uptake in the formal education sector however, depends on significant innovation in practices of formal schooling, and in the procurement and certification systems for education products.

There are umpteen web resources on Instructional Design, learning and training.  However there are very few blogs, networks and websites that give you really useful information. In this post, I would like to list those blogs and websites that provide learning professionals with lot of useful information absolutely free of cost. Here’s presenting TOP 10 resources for learning professionals across the globe: ASTD - If you check the Archives section in this website, you will find articles written from the year 2000 to 2009. The articles are very insightful and a must read for all learning professionals. eLearning Technology - You must check this blog for latest news/updates in the learning/training industry. This blog also has lots of external links that lead to really good web resources on learning/training. The Rapid eLearning blog - If you are a designer or an avid PowerPoint user, then this blog is just for you. This blog is exclusively on rapid e-learning and has loads of tips and tricks which makes it one of the best freely available resources on e-learning design. Upside Learning Blog - If you are interested in MLearning, Augmented Reality and other latest technologies for e-learning, then you must visit this blog. Kapp Notes - If you are interested in Game Based Learning and Immersive Learning, then this blog is for you. This blog has lots of good examples and case studies on the subject. The Learning Circuits Blog - This blog  is known for its "Question of the Month" feature. The questions are focused on learning/training and the responses are insightful. PINOT - If you are interested in learning about non-training solutions for performance improvement, then join this social network. This network has focus groups and useful discussions, resources are available within each group. C4LPT - If you are interested in social learning examples and tools for learning, then you must visit this site. This site lists top 100 tools for learning and has excellent getting started guides for social learning. Making Change - This blog has useful tips and tricks on e-learning design and also good e-learning examples. Learnability Matters - This blog again has useful tips and tricks on e-learning design, e-learning case studies and some e-learning examples. There are some articles that give good introduction to Instructional Design concepts/practices. Hope you find this list useful!

Leaderboards are one of the most popular game elements that are used in gamified systems, along with points, badges or achievements (see How Gamification Can Drive Behavioural Change). Essentially they appeal to extrinsic motivation and are a means to give feedback to the players. Badges are probably at the top of this list. They are used in many systems and recently, Moodle's latest version also includes badges (see All About Badges and Open Badges). There is a lot of information, blog posts and academic papers about how to use badges and there are even MOOCs on badges.On the other hand, leaderboards are less mentioned although they are also common in gamified systems. Applications like Leaderboarded can be used to easily create leaderbords. Gamified systems in the education sector do not use leaderboards so often, probably because they appeal to competition.A recent paper presented at Gamification 2013 (see this other post), Reimagining Leaderboards: Towards Gamifying Competency Models through Social Game Mechanics, discusses how to use leaderboards as social game mechanic. Leaderboards are game elements that can be collaborative and qualitative and not only quantitative and competetive. In this way, leaderboards are a social game element. The paper proposes a framework that uses a prosocial leaderboards. Prosocial interactions occur when individuals act in the interest of others. The paper defines social gamification as "... an emerging subgenre of gamified systems that use game mechanics and elements from social games, which feature interactions designed for close peers and direct ties to social networking systems , in which they are often embedded". It then cites one of our previous works, A Social Gamification Framework for a K-6 Learning Platform, mentioning that in our proposal, game elements were taken directly from social games. We also have our own definition of social gamification: the use of design elements from social games in non-game contexts to drive game like engagement in order to promote desired behaviours.  In the Gamification 2013 paper, leaderbords are defined as "... a performance comparison game element". They can be single or mutiplayer. Single player leaderboards compare the players latest score to the previous scores. Multiplayer leaderboards can display rankings of near performing peers (a usual approach in social games) or rankings of high performing peers (where players with lower score may not be present, leading to demotivation, which is a drawback for this kind of leaderboards).An example of a multiplayer leaderboard of high performing peers is the Gamification Gurus Leaderboard built with Leaderboarded:The prosocial learderboard approach uses elements like status, scarcity, karma points and group leaderboard. These elements are used to encourage prosocial behaviours. In this prosocial approach all users must benefit and social interaction is achieved through altruism, sharing, reciprocity and gratitude. The concept is being applied in a competency-based assessment system for medical education.Leaderboards, that at first are nothing more than an extrinsic motivator can, in this approach, be used to promote social interaction and to foster intrinsic motivation. It appeals to relatedeness and to a feeling of doing something not just for our own sake but for the sake of our group or community.ReferencesSeaborn, K., Pennefather, P., Fels, D. (2013). Reimagining Leaderboards: Towards Gamifying Competency Models through Social Game Mechanics, Proceedings of Gamification 2013, Stratford, Ontario, Canada, 107-110Simões, J., Redondo, R. D., Vilas, A. F. (2013). A Social Gamification Framework for a K-6 Learning Platform. Advanced Human-Computer Interaction 29, 2, 345-353.

Some weeks back, I posted some videos on Augmented Reality that illustrated how this concept may be applied in real life. I found some interesting videos that showcase Augmented Reality Games. I thought they are worth sharing in the T-Bites section. So here are you go: VIDEO 1 ( via Tom Kuhlmann) VIDEO 2 VIDEO 3 Read more about Mc Donald’s Augmented Reality Game here: No McDonald’s on Pandora, but Plenty of Avatar at McD’s Avatar - Experience Pandora After the Movie Ends VIDEO 4 If you have read any article  or seen any videos on Augmented Reality games, please do share them here.

 http://csi.softwareadvice.com/gamification-preventing-support-agent-burnout-1022112/Another paper presented at Gamification 2013 shows how to use a leaderboard to improve behaviour change (see this previous post Leaderboards: A Social Game Element).  The paper, Time's Up: Studying Leaderboards For Engaging Punctual Behaviour (João Costa, Rina Renee Wehbe, James Robb and Lennart E. Nacke) studies the use of a leaderboard for improving punctuality of participants to regular work meetings. Again, the authors conclude that leaderboards are more effective if they are used as a social game mechanic. They conducted an experiment where data were collected from 28 participants, members of the Laboratory of Games And Media Entertainment Research (GAMERLab). The arrival times to meetings of laboratory members were recorded for nine meetings.Concerning the different kinds of leaderboads, discussed in the previous post, the leaderboard in this experiment was a multiplayer leaderboard, ranking high performance peers.These are the authors' main conclusions:"Our study showed that leaderboards do give way to positive social behaviours like social comparisons, which were of great importance to the majority of the participants, in particular to assess their improvement or standing in comparison to those who were of their interest, as opposed to assessing themselves in the global panorama of punctuality.In conclusion, our study shows the possibility of gamifying meetings to improve the punctuality of the work group. This can help individuals project a better self-image, keep on task and increase their productivity."The paper is available in the conference proceedings.

The software industry is loaded with help manuals and tutorials. It doesn’t matter how complex or easy the product is, a help manual or a tutorial is a must have. Why would someone need a help manual or a tutorial if the product is self-explanatory, obvious, easy to use? In fact why not build applications/products that have usable user interfaces and require no training, no context sensitive help or cheat sheets. Yes, I am talking about  intuitive applications that guide the user to complete their tasks on their own without referring to any support material or external resource. This post tries to raise some questions in favour of intuitive software applications/products. Let’s begin with the basic question. What users want? Consider any user of a software application: They are aware of their work processes. They know their tasks. All that they want to know is how to complete the tasks using a software product. When users require tutorials or help manuals? A user will need tutorials and help manuals when: How the product can help them is not obvious. The steps to use the features are not clear. The user gets started with the product but is stuck with a task and is not able to proceed. In some cases tutorials and help manuals also fail and people are left for hours figuring out how to complete a task using the product. Some give up and some start searching the entire web for help. How software products/applications force users to seek help I am an avid user of Facebook. I use it so frequently that I do not realize how challenging and difficult it is to use Facebook. The first time I visited Facebook, I was just too confused and apprehensive to use it. Reasons I knew it was a social networking site similar to Orkut. But then I really didn’t know where to get started. I checked some profiles that were really organized. I was wondering how to achieve that perfection in my profile page. It took me days to get comfortable with Facebook and use all its features effectively. I noticed that I was not alone. Many other newbies felt lost and some also gave up. For example one of my friends was wondering how to  send a private message to someone in Facebook. If you are a ++regular Facebook user, you might find this strange and you might also think that my friend is not tech savvy. But that’s not the case. I am sure lots of others have problems figuring out a lot many simple things in Facebook. With Facebook, you need to be patient and persistent. This way you will be able to figure out how to use it. But how may are that patient enough I wonder?  The truth is there are really patient people in this world Jokes apart, when it comes to Facebook,  its a great way to connect with people and is really engaging. Above all there is peer pressure. I guess that’s why people push themselves to use the site, no matter how difficult it is to use. This might not be the case with business applications. Another example is the new wordpress interface. If you regularly use wordpress, you should be knowing that wordpress has revamped their site completely. My mother who is 50 + is a regular user of wordpress. I taught her how to use it and she learnt really fast. After wordpress revamped their site appearance, she was completely lost and really didn’t know how to go about a simple task such as including an hyperlink which she did with ease in the previous interface. The examples above are just to illustrate how difficult and annoying it can get to use a software product without any help/support. This being said, now I need to mention atleast two applications, that require no help manuals or tutorials to get started. Of course the choice is completely subjective. Feel free to challenge my choice Applications that you can use without any help Snagit Snagit is a screen capture tool that helps people capture screenshots from software products/applications. I referred to no help manuals when I first used Snagit. Before using Snagit, I was using the Prt Scr option in the keyboard. When someone mentioned about Snagit, I was wondering what difference can this product create with a simple screen capture action. The product does create  a lot of difference. It not only has some cool screen capture options but is also very easy to use. So here are the top 5 things I like about Snagit: Top 5 things I like about Snagit The main menu - where the screen capture options are obvious. Guided Instructions - The product guides you to take your first screen capture. The instruction "Press Print Screen to capture" is clearly stated in the main menu. Once you click on "Capture" you are informed what to do next. Tooltips - When you mouse over an option in the main menu, you see a feature description. The snagit editor - The options in the editor are self-explainatory and easy to use. Good Orientation - A new user trying to use Snagit,  will be able to figure out the whats, whys and hows of the features in less than 15 minutes. Here is an overview video of Snagit: You can download the trial version here. Ning I would also vote for Ning when it comes to ease of use. Ning is a service that allows you to create online social networks.  Last we at  Instructional Designers Community of India wanted to create an online social network for the community . We were sure about the  kind of features and facilities that we wanted to facilitate interactions and learning activities within the community. We were evaluating some freely available networks when one of my friends referred Ning. Ning instantly communicated to us that it had all the features to make an online network work well. I liked it instantly and I also learned how to use it in a very short time. I needed no help manuals or tutorials to get started. Top 3 Things I like About Ning Simple and easy to use How the product can help you is obvious. Labels and naming conventions - These make the product features obvious. Good Orientation - A new user can get started in less than 15 minutes. Intuitive software applications will help companies bring down their training budget. Embedding the learning/training component within a software application may be challenging but not impossible. "Where there is a will, there is a way". And of course there may not be a single way to doing things though the usability concepts and principles may be obvious and remain the same .  Here is an interesting article on 8 characteristics of successful user interfaces. With this I end my post and leave it open for discussion: Can you name one product that you managed to use without any help? Do you think it is easy to eliminate software product tutorials? What are the challenges in developing intuitive applications? Is it a mental barrier or a technology barrier? he first time I used Ning, I liked it instantly and I also learned how to use it in a very short time.

Call for papers for the 2014 World Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (WorldCIST'14) is a global forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences and concerns in the several perspectives of Information Systems and Technologies. Main themes: Information and Knowledge Management (IKM); Organizational Models and Information Systems (OMIS); Intelligent and Decision Support Systems (IDSS); Software Systems, Architectures, Applications and Tools (SSAAT); Computer Networks, Mobility and Pervasive Systems (CNMPS); Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); Health Informatics (HIS); Information Technologies in Education (ITE). Important Dates :Paper Submission: November 15, 2013 Notification of Acceptance: January 10, 2014  Camera-ready Submission: January 19, 2014

I have not been very active in the blogging sphere this month. Reason - My laptop was in the service center for more than 2 weeks. I really felt crippled. I am glad I have my laptop back now and am writing this post, which I was supposed to write on 12th September. If you have been following my blog, you must have got to read some posts tagged as "T-Bite". I started this fortnightly series in April and have posted interesting information related to learning/training. I am sure you enjoyed reading these posts and you also found them really useful. Every time I posted a T-Bite, there were so many re-tweets and some comments too. Above all T-bite posts entered eLearning Learning’s list of top posts of the month a couple of times, which is a matter of great honor for me. Now that it’s been six months, I have decided to put an end to these series, though this has been really short. I am planning to come up with something new that would engage and interest you. So keep visiting this blog and watch out for yet another interesting series. Till then here are the T-Bite posts for you, in case you missed reading any of them: T-Bite - What is Contextual Collaboration? T-Bite: How to Use Puzzles in Your Training Session T-Bite: What is Web 3.0? T-Bite: What is HTML5? T-Bite: Top 5 Sites for E-learning Demonstrations T-Bite: Cost of E-learning T-Bite: History of Instructional Design T-Bite: Depressing Survey of L&D T-Bite: Interesting Videos on Augmented Reality T-Bite: Top 10 Resources for Learning Professionals T-Bite: Examples of Augmented Reality Games Cheers, Rupa

The International Congress on Education, Innovation and Learning Technologies, will be held in Barcelona, from 23 to 25 July 2014.This congress is organized by Professors from the C3i/Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre (Portugal) and the Extremadura University (Spain).Scientific Areas:Education;Innovation and Learning Technologies;Engineering Education. Important Dates:Abstracts sending: February 6th 2014;Acceptance notification: February 21st 2014;Complete Communications sending: April 8th 2014.

When you have to get people to use a new product/application, there are definitely some challenges because the new product/application will bring a drastic change in the way they work.  If the orientation to the new product/application is not done properly, people will simply be confused and resist using the product/application, no matter how beneficial it might be to them. Using case studies/real life scenarios to orient people to a new product/application can do wonders. Let’s say a group of senior employees have been doing accounting using MS Excel for the past 10 years. If you have to introduce a new accounting software to them and get them to use it, you need to pick up one of their routine tasks and show them how to execute it using the new accounting software. More than anything you need to tell them how using the new accounting software will help them work more efficiently and what are the specific benefits which MS Excel does not offer. If you do not communicate this clearly, they will never understand why they must explore a new product when MS Excel is serving the purpose. To illustrate the points mentioned above, let us now look at a sample  e-learning program on new application training. Enspire Learning created this e-learning program for Texas Health Resources (a 16,000 employee hospital group) to train nurses on new medical records software aimed at streamlining their workday. Here is a screenshot from the e-learning program: Please click on the image to access the e-learning You will have to register with Enspire Learning to view the e-learning program This e-learning program is a very good example of how case studies/real life scenarios can be used in new application training. Some noteworthy aspects in this e-learning program are as follows: The e-learning program upfront communicates the benefits of using the new application as shown in the screenshot below: The e-learning program does not attempt to teach everything that’s possible using the software. It does not teach too many things at a time. The focus is only on a single routine task - steps to order blood bank labs electronically. Check learning objectives in the screenshot below: The e-learning program teaches how to input data from a handwritten note (as shown in the screenshot below) into the electronic system. This is what the nurses might have to do at work and this is something every nurse will want to know. The e-learning program captures an end to end scenario - A doctor hands over a hand written note to a nurse who has to order blood bank labs electronically. The learner has to help the nurse  execute this task using the electronic system. Towards the end of the program, the learner sees the result of the steps he/she performed on the system. The e-learning program is a TRY ME simulation, where the learner is guided to perform the steps on the application. The learner is given instant feedback/guidance, if he/she performs a wrong step or is lost. The e-learning program also guides the learner on troubleshooting steps. With this I end this post here and leave it open for discussion: What’s your take on using case studies/scenarios for new application training? Share your thoughts in the comments section. Also share any other examples of scenario based e-learning programs for application training.

O 2º Encontro sobre Jogos e Mobile-Learning vai ter lugar na na Universidade de Coimbra a 9 de maio de 2014.Entre outros temas, os jogos e a sua aplicação no ensino, serão abordados no encontro. Destacam-se os Serious Games e a Gamification.Tema - Jogos e aprendizagem
:Jogos e m-Learning
Serious games
Experiências com jogos em contexto educativo
Os jogos e as redes sociaisGamificationApesar do encontro contar com oradores estrangeiros, estranha-se que o website do evento (que é muito básico) esteja apenas redigido em português. Fica a sugestão de um website, pelo menos também em inglês.Datas importantes:Até 31 de janeiro de 2014▪ Submissão das comunicações e posters (texto completo) 28 de fevereiro de 2014 ▪ Notificação aos autores do resultado da avaliação Até 15 de março de 2014▪ Envio da versão final da comunicação e poster▪ Inscrição e pagamento dos autores da comunicação 

I am very fond of fairy tales. As a kid I had two big books of fairy tales and used to get excited thinking about the chocolate house as described in the Hansel and Gretel story and also used to imagine the wonderland,the woods and the castles. YouTube has lots of versions of these fairy tales. I am particularly fond of Shelley Duvall’s Faery Tale Theatre episodes. All the episodes are very well presented. If you are interested in checking out some episodes, please do watch these: Cindrella Hansel & Gretel You must be wondering why I am talking about Faery Tale theatre and what has this got to do with Instructional Design. Well, there is a reason why I am writing about Faery Tale Theatre here. I think every Instructional Designer must check at least one of these episodes and especially pay attention to: THE NARRATION THE DIALOGUES I really admire the use of narration in these episodes. The narration is used intermittently and appropriately. The dialogues are also very well written. This makes me think about writing voice scripts for e-learning.  Voice  scripts for e-learning must be conversational and engaging.For example, I like the way voice scripts have been written for the following e-learning courses: BBC Computer Tutor Enspire Learning’s E-learning Demo The voice scripts in these courses are conversational, crisp and engaging. While writing voice  scripts for e-learning, you keep the target audience in mind, you keep the context and the subject matter in mind and you pay attention to many other things. But some questions that come to my mind are these: How do you learn to write effective voice  scripts? How do you make voice scripts engaging? Do you think there are any specific guidelines/rules to writing effective voice scripts? or Is this is something you will be able to do if you have good command over language and do a lot of reading? Is writing good voice over scripts got to do more with creativity? Do you think writing effective voice scripts can be taught? I would love to hear from you on this. Please share your thoughts.

The Eden 2014 Annual Conference will take place in Zagreb from 10 to 13 June. "Workplace-based training supported by ICT tools is part of the solution to reduce skill shortages and mismatches. E-learning has become a dominant delivery method in learning settings at work across various sectors and a wide range of company sizes. Its advantages may be many, including flexibility, cost and time savings, and new work habits and improved working climate. ICT-enhanced learning may improve organisational performance and lead to increased staff commitment and the generation of new ideas."The 2013 Annual Conference Proceedings are available at the EDEN website.Important Dates:Paper Submission: 31 January 2014Registration Open: mid-February 2014Notification of Authors: 28 March 2014