When we look at the 5 Ps of gamification, it is very easy to overlook all of the meanings of Progress. Just as a reminder, the 5 Ps are; Purpose, Progress, Proficiency, Pride and People.
5 P’s of gamification
Progress can mean different things to different people. If you ask the great and powerful Google, it tells you
forward or onward movement towards a destination.
“the darkness did not stop my progress”
development towards an improved or more advanced condition.
“we are making progress towards equal rights”
The first definition is what most people think about when they think about progress. Heading towards a defined destination. When people hear progress and gamification in the same sentence, they usually think of this.
The Humble Progress Bar
This certainly fits the profile of movement towards a destination. The bar fills up as you journey / move from o% to 100% of whatever the task at hand is. We use progress bars a lot on gamification, in fact, they are one of my favorite “mechanics” to use. A progress bar is simple, efficient and works – LinkedIn would testify to that. There has even been research into how effective progress bars are, concluding that the majority of people liked to have the kind of visual feedback offered by a progress bar.
The other form of progress defined here is more interesting to me though, and it ties in neatly with another one of the Ps – Proficiency. When you start to internalise progress, it becomes all about a journey towards proficiency and mastery. This is as intrinsic as motivation can get, the desire to better one’s self, to progress through the journey of life, picking up everything we can along the way. This is not always a linear flat path from A to B to C. If it involves progression of skills, it is often a multipath journey that takes you from A to C to B to Z and back again – and anything but flat!
When looking at this kind of progress, you have to also take into account the concept of flow. To keep people in the optimal state, the challenge has to increase relative to the level of skill that the user possesses at that time.
Whether it is intrinsic progress, or just completing a form – always give them a way to understand where they stand in their journey. This doesn’t need to be a progress bar, it can just be the occasional visual or audio cue, an email to say well done, a virtual badge to represent some acheivement along the way.
Well, this is a first, but I hope you will agree, it is a good first! I was lucky enough to be asked to scan a chapter of a new book that gamification and education expert Scott Herbert was writing. It was all about how he had been making use of my HEXAD in his classroom and it was excellent! I asked if he would be willing to write a little blog post about his experiences, what I got was this – and I could not be happier. Enjoy my friends!
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Kids do not really care for school, which as a teacher obviously makes things a little difficult. I teach Grade 8 Sciences and when you are trying to teach someone about cellular biology or the history of light they have a real hard time connecting it to their world. It’s a slippery slope.
Last year I decided to gamify my entire classroom from September to June. It was a lot of work and took some real thinking but it has been a revelation to my students. They are working harder, producing better quality work and enjoy our 40 minutes a day together more than I have ever seen before. Statistically, as well I can prove it!
Looking at the raw numbers, I teach 100 students collectively and out of that 100, I have 49 students who achieved over 1500XP meaning just under 50% of the students I teach made an effort to complete all quests, going above and beyond what was expected. Anything over 1500XP means they went over 100%
Looking deeper at the numbers I have, again out of those same 100 students, 71 of them have achieved honours status (a grade of 80% or higher) right now in science which represents 71% of the entire grade. Comparing that to last year’s grade 8 classes, I had, out of a possible 119 students, only 68 that were above 80 to this point which is 57%.
Comparing those numbers, taking into account the fact that I had 19 more students last year, it represents a 14% increase in students currently achieving honours status.
We know in education there is a massive engagement crisis. Study after study is being published that continue to reflect a noticeable decline in school engagement. However, when I decided to attack this crisis head on there was one major issue I needed to tackle. Creating a gamification/program that would hit all of my player types.
Usually, for the unaware, people apply Bartle’s Player Types in their gamification but even Bartle himself warns against this – he even calls them “bandwagons”. His player types were intended for the world of MUDs (what we now call MMORPGs) but are frequently used in places they should not – like a fitting a puzzle piece into the wrong slot. It kind of produces something but it isn’t what you hoping for in the end.
In order to tackle this, I decided to use Andrzej’s Gamification Player Type Hexad to meet the needs and motivations of my different students (player types). The neat part here is that this (how it applies to education) was asked of Andrzej before and he produced this model …
User Types and Learning
Now this model is actually perfect for the education world but I wanted to add something to this so I decided to tweak his model ever so slightly and came up with this one!
User Types and Learning v2
I decided to add The Disruptor (an original type in Andrzej’s model) to the middle because a) they can affect the learning of all player types and b) can be influenced by all player types depending on the scenario or disruptor style. Also, we all know that classes do potentially have a student or two who play the role of the disruptor – always.
The 6 Gamification User Types of the Classroom
The Player (a.k.a.: “What Do I Get Though?”)
We all have that student who needs to get something to do something. They are willing to do whatever you ask of them but they want a reward or privilege in return. That is how a player type is motivated. Offer them some sort of reward and you will see results
The Philanthropist (a.k.a.: “The Class Leader”)
This student loves to lead groups and volunteer to do things. They learn by helping other people out and are often the first type of person you turn to when you need help supporting someone who needs to get something done. When they are helping and teaching others they are the most motivated.
The Free Spirit (a.k.a.: “The Problem Solver”)
This type of student loves exploring the classroom and loves seeing what everyone is doing. Sometimes they seem lost and confused but they are totally with it. Their projects and ideas see “out there” at first but they always have a way of roping them back in to produce awesome work. Give them space, freedom and creativity and let them soar. When you have a problem the free spirit is your go to.
The Achiever (a.k.a.: “The High Achiever”)
This type of student is self-driven to be the best at whatever they do. They get a task and attack it head on. They can be competitive and help push struggling groups forward. They want to achieve their maximum at all times.
The Socialiser (a.k.a.: “The Social Butterfly” or “The Team Player”)
This type of student loves to go about the room talking to everyone. You put them anywhere and they find someone to talk to. They love to work in a group and they can be competitive in that scenario. If someone needs something they will be there to help.
The Disruptor (a.k.a.: “The Class Clown” or “The Black Hole” or “The Avoider”)
This type of student loves to seek out attention from those around him or her. They will crack jokes, interrupt lessons or attempt to derail class discussions. They can be tough to deal with. Providing specifics and surrounding them with the proper player type such as an achiever or a philanthropist will often keep them focused and moving forward.
Designing my game around these player types has truly changed my classroom. I create quests and bonus missions that hit the different styles of each learner. This creates different opportunities for people to lead and follow and that is a crucial skill all on its own! Gamification truly is a game changer in education!
If you want to learn more about my classroom gamification please free to follow me on Twitter @MrHebertPE, contact me via e-mail scotth@eics.ab.ca or follow my Blog at www.mrhebert.org.
