10 Benefits of Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a hot topic in education currently.  PBL is where learning is structured around a project.  The learners must learn what they need to complete the project.  They can find this information by themselves, or they may have formal classes and so on, which help them to complete their projects.

So why is PBL so good?

1. It is extremely motivating.  Learners want to learn in order to complete their project and might even do extra work if it means their project will succeed.
2. PBL can be a lot more hands-on and make the learners feel in control of their learning which is much more engaging than listening to someone talk at you at the front of a room and answering some questions.
3. The learning has built up gradually with a definite result; the learners have something to show at the end of it.
4. PBL can encourage collaboration.  It works well with learners split into project groups or teams.  Collaboration is great for learning and it is an important 21st century skill.
5. It is a great way of ticking other 21st century skill ‘boxes’.  PBL can be a good way of encouraging soft skills such as problem solving, research skills and creativity.
6. Good base for cross-curriculum learning.  A single, broad topic can be used as a project theme and many subjects can be brought into it, which gives them some meaning.  For example, a topic on ancient Greeks could involve history, maths, geography, politics, philosophy, religious education and so on.
7. Projects can be tailored to suit different abilities and if working in groups, people can fill different niches, which could enhance self-esteem.
8. Gives subjects a focus and more of a meaning, ties things together and offers an easy answer to “Why do we need to know this?”
9. It is easy to implement with few resources (but does require a little imagination).
10. Having said that (number 9), there are lots of helpful resources and project plans online.  Have a look at our ‘Learning’ Pinterest board for some great ideas.

How does PBL work in practice?

Well, one example is Climate Crew.  games-ED undertook a project with over 40 young people from 2 schools and a Girl Guides group from St.Helens, Merseyside, UK. The young people were aged between 14 and 18.  The project ran three types of media skills workshops that had a dual purpose: to provide media skills for the young people and to feed into a design of a game.

• Workshop 1 - Creative Skills:
• Theory of logo design > design roughs on paper > designs crated in a vector drawing package.
• The guides developed a flier based on the logo.
• Workshop 2 - Computer Games Design:
• The Schools created initial designs: premise > story > game-play and Easter eggs (hidden features in the game).
• The Guides drew up the screen designs on huge sheets of paper.
• Workshop 3 - Computer Games Build (done using Adobe Flash):
• Game inner working and artificial intelligence 
• Interface, animation and navigation coding
• Avatar design and coding
• Real world interaction 
• Workshop 4 – Testing

Even though the project ran over a number of weeks and multiple sessions, there still wasn’t enough time to teach the young people the varied skills they would need to design and develop a game. The approach we took was to let the young experience the spectrum of roles in a games company, rather than trying to make them expert in any one area.  The game was completed by the facilitators and can be found here.

The young people learned a lot of skills through designing, leading and implementing the project and through the interactive workshops including creative marketing and facilitation, project management, community leadership, computer game design and development.

Before and after the workshops the young people were asked to judge their skills in key areas, some of the data is shown below.  The data shows that the young people gained skills in design and computer game development as well as communication skills. The workshops were ranked very highly by the young people, particularly the final workshop on game development where they saw all of their previous work slot together as they built the game.

Workshop 1

• 47% improvement in understanding the use of logos for communicating ideas.
• 57% improvement in understanding climate change.
• 62% improvement of skills in logo design.
• 51% improvement of skills in graphic design (taking an idea to completed product).
• 31% improvement of skills in using a computer art/design package.
• 23% improvement in communication skills for the verbal presentation of ideas. 

Workshop 2

When asked, “What key learning messages will you take away”, some of the children responded:

• “No idea is a bad one.
• “Bigger understanding of designing games.
• “That we should take our time to think of ideas instead of rushing.
• “That when designing a game it has to be simple but catchy.
• “How to lower my carbon footprint.”

This is a very specific project around games, but you can see easily how similar principles could be used for a project to teach any number of things.  The children loved the experience and learnt a lot and the teachers were full of positive comments too.  For more information and data (including teacher feedback) see ‘Developing Games with Young People: Climate Crew’.

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Gamifying the Classroom: 10 Inspiring Articles

1. Let’s play school: Gamification and the future of education - This short article discusses how gamification in education can increase motivation and engagement.  The article contains insights from Khan Academy president Shantanu Sinha who argues that games are motivational as they allow people to progress at their own pace, they give immediate feedback and praise and they allow people to push their own boundaries.

Infographic by SuperFunner via this article.

2. Study’s the Name of the Game - This article provides a balanced introduction to gamification including various statistics.  It explains how one school uses games in science classes to achieve self-directed, organic learning.  Gamification enables the students to become fully immersed, engaged, motivated, lower their fear of failure and become better time managers.  The article also discusses research done on university students that found students absorbed more information than reading a book.  Importantly, the article warns against students becoming too extrinsically motivated and that gamification can actually be used to develop the intrinsic motivation to learn.

3. Six Ways to Look at Badging Systems Designed for Learning - While we at pixelfountain believe gamification should be more than simply awarding badges, this article has some interesting insights.  Some of the ways that the authors see badges working in education include: badges acting as alternative assessment, as learning scaffolding and to develop lifelong learning skills.

4. Gamifying Homework - This article discusses research done by Richard Landers on undergraduate students to encourage them to do their homework.  The researcher developed a social network for the students that included basic gamification principles and 28% of the students willingly chose to do extra work that wouldn’t affect their grades.

5. How to Use Game Dynamics in the Classroom - This article gives a brief introduction of another piece of research about using gamification in undergraduate courses.  The experimental group will have the chance to complete various challenges, which will earn them points.  The control group will have the same lectures but will be asked to complete quizzes (containing the same questions, but with no points system).  The groups will be compared on engagement, attendance and academic performance.  I am unable to find the results of the study, but it will be interesting to see if gamification had an impact.

6. The Gamified Classroom - Part 1: The Unique Obstacles Teachers Face - This article argues that gamification will encourage engagement in classrooms.  However, it also discusses potential problems: budget and scalability.

7. The Gamified Classroom – Part 2: Technology’s Role in a Gamified Classroom - Part two of the series explains how children should be taught 21st century skills rather than focussing on teaching them how to use the technology of the moment as this will be obsolete in not very long.  It also discusses how education should be student centred, however, unless there are fundamental shifts in the education system, this is difficult.  However, technology could be a way of achieving this as much gamified content is differentiated for different levels and personality types.  The article goes on to explain that children know how to use technology for entertainment, but the job of a teacher should be to show them how to use them for other purposes.  They should develop their 21st century skills in conjunction with the technology, but not dependent on it, to work collaboratively on projects, for research and so on.

8. The Gamified Classroom – Part 3: The Importance of Motivation - This part dicusses the work of Educational Psychologist Jere Brophy.  Brophy argued that Motivation = Expectancy (of success) x Value (of succeeding).  Brophy developed a series of factors that he found motivating and the article discusses how gamification could be used to reach the same ends.  Factors include: provide opportunities for choice and provide opportunities for students to respond actively.  The author argues that gamification works better that traditional education as it offers a narrative; learning has a purpose greater than simply achieving grades, and this is why it is so motivating.

9. Education Meets ‘World of Warcraft’ - This article highlights some interesting teaching methods.  A teacher begins each semester by greeting his class with “Congratulations, you have an F” and adds, “But you can level up”.  He designs his class like a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) such as World of Warcraft by dividing his class into guilds which must complete quests (such as making a presentation) to earn points and advance to the next level.  The article discusses the results this innovative teacher has achieved and discusses more about why gamification works and other ways that it has been used (such as to promote good interpersonal skills, not just good grades and attendance).

10. Gamifying the Classroom with World of Classcraft - This software uses the principles of MMORPGs in a classroom setting with the ultimate goal of making the whole class into a game.  Students earn experience points by doing positive actions in class, these lead to them levelling up and gaining special abilities (for themselves, peers and the class).  The software makes use of an online leader board and can be used across the curriculum.

If you haven’t already read them, have a read of our blog posts on gamification:

• Gamification - Different Types of User 
• How to Bring Gamification to the Classroom: Best Practices 
• Gamification of the Workplace 
• A Nice Overview of Games Based Learning (Gamification) – Infographic 
• Gamification of life 
• Behavioural Economics and Education 
• Gamification in Education 
• Gamification and Behavioural Change 
• Gamification, Education and Behavioural Economics 

The Future of Learning

I am very interested in how the education system is changing.  Recent technological developments have lead people to think about the current education system and how it could be improved upon.  There seems to be a vast number of people in this position, constantly innovating, re-thinking and problem-solving and I think it is only a matter of time before their concepts and ideas are accepted and rolled out into mainstream education.

I though I’d share four videos with you of people that hold a vision of the future of learning.  It would be interesting to hear your thoughts and to see if you agree, so please do comment.  I’ve written a brief summary of each, in case for whatever reason, you can’t watch the video and also just so you have access to the information written down.

 1. The future of Learning, Networked Society – Ericsson

Summary: 

• Factory-like system of education is not good enough any more (we no longer have a shortage of factory workers).  The education system is there for children, so it should adapt to them, not the other way around.  
• In the past, schools were a way to access information.  That is no longer what they are needed for; anyone with an internet connection can access information.  Knowing facts is almost obsolete, there are answers everywhere, we need to teach children to be learners and know how to access information.  
• We need to analyse and tailor learning like we do most other things in life.  Newton provides a means to do this.  Newton captures data and provides online courses personalised to individual students.  It also provides insights such as, ‘you work best at maths between 9.30 and 10.42am’ and so on, to achieve the best learning possible.
• Connectivity is opening up the world.
• Educate the youth and you educate a nation.
• Exams are inadequate.  When taking an exam, children think “I hope there are no surprises”.  But the world is full of surprises.  Education prepares you to cope with certainty.  Learning prepares you to cope with surprises.
• No one does standardised tests for a living, so why measure people on how good they are, in a way that is irrelevant in later life?  Parents want their children to go to good colleges and universities.  Those institutes are ‘good’ and famous because they are more selective about which grades they accept.  Therefore, you need to get good grades to get into these institutions, which is not real learning.  The system is flawed and described as a ‘scam’.
• Coursera – online access for everyone, for free.
• Huge leap in education pre and post-printing press.  Online education could be like that.
• Education is less and less about conveying content.  Instead, it should be about the instructor engaging the child and teaching them generic skills such as self-discipline and problem solving.
• We should be teaching children to solve difficult problems, not memorise answers to problems we have already solved.
• School should be more about telling children a topic and letting them learn about it and figure it out.
• More children will be educated in the next 30 years than ever in history – should we not try to get it right?

2. Rethinking Learning – The 21st Century Learner: MacArthur Foundation

Summary:

• It is important for us to teach children to love to embrace change.
• In the 21st century, it is important to have curiosity and a questioning disposition, or a ‘gaming disposition’.  Gamers are incredibly bottom-line oriented; they want to be constantly measured to see how they are improving.  There is often a mantra of ‘If I’m not learning, it isn’t fun.’
• The 20th century was centred around learning content.  In the 21st century, it is about learning the tools and skills to obtain, re-make and produce content.
• Informal learning (e.g. learning that takes place at home, with peers, in a community) is as important as a formal education.  We need to figure out a way of linking and synchronising the two.
• 21st century education needs to be not just about employment but about the whole of life.

3. Salman Khan Describes Future Classrooms with Blended Learning: edutopia

Summary:

• Currently, education is largely centred around the learning of facts and so on and it rarely gets close to creativity and open-endedness.
• The Khan Academy is a virtual learning environment where the content and teaching is done via videos and other virtual means.  
• Salman Khan appreciates the importance of learning the traditional things.  However, he thinks that the Khan Academy can address this element of education.  Children could access the videos and so on at home, which would free up more class time for creative, hands-on, relevant lessons.  It would also allow teachers more time for one-to-one instruction.
• Virtual and physical education can work together, they are not mutually exclusive.  They can enhance one another.

4. Thomas Suarez

Summary:

• Thomas Suarez is a very young man who has taught himself to develop Apps such as his Bustin Jieber App (a Justin Bieber Whac-a-Mole).
• Children want to make games and Apps, but don’t really know where to go to learn.  There are violin lessons and soccer practices, where do you go to learn to programme?  (Thomas might be interested in using Raspberry Pi)
• Thomas taught himself the basics of other programming languages and then used Apple’s Software Development Kit to develop Apps that are available on the App Store.
• He started an App club at school that teaches students to design and develop Apps.
• Students usually know more about technology than teachers.  This is a huge resource that teachers should really be making use of.
• In the future, amongst other things, Thomas wants to find more ways for students to share knowledge with each other.

Please follow @paulladley on Twitter and like games-ED’s Pinterest, Facebook and Google+ pages for blog updates and interesting games based learning links and resources.

Games Based Learning Integrated with Traditional Exercises

There is a buzz surrounding games based learning currently.  They are many games that can be used in classrooms and for training and development.  However, they will usually be most effective when they sit alongside traditional materials.  It is unlikely that you could get all the information you need from one game (although of course it is possible).

Overview

Recently we were asked by The University of Northampton to put together a learning simulation to be delivered within the context of a Housing and Community Living Module within the Health School.  We developed Planit-Housing.  In Planit-Housing, additional workshop activities (incidents) have been fully integrated into the learning simulation.  Teams must complete exercises out of the simulation, which directly feed back into their in-game progress and score.  The quality of the delegate’s responses to the incidents (a riot or flood in the virtual community) alters multiple variables and the teams’ budgets in the simulation.  There is a seamless interaction between the two learning elements.  They offer a richer experience than either a game or traditional learning activities could have done alone.  This approach also addresses varied learning needs and styles (see ‘Games Based Learning Supports Multiple Learning Styles').  It also provides a flexible way of learning that the facilitator can control and depending on their time constraints, the activities can be divided up as the facilitator sees fit.

The Planit-Housing programme is designed to:

• Explain the complexities of the subject, including issues faced by those in different housing sectors, which will be identified and examined from a health perspective in addition to multiple sources of inequity/exclusion.
• Enable the students to improve collaborative working skills and practically explore the partnership working necessary for successful and sustainable communities.  These include developing an understanding of the big picture (strategic thinking), cause and effect (joined up thinking), communication / negotiation skills and collaborative working (the importance of partnerships). 

Integration of Learning Simulation with Traditional Exercises

Planit-Housing is the latest learning simulation from pixelfountain; the latest incarnation of our mission to integrate learning simulations with traditional exercises.  In Planit-Housing, each team’s performance in the exercises is judged for content, presentation, teamwork and understanding the wider impacts of the incident.  These values are entered easily into the learning simulation via a dashboard.  In this way multiple variables and the team’s budgets are altered.  For example, in the riot incident, a poor performance by the Housing Team could result in more destruction and reduced housing quality.  Whereas a good performance would mean the team was better prepared and so the impacts in the riot would not be as bad.  In fact, a team could generate positive outcomes for the virtual community, such as improved cohesion resulting from community clean-ups.

The learning simulation also has save functionality.  This means that time constraints needn’t be a worry.  Planit-Housing has been used by The University of Northampton over three afternoon sessions.  However, it is flexible and could be used over fewer or more sessions if desired.  It is our firm belief that the teacher/facilitator should be fully in control of the learning process and therefore flexibility built into games is an important feature.  For more information, see our Games Based Learning Analysis and Planning Tool).  The teacher/facilitator should be able to stop game play at any time to reinforce or assess learning, do a non-game activity, end the session and so on.  Many commercial games do not allow this and some purpose built games overlook this feature.

Benefits of the approach

• Flexibility – the approach allows the simulation workshop to incorporate any sort of activity to achieve a specific learning outcome.
• Extension – the learning simulation can be extended to incorporate sophisticated workshop exercises and additional learning components, which can be interweaved into the game play.
• No additional development - whatever the exercise, the trainees can be judged using standard metrics.
• Engagement – the exercises break up the game play and the simulation brings added weight to the traditional workshop exercise.
• Supports multiple learning styles – exercises / learning components can be designed to suit all learning styles and together they work in a single meta exercise or learning piece.
• Supports active learning – real world activities can be incorporated into the learning process. 

What Next

pixelfountain is always looking to innovate and improve.  The next steps for this type of learning could include a more sophisticated dashboard which would enable the trainer / facilitator to:

• Trigger any number of incidents as and when they want them to occur in the workshop programme.
• Integrate incidents without the need for additional bespoke coding.  Specific algorithm variables could be selected in terms of the impact of a newly devised incident.  The trainer could determine the level of impact for each variable and how the workshop activity relates to the variables.

A core simulation could then incorporate incidents without the need to involve a development team.

Other Examples

Grandma’s Games:  Grandma’s Games have won awards for their innovative learning programmes, which make use of traditional games (mostly from Macedonia), such as hopscotch and Cat’s Cradle.  They use these games along with technology to teach areas within and beyond the curriculum.  For example, a game called Chelik (steel) has the following learning outcomes:

“To learn the linear measures, cm (centimeter) dm (decimeter) and m (meter); to be able to compare linear measures by free judgment; to make linear measure instruments, rulers and tape measures with the use of computers; to draw in Paint and to print rulers and tape measures glued on a piece of paper; to define homonyms (same words with different meanings); evergreen and deciduous trees; to explore pictures using Bing, memorize and insert them in a Power Point presentation.”

For more information and resources visit: http://www.grandmasgames.org/Visitor/Games.aspx.

SimCityEDU: As I am sure many of you are aware, the latest incarnation of SimCity will be released early next month.   However, what you might not know is that SimCityEDU has also been developed by a partnership between Electronic Arts, Inc. (EA) and GlassLab (a research and development initiative aimed at transforming learning practices through digital games). Educators can use SimCityEDU in the classroom to teach students STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects alongside traditional methods.  The website (which goes live in March 2013) reads:

“Engage your students by using the SimCity game to make learning come alive! Create and share SimCity-based learning tools that address a wide range of subjects including science, math, civics, economics, and more.”

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Gamification - Different Types of User

I was recently pointed in the direction of an blog article from Andrzej Marczewski, ‘Different Types of Users in Gamification’.  Andrzej built on Richard Bartle’s player type theory.  Bartle’s theorised that you could categorise MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game players in one of four ways: killer, achiever, socialiser and explorer.  To read Bartle’s full theory, click here.  Andrzej took these ideas and related them to gamification.

Andrzej notes that the important distinction between game players and users of gamified content is that they may not wish to ‘play’.  Andrzej categorises users as: Players, Socialisers, Free Spirits, Achievers and Philanthropists.  Below is his explanation of each:

• Players are the ones who like to get the achievements in your system; they like to see their names on the leaderboards.  They like the “game” of it all. They are also the most likely to make use of “loop holes” to gain an advantage. There to play the game and are happy with the extrinsic rewards.
• Socialisers (as in the original Player Type) are the ones who want to interact with others. They like to be connected to others. They are interested in parts of the system that help them do this. These are the ones will evangelise your internal social networks. Most motivated by the social connectiosn aspects of relatedness.
• Free Spirits like to have agency. They don’t want to be restricted in how they go through their personal journey. They will be the most creative, have the fanciest avatars, create the most personal content, but also find the most holes in a system. They seek self expression and autonomy.
• Achievers are the ones who want to be the best at things, or at least be achieving things within the system. They want to get 100% on the internal learning system. They do this for themselves and are probably not that bothered with then showing off to others about it. (This differs from the original definition, but I could not think of a better word!!). They need a system that will enrich them and lead them towards mastery.
• Philanthropists want to feel that they are of something bigger.  They want to give back to others. These are the ones who will answer endless questions on forums, just because they like to feel they are helping. They want a system that allows them to enrich others and feel a sense of purpose.

So why is this useful?  Andrzej goes on to explain that each of these types prefer to operate in either structured or unstructured ways and for material and non-material gains.  The second part of his blog article extends this idea further explaining how users see rewards, whether they act within the system or not and how they interact with other users.  While the second part of his article gets a little complicated, it is a great tool for anyone thinking of utilising gamification.  Andrzej argues that you must create a balanced system for all users for gamification to be worthwhile and fully useful and he does a lot of the work for you in terms of working out how to do this.

For the first part of the series, visit: http://marczewski.me.uk/2013/01/30/different-types-of-users-in-gamification/
For part two: http://marczewski.me.uk/2013/02/04/user-types-in-gamification-part-2-players/

pixelfountain and its brand, games-ED, who bring this blog to you, develop learning simulations (serious games) to be used in training workshops and in the classroom.  These games are used in training so delegates are not classic game players or have not come to play.  So does Andrzej’s classification hold water in our experience? We would say that we have certainly come across these different types of players in our workshops.

We have come across a significant minority of players, who report that they enjoyed getting the high score or beating the other team – we have on occasion played more than one simulation in an event.  These are Player types.  But the most common type, bearing in mind that the games are used in training workshops, could be thought of as modified Achievers.  Note: Andrzej suggests that people may be a combination of ‘types of user’, but they usually have one main motivator.

The following quotes are just a sample of the feedback we have gained from our latest product, sim-uni (a learning simulation that models a University to train Higher Education employees).

“I think the event/the simulation provided a fun way to learn about the different elements that impact on the running of the University (particularly in raising awareness of areas not directly related to those you may have worked in), and could also be used as a team building event (irrespective of the actual content of the simulation).  It really got you thinking and talking about the issues, and also about the importance of communication (networking and negotiation).”
- E-Learning Manager

This player comes over as being primarily an Achiever.  They enjoyed playing the simulation as it provided a fun way of learning and raising awareness.  I think that secondary to this, they are a Socialiser.  They note that the simulation would be well suited to a team building event, appreciated that sim-uni got them ‘talking about the issues’ and that it highlighted the importance of communication.

“Taking part in the sim-uni event gave me an interesting insight into the way different decisions about admissions policy, budgeting, staffing, research, resources etc are linked and have an effect on a university’s reputation as well as its ability to do its job. The sim could provide value to the whole range of university personnel, to show how they fit in to the big picture, and how the big picture depends on the smaller details.”
- Divisional Manager

This delegate / player is primarily an Achiever. They appreciate the game as it helped them increase their understanding of various issues. They also have a hint of Philanthropy about them. They appreciate the wider goals and the greater purpose and suggest how it could be useful to ‘the whole range of university personnel’.

“The day was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed working with a range of colleagues from across the University (some of whom I had never met before) and once we got a handle on what we were doing, we were able to bring some creativity and ingenuity to the exercise!  The facilitator was engaging and knowledgeable and the whole event definitely got me thinking about how Universities work.

I would definitely recommend the exercise to anyone who is interested in taking part.”
- Head of School Administration

This delegate is a Socialiser and a Free Spirit.  They ‘enjoyed working with a range of colleagues from across the University’ and they ‘were able to bring some creativity and ingenuity to the exercise’.  Their primary motivations seem to be the social aspect of the workshop and they obviously enjoyed how flexible the workshop and simulation were as it allowed them to be creative and autonomous.

“We stepped out of our silos.  It was a great opportunity to view the University operation from a different perspective and to appreciate the value of collaborative working across the organisation.”
- Head of Student Operations

This delegate is an Achiever / Socialiser.  They enjoyed the opportunity to learn, however they also enjoyed socialising and working beyond their silos.

“The ‘Sim-Uni’ event was very engaging and an excellent way for managers (new and established) to learn more about managing and being responsible for budgets.  Through the use of simulated ‘Report Screens’ you could see the impact of your budgetary decisions made year on year, that as a manager can be an invaluable tool helping you to steer the direction of your purchasing decisions and areas of work that impacts on and feeds into the overall achievement of the University’s strategic goals” 
- HR Manager

While this delegate could be seen as a player (due to liking report screens as a guage of progress and achievements); it is more likely they are beind descriptive for the benefit of others. So, I would argue they are an Achiever / Philanthropist as this delegate appreciates the learning outcomes of the learning simulation and workshop above all else.

Andrzej has so far named four user types that are intrinsically motivated in certain ways: Socialiser, Free Spirit, Achiever and Philanthropist.  In his second blog post he discusses how there are four types of extrinsically motivated users of gamified content too: Networker, Exploiter, Consumer and Self-Seeker.

• Self Seekers Act on Users for Extrinsic Reward- They will answer questions and help others, but purely to get rewards from the system. Quantity over quality – unless quality gets them more rewards. They are uninterested in the social aspect of users
• Consumers Act on the System for Extrinsic Reward - A consumer wants to use a system that can give them something. An example would be people who use one particular airway because of the loyalty scheme.
• Networkers Interact with Users for Extrinsic Reward - They want social connections, but to give them some form of status or reward. An example of this are people who network and tweet etc. just to get higher Klout scores
• Exploiters Interact with the System for Extrinsic Reward - Similar in nature to Self Seekers, they are the people who will like or upvote or retweet something multiple times to gain reward. Unlike Free Spirits, who will seek the boundaries of a systems capabilities for fun, they are very likely to find the loopholes in your rules and exploit them

It seems to me that these 8 types of users of gamified content can also be used to describe most of the people we come across in our organisations, if not our lives at large.  And what also seems likely is that people will fit into different categories in different situations.  For example, you might be a Socialiser and Achiever at home, but be a Networker and Consumer at work.  So while these types are important when designing gamified content, they could also be very useful when designing other interventions: training, rewards structures, communications and so on.

For more information about sim-uni, visit: www.sim-uni.co.uk and feel free to let me know your views and experiences in the comments section below.

Please follow @paulladley on Twitter and like games-ED’s Pinterest, Facebook and Google+ pages for blog updates and other interesting games based learning things.