Fuck gamification in e-learning— we all prefer the addictive
Engage
There’s lots of talk about the gamification of learning on the interweb, but when i log into my e-learning site i can’t even tell what happened since last time i was there ☹
I spend hours with my e-learning window/tab open waiting for that notifications that someone has replied/rated my post, graded my assignment or posted the latest lecture recording … It never happens ☹
All those constructs i understand from the rest of the internet, the reasons i leave a tab open, my reasons for interacting, or just regularly visit a site are just not there in e-learning.
Call it an addictive design, random hits of dopamine, social media patterns or whatever it is that stuff that makes things personal, interactive, fun — or even a game if you like.
Without that — your site is just another boring yawning content dump, visited and forgotten.
If your wondering why your students are not engaged in your site and learning, its probably because — like myself — we are all used to that rather intoxicating feedback loop that games and social media provide.
In this age we are all designing for distraction — my slideshare has a new comment, i have 12 unread twitter direct messages, 3 new emails (probably from things i forgot to unsubscribe to), and i have a new project on minecraft — but the thing that we all pay the most attention to is that someone just replied to my recent interaction.
Sure, i can get a badge. woo! yay!. Next… Give me a human any day.
So yeh.
Call it an addictive design, random hits of dopamine, social media patterns or whatever it really is that stuff that makes things personal with real people, interactive, fun — or a game if you like.
Without that — your site is just another boring content dump.
Which is fine.
But for me that is not online learning — however big your end of level baddy is.
