Hello Meredith,

Currently, we use badges and the "Level Up!" plugin for gamification in Totara. We then run monthly competitions to see who has completed the most badges, as well as who has the highest level.

I would like to see more interactive options for gamification in Totara. I feel that we could make progressing through training feel like a person is growing in skill. As of right now, it feels like a list of courses where completing a new course is merely tacking on another +1. Each course should give the user the feeling that their learning has improved them. There needs to be some meaningful gamification created for Totara, not merely +1 here and there.

Best,

Chelsea

Hi Meredith,

Some areas that immediately spring to mind are:

• Leader boards
  
• Badges 
  
• Dashboards
  
• Earning points to 'spend'
  
• Earning bonus points for specific tasks done within time limits
  

I'm currently working on a new Totara where we are:

1. Writing similar functionality to the "Level Up!" plugin but it works by allocating points for events at the site context rather than at the course context.  
2. Enhancing badges to be able to issue them based on the points gained through site participation.
   
3. Creating a report source that allow reports based on the points earned so that we can show leaderboards based on points.  We use the standard graphical reports functionality with this custom report source to do this.
   
4. Allow learners to gain a site Rank e.g novice, expert etc which are based on badge achievements.
   

We've also implemented a routemap in the past where learners can check their learning progress via their personalised learning routemap. They could see their progress quickly and visually, as well as any areas where they might be falling behind.

I would also look at platforms that do this already, e.g. Kaboodle (http://www.firstfriday.biz/digital-social-learning/) and Growth Engineering’s Academy LMS (http://www.growthengineering.co.uk/academy-lms/)

David

Hi Meredith / All,

I am currently researching gamification as part of an academic study, in particular structural gamification. To date, I have not come across a single LMS provider that has introduced any standardised gamification features into their online learning environments. This in part, I believe is due to the infancy of gamification when compared to eLearning. Gamification in eLearning really only started to gather traction since early 2012.

There are a number of deficiencies in learning management systems when it comes to gamification, in highlighting them, they may provide idea's and suggestions for introduction to the Totara LMS:

• Limited integration support to connect game enabled learning interactions with current learning management systems and/or talent management platforms
  
• No available tools to integrate gamified learning constructs into other enterprise mobile applications and native mobile learning apps
  
• A lack of available reporting tools and analytics to assess the effectiveness of gamifying learning practices by correlating gaming results against established learning objectives and achieved outcomes
  
• The collected results or outcomes of the delivered gaming experiences are not easily integrated into an organisation’s learning platform system of record for consolidated reporting and management.
  
• Out of the box support for standard game mechanics i.e. all of the expected game mechanics functions are available including support for assessing points, defining levels and achievements, earned badges and support for varied leader boards types, all with associated rewards and incentives. These can then be easily configured to activate a game-based learning experience.
  

Hope this helps :)

Terry.