The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Gamification
Conference Archive
DevLearn 2014 Conference & Expo - October 29, 2014

Lauren Fernandez
Professional Skills & Development Instructor
Success Factors, an SAP Company

Enzo Silva
Learning Strategist
SAP

Omar Zaki
Senior Instructional Designer
SuccessFactors, an SAP Company
Gamification is one of the hottest buzzwords in the learning world, yet its true benefits are not yet proven or fully understood. We need stories about what works and what doesn’t to enable us to grasp and harness the power and possibilities of this shiny new toy. Instructional designers, trainers, consultants, and others need to know how gaming can work alongside or integrated with both better-known and emerging tools.
In this case-study session you will explore the theory and practice of gamification with concrete stories of both success and failure and the key ingredients of each. You will learn the failures of Success Factors’ first gamification effort, and the lessons learned. You will also examine how it applied those lessons to its next gamification initiative, learn how it succeeded, and see the results. You will walk through the entire step-by-step process of the project, including program design, game mechanics, and technical details.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to create a successful gamification initiative
- How to apply basic game elements to a learning event
- The most important pitfalls to avoid
- Step-by-step game creation
- How to gain executive buy-in for learning games
- How to judge what aspects of gamification will and won’t work for your audience
- How to optimize content for gamification
- Quick wins for game mechanics independent of your platform
Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers,
ideally with a basic knowledge of game design and mobile-application design and
development.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Responsive design, Google Docs, SurveyMonkey, and Amazon Web
Services.
Handouts
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