Gamification

As part of the imc Learning Suite gamification solution we offer “Experience Points” and “Badges”, both are designed to promote learning by developing a competitive spirit and building ambition / desire to perform.

Intelligent point systems increase the motivation of the learners and have an impact on the learning outcome. The achievements during the learning progress are not only assessed but also rewarded through visualisation of a new level of competence or a higher level of professional development in the Learning Portal.

This guide will walk you through the most efficient ways to set up, manage, and utilize Gamification for an optimized learning experience.

Best Practices

The following chapters describe best practices and guidelines to explain for which scenarios gamification can be used and which guidelines should be considered. By following these recommended practices, you can maximize the impact of Gamification.

General Guidelines

Badges and experience tracks, when implemented effectively, create a structured yet flexible gamification system that motivates users, rewards achievements, and encourages long-term participation. Some guidelines for the usage of gamification are independent of a specific use case and should always be considered.

Define Clear Criteria and Progression

Clarify the role of badges in your gamification strategy:

• Celebrate user achievements or milestones to encourage continued engagement and participation by including badges and experience tracks in the learner dashboard to boost motivation

• Foster a sense of belonging by using leaderboards in a team context or competition by having a leaderboard with single users to increase community engagement

• Define specific, measurable, and transparent criteria for earning badges and advancing in experience tracks.

Use Meaningful Design and Communication

• Make badges visually distinct and engaging:

  • Use unique icons, colors, and shapes for different types or tiers.

  • Ensure designs reflect the badge's theme or purpose.

  • Create a consistent style across all badges to maintain branding.

• Ensure badges are earned through specific, clear, and measurable actions, e.g. "Complete 5 tasks in a row without skipping" vs. "Be active."

• Let users share their badges and integrate into social platforms by using the “Open Badge” standard

Make Badges and Experience Tracks Progressively Challenging

• Gradually increase difficulty to maintain user interest and satisfaction. To increase motivation, it’s important that you award points even for minor activities, for example, even for completing a personal profile.

• Introduce time-limited or event-specific badges to keep the experience dynamic.

• Avoid that users lose points, such as when they make a mistake, as this will demotivate learners from trying new things or learning through trial and error.

Regularly Update and Refresh Badges

• Add new badges periodically to keep users engaged.

• Retire outdated or irrelevant badges to maintain a current and exciting system.

Steps to Configure Experience Tracks

1. Navigation entries for learners and administrator need to be created so that every target group can access experience tracks.

2. Check global settings for “Experience Area” to define if experience tracks should be shown to learners

3. Create “My Experience” panel and add it to the dashboard to provide easy access to learners and give a brief overview about the current progress

4. Configure report “Experience points per user” to be able to keep track of the user status as an administrator

Steps to Provide Experience Tracks for Learners

1. Create a new experience track to enable learners to collect points

2. Configure the leaderboard to provide a ranking for users or groups

3. Define level for the experience track to establish milestones for learners

4. Assign groups to define who should use the experience track

5. Create rules to define which actions and contents should contribute to be considered points

6. There is no clearance needed to see experience tracks in the learner view

Steps to Configure Badges

1. Navigation entries for learners and administrator need to be created so that every target group can access channels.

2. Check global settings for “Experience Area” to define parameters for open badges should be used and badges should be shown to learners

3. Check client setting “Experience Area” to define is only achieved badges should be shown or also the ones in progress

4. Add personal attribute “Show badges in public profile” to make badges visible for others

5. Create “Badges” panel and add it to the dashboard to provide easy access to learners and give a brief overview about the current progress

6. Configure “Report on badges” to be able to keep track of the user status as an administrator

Steps to Provide Badges for Learners

1. Use existing badges or create a new badge according to the companies strategy and look and feel

2. Assign groups to define who should receive the badge

3. Create rules to define which actions and contents should be considered for badge progress or achievement

4. There is no clearance needed to see badges in the learner view

Hints & Tips

• Badges are part of the “Gamification” extension module. To use this function, the “Gamification” licence module must be active, LRS architecture in place and the “Badges” navigation menu must be configured.

• An important note for rules in Badges is they only consider future learning activities and past learning activities are not taken into account on first rule creation or if changes are made to existing rules. Also, if no condition is specified, the rule always applies for the respective action of the learner and shall be considered as fulfilled!

• The recommended size for the badge is 250px or a multiple of this size.