Content gamification

Just as there're different types of games from Tic-tac-toe to Halo-type games,

there are different types of gamification. One type of gamification is called
content gamification. Content gamification is the application of game elements,
game mechanics, and game thinkings to alter the content to make it more gamelike.
Content is made more gamelike by taking common elements of games and applying them
to information or material that needs to be learned or understood. Often, elements
such as story, challenge, curiosity, mystery and characters are used to transform
the material and give it a more gamelike feel. So you might add the element of
story to a series of math or algebra problems to place the student in a fantasy
context. Or you might create a mystery that needs to be solved by gathering
evidence throughout a lecture. Or by finding hidden pieces of information on a
website. The idea is not to create an entire game, but to strategically add game
elements to engage people and motivate action. Here's an example of the conversion
of a traditional instruction into content gamification. The original instruction
was traditionally design. The three-day face-to-face class was about conducting an
internal investigation. The instruction started with well-written, measurable
instructional objectives, followed by a discussion of terms and jargon, and then a
model that needed to be followed to conduct an investigation. And then a discussion
of all the forms that needed to be completed during an investigation. And finally,
a role-play of a small part of conducting an investigation. We entirely changed the
three-day session. The first day the learners walked into the room, before any
instruction, they were presented with a challenge. You're conducting an
investigation and a coworker has just walked into your office and accused your boss
of embezzling $30,000. What do you do first? We added the elements of story and
mystery, and from that point forward, the learners were part of the story. They
took on a role of the investigator. They started asking questions, trying to find
the appropriate forms and searching for the correct method of conducting the
investigation. When they needed help, the instructor provided guidance. In the end,
the learners covered the same information as in the original three-day lecture
class. But through the elements of mystery, story, and challenge, they conducted an
investigation themselves and internalized much of the policies and procedures. In
the non-gamified instruction, they learned about how to conduct an investigation.
In the gamified version, they actually conducted an investigation. They learned how
to actually do an investigation, not about how to do an investigation. In this
example, the elements borrowed from games are the elements of challenge, story,
immediate feedback, opportunity to fail, and the sense of unknown or mystery. These
elements, common in many games, were applied to the content of conducting an
investigation and ended up transforming the learning from passive to an active
process. This is the concept of content gamification, making the content more
gamelike by adding game elements and applying game thinking.