Explore the idea of making Code Club a gamified system

[lewtds]

The UK Code Club site is very simple and I think that we can do better by using a few game elements on the site. On the surface of it, many games include the there PBL elements, Points, Badges and Leaderboards. The theory behind how these work, when you should and shouldn't use them etc is pretty complex, so I won't go into it here.

However, our project is a pretty good candidate for PBL deployment. Like many gamified systems it's one where people know they should volunteer, but it would be more rewarding to be recognised for their contribution. On top of that, why not introduce some fun.

So here's what I'm suggesting.

Points should be awarded for ongoing discrete tasks, such as translations. A point a lesson. The inspiration for this comes from the TED translation programme. Check out Hoa's translation page at https://www.ted.com/profiles/565283/translator.

Translators get acknowledged and the points give them a concrete idea of how much work they've done. It also gives people who drop onto their site an idea of what they've done, so they get social kudos too.

Badges are different. These are a visual representation of some achievement. In this case I think that teaching a whole term is worthy of a badge. These should come in different levels, bronze, silver and gold. For example, you get a bronze Scratch badge for teaching a term of Scratch, and a silver for teaching it twice, then gold for three times.

Badges do the following things: Provide a goal for users to strive towards Provide guidance as to what is possible within the system. This is an important feature for getting a user engaged in the system They are a signal of what a user cares about and what that user has performed. In this case it shows that the user is a Scratch person and has taught this to a certain level, so it shows what that user is capable of Badges are status symbols and tribal markers, so people can seen visually who is also a Scratch person and they can talk to them

These badges would be made in Mozilla Open Badges, so would be transferrable

The final puzzle piece is the Leaderboard. This is the most controversial part of the puzzle as leaderboards, when badly done can have a huge demotivating effect, so we must tread carefully. In this case, I was inspired by the rather subtle leaderboard at http://www.ted.com/people/translators

This isn't a harsh table with the "best" at the top, but a rather human grid of people with a small number next to them. I rather like the idea of people being shown in their "tribes" with the Scratch badge owners in one place etc etc. Perhaps a translation ranking similar to the TED version would work too.

The idea is that, by introducing these elements, we make being a volunteer mean something, and make that meaning an ongoing thing, that people constantly seek to improve upon.

By being publicly acknowledged as a Scratch person or a top translator, I hope that in the long term we'll get better known for the work we done.

In a more selfish note, wouldn't it be cool for us to be on it! We've done the work and we would get a head start in the game!

[andytgeezer]

Chuh. I just realise that I wrote all that and Trung gets the credit for it! Meh. I thought I sounded really smart too

[lewtds]

I've copied and formatted the description of this issue into issue #12 (the old one about acknowledging volunteer work). You can have your credit now ;) Closing.