30 Killer Resources For Gamifying eLearning

Killer Gamified eLearning Resources

Following on from my previous posts on gamifying eLearning, in this post I’ve curated a bunch of killer resources to help you in gamifying your elearning courses.

So let’s get stuck straight in. In no particular order:

1. Donald Clark’s seminal white paper ‘Games in Elearning’ now a decade old, Clark sets out a useful framework for solid learning design based on gaming mechanics.
2.  Badges - Open badges, Achievements and badges  Wherever you have a scoring system, as most games do, badges can be incorporated not only as rewards, but as achievements which learners can store as validations of competencies or as certification.
3. xAPI or Tin Can If a Learning Record Store (LRS) provides external access for distributed solutions like games, simulators and other learning platforms supporting xAPI in various learning scenarios, then the xAPI opens up a world of possibilities for gamifying eLearning. Paul Welch over at Kineo, describes the way in which incorporating the Experience API (Tin Can) into the McDonald’s Till Game could open up the learner experience to lots more. For example, by accruing a team score together from individual members would allow learners to compete in teams on the leaderboard. It would also allow the game to be integrated with the other elements of the blend in the training, e.g. the more traditional eLearning and other online activities.
4. Elearning authoring software such as Elucidat provides tools and feature which make designing and building gamified eLearning very simple, e.g achievement badges, dynamic polls, branching navigation and responsive sophisticated look and feel that works on mobiles and desktops alike. It also supports the xAPI. Yay!
5. Adaptive learning people, Knewton, have done an infographic to demonstrate that gamification has tremendous potential in the education space.
6. Wharton & Kevin Werbach  I just took this MOOC and it takes a deep dive into gamification. Whilst not limited to learning design alone, it covers all the principles and provides simple and useful framework for design as well as guidance on positioning gamified design in your organisation. Prof Werbach is a friendly and authoritative narrator throughout.
7. Snap up Christopher Pappas’ free ebook, it provides lots of information about how gamification shapes eLearning.
8. The Knowledge Guru is giving away 100 articles on game based learning – a bumper list.
9. If you read my post 5 Killer examples of gamified eLearning,  you may be interested in taking a deeper dive into Kineo’s award winning  McDonnald’s Till Game
10. And while we’re on Kineo, the guys share more on gamification, posing the question: Is it good for the Blend?
11. And one last one from Kineo, Paul Welch on Game design in eLearning
12. #Gamification – the must-follow Twitter hashtag for all debate, resources and news about the games in the industry and beyond.
13. For the more visual amongst you, a useful info graphic, 30 facts about gamification in eLearning 
14. Check out Brightwave’s Real-world examples of how game-based techniques can energise online learning programmes and make a positive, measurable impact. If you're interested in gamifying learning in your organisation, this guide will give you some useful food for thought.
15. Head over to Elearning Superstars to get the lowdown on some ace examples of gamified eLearning: Finance Game,
16. Till Training Game,
17. Capability Academy,
18. Medieval Swansea,
19. Lifesaver,
20. Virtual Reality House
21. The list wouldn’t carry any authority if I didn’t mention Karl Kapp’s book: The Gamification of Learning and Instruction  
22. And well worth a read: Karl Kapp’s article: Top 10 +1 Instructional Game Design Best Practices
23. Karl Kapp’s 3 part course on Gamification in Learning Solutions Magazine
24. If you haven’t already seen them, check out my previous blog posts on this site: 5 Killer Examples of Gamified Elearning,
25. Gaming Design for Elearning,
26. The Anatomy of Good Gamified Elearning
27. Some solid design theories are presented in Talib Hussain’s useful tutorial: Serious Game Design
28. Some Gartner stats to support your proposal: Gartner says worldwide video game market to total $93 billion in 2013. Read all about it!
29. Elucidat’s 3 part series taking you through how to create non-linear and branched courses quickly with Elucidat’s powerful Gamification tools. Each article shows you how to create the a branching course from scratch.
30. Seth Priebatsch’s talk at Ted Talks Boston. Using game dynamics to influence or change behavior – the root of corporate training objectives. Argues that this decade is about building a framework for game layer on the web. Love it or hate it, motivating factors in gaming can be leveraged for education and training and this short talk explains how.

Anything to add?

I hope this collection is useful. It's by no means complete, so please add any more that you have using the comments below.