This panel proposes discussing how to properly gamify education using elements of game design. It describes how the presenters revamped their social media certification curriculum by adding goals and voluntary participation, which are two of the four core elements missing from many gamification efforts. They accomplished this by developing an alternate reality game (ARG) in the form of a crime story that students had to solve using social media tools. This engaged students and encouraged cooperation, providing compelling reasons for voluntary participation. Quantitative and qualitative measures showed this gamified approach vastly improved learning outcomes. The presenters were also awarded an industry prize for their work and are eager to discuss effective gamification design.

1. GAMIFICATION SUCCESS:
SOCIAL MEDIA
EDUCATION
2017 SXSW PanelPicker Submission

2. MEET SEAN AND JENNY
2017 SXSW PanelPicker Submission

3. MEET SEAN AND JENNY
This is Sean Carey
and Jenny Newman.
They are part of
Dell’s Social Media
and Community
University team
(SMaC U).

4. MEET SEAN AND JENNY
They have nearly 30
years combined
training and
development
experience on top of
being social media
subject matter
experts.
They are out of
cheesecake.

5. MEET SEAN AND JENNY
Here’s Sean acting
as MC for a panel of
social media
influencers just
before this year’s
SXSW.

6. MEET SEAN AND JENNY
This is Jenny
teaching social
media to a packed
ballroom in Panama
for #socialmediaday
2016.

7. MEET SEAN AND JENNY
They are also giant
dorks.
The upshot? They
can talk, they love to
have fun, and they
know their stuff.

8. THE PROBLEM WITH
GAMIFICATION
2017 SXSW PanelPicker Submission

9. WHAT IS A GAME?
A game is a problem solving
activity, approached with a
playful attitude.
-- Jesse Schell (game designer,
professor)

10. WHAT IS A GAME?
Playing a game is the
voluntary attempt to overcome
unnecessary obstacles.
-- Bernard Suits (philosopher)

11. Goals
Rules
Feedback
Voluntary
Participation
THE 4 CORE ELEMENTS OF A GAME
Any game worth its
salt (whether a video
game, sport, board
game, or an
enterprise learning
gamification effort)
puts thought and
design effort into 4
core elements.

12. Rules
Feedback
WHAT GAMIFICATION IS MISSING
Most current
gamification efforts
fail because of an
obsession with
implementing
leaderboards, points,
and badges as a
template approach
to getting people to
take a prescribed
action.

13. Rules
Feedback
WHAT GAMIFICATION IS MISSING
While those tools
have their place,
they only address 2
of the 4 core
elements of a truly
engaging game.

14. WHAT GAMIFICATION IS MISSING
Without the other 2
elements,
gamification is
nothing more than a
glorified Skinner box
where people spam
the lever for food
pellets.

15. WHAT GAMIFICATION IS MISSING
Because gamification
fails to address goals
and voluntary
participation, people
feel manipulated.
Also, once the
rewards dry up, so
does the desired
behavior.

16. HOW WE TACKLED THE
PROBLEM
2017 SXSW PanelPicker Submission

17. Goals
Voluntary
Participation
ADDING THE MISSING ELEMENTS
When we revamped
our social media
certification
curriculum, we
realized there was a
way we could fully
gamify the
experience to get
learners more
involved.

18. Goals
Voluntary
Participation
ADDING THE MISSING ELEMENTS
We had to provide
compelling goals and
reasons for the class
to participate of their
own volition.

19. Goals
Voluntary
Participation
ADDING THE MISSING ELEMENTS
We found the perfect
blend of educational
opportunities and
missing game
elements in the form
of an ARG (alternate
reality game).

20. PRIVATE EYES AND ARGS
We built a crime
story as a way to
make the
courseware
compelling.
We did this by
creating online
characters, scripting
social media
dialogue, and

21. PRIVATE EYES AND ARGS
We found that the
goal of catching the
real culprit
encouraged the
class’ attention and
spurred them to
participate and
cooperate in groups.

22. PRIVATE EYES AND ARGS
They had to use
social media tools
like LinkedIn and
Twitter in real time
to experience the
story and uncover
the clues required to
determine who the
criminal was.

23. PRIVATE EYES AND ARGS
We completed the
mood required for
voluntary
participation by
taking on hard-
boiled detective
personas while
facilitating and
playing Rat Pack-era
music to set the

24. IT WORKED
By both quantitative
and qualitative
measures, this new
gamified courseware
was a vast
improvement.

25. IT WORKED
We even won this
nifty industry award
for the project!

26. PICK US
In conclusion:
Real gamification
works when done
right, we’re proud of
how we
implemented game
design into our
courseware, and
we’d love to tell you
more!

27. PICK US
In conclusion:
Vote for us.
Or at least get us
more cheesecake.