Have you ever heard about gamification?
Gamification is a methodology that takes dynamics typical from the games and takes them to professional and educative scopes. This brings benefits to virtual learning environments because it helps students to achieve a high level of motivation, allowing meaningful learning.
Ludifica is an extension developed by BambuCo and Competencias Digitales team of the University of Medellin, for the LMS Moodle platform, which takes advantage of gamification using concepts such as reward systems and personal recognition in order to motivate participants in the development of courses and learning activities.
Sum points, level up and get coins!
Taken from: https://uvirtualabierta.udem.edu.co/
In the Ludifica block you can see elements such as the score, coins and benefits that have been earned, the level of the student and so the level of their avatar (image 1).
Points system
The users will get points as they accomplish certain previously defined actions. Among the actions are:
- Activities completion.
- Courses completion.
- Streak of days (consecutive logins).
Points will give coins and also serve to level up. In the block you will see the position of the players by the number of points obtained, as you can see in the following image:
Taken from: https://uvirtualabierta.udem.edu.co/
Nivel
As the users get points, they will level up. This will be reflected in the Ludifica block of their dashboard area and at the aspect of the acquired avatars (image 3).
Taken from: https://uvirtualabierta.udem.edu.co/
Coins
You can get coins by accumulating points, this means that for a certain amount of points, you will be awarded with a certain amount of coins. Users will be able to exchange them for incentives in the store.
Keep in mind that after the purchase of an incentive, the coins are spent, but points are not subtracted, this way you continue adding points until you get more coins and up to the next level.
Explore the store!
Avatars
The users can acquire avatars at the store or in the button “Avatars” from the Ludifica block in their dashboard (image 4).
Taken from: https://uvirtualabierta.udem.edu.co/
Some avatars are free and others can be purchased with the coins earned. The user can use an avatar that they have previously acquired and it will identify them in their dashboard.
In the list of avatars, the one in use is indicated by an icon in the upper right.
Benefits
The purpose of the benefits is to encourage the realization of the activities and courses. They can be virtual benefits or benefits in the real world if you want so.
Taken from: Entornos, instructivo Ludifica.
Users can buy benefits in the store in exchange for a certain amount of coins, and the admin of the platform can also configure them, so they do not have any cost. It can be kept for personal use and, if the student wishes so, they will have the option to share it with another user if they have it in their contact list.
Badges
The Ludifica block takes benefit of Moodle’s badges feature and prints them in a section called ‘Achievements’. This will show the image of the badge awarded to the user, its name, description and in addition to this, the user will be able to share it on their social networks.
Note:
The design of the scenarios, characters and the other elements in the plugin would depend on the graphic line of each platform and of the purpose that you have. The setting of levels, currencies, rewards and other attributes are the responsibility of the institution that acquires the extension.
If you are interested in this extension and you want to implement it on your Moodle site, you can write to us at: info@bambuco.co