Author:
Răzvan Rughiniș
Affiliation:
University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania
Keyword(s):
Badge Architectures, Achievements, Gamification, Motivation, Reputation, Engineering Education.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Communities of Practice
;
Community Building
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
Immersive Learning
;
Learning/Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
;
Social Context and Learning Environments
;
Social Media and Enhanced Learning in Engineering Education
;
Society, e-Business and e-Government
;
Web Information Systems and Technologies
Abstract:
The paper presents a critical discussion of badge architectures and an illustrative case study. We argue that common glosses of badges as simplistic or as extrinsically motivating are misleading when designing or evaluating badge architectures. We propose to focus on their descriptive and creative effects: badge architectures may create user portraits, system maps, and dedicated timelines, supporting new forms of attention within the system and at meta-system levels. By affording new activities in and about the system, badges can offer participants resources to internalize their extrinsic motivation. Our case study illustrates the complexity of minimalist badge architectures, presents two innovative features, and discusses challenges in implementation.