1. Motivation
Twitter:@kkapp

2. Agenda
1 2
What rewards are the
most effective?
What are the types of
reward structures for learning?
3
How do various types of rewards
motivate?

3. Intrinsic Motivation
Motivation
Extrinsic
Motivation

4. Types of Achievements
Measurement Achievement -Completing a task to a
certain degree.
Measured against:
- other player’s performance.
- their own past performance.
- standard set by game designer.
It is evaluative in nature.

5. Types of Achievements
Measurement Achievement -Completing a task to a certain
degree.
Measurement Achievements
Measured against: are evaluative because they
allow learners to reflect on their
- other player’s performance. performance in relation to goal
- their own past performance. they have set for themselves or
- standard set by game designer. that have been set in the game.
It is evaluative in nature.
Think of a scale.

6. Types of Achievements
Completion Achievement -Completing a task.
Does not tell a learner how well they have done.
Primarily binary—you’ve completed a task or you haven’t

7. Best Practice
Use measurement achievements instead
of completion achievements to increase
Intrinsic motivation through feedback.

9. Types of Task
Boring Task –Something a learner doesn’t want to do.
A task the learner would not engage in unless they received something
in return.

10. Type of Task
Interesting Task –Task the player would engage in without any
additional motivation.
No need to provide rewards but, do provide feedback.
Make achievements
attentional.

11. Type of Task
Interesting Task –Task the player would engage in without any
additional motivation.
No need to provide rewards but, do provide feedback.
Make achievements
Attentional-Focus the learner’s
attentional.
attention on important lessons
or strategies used for the task.

12. Best Practice
Reward players for boring tasks and give
them feedback for interesting tasks.
Make achievements for interesting tasks
attentional.

13. Yes, you picked
correctly, you recive
the X-Ray Award
© Karl M. Kapp 2007
www.gadgetsgamesandgizmos.
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book

14. Achievement Difficulty
Achievement Difficulty–An achievement should be the result of
overcoming a challenging goal for a learner to fulfill as moderate
difficulty leads to superior gains in performance and a greater sense
of accomplishment upon completion.
Achieving a goal increases a learner’s confidence.

15. Achievement Difficulty
Use verbal “boosts” to motivate players through
difficult achievements.

16. Best Practice
Make achievements challenging for the
greatest returns in learner performance
and learning. Phrase achievements and
design interaction to increase player
confidence and reflection on task.

17. Good job! You have
Good job! You have
X properly aligned the
properly aligned the
antenna by placing it 14
antenna by placing it 14
inches from the plane.
inches from the plane.

18. Goal Orientation
Performance Orientation – Learners who favor performance
orientation are concerned with other people’s assessment of
their competence.
These are direct goals like time and points earned.
This tends to result in less risk-taking and less in-game
exploration.
When individuals are given performance-oriented goals, they
typically perform better only with simple, non-complex tasks.

19. Goal Orientation
Mastery Orientation – Learners who favor mastery orientation are
concerned with improving their proficiency.
Learner’s with this mindset will accept errors and seek challenging
task that provide them with an opportunity to develop their
competences.

20. Goal Orientation
Mastery Orientation –
When given mastery goals, players will have more self-confidence
and utilize more effective strategies. Research shows that people
given master-oriented goals perform better on complex tasks.
Create achievements that acknowledge that effort players are
putting forth and support them during challenges.

21. Best Practice
For learning tasks requiring creativity or
complicated strategies, instill mastery
orientation.

22. Achievement Expectancy
Unexpected Achievement– Occur when a learner did not anticipate
receiving an achievement. They perform a task with no expectancy
of receiving a reward.
Unexpected achievements can be used to encourage creative play
and exploration in a game environment.

23. Achievement Expectancy
Expected Achievement– Expected achievements allow learners to
set goals for themselves before they begin. There are for well-
established benefits to having learners set goals for themselves.
1- Goals will allow the learner to have objectives and allocate their
resources to complete them.
2-Having a goal increases the amount of effort someone is willing to
put into a task.
3-Learners who have goals are less likely to give up when they
encounter a difficult task.
4-Learners who set goals for themselves will acquire new knowledge
and skills to meet those goals.

24. Best Practice
Primarily use expected achievements so players
can establish goals for themselves and create a
schema of the game (information to be
learned).
Make sure achievement descriptions accurately
reflect what needs to be done by the player and
what is important.

25. Negative Achievements
Negative Achievement– Earning a negative achievement can cause
a player to lose their sense of competence and independence which
will make their game playing experince less fulfilling. .

26. Best Practice
Don’t use negative achievements as a
punishment for failure. Provide feedback
within the system that can assist
struggling players.

27. Achievements as Currency
Currency– Earned achievements can be sued as virtual currency in
games. The learner then can then “buy” items or rewards they see
as valuable within the game. Currency rewards have a high return
on task performance.

28. Best Practice
Offer players currency for completing
tasks instead of rewards to give them a
greater sense of control. Use a currency
system to enhance a game, but be
careful that currency acquisition doesn’t
become the main reason the learners
play the game.

29. Incremental & Meta Achievements
Incremental– Occur for completing more than one task in sequence.
Incremental achievements are awarded in a chain for performing
the same task through scaling levels of difficulty.
Make the spacing between the incremental achievements, both in
time and in-game location, separated enough so the players don’t
feel too controlled.

30. Incremental & Meta Achievements
Incremental and meta achievements can be used as a type of
scaffolding, a “training wheels” approach used in teaching. Here,
learners are given a seemingly complex task to do, only its broken
into smaller pieces and sequenced. Each time they perform a small
portion of the task they are rewarded.

31. Best Practice
Use incremental and meta achievements
to hold the learner’s interest for longer
period of time and guide them to related
activities.

32. Cooperative Achievements
Cooperative Achievements – Earned by learners working toward a
goal together. Cooperative environments have been associated with
academic achievement increased self-esteem and higher positivity
when evaluating peers.
A good way to do this is to encourage experienced learners to help
novices within the game.

33. Cooperative Achievements
The metrics used for earning achievements should assess individual
performances within the group setting.
The groups should be kept relatively small to decrease social loafing
and process loss.

34. Best Practice
To foster a cooperative environment,
offering achievements for more
advanced learners to assist less
experienced learners should be
considered as an option. Keep groups
small.

35. Summary
• Type of Achievement,
• Achievement Difficulty
• Goal Orientation
• Expected or Unexpected
• Achievement as Currency,
• Don’t Use Negative Achievements,
• Incremental and Meta-achievement
• Cooperative Achievements.

36. Assignment:
Create a reward structure for the project you are current working
on.
Considerations:
Type of task, type of achievement, achievement difficulty, goal
orientation, expected or unexpected, currency, negative
achievement, meta-achievement and/or cooperative achievements.