Gamifying Classes

Sarah over at Harper College passed this to me: an article about gamifying classes from the Chronicle of Higher Ed, or how to use game mechanics to create incentives for students to engage course content.

The comments have some really nice ideas (language learning and literacy). The thing I thought of was to create achievements for using specific vocabulary in posts in Stats class...getting students to use the language of the course.

Is this really a little off topic?

I've been interested in game design for about 10 years, especially in the similarities between the design of games and the design of instruction--the two are really not that far apart. Several years ago, a friend introduced me to the idea of "design" in general--nothing new, but new to me.

I thought I'd share a couple of articles that came out related to the relationship between design and "game" design. I'm curious as to other's thoughts on the relationship between this and "instructional" design.

• The Ten Principles for Good Design: Part 1
• The Ten Principles for Good Design: Part 2