For the past two years, Accord Social has been one of the top gamified and fully social LMS on the market. We are excited to announce that now the standard version of Accord LMS will now offer gamification elearning features consisting of badges and leaderboards for no additional cost.
 

Gamification 101

Gamification is a great way to take your training program to a new level of Learner satisfaction.  People typically take training only when it is required. When completed nothing happens except that they get a green check mark and no longer receive email notification warnings. Gamification elearning changes that by rewarding accomplishments with badges, positive feedback and peer recognition. Studies have conclusively shown LMS gamification encourages learners to more fully utilize their training resources.

 

 

The Learner Experience

 

Education Activity Points
You can create any type or number of Education Activities appropriate for your training material.  Learners earn Activity Points by successfully completing Learning Elements that have been associated with the Points.  LE list all associated Activities and Points in their details which the Learner can access from their My Plan or Catalog. Once the LE is completed, the points are awarded. The Activity points are then used for both Badges and Leaderboards.


 
Badges
At a high level, badges are recognition for a competency. Systematically speaking, a badge is a visual award for accumulating the type and number of Activity Points that the badge requires. Badges are normally used to indicate that a certification has been met, a competency has been earned, or the Learner has completed an effort worthy of acknowledgement.

When a Learner completes enough training to earn the points required for a badge, a toast notification will popup in the top right corner of their screen.

 

User Profile
By clicking on the Learner’ display name in the top right corner of the LMS, the Learner can review his/her activity point accumulation and badge achievements.



The Messages section will list messages from other users as well as system notifications, such as Badge awards. Unread message and notification counts are clearly shown in the Learners Profile bar in the upper right corner of each page. Learners can elect for messages and notifications to be sent to their personal email addresses as well.



Leaderboards
A Leaderboard displays how learners are progressing. The leaderboard can be site wide, or filtered to specific groups of Learners.  Leaderboards sort from top to bottom by activity point accumulation and display badges earned as well.  Leaderboards are useful for Learners to see how their achievements compare against others within a similar Team or Group.

Selecting Community > My Groups allows Learners to view the Groups they belong to as well as a Leaderboard with all Learners in the community.  This display includes both Activity Point totals and Badges.



When you drill down into a specific Group, on the Group > Members page a Leaderboard is also presented but only lists the Learners in that group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gaming Administration

Administrators are responsible for configuring the LMS with the necessary Education Activities, Activity Points, and Badges to enable the Accord gaming features.

Education Activities
The first step is to create Education Activities appropriate for your training content. Each Education Activity will automatically create a Gaming Activity of the same name that can be used to award Badges.  Gaming Activity and Badge management are discussed in the next section.  

To create an Education Activity:
1. Log in as an Administrator with access to the Configuration tab
2. Go to LMS Admin > Configuration > Education Activities
3. Click Add New Education Activity
4. Enter a Name and Description if desired
5. Click Update



Learning Catalog Management
Any LE can award Education Activities based on successful completion.

1. Click LMS Admin > Catalog
2. Expand the Learning Folder that contains the LE on which you wish to award Education Activities
3. Right click on the LE title and select LE Details
4. Expand the Education Activities section and enter the number of points to award for each appropriate Education Activity.
5. Click Update



Activity Points
Our focus now moves to the Gaming configuration.  When an Education Activity is created in the LMS, a Gaming Activity with the same name is created. Open the Gaming management UI on the LMS Admin > Gaming page to find all of the LMS associated Activities. For LMS activities, it is important to leave the Activity Points to their default value of 1. The Activity Points awarded for LMS Education Activities are set in each LE details as described above.


 


Badges
Once you have created the Education Activities and corresponding Gaming Activities, you are ready to set up a badge.

1. Click LMS Admin > Gaming and select the Badges tab
2. Click Add New Badge
3. Enter a Name, upload the badge image using the Upload File button
4. Select the Activities  and required points in the Points field
5. Click Add
6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 if you would will require multiple Activities to earn the badge.
7. Click Save

 

 

 

 

Congratulations!

You have now set up your first Badge in the Accord LMS. Once a Learner successfully completes the associated Learning Element, they will be awarded the Badge.

For more information, please review the Learner & Admin – Gamification video.  If you have any questions please contact your Accord Sales Representative or email sales@accordlms.com.