Using leaderboards is a useful engagement tool and we use them as they have much more impact than just simply creating a score tally for you and your work colleagues!
Recent research articles such as the one found in the journal Computers in Human Behavior examined in detail the specific parts of the process that help inform the participants cognitive and emotional behaviour within task performance and goal setting.
The article suggested that the psychological “Goal Setting Theory” developed by Locke in the early 1960’s and later expanded upon could be applied to gamification. They created an experiment to showcase how which offered some interesting results that mirrored some of our own thoughts. The main outcomes of these were the empirical evidence that was created to demonstrate that gamification could be used to boost task performance.However the use of these exisitng theories with new techonlogy did not constitute the creation of new theories and that the practical use of leaderboards can be a proactive way to gamify task performance.
Just in case you need a refresh, goal setting theory centres around self-regulation in which you set individual goals that are then regulated to monitor the end result and leaderboards which see you look at the positioning your rank on a task forcing you to engage with your own competitiveness. This type of engagemnet can provide various optional goals for the individual participants creating an internal motivation to complete a task.
How does this relate to our games and courses?
The software we have developed allows you to take learning into your own hands and see where and when you need to apply yourself. This ownership of your own compliance and knowledge helps take a box ticking exercise into a task that you engage with purposefully.
The games themselves offer constant feedback and the ability to monitor your progress section by section. This in turn allows you to set your own optional goals such as beating your existing time or gaining that all important 100 percent pass rate!
