2013/2014  KAN-SOC_VFGI  Gamification as a driver for new strategies and innovation

English Title

Gamification as a driver for new strategies and innovation

Course information
Language	English
Exam ECTS	7.5 ECTS
Type	Elective
Level	Full Degree Master
Duration	One Semester
Course period	Autumn, Spring Changes in course schedule may occur. Monday 8.00-10.30, week 6-15
Time Table	Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study board	Study Board for MSc of Social Science
Course coordinator
Peter Kjær - Department of Organization (IOA)
Course Responsible: Per Darmer /Karsten Bobek (kb.marktg@cbs.dk) Administration: Mette Busk Ellekrog (mbe.ioa@cbs.dk)
Main academic disciplines
Business psychology Management Management of Information and Knowledge Management Marketing Organization Statistics and mathematics Economics, macro economics and managerial economics
Last updated on 23-10-2013

Learning objectives

Video games are the dominant entertainment form of our time because they are powerful tools for motivating behaviour. Effective games leverage both psychology and technology, in ways that can be applied outside the immersive environments of games themselves. Gamification as a business practice has exploded over the past two years. Organizations are applying it in areas such as marketing, human resources, productivity enhancement, sustainability, training, health and wellness, innovation, and customer engagement. Game thinking requires a thoughtful understanding of motivation and design techniques. After the course the student should: Be familiar with and able to compare various theories of Gamification and be able to transform it into useful tools in the work life in order to apply these to drive innovation and development processes within management. Be able to critically reflect and analyze Gamification as a research field and business program or tool Describe in a critical and reflective way theories about game theories based on Gamification Work with concepts and tools from Gamification theories to analyze and solve specific management problems and challenges or try the untested. Describe and analyze issues on Gamification pertaining to areas such as strategy, stakeholders, employees, and consumers Understand the mechanisms of gamification and provide an understanding of its effective use

Course prerequisites

No prerequisites This course is designed as an introduction to gamification as a business practice. No particular technical knowledge or prior coursework are required. That might include: Students in business, HR, IT, design, engineering, games studies or other related fields

Examination

Home assignment:: Examination form Home assignment - written product Individual or group exam Individual Size of written product Max. 10 pages Assignment type Written assignment Duration 48 hours to prepare Grading scale 7-step scale Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner Exam period December/January and May/June Make-up exam/re-exam Same examination form as the ordinary exam

Course content and structure

What has speeding to do with everyday business? Normally you would say nothing…. But here is an example that will give you a pretty good idea of what this course is about. In Stockholm there is a street with the normal camera surveillance taking pictures every time a car is speeding. To change the behaviour of people driving too fast they instead took pictures of ALL cars passing the camera. Cars that did not exceed the speed limit participated in a lottery with the possibility to win money. The average speed on that particular road went down from 32 to 25 kmph. The above example is a very simple way of looking at Gamification as a tool to make behavioural changes. Gamification is taking theories and learning’s from the game world and introducing them to everyday business life. The overall purpose is to understand the different techniques, the different components and the different forms of Gamification and how to use it effectively. There will be examples running throughout the course, some of them in for-profit business contexts and some of them non-profit social impact kinds of contexts. This course examines the role of Gamification in business, management, organizing, and consumers. Various gaming theories, which is the base of Gamification, and the roles Gamification plays in the processes named above and in such areas as motivation, creativity, and the marketing of products and ideas are presented and critically analyzed. Gamification is a brand new concept, but with roots that goes back many years and is drawing on some very old concepts in psychology and management. In the course, we will explore the theories behind how game thinking — which is addressing problems like a game designer would — gives you the possibility to motivate employees as well as customers through the creation of engaging experiences that can transform your business. The course is designed to help understanding how Gamification is used today in the real world. As a program the work of professor Kevin Werbach, one of the major theorists within the field of Gamification, is central to this course.

Teaching methods

This course relies on traditional lectures, Harvard case discussions as well as different simulations. The content and course objectives will be combined interviews from leading authorities; Gamification experts, executives and investors. In most of the lecture segments, we will describe Gamification concepts and illustrate them with examples, screenshots, and diagrams. We will often use real-world case studies as illustrations. This will be combined with group work cases. To illustrate theories and concepts behind Gamification, we will use Leadership Casino, a negotiation simulation. The objective of the game is for teams to find solutions to a number of difficult management dilemmas and then bring the solutions into practice. By setting goals for the solutions of the dilemmas and invest money from the team's investment pool that these solutions are achieved, the teams must try to earn as much as possible. The game winner is the team that after the end of the game has the most money in its investment pool.

Expected literature

Indicative literature: Werbach, Kevin (2012): For the Win Seligman, Martin (2011): Flourish Koster Raph (2005): A theory of Fun Daniel H Pink, Daniel H. (2011): Drive Rigby, Scott (2011): Glued to Games Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman, Eric (2004): The Rules of Play