Gamifying E-learning Course Content

Nowadays, the ability to design teaching and learning tools and content in the form of innovative ICT based educational applications is an essential skill given the increasing time that people spend on mobile devices and the transformation of educational systems to accommodate both formal and non-formal education and align them with life - long learning and the increasing demand for distance education. Persuasive technologies and methodologies, such as gamification, have been adjusted and developed to conform with Learning Management Systems used for online education in order to foster the students' motivation and boost their performance. In this paper, we introduce a methodology for developing educational applications based on well-established behavioral and cognitive models making use of gamification elements. Guidelines for developing a gamified course are offered and instances of a sample gamified course offered on the Moodle platform are presented to illustrate the use of the available mechanics.