Gamification, namely applying game-like thinking to non-game applications, has been becoming a common practice in business (e.g. in frequent flyers programs or loyalty programs). Although education seems to have a promising future for gamification, the attempts have been few so far and the idea is yet to gain ground. One of the underlying reasons for this is that preparing and running a gamified course is time-consuming. Iosuo and Epema([1]) suggest using a toolbox, which consists of 7 core tools, for course gamification. The authors hold that the application of such toolbox has a strong, positive impact on students' attendance. We follow their ideas. Our contribution is an open-source computer system, developed under a working name of CyberAcademy, which helps teachers gamify their courses at minimum time expense. A prototype of the system was put to use during the fall semester (October 2013 -February 2014) at the Software Engineering course. Currently the system is used there for a course on Natural Language Processing. Our intention is to demonstrate CyberAcademy at EduLearn. We hope that the system will be further developed as an open-source project. The main idea of the system is straight-forward. The teacher systematically uploads short tasks to be completed by students. The teacher has to define how each task will be scored: automatically, by the teacher or through peer review. In the last case the solutions are being graded by a fixed number (10 by default) of randomly selected students (excluding the author). The scores for all task solutions are then generated automatically. Solutions uploaded by students are given rewards (according to their ranking) by experience points and credits. Experience points reflect the student's progress during a single course. Credits form virtual currency valid for all courses run within CyberAcademy. Credits serve as a means of trade within system users. The following gamification techniques are implemented in CyberAcademy: 1. Competition 2. Challenges 3. Story-telling 4. Decision making 5. Role-playing 6. Progress Information 7. Virtual goods and badges 8. Immediate rewarding 9. Information gap The prototype of the system was deployed in the winter semester of 2013. Out of 63 students 51 gave preference to the gamification program over the standard procedure.
