Set up gamification for your courses

Gamification lets students earn points and badges and compete with other students as they learn. It keeps them motivated, encourages regular study, and makes their progress easy to see.

With gamification, you can:

award points for lessons, tests, forms, and assignments;
reward daily learning habits with login streaks;
show student rankings in their accounts;
change point values and rename rewards to match your academy vision.

Here's how businesses can use gamification:

A corporate training team can launch a compliance course with a deadline. Points for completing three lessons a day and for finishing the course can help keep employees on schedule. The team can then export the ranking to report on progress.
A language school can run multiple short courses. Academy badges for logging in 7 and 30 days in a row can help students build a daily habit. The “Completed 3 courses” badge can encourage students to enroll in the next course.
A solo instructor with an evergreen course can rename the badges in their own voice. Each month, they can announce a prize for the first student to finish the course.

Let's talk about how to enable gamification, customize achievements, and view your students' performance.

Enable gamification

To enable gamification, go to Courses > Academy settings > Achievements and turn on the Achievements (Gamification) toggle.

Once you turn on the toggle, the achievement events appear below. By default, all events are turned on.

The Academy tab marks milestones across your whole academy. These badges don't affect students' course ranking. Students can earn the following badges:

Logged in for 3 days straight	Once
Logged in for 7 days straight	Once
Logged in for 30 days straight	Once
Scored 100	Every time a student scores 100 points in a course
Scored 250	Every time a student scores 250 points in a course
Scored 1,000	Every time a student scores 1,000 points in a course
Completed 3 courses	Once
Completed 10 courses	Once

The Course tab shows awarded points in a specific course. Points and badges earned in the course count toward each student's ranking. Students can earn the following points:

First lesson opened	20 points, once
First lesson completed	30 points, once
3 lessons completed in a day	50 points, up to once a day
First section completed in a week	70 points, once. The week starts when the student opens their first lesson
First test passed	30 points, once
Every test passed	20 points for every test after the first one
First assignment answer submitted	30 points, once
Every accepted assignment	20 points for every assignment you accept
First form submitted	30 points, once
Every form submitted	20 points for every form after the first one
Course completed	100 points, once
First student to complete the course	200 points, awarded to one student per course

Customize achievements

Default points and badge names apply to all courses. To customize achievements, you can set your own point values, rename badges, and turn off the events you don't need.

Change awarded points

To change how many points an event awards, go to the Course tab and click the pencil icon next to the event.

In the Points field, enter a new value and click Apply.

New point values apply to every course in your academy.

Rename badges

To rename badges in student accounts, go to Academy settings > Text > Achievements.

In the Account language field, choose a language.

Enter new names next to each event in the Badge name column. Add names for every language your students use.

If you leave a field empty, students see the default badge name.

Turn off events

To stop awarding points for an event, go to the Academy or Course tab, turn off the toggle next to the event, and click Save. Students won't see this badge in their accounts.

For example, if your courses have no forms, turn off the First form submitted and Every form submitted toggles.

Track students' progress

Once students start earning points, you can see their ranking, points, and badges.

To view progress for all students in your course, go to the Students tab. The Ranking column shows each student's ranking and points. To sort the list, click the column title.

To view progress for each student, click a student's name to open their student card, then go to the Badges tab.

In the In-course tab, choose a course to view its badges, the points awarded for each badge, and award dates. On the Academy tab, you can see the student's academy badges.

Students can also see their earned badges and ranking in the Achievements tab in their accounts.

Troubleshoot gamification issues

If gamification doesn't work as expected, one of these is the likely cause:

Students don't get points or badges	Gamification or the event is turned off in Academy settings > Achievements. SendPulse counts points only while gamification is on. Turn on both to start awarding points and badges.
A student completed 3 lessons but didn't get the badge again	SendPulse awards this badge up to once a day. The student can earn it again by completing 3 lessons on another day.
No one got the "First student to complete the course" badge	SendPulse awards this badge to the first student who completes the course only after you turn on gamification. If no one has completed it since then, the badge won’t be awarded.
Students lost their points and badges	Your academy has switched to a free pricing plan. SendPulse resets gamification progress when you downgrade, and you can't restore it. However, if you turn gamification off yourself, the progress is restored when you turn it on again.
The Ranking column is missing from the student list	Gamification is turned off for your academy. Turn it on in Academy settings > Achievements.