I've been thinking about this idea a lot lately - I think gamifying a single course could produce a modest boost in performance, but it seems like this particular implementation, as endtime pointed out, simply changes some names.<p>I think this would be a way cool system around which you could base secondary education. But instead of the generic game parallels, you could treat the four years of high school as a sort of mash of character creation and early game exploration. If you had 5 lines of progression (Math, Science, Social Sciences, Art, Language) that went from level 1-10, each requiring passing exams, preparing presentations, or completing projects, you could allow students to naturally find the work that pushes them personally.<p>The one big thing I think is necessary to really see the benefit of a game-like system in education is <i>the ability to try stuff multiple times.</i><p>Consider an alternate version of angry birds. In this alternate version, there are 150 levels, many of which mirror the fun and challenging levels we know and love in the original. The 150 levels are in 15 worlds, each with 5 practice levels and 5 "test" levels. After playing the 5 practice levels as much as you want, you can play the 5 test levels all in a row, precisely once. However you do, that's how you did. That's your score.<p>Not a whole lot of <i>replayability</i> there. While it can be necessary (especially at the university level) to distinguish between those who are and are not competant in a given field, I think game mechanics can teach us a whole lot more about how to make people <i>want</i> to achieve.<p>Additional thoughts:<p>- Unlockables could be really exciting i.e. you have silent study hall until you hit level 4 in any subject, at which point you gain access to the study lounge; if you're level 10 in at least 1 area, you can apply for off-campus lunch<p>- Incentives for tutoring would be cool. (Think "Prestige Levels")<p>- DATA! Tracking these things would give unprecedented amounts of data that could provide a lot of insight into the way students are progressing through the material.<p>- For this to really work, you would have to develop a new system for scheduling courses in high school that more resembled a college. <i>This is not a bad thing.</i> I think giving high school kids a bit more autonomy in deciding how and what they go about learning with their time will produce more well-adjusted, mature adults.<p>- The specifics of how to implement a lot of these systems are less difficult than you think.