One of the stereotypes of the millennial generation (my generation), is that we received trophies just for showing up and were showered in praise for the most mundane of “accomplishments.” Regardless of whether or not this is true, I do believe that my generation have grown more accustomed to complex systems of rewards than previous generations. I remember one teacher in 3rd grade set up a chart with each student’s name and a bunch of blank boxes. Each time she saw someone helping out a classmate or cleaning up more than their share, they’d get a star to place next to their name. For every 5 stars someone got, they got to pick out a toy from the toy bin. My middle school had a similar system of rewards that earned you a blue card that could be redeemed for similar trivial items. Even my senior year of high school, I remember my physics teacher would give out small cards with images of Newton, Galileo, Volta, etc. to the lab team with the lowest percent error on their weekly project. These cards were not redeemable for anything, but instead pasted onto the cover of one’s lab manual for bragging rights. Looking back, it’s pretty impressive that my teacher managed to make 17 and 18-year-olds with BMWs become intensely competitive for a 4”x4” piece of cardstock.
While rewards may not have been as prominent in classrooms before my generation, they play on the need we all have to compare and compete with others. This article,How to Make Facebook, FedEx, and Amazon More Fun, by Gabe Zichermann, who studies “game mechanics” claims that points-based games like the ones I’ve described above are the next big thing in social media. He says we can already see this trend starting with programs like Foursquare which award badges and titles based on which locations one frequents. He predicts that this trend will only expand and that you’ll earn points for filing your taxes early and doing community service.
Looking at all of the examples of reward systems that I could think of and at Zichermann’s examples, the common thread is not they they encourage one to behave properly or perform tasks better, but that they serve to increase one’s investment in a certain activity. In physics class, rewards were intended to make us more precise, in 3rd grade they made us better classmates and in Foursquare they get us to be dependent on the application. Giving people a reason to think they have an investment with you- even if the actual monetary value is nil- is a great way to keep your audience engaged.
It’s more difficult to implement a reward or point system with no underlying value in the admissions process, but it would be easy to provide rewards with small monetary values for prospects. In some ways, many schools already do with early decision programs- the student is rewarded for their interest in the school with being able to apply and find out their acceptance status earlier. On a smaller scale an admissions department can reward students with something like a bookstore gift card for simple tasks like engaging on a Facebook page, directing friends to the institution’s social media sites, or stopping by for a campus visit. Many corporations have contests on their Facebook page for creative uses for a product- why not have a contest for students wearing their college sweatshirt in exotic locales, or pictures taken on campus? Studies have shown that most people become fans of Facebook pages for the perks, so making engagement a game will ultimately increase interactions, page hits and interest.
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