CFP: Gamification of Production Environments Workshop @ COOP’12

As part of the 10th International Conference on the Design of Cooperative Systems (COOP 2012), there’s a one-day workshop on Gamification of Production Environments on May 29, 2012 in beautiful Marseille. Abstract deadline is March 30. See the full CFP below.

Gamification of Production Environments

Work environments with a strong focus on repetitive productive tasks, such as call centres, can be stressful for employers and employees alike and suffer from high attrition rates, lack of motivation, and unclear career perspectives. An emerging trend for increasing the motivation and the involvement of people in the workplace is the introduction of game elements or full-fledged (social) games in training and development activities (“Serious Games”, “Game-Based Learning”) or their integration in the environment supporting the work tasks (“Gamification”). In the latter case, the integration can take very different forms.

However, much remains to be done to understand the effectiveness in a work environment of game elements which, to date, have been for the most part limited to training and education applications. More in general, we are interested in learning about work and experiences with the introduction of game elements in a variety of collective learning and work contexts, which we call production environments, where the activities that the people carry on have the objectives of producing a tangible result, e.g. a document or the provision of a service. Examples of production environments are call centres, bureaucratic offices, but also a university course, and other knowledge workplaces.

We would be especially interested in contributions that consider the following topics:

  • How can game elements (for example the use of a credit system, levels, etc.) improve motivation and/or performance? Could they have an impact on quality and professionalism?
  • Can game elements be used to encourage collaboration between co-workers who are generally involved in individual tasks?
  • How do you evaluate the gain of the introduction of a game element in a work environment or in a work process?
  • How do you identify where to introduce a game element in a work process?
  • How could generic game elements/mechanisms be adapted to the particular needs of gamification in production environments?

We welcome submissions related to studies, design of systems, implementation and deployment of prototypes, around (but not limited to) these topics.

The ultimate goal of the workshop is to contribute to characterise which learning and work environments can/should be enhanced by the use of which game mechanisms, according to several dimensions including collaboration, performance, and user experience. A possible outcome of the workshop could be an attempt to list commonalities among those contexts/experiences that could help/inform the design of a generic methodology for the gamification of workplaces.

Keywords: Serious Games, Gamification, Game Mechanics, Game-based Learning, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), Activity Traces / Indicators.

Find more details at: http://www.xrce.xerox.com/Research-Development/Services-Innovation-Laboratory/Work-Practice-Technology/COOP-2012-workshop

Workshop activities and paper submission

This one-day workshop will consist in oral presentations of the selected contributions, that could be papers and/or posters, followed by a discussion on the theme of the workshop, informed by the contributions of the participants.

Workshop participants should submit an extended abstract (maximum 500 words for posters and 1000 words for papers). 2-3 researchers will review each submission assessing the significance of the contribution and its relevance to the workshop theme.

Authors of accepted submissions will be asked to submit a paper (between 1000 and 2000 words for posters and between 2000 and 4000 words for papers) before the workshop takes place.

Paper submission

Papers must be sent in PDF format to the organizers: stefania.castellani@xrce.xerox.com, tommaso.colombino@xrce.xerox.com, jean-charles.marty@liris.cnrs.fr, thibault.carron@lip6.fr, sebastien.george@insa-lyon.fr

Please use the template of the conference available at: http://coop-2012.grenoble-inp.fr/callforpaper.html

Outcome

This workshop aims at collecting a number of significant contributions around the proposed theme and potentially prepare a special issue of an international review (computers in industry, JCSCW, etc.) on the proposed theme.

Important dates

  • 30 March, 2012 : Deadline for extended abstract submission
  • 12 April, 2012: Notification of acceptance
  • 7 May, 2012: Deadline for final paper submission
  • 29 May, 2012: Workshop (1st day of the COOP conference)

Organisers

  • Stefania Castellani and Tommaso Colombino, Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE)
  • Jean-Charles Marty, LIRIS, CNRS
  • Thibault Carron, LIP6, CNRS
  • Sebastien George, INSA Lyon, LIRIS, CNRS