Today’s  post comes to you from Colleen Sutherland, recent Tufts Museum Studies graduate and previous co-editor of the Tufts Museum Studies Blog. To read some of her previous work, click here.

Recently, I stumbled across this article called “8 Principles of Gamified Learning.” It not only explains what gamified learning is (and how it’s different from just playing games), but it also raises some interesting thoughts for museums. How can we provide interpretation in exhibitions or programs in a different manner? Can we take the fascination that people have with games, whether virtual or otherwise, and use them to help connect to visitors’ lives? Should we? Taking this article farther, is there a way to evaluate gamified learning to see if museums can use it effectively to help people learn, or to bring in new audiences?

I think this article is a great piece to start (or continue) thinking about how museums use their collections.

You can also see last year’s NMC Horizon Report for more examples on how museums are using gamification in exhibitions or on websites (check out the article on pages 38 and 39).

If you have any examples that you have seen and you think work, let us know in the comments!