Level Up XP Guide

What is it?

Level Up XP is a Moodle plugin to add gamification to a Moodle site.

Students receive points for their actions, visualise their progress, compete with others through a leaderboard, and unlock content based on their individual needs and experiences.

It enhances Moodle courses by using gamification to boost student engagement and motivation. It rewards students with experience points (XP) for completing activities, fosters healthy competition through leader boards, and provides progress tracking with levels and progress bars. It’s an ideal way to make learning interactive and fun.

How to set it up

1. With the editing turned on in a course, select Level up! from the 'Add block' menu.

2. Access the block on the course page and click the configuration icon.

3. Give the block a title and description and save it again.

4. Click the links in the block to access different areas:

5. Information- shows how many XP (experience points) are required for each level. You can change this from the Levels tab.

6. Leader board- shows the students in order of levels and experience points

7. Report- allows for filtering the students, levels and experience point and allows for manual editing of students' experience points via their progress bar.

8. Settings-allows various options to be turned on or off and offers settings for preventing possible cheating.

Benefits

1. Increased engagement: Gamifying the learning process with points and levels can make courses more fun and encourage students to actively participate in activities.

2. Improved course completion: By providing a clear progression path and visible rewards, students are more likely to finish the entire course.

3. Progress tracking: Students can easily see their current level and progress towards the next level, providing a sense of accomplishment.

4. Leaderboard competition: The ability to see their ranking compared to other students can motivate learners to strive for higher levels.

5. Customizable rewards: Teachers can set up different point values for various activities and tailor the gamification experience to fit their course objectives.

6. Teacher insights: Teachers can access reports to monitor student progress and identify areas where additional support may be needed.

7.Positive reinforcement: Notifications when students level up provide immediate feedback and encouragement.

Customising the levels

By default, XP sets up 10 levels of snowballing difficulty. The defaults are a good start, but you will likely want to customise the levels and their required points according to how learners can earn points.

Here is what each individual will look like. Two fields allow you to manually customise the points of this level. Expanding the fold, will reveal settings to personalise the level even further.

XP+ features

In addition to these features, XP+ provides:

• Drops (Award Points Anywhere): Instructors can embed code snippets throughout the Moodle site to award points for various actions. Drops can be used to cleverly award points when certain type of content is consumed by the student. For example, placing a drop in the feedback of a quiz only visible for perfect scores.

• Grade-Based Rewards: Assign XP based on the grades students achieve in assessments, encouraging higher performance by linking XP to specific grade thresholds.

• Rule Targeting by Activity Name: Create rules that award XP for activities with specific names across different courses, simplifying the process of setting up consistent rewards for common activities.

• Specific Course Rules: An additional condition that allows for targeting a specific course is available in the rules screen. This is particularly useful in combination with the Course completion rule as it allows for individual courses to contribute more or fewer points than others.

• Individual and Bulk Rewards: Manually award XP to individual students or import points in bulk using CSV files, facilitating recognition of achievements outside standard Moodle activities.

  

• Half Anonymity in Leaderboards: Display leaderboards with students' first names and initials, balancing recognition with privacy considerations.

• Improved Cheat Guard: Set limits on the number of points that can be earned within specific time frames, enhancing the integrity of the gamification system.

• Level and Progress Display on Profiles: Show students' current level and progress bar on their profile pages, providing a constant visual reminder of their achievements and encouraging continued engagement.

To set up XP rules:

• Navigate to the Points tab in the Level Up XP block settings.
• Assign points for actions such as:
  • Completing quizzes
  • Posting in forums
  • Viewing course materials
  • Points are given by creating conditions
  • Conditions are processed from top to bottom
  • The first condition that has its condition met will give its points
  • Use 0 points to prevent something from giving points
  • Points will never be given twice for the same thing
  • You can create both positive (awarding points) and negative (deducting points) rules. More about Rules provided below.

How it works

• As students progress throughout the course and take part in activities, they gain more XP and these XP relate to a set of levels.
• The teacher can decide the number of points to levels in the Levels tab and students can view this from the Information link.
• Students can see their progress by clicking the Leader board link:

• They can view their level and progress in the block itself, and when they move up a level, they are notified (if enabled by the teacher from the Settings tab.)