How to Add or Edit Game Authors on an Existing Game Shell

/0 Comments/in , /by

System administrators in Knowledge Guru can add and remove game authors from a game shell at any time. Each Knowledge Guru game must have at least one, but up to 10, Game Author(s) associated with it.  

To create a game author: 

  1. Log into your Knowledge Guru account at:  theknowledgeguru.com/login/ 
  2. Select your company from the game list. If you have no games, you will automatically be logged into your system administrator account. 
  3. Select  GAME AUTHORS/CREATE GAME AUTHOR  from the left-hand menu. 
  4. Enter the game author information and click  CREATE GAME AUTHOR. 

Once you have the game author in your system, you can associate them to existing game shells. To add a Game Author to an existing game shell: 

  1. Select GAME SHELLS/EDIT GAME SHELL  from the left-hand menu. 
  2. Select EDIT GAME SHELL for the game shell you wish to edit.  
  3. Enter names of additional game authors, up to 10, in the Additional Game Authors box. Names should appear as you type if you have already added the authors to your account.  
  4. Click the X for any additional game authors you want to remove, or use the dropdown to change the Primary Game Author. 
  5. Click SAVE. 

How to Use “Custom Mode” to Customize Mini-Game Order in Drive

/0 Comments/in /by

Knowledge Guru’s Drive has two delivery methods for minigames: Daily 3 and Custom. Read this article to learn about how to choose a delivery method. Custom allows game authors to choose how players complete their Drive experience.

To customize game order:

  1. Navigate to Customize > Minigame Delivery
  2. Choose Custom on the toggle.
  3. Drag minigames into the desired order.
  4. Choose how and when games become available. Note that the minigame at the top of the list will always be available.
  • Navigate to Customize > Minigame Delivery

There are five options to choose from to make minigames available. See below for suggestions for each option.

Always available

Use this option for any games that should be available upon first login. For example, the game for each topic that is lowest on Bloom’s Taxonomy could be set to always available, with subsequently more difficult games underneath it.

Once the previous game has been played once

Use this option if players should be able to move on to other content after being exposed to content in this game. With this option, players will only see one context before another game becomes available.

Once all content in the previous game has been seen

Use this option if players should play the minigame multiple times to gain exposure to the different scenarios and examples presented in the minigame.

Once the player has achieved mastery of the previous game

Use this option if players need a high level of mastery before moving on – such as for content that builds. This option unlocks the next game once players receive a mastery score of 800 or higher for that individual minigame.

After a certain date

Use this option to unlock content in phases, such as for a several training sessions spread across multiple weeks.

How to Add, Edit, Remove, and View Players in the System Admin Tool

/0 Comments/in , /by

When you are logged in as a system administrator in your Knowledge Guru account, you can add, edit and remove players from all your game shells. The Player Management tool also allows you to view reports on how well your players are doing in each of the games.

Manage Players Tool

Expand the Player Management option within left-hand navigation pane, and select Manage Players.

The Player Management tool allows you to do all of the following:

  • Sort players by First Name, Last Name or Email
  • Search by First Name, Last Name or Email
  • Display 10, 25, 50, 100 players at a time on screen
  • Add multiple players to different games
  • Remove players from different games
  • Remove multiple players from all game shells

How to Sort Players

You can sort players alphabetically by First Name, Last Name or Email. Click one of the three headers to sort players by that header.

How to Display More Players on the Screen

Click the drop-down menu between Show entries to select different numbers of players to be displayed on the screen at once.

How to Search for Players

Click on the Search input box to type in a first name, last name or email. It will dynamically search as you type.

How to Add Multiple Players to Multiple Games

After you select the players you want to add to a game, click the Action drop-down menu and select Add Selected to Games.

Click the drop-down menu that appears. This drop-down menu shows all the game shells in your company account. Click on a game name to select that game. (You can also search for a particular game by typing the game name.)

Click SAVE. After you save, the authoring tool will tell you how many players were added to the games and if there were any failures.

How to Remove Multiple Players from Multiple Games

After you select the players you want to remove from a game, click the Action drop-down menu and select Remove Selected from Games.

Click the drop-down menu that appears. This drop-down menu shows all the game shells you own. Click on a game name to select that game. (You can also search for a particular game by typing the game name.)

Click SAVE. After you save, the authoring tool will tell you how many players were removed from the games and if there were any failures.

How to View an Individual Player

Click on a person’s first or last name to view their individual status.

Here you get a comprehensive profile of the player. You can quickly see which games they are in, how far they have progressed, and when they were last active in the game.

If you want more details on how well they are doing in a game, click View under the Reports header.

To remove a player from a single game, click the Remove button that correlates with the game row.

To add a player to any game shell you have created, open the Select Game drop-down menu and click Add Player.

If you need to remove a player completely from all your game shells, click Remove from All Games. A prompt will appear to confirm this action as you will not be able to recover any of this player’s data after you remove them.

Add Player Tool

Expand the Player Management option within left-hand navigation pane, and select Add Player.

Type in the first name, last name and email address of the player you want to add. Check the boxes next the game shells you wish to add the player to, then click the green Add Player button.

How to use Automated Emails to Motivate, Remind, and Engage

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Knowledge Guru administrators can choose to turn on a carefully crafted series of emails that players trigger with various in-game activities. These auto emails are designed to foster repeat play, acknowledge significant accomplishments, and gently nudge inactive users.

Motivate Players

Motivational emails are designed to engage players who have gone at least a week without playing. They may need a reminder to come back and continue their adventure. A player won’t receive the same motivational message twice, and won’t receive them less than seven days apart. Once a player has completed their game or has received six motivational messages, the system will stop automatically sending them to that player.

Players also receive a motivational email the first time they are passed on the leaderboard.

Reward Players

Knowledge Guru will also send out unique reward and progress emails when a player has achieved a milestone. Depending on the game type, these could include the following:

  • The completion of a World (Quest)
  • Finishing the first Daily 3 mini-games (Drive)
  • Achieving the top spot on the global leaderboards

How to Enable Automatic Email Reminders

We encourage using automated emails to help keep players engaged with your learning objectives. This is something you can easily enable or disable as the Game Author.

Follow the steps below to enable automatic email reminders:

1. Expand the Implement option within left-hand navigation pane, and select Automated Emails.

2. Select REMINDERS ENABLED from the drop-down menu.

How to Add Reference Materials to a Knowledge Guru Game

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Knowledge Guru is specifically designed to provide you with a lot of flexibility to achieve your learning objectives. One way we offer this flexibility is through “Resources” support. Resources allow you to add content that your learners can access and review anytime, anywhere. A resource can be as simple as a term and a description, or it can include a URL link to a website or PDF.

Let’s say for example you are creating a Knowledge Guru game for onboarding new employees to your organization. The game itself may be created with references to material they have been exposed to in your company handbook, as well as opportunities for them to apply the knowledge they have learned.

With Resources, you could also include a link to your handbook, which would enable learners to view it directly while they play Knowledge Guru. And since Knowledge Guru allows your learners to play at their desks or on their go on their mobile device, they will always have it with them.

How to Add Resources

Follow the steps below to add a resource to your Knowledge Guru game:

1. Expand the Develop option within left-hand navigation pane, and select Create or Edit Resources.

2. Fill in your resource name, description, and optional URL.

3. Click SAVE.

How to Let Learners Log In With Salesforce.com

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Knowledge Guru allows your learners to log into their games with their Salesforce.com account. Once learners validate their account credentials, they can log in with Salesforce and see all games registered to their Salesforce email address.

Desktop

From the main login page

  1. Players go to kguru.co/login or theknowledgeguru.com/login and click LOGIN WITH SALESFORCE.
  2. Players enter their Salesforce username and password.
  3. If it is their first time accessing Knowledge Guru from Salesforce, they will authenticate the connection.
  4. After authenticating, players see a list of their assigned games.

From an individual game login page

  1. Players go to their game link (kguru.co/GAMENAME or theknowledgeguru.com/GAMENAME) and click LOGIN WITH SALESFORCE.
  2. Players enter their Salesforce username and password
  3. If it is their first time accessing Knowledge Guru from Salesforce, they will authenticate the connection.
  4. After authenticating, players see a list of their assigned games.

Mobile

From the app login page

  1. Players open the Quest or Drive app
  2. Players tap LOGIN WITH SALESFORCE on the login page.
  3. Players enter their Salesforce username and password
  4. If it is their first time accessing Knowledge Guru from Salesforce, they will authenticate the connection.
  5. After authenticating, players see a list of their assigned games.

How to Invite Learners to Play on Mobile Devices

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

Are you launching a Knowledge Guru game that learners will play on their smartphones? If so, using these two links will make the process easier: kguru.co/GAMENAME and kguru.co/apps.

1. If players will type the game link into their mobile browser, use the kguru.co short link

All Knowledge Guru games can be accessed using either the full link (Example: theknowledgeguru.com/sellingskills_quest) or the short link (Example: kguru.co/sellingskills_quest). If players must type the link in themselves, sending the send the short link so it is easy for them to do so. This is especially useful when you display the link on a PowerPoint slide in a live event.

The mobile registration pages for Quest and Drive games automatically direct players to download the appropriate app after registering.

2. If you’d like players to download the app BEFORE attending a live event but do not yet want them to register for or log into the game, use the kguru.co/apps page

The mobile-first page kguru.co/apps has links to download the Quest and Drive apps from iOS or Google Play. You can send this link out prior to a live training event so that players have already downloaded the app before they arrive.

If you will pre-register players before they play:
  1. Instruct players to download the appropriate app (Quest or Drive) at kguru.co/apps.
  2. Instruct players to log in with their email address and the default password that you set for them.
If players will self-register:
  1. Instruct players to visit your game URL on their mobile device: kguru.co/GAMENAME.
  2. Players fill out the form to register.
  3. After registration, Knowledge Guru will provide a link to download the appropriate mobile app.
  4. Players download the app, open it and login with their credentials.

For implementation tips tailored to your needs, speak to your Knowledge Guru Specialist.

 

How to Use the Live Leaderboard in Knowledge Guru

/0 Comments/in , /by

Every Knowledge Guru game has a Live Leaderboard. You can display this leaderboard on-screen in a live event or send it out to players via email so they can check scores without logging in. The live leaderboard refreshes automatically as people play.

The Live Leaderboard includes between four and seven unique leaderboards, depending on the number of custom registration fields you have created. They appear in the following order:

  1. Overall Top Scores
  2. Top Scores Since X Date (use the instructions below to set a date)
  3. Registration Field 1, if applicable (For example, Location vs Location)
  4. Registration Field 2, if applicable (For example, Supervisor vs Supervisor)
  5. Registration Field 3, if applicable (For example, Job Title vs Job Title)
  6. Today’s Top Scores
  7. Perfect Scores

You can view the Live Leaderboard for any Knowledge Guru game using the following link structure:

www.theknowledgeguru.com/<GAMENAME>/leaderboard

To customize your “Top Scores Since X Date” leaderboard, do the following:

  1. Log into the Knowledge Guru game shell you wish to edit: theknowledgeguru.com/login/
  2. Select IMPLEMENT from the left-hand menu, then click LIVE LEADERBOARDS 
  3. Enter the date when your player group will start playing into the text box. The format is mm-dd-yyyy.
  4. Click UPDATE.

Usage Suggestions

  1. If learners are playing Knowledge Guru in a classroom setting, display the live leaderboard on-screen as they play and give a prize to the top performer.
  2. Include the live leaderboard link in promotional emails to learners so they can quickly see the top scores.
  3. Use the “Top Scores Since X Date” leaderboard when you plan to take multiple groups of players through a game over a long period of time. This way, players can see how they compare to other players in their group and not everyone who has ever played the game.

Guidelines for Creating the Fish Finder Minigame

/0 Comments/in /by

Fish Finder enables learners to compare one fixed item or category to up to seven other items or categories in some fashion. Fish Finder is a great game for comparing your product to competitor products.

  • Example: You have Product A and you want to compare it to Products B and C. In every game, the player will always compare Product A to either Product B or Product C. Players will not compare B to C.

Unlike Balloon Burst, the other mini-game in Drive that lets you set up categories, you do not always have one “fixed” category that gets compared to a second category. This makes Fish Finder a more challenging game to play. Instead of choosing Category A vs Category B, C, or D on each game statement, players have to evaluate a statement and decide whether it fits Category, A, B, C or D (up to seven categories can be used).

For you to be able to use Fish Finder in Drive, you must create a learning objective that uses one of these verbs:

  • Compare
  • Contrast
  • Distinguish
  • Identify
  • Match
  • Name
  • Recognize
  • Rephrase
  • Select

Here’s how to create a game.

Steps to Create a Fish Finder Game

(NOTE: These steps assume you have already created a game topic and an associated learning objective.)

  1. Expand Develop option within left-hand navigation pane, and select Create or Edit Mini Games.
  2. Find a topic that uses Fish Finder as its mini-game and click EDIT.
  3. In the Provide a context section, type a description or context for what your learners will be doing. (For example: Compare Product A to Product B.)
  4. Click SAVE. NOTE: It is critical that you click SAVE whenever you see a SAVE button. You will lose content if you proceed without saving it.
  5. In the field labeled Provide categories to compare, enter category names and click SAVE after entering each category.
  6. Once you’ve added all your competitor categories, click CONTINUE TO GAME STATEMENTS.
  7. Provide statements for a category by typing in true statements that are unique to that category. You do not want any of the statements to apply to anything other than the Fixed Category.
  8. After you enter a statement, click the SAVE button next to it.
  9. To add additional statements, click ADD NEW STATEMENT.
  10. Repeat steps 7-8 for each game category. The same requirement for your content applies here: the content you include must be unique to the category for which you are creating it.
  11. When you finish adding content, preview what your game by clicking PREVIEW GAME at the bottom left of your screen.

Click through the slideshow below to see the steps in action.

Best Practices

Each instance of a Fish Finder game will include a minimum of four statements for players to consider and a maximum of eight statements, depending on the size of the fish they catch. For Fish Finder to be a good game choice, make sure you have sufficient statements associated with your categories to ensure two unique “play-through’s” of a game. Ideally:

  • A game with just two categories should have six unique statements per category.
  • A game with three to four categories, should have between four and five unique statements per category.
  • A game with five or more categories should have between three and four unique statements per category.

Guidelines for Creating the Forest Flight Minigame

/0 Comments/in /by

Forest Flight enables you to create branching scenarios. It is helps learners practice using judgment and making decisions based on defined criteria.

  • Example: Given a specified customer type, determine the best responses to make to gain commitment from the customer to try Product X.

Forest Flight enables you to create objectives suited to the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy. To use it in a Drive experience, you must create a learning objective that uses one of these verbs:

  • Choose
  • Decide
  • Deduce
  • Determine
  • Evaluate
  • Infer

Here’s how to create a game.

Steps to Create a Forest Flight Game

(NOTE: These steps assume you have already created a game topic and an associated learning objective.)

  1. Expand Develop option within left-hand navigation pane, and select Create or Edit Mini Games.
  2. Find a topic that uses Forest Flight as its mini-game and click EDIT.
  3. Note the drop-down menu with Scenario One selected as the default. This cues you that you are working on your first scenario for the Forest Flight game. To have a viable game, you will have to create at least two scenarios with a maximum of three scenarios possible.
  4. Use the Branching Paths tool to craft your scenario. You will need to supply these items:
    1. A context: an initial description of the situation that provides relevant background to the player in making decisions. In general, this will be 1) what the situation is, 2) relevant details about the situation, and 3) people involved in the situation.
    2. A challenge: this is a statement of what the player needs to accomplish or resolve.
    3. A starting decision: This is the first decision the player needs to make to start resolution of the challenge. It is always expressed as a question.
    4. Branch one choices, results of making those choices, the next decision to be made, and post-game feedback that player sees for every choice made.
    5. Branch two choices, results of making those choices, the next decision to be made, and post-game feedback that player sees for every choice made.
    6. Optional: Branch three choices, results of making those choices, the next decision to be made, and post-game feedback that player sees for every choice made.
  5. Once you have entered these items for your first scenario, you can preview your game. You will need to repeat these steps to create subsequent scenarios. By choosing Scenario Two from the drop-down menu on the main game creation screen, you can begin a new scenario.

Click through the slideshow below to see the steps in action.

Minimum and Maximum Content:

  • Each game must include two scenarios. Three is recommended. Each scenario must include at least two branches. It can have three.
  • Branch #1 of the scenario must include a GOOD option. If only two choices are included on Branch one, the second option can be either NEUTRAL or BAD.
  • Within any branch, you must provide two choices to players but a maximum of three.

Game Design Recommendations

If your game includes a “bad” choice on a branch, we strongly recommend you use the settings below.  This will also prevent your player from earning a score of 0 for the game since he or she will get to redo a decision and gain points by doing so:

  • On Branch 1, use RESTART when prompted to identify “How to proceed from this result.” This enables player to restart the game and try another decision.
  • On Branch 2, use GO TO PREVIOUS when prompted to identify “How to proceed from this result.” This enables player to re-do previous branch.
  • To fully assess a player’s mastery of the content associated with a Forest Flight game, we encourage authors to create three scenarios. This ensures players get multiple practice opportunities using decision-making skills associated with the game.