Awesome stuff Anisa -- there used to be a program back when I was in elementary school called "accelerated readers' program" which really helped me become a better reader. Basically you read a book and you can take a test after reading that book and based on the level of difficulty of that book / how well you did on the test, you would get points. And those points would get your prizes (like coupons to Chuck-E-Cheese or to a movie). Top weekly readers also got shout outs over the PA system during morning announcements. Great way to gamify reading and helped me a lot. Maybe that concept can be inspo for something here!
Omg yes! AR was the pioneer of reading program SaaS in schools (they had a huge exit too). Epic Reading (more commonly used by kids today in schools) came after that - similar idea of gamification to encourage reading.
I definitely love the idea of gamification, the only thing I would add as feedback we have noted from parents is that Epic and AR would push kids to read 'fast' books within the Lexile range they had to stay in, rather than books that might be more interesting to them. The tests also weren't the greatest to measure comprehension because of their format. Having said that, I definitely love the idea of gamification inspired vey AR and we intend on having some of that in our program too!
I'm still grinning that you know and used AR! So cool.
I LOVED that program! That and the MS Readathon were totally my things! At the time you don't realizing they are using game theory, but as an adult you look back and think "that was really smart". Very much food for thought.
