Gamification is adding game mechanics into nongame environments, like a website, online community, learning management system or business' intranet to increase participation. The goal of gamification is to engage with consumers, employees and partners to inspire collaborate, share and interact.

Game elements can include: points, badges, leaderboards

Gamification can be found in:

• Marketing- Advergames are online games that promote a particular brand by integrating it into the game template. EX: Candy Crush & Temple Run.
• Health- Nike launched Nike+Run as a platform that tracks and gamifies your run time, distance, and heath levels, while comparing to others in your social field.
• Education- Kahoot allows you to create a multiple choice quiz through a quick website link. Students can join in and compete with each other.
• Websites- Reddit uses badges, points, leaderboards, personalization/avatars, and coins to increase engagement.
• Influencers- Yu-Kai Chou was the first prominent figure in gamification, with his TED talk in 2014. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5Qjuegtiyc)

The benefits of using gamification include but are not limited to:

• Increasing adoption and use of learning management tools.
• Promoting retention and results in employees.
• Increasing employee knowledge sharing
• Foster engagement and motivate participants

I am in the process of gettin ga job as an instructional designer, and I plan to use gamification in my modules to engage learners and increase motivation and retention. I practices using a basic Kahoot template to create a review game for the term gamification: 

https://create.kahoot.it/share/gamification-final/b6ef8108-3b59-48c1-9cda-12b4c820d84b

Try it out and have fun!