Learners should be able to perceive that their contributions (no matter how small) are valuable to their community.
- Downside: They might get negative feedback for contributing to their communities.
- Counteraction: Incorporate inauthentic tasks that are perceived to be real as long as it makes them feel like they are making a contribution

Legitimate Peripheral Participation

Having a dedicated space for new users to make contributions without being penalized for mistakes

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Wikipedia launched an interactive tutorial that has both a structure and video game elements that helps new editors get accustomed to Wikipedia's technical requirements and rules/policies

The Wikipedia Adventure (TWA): Field Evaluation of an Interactive Tutorial for New Users

University, Sneha Narayan Northwestern, et al. “The Wikipedia Adventure: Field Evaluation of an Interactive Tutorial for New Users.” The Wikipedia Adventure | Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing, 1 Feb. 2017, dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2998181.2998307.

The Wikipedia Adventure: Field Evaluation. of an Interactive Tutorial for New Users 

Purpose:
- How new users perceive the system design and tone (via survey~11,000 editors)
- If using TWA led to making more contributions prior to being invited to participate in the tutorial (via field experiment~1,967 editors)

Results:
- From the survey, users found TWA engaging and well-designed for new users.
- Even though new users say that TWA is very useful and helps new editors, the results from the field experiment report that TWA did not effect editing contributions)


Purpose and Summary of Results

- Points
- Leaderboards
- Achievements/ Badges
- Levels
- Stories/Themes
- Clear goals
- Feedback
- Rewards
- Progress
- Challenges


10 Common Motivational Affordances of Gamified Systems (Hamari, et al.)

Creating Spaces for New Users to Practice Making Contributions

When making contributions, most newcomers do not follow any external structure and they adopt their own techniques that stick overtime 

Newcomers Follow their Own Rules when Making Contributions

Wikipedia relies on individualized socialization where it is up to the user to learn the norms and policies. New members learn by asking for help/feedback and referring to Wikipedia's help and policy page

Also learn what not to do by receiving warning and advisory messages they receive from senior members. 

Learn Before

Related

Learn After