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Points in Level Up XP

In XP, points are essential as they enable learners to earn points and advance through levels. The frequency, quantity, and the criteria for awarding points completely depend on the unique gamification experience that educators plan to create. The number of levels and the difficulty required to progress to the next will also play a part.

Ways to give points​

There are several ways to give points to learners. Spending time to understand these methods will provide you with a range of tools for awarding varying amounts of points.

Before exploring the various ways to award points, keep the following in mind:

  1. Points are awarded as actions occur; actions taken in the past will not result in any points. Learn more
  2. The permission to receive points is, by default, given only to the "student" role. This implies that actions generally need to be performed within a course to earn points.
  3. Conducting tests as a teacher or administrator may not be achievable, therefore, we always advise using a dummy student account for testing. Teachers must be specifically given the right to earn points to test their own rules. While administrators cannot earn points, unless explicitly authorised in the admin settings.

Event rules​

The event rules are based on events broadcasted internally in Moodle as users perform certain actions. You may have seen them previously in Moodle as they are typically recorded in the form of logs visible in various reports. This method enables educators to track these events, and award points based on the action they represent, where the action occurred, etc. Learn more

Completion rules​

The completion rules allow educators to award points based on the completion of activities, sections and courses. The criteria for completing activities and courses are defined by educators in Moodle itself. XP will subsequently award points when the items are completed. Learn more

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The completion rules were introduced in XP+ 1.16.

Grade rules​

The grade rules allow educators to award points based on the grades received by the learners. Learn more

Drops​

Drops are code snippets that an educator can hide in the content of a course to award points when said content is being presented to the learner. Learn more

Import​

Educators can import points from a CSV file. This is useful to award points in bulk, or to allocate points for actions taken outside of the LMS. Attaching an accompanying message to the points is also possible. Learn more

Manually​

Beyond importing points, educators can manually award points to individuals as they see fit.

Taking points away​

In XP, there aren't any automatic mechanisms to remove points from a learner. This is a conscious decision for two reasons:

  1. Taking away points can cause a learner to be downgraded to a lower level;
  2. The reduction in points could be perceived as a penalty.

Both of these can have a negative impact on the overall experience of the learner, and thus is not readily available. However, points can be manually edited to be brought down, or imported, or reset.