I agree. We should be very careful going too far down the pavlovian rabbit hole of immediate rewards. While people do need to be made aware of their progress,

I agree. We should be very careful going too far down the pavlovian rabbit hole of immediate rewards. While people do need to be made aware of their progress, this shouldn't necessarily take the form of badges, awards or other superficial sources of recognition. These are ultimately hollow and meaningless measures of completion - nothing more. Where I think education - "gameified" as well as traditional - often tends to fall short, is in demonstrating the value of the skills learned. It's the classic problem of applicability. Algebra is boring until you recognize all the situations in which it applies - likewise for Calculus, derivatives, statistics, physics, etc. Likewise for the liberal arts. TLDR : We don't need to be trained like canines to seek education for the sake of virtual trinkets, but rather to become educated for the sake of doing.