Engaging Participants in the Ensemble Computing Pathway

ABSTRACT

The Ensemble Computing Pathway is an NSF-sponsored NSDL project that provides an online space where computer science educators can come together from across the world to share resources, comments, advice, and curriculum. Online communities like Ensemble depend on the participation of its members to be relevant and helpful. We've been working to develop a virtual reward system in order to encourage active participation. Our system awards users with "roles" for performing relevant tasks that contribute to a positive and productive atmosphere in the Ensemble ecosystem. We believe this has many advantages over the ubiquitous "badges", employed by many games and web sites. In this talk, we will describe Ensemble, the motivation and architecture of our rewards system, and demonstrate the live website.