In preparation for an updated and simpler sign-in process to be announced in the coming months, the Instructure Community Team wants to also take time to explain the changes coming to our Ranks and Roles.

Instead of taking the traditional approach of ‘badging for bragging rights’ (where you get a badge for doing something ‘right’ and glowing about it to all your peeps), we are flipping the model and “bragging by badging right” (glowing about you to all our peeps for the right reasons)! We are repurposing badges as a way to give out digital compliments to our awesome members.

I danced a little jig when I saw that the Canvas Community gamification/reward system has been restored. I didn’t realise how much I had missed those regular notifications of missions completed, badges awarded, points gained. 

Back in July the Community Team presented “Why We Community” at InstructureCarn ("Why We Community" video and Why we community blog post). The Canvas Community is truly the gift that keeps on giving: if one person creates a resource, and three people see it, and they share it with three others—well, we all know how exponential growth works.

Surprise! The Canvas Community is launching a new gamification system sometime mid-February 2017 and completely level-setting the community. But before you say “who cares” (cuz we know you have way more important things to do) or 'wut-wut' (cuz you fear losing your status), hear us out...