The first time I encountered an iPhone app that borrowed the idea of a scoreboard was Fitocracy. Fitocracy was a popular exercise and fitness tracking mobile app that took the traditional computer game concept of a leaderboard and applied it to fitness. The idea of adding game like features to a mobile phone app has become known as gamification.

The purpose of adding a leaderboard to a fitness or educational app is to bring a sense of peer pressure into the training process. It turns out that even when a user doesn’t know any of the other people who appear on the leaderboard, the sense of competition between users has a powerful effect. 

Initially, it didn’t seem intuitive to me that having a leaderboard in a fitness app would cause a useful peer pressure effect. So I understand if you are skeptical. However, I encourage you to not write off the effect so quickly. I remember while I was using Fitocracy, feeling no small amount of embarrassment at how many other people could do more pushups than I could, even though they were perfect strangers.

Scripturial has operated with a leaderboard for a while now. It’s main purpose is to allow a student to compare themselves with every other user of the app. It also allows a student to join a team and compare their progress with other people in their team. During testing, it has become clear that being able to see that your friend is ahead of you does have a powerful motivational effect. It should not be surprising to you when, after seeing that you have fallen behind your friend, that you feel motivated to complete another lesson or two, to make sure you are able to keep up with or surpass your friend. 

Admittedly, peer pressure can from time to time have negative effects on people. Let’s turn this around and use a healthy sense of peer pressure to encourage and motivate one another in our Biblical Greek studies. Do you have a friend you can create a study group with to keep each other accountable in your study process?