The terms game-thinking, game-elements, and gamification have all entered into the vocabulary of trainers, e-learning developers, and instructional designers in the past few years. But what do these terms really mean and how can you apply them to create interactive learning events that change behavior and improve performance? How can you make your instruction more game-like without the cost and effort of creating a large-scale game? However, we have to think about a few things. What elements can learning designers borrow from game designers? What is the one secret game designers know that instructional designers never seem to grasp? The answer to these questions, and more, are not all that mysterious and can be found in the research and in uncommon best practices. Based on the bestselling book, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction, this interactive session includes many examples of using game-elements, game-thinking, and gamification to promote learning for performance improvement and highlights how organizations have added game thinking to their toolkit. And, yes, you will play a polling game in this session.