Why Games For Learning Are The Training Of The Future
Thanks to progress, we learn with different tools and games for learning is one of them. This new way of learning makes training more efficient. Games for learning are what eLearning professionals were looking for for many years. In this article, we are going to explore the main reasons of their success.
5 Reasons Games For Learning Make Training More Effective
1. Less Expensive, More Flexible!
Depending on the size of your company, setting up a whole classroom training program can become a bit tricky. Most of the time, learners must cross the world to attend the classroom training. This is forcing them to waste time and energy during travel. Each time, those direct and indirect costs will be supported by the company.
Fortunately, there is progress and digital learning.
You can now create your games for learning by yourself. With these games you can forget all the constraints and costs mentioned previously. You can create several games for learning and export them to you learners. They can do it whenever they want and from where they want!
In terms of investment, you have several solutions:
- Buying ready-made off the shelf content to train you learners.
- Investing in a bespoke serious game made by an external agency.
- Using a serious games authoring tool to create your own content.
The third option is the best compromise between cost and efficiency. You can find affordable solutions on the market today to create your games for learning with all the features needed, such as ITyStudio.
2. They Enhance Motivation.
Into “games for learning” there are two important words that may seem contradictory. In fact, if those two words are used correctly together, it will be the perfect match!
Games' notion is important for your learners. This is the reason of why they will be motivated and interested in the training. Everybody likes to play and have fun, even more when you learn skills at the same time. Moreover, your learners will want to win in the training and have the best result they can.
You can also add rewards to your training. This will enhance the motivation even more than a simple game. For example, you can reward your learners with small gifts if they win the training or with a medal system. Even if it is small gifts, it will keep the desire to win for your learners and they will have the impression you care about their training.
3. They Help Setup Engaging Scenarios.
The more important thing in games for learning is to have an engaging scenario. A scenario is a combination of environments and characters that make you learners feel they are in a real universe. They must be familiar with the game’s environment to care about their training. The closer to the reality the scenario will be, the more the learners will be engaged into the training.
To set up a familiar scenario and have a customized training, here again serious games authoring tool is a good choice. In an eLearning authoring tool or 3D simulation software such as ITyStudio, you will find a full library of content with many environments and characters that will fit to your company.
4. They Establish Educational Goals.
Educational goals are important ingredients of engaging games for learning. It will be the most important part to allow your learners to earn new skills. When you create games for learning, you must have established your educational structure if you want to set up your training as a professional training and not as simple games. This is the only part you cannot do with a serious games authoring tool. You must know where do you want to lead your learner. What skills do you want them to improve?
Once you have done this analysis part, you have your educational goals. You must always keep in mind those goals during the creation of your serious games design to stay in the good direction. It is on those educational goals that your learners will be evaluated. Into 3D simulation software, it is possible to enter your educational goals to establish the evaluation of your learners.
Your educational goals will be called analysis criteria. From experience, we advise you to use between 3 to 6 analysis criteria. The analysis will be too complex for you and your learners if you are using more than 6 criteria; in contrary, if you are using less than 3 criteria, the analysis will be too poor.
5. They Help Evaluate Your Learners With Many Ways!
One of the main advantages of games for learning compared to classic training is that you can evaluate your learners by different ways. In a classic training, you can evaluate your learners by a quiz at the end of the training, but it is a bit too "scholar" for professionals… especially with new generations!
Thanks to games for learning, several possibilities are offered to you. Of course, you have the possibility to choose a classic quiz to evaluate your learners, with MCQ, open questions, or slider questions. And the main evaluation can be all along the game.
During the game, your learners will be confronted to a virtual situation they can faced during their daily job. They must make choices per what just happened into the scene. The evaluation will be generated from those choices. Each of their choices will have consequences on the next scene, in a real branching scenario approach. Your learners can go from A to B by taking many ways!
At the end of the game, every learner will have there results on each analysis criterion, with customized feedback.
Exporting Your Creation
Once you have finished to create your games for learning and tried them, you must export them. With ITyStudio again, you have multiple choices:
- Choose to export as executable files, for more flexible use, to a whole host of devices, including PCs and tablets.
- Export your creations in SCORM 1.2 or 2004 format for dissemination to most Learning Management System platforms on the market.
- Choose the HTML5 export to read your content on tablets and give flexibility to your learners!
Your content will always be playable from everywhere and at any time!
Ready To Leverage Games For Learning Benefits For Your Learners? Take Action!
In this article, we shared with you the benefits of games for learning for your company and your learners.
If you are interested in this kind of solutions, and you want to create your own games for learning, you should definitely give ITyStudio a try!
This serious game authoring tool contains all the features needed to embrace the advantages listed above. It is easy to use, it is engaging, and you can try it for free!
Ready to go to the next level? Claim your 30-day free trial here!
