How To Change Corporate Training With Gamification
This tactic of adding a fun and competitive element boosts learner engagement and keeps them involved. But gamified learning solutions need to be developed after much thought in order to truly deliver a Return On Investment.
Why Are Corporations Using Gamification In Training?
Gamification adds the element of fun to your regular training. The recognition and rewards linked to gamification in learning motivate learners and keep them actively involved. Gamified learning solutions provide real-time feedback. This drives performance and boosts completion of modules. Also, when your learners receive immediate feedback, they are aware of their mistakes and understand how to avoid making them in real-life situations. Game elements release chemicals that improve learner participation and enhance recall and retention.
Gamification makes the learning process super fun and effective. However, if your course is based on poor content, then the entire benefit gets wasted. You need to have a strong storyline and good visuals. You need to incorporate interactions that allow your learners to have hands-on practice. Most importantly, you need to pay great attention to game mechanics. These game mechanics are the driving factor that improves cognitive learning. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. You need to analyze the real needs of your organization and build your gamified learning solution accordingly.
5 Tips To Train Employees Through Gamification
Many organizations struggle with how they can use gamified training for their employees. Here are 5 tips you can use to train your employees with the help of gamification.
1. Acknowledge Employees Who Excel
The basic aim of most training is to ensure that your employees perform their jobs well. You should establish a system to acknowledge learners who acquire the concepts faster. There are two distinct advantages for this. First, your employees realize that you care for their professional development. Secondly, they try to better themselves and that effort reflects in their work. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved!
2. Teach Your Learners To Solve A Problem
All game-based learning deals with solving some type of problem at a basic level. Your gamified training solution should have the end goal of solving a problem. Learners feel engaged when they are told that there is a problem and they need to resolve it. Present the problem at the beginning of the course and let them work towards resolving it. You may consider making it look easy at first to keep them motivated. You must vary the difficulty level to keep all learners engaged, though. Some learners may lose interest if it is too easy to achieve the end goal.
3. Make Learning Interactive
Gamified learning has been successful because of its interactive nature. Any learning that interacts with learners has a higher chance of success than a traditional page-turner course. Employees have limited time for training. Their attention spans vary, too. If you want them to pick up the concepts faster and remember them for a longer time, you have to keep them involved and motivated. An interactive module of gamified learning does that well.
4. Allow Them To Learn At Their Own Pace
Gamification provides the option of self-paced learning. Your employees can go through the training at their own time and pace. If they are given the freedom to choose when and where they wish to learn, they are motivated to take ownership of their learning. This ensures that they retain the knowledge and apply it in their workplace.
5. Make It Fun
All of us remember things when we have fun. If training is boring, your employees will avoid it at all costs. Even if you make it compulsory, they will finish it half-heartedly. If you bring the fun element in, they will enjoy doing it. They will pay greater attention and retain more information. In fact, they will look forward to the next learning bundle.
Gamification may require you to increase your training budget to some extent but the Return On Investment will be worth it.
Designing Digitally, Inc. develops serious games for a platform that fits your organization’s needs. We can output them as SCORM packages or xAPI for your LMS, websites accessed in a browser, executable files for Windows, or custom applications for iOS.
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