Nowadays, simple training modules aren’t enough. One of the biggest challenges is engaging your employees and making sure that they are retaining the knowledge they’re exposed to. If your team views your training as boring, then they’re likely not getting anything out of it. The solution? ELearning gamification.
You might be wondering, ‘What is eLearning gamification?’ Luckily for you, in this blog, we’ll tell you exactly what gamification in eLearning is and how to incorporate it into your eLearning platforms. Here at Instinct Resourcing, we’re constantly connecting businesses with top eLearning designers so that they can revitalise their training programmes.
Ready to boost course completion rates and performance? Let’s get into it…
What is gamification?
First things first, it’s important to get to grips with the definition of gamification. Gamification applies design elements like achievements and rewards, rules of play, and leaderboards to non-game contexts. The goal is to enhance the user experience and encourage participation by leveraging discovery, open explanation, time constraints, social collaboration, and other typical gamelike elements.
Gamified learning, or game-based learning, is the application of game mechanics to the learning experience, in this case, your eLearning platforms. For example, one of your training courses might contain gamification elements like a leaderboard, badges, rewards, or certificates. Some other key elements can include:
- Points scoring
- Digital icons or medals
- Competitive leaderboards
- Levels and progression settings
- Quests and challenges
- Avatars and personalisation
- Immediate feedback
In essence, it’s a valuable resource for helping learners engage with the material and with each other, even from different locations.
What are the benefits of gamification in eLearning?
Now that you know what gamification is, you might be wondering why you should invest in it. For both learners and organisations, there are plenty of benefits to gamified eLearning, including:
Increased engagement – Gamified eLearning utilises interactive and immersive learning experiences to make it more enjoyable for the learner. By offering a strong sense of personal achievement, users are more motivated to complete the task and come back for more.
Better completion rates – Organisations that use gamification techniques see much higher completion rates because learners are motivated to finish engaging courses. Greater completion rates lead to increased knowledge retention, quicker knowledge application, and more motivated learners.
Improved training ROI – When employees are engaged through gamified achievements and rewards, they are more motivated to complete training. It feels like less of a chore, and breeds faster time to value for customers, leading to an improved return on investment for training programmes.
Enhanced motivation – Elements like leaderboards, levels, and certificates build motivation by giving employees an enhanced sense of autonomy. The competitive nature of gamification can also lend itself to increased motivation and a sense of wanting more.
Personalised learning – With gamification, you can easily cater to personal learning preferences like pace, giving the user a sense of ownership of their learning journey. Learners can personalise their own character name or avatar, and levels can be started, paused, and completed at will, where the immersive experience is centred around the individual.
How to use gamification in your eLearning
If you feel like you’re looking for ways to make your training more effective, gamification is a great solution. Here are some ways to utilise it that might inspire your programmes:
Earning badges for professional skills training
Having gamified elements can take the pressure off mastering a new skill. When designing an eLearning course to train staff on new professional skills, consider adding badges to award your learners for completing their objectives. This will not only add a fun way to symbolise employees’ accomplishments, but it also gives them something to be proud of upon completing a course.
Badges and visual elements are also beneficial to digital learning for dyslexic learners.
Creating employee onboarding missions
Employee onboarding programmes often come with a lot of information about the company, which can feel overwhelming for new hires. Instead of creating multiple online courses, you could consider turning them into various onboarding ‘missions’.
For example, a mission for their first week might be to complete an eLearning course on company policies. For their first month, you might set their second mission to be getting to know key members of their team. You can even offer badges or certificates upon the completion of each mission.
Simulations for compliance training
Gamification can even liven up something as formal as mandatory compliance training! To encourage your learners to engage with the content, consider taking them through simulations where they need to make decisions based on your company’s code of ethics. You can even add elements like a scoreboard to track how many questions they’ve answered correctly, which can act as a motivator to continue the course.
Building a compelling narrative
Many of the best games out there use storytelling to create deep and meaningful journeys and involve users in the world of the game. You can take this concept and apply it to an educational eLearning scenario, which can illustrate common problems and allow learners to practise real-life situations in a low-risk environment.
You can do this by creating different characters in your course and making your learner be the protagonist. You might even design an interactive map that they can explore, reinforcing the course material while also entertaining with world-building elements. You can even label different lessons or modules as chapters in a story.
Looking for more ways to maximise your platform and make eLearning interactive? We’ve got plenty of knowledge and advice in our Instinct blog.
Engage your learners with the help of Instinct Resourcing
Hopefully, this blog has answered your question ‘What is eLearning gamification’. As we’ve discussed, gamification is a powerful strategy that can transform passive learning into an engaging and memorable experience. By considering things like storytelling, interactivity, and competition, you’ll have happier employees who will find your eLearning courses more fun and exciting.
At Instinct Resourcing, we’re experts in eLearning recruitment. Thanks to this expertise, we can help you turn your next eLearning module from a necessary task into a rewarding achievement.
Ready to level up your training? Get in touch with our experts or submit your CV today, and we’ll match you with top digital talent.
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