If you've been following the news or are a regular reader of this blog, you know that gamification learning is everywhere. It's being used to improve all sorts of things, from customer service to public policy. And now it's expanding beyond just those areas into learning itself. This is good news for anyone who wants their employees to know faster and more effectively—and even better news for people who want to learn something new themselves!
Gamification learning uses the principles of gameplay (challenges, levels, rewards) to make learning more interesting and fun.
Game-Based Learning uses gameplay principles
Gamification is about using gameplay principles to make learning more interesting and fun. It can be used in any learning, from online to classroom. However, Gamification is not just about making learning fun. It is also about making it more effective.
A successful learning experience
Gamification is the answer if you're looking for a learning experience that will motivate your students and keep them coming back. Gamification uses game design principles to make learning more fun. In addition, Gamification encourages active participation by making activities more engaging and interactive. It also allows for greater interaction among learners, encouraging collaboration and teamwork.
Gamification is when an activity or process becomes like a game to improve the engagement and motivation of participants in the activity or process (Gee, Richard 2008).
These are the key elements of a successful learning experience:
- Clear goal
- Challenges that are easy to understand
- Quick feedback on results
- Opportunity to improve over time
- Active participation with other learners
- Emotional connection with the subject matter.
These elements can be used In any learning
There are many different ways to apply gamification learning. First, you can use these elements for any learning, whether online or in a classroom setting. And you can also apply these elements across any subject matter.
The following is a list of gamification elements that can be used in various settings:
- Points: allows learners to earn points based on their performance and achievements
- Levels: help learners visualize how far they've come and what they need to do next
- Badges: highlights accomplishments and displays them publicly for others to see
1. A clear goal
A clear goal is one of the most important things for any learning experience. Learners need to know what they are trying to achieve and how their learning will support that achievement. A good way to do this is by thinking about whether your goal is specific or general and whether it's personal or team-oriented.
Specific:
Is your goal directly measurable? If so, that's great! It means you can measure how close you are to achieving it at any time. Examples might include "increased sales by 5% over 6 months" or "improved customer satisfaction scores by 30 points across all customer touch points within 2 years".
General:
Does your goal have room for interpretation? If so, there may be different ways to achieve the same outcome based on individual circumstances (e.g., increased revenue vs. decreased expenses). For example, one person could increase their revenue through acquisition while another could reduce their expenses through outsourcing some tasks. If both result in higher overall revenue, both would qualify as successful outcomes because neither is more important than the other. Instead, they complement one another well since they result in better profitability at a lower cost per unit sold/service rendered, which means more profit per dollar spent over time.
2. Easy challenges
To ensure learners stay engaged in your gamified learning program, they must understand the challenges they're being asked to complete. If the challenge is too complicated, learners will give up and move on. In contrast, if the challenge is too simple or easy for the learner, then they may get bored and stop playing the game altogether.
To avoid this problem, make sure that your challenges are clear and understandable to everyone participating in your gamification program. Keep them simple enough so anyone can easily take part without requiring extensive knowledge of any particular topic area or skill set—but also make sure they aren't too basic either!
3. Quick feedback on results
When it comes to the learning process, feedback is essential. You must provide your learners with actionable and timely feedback to progress toward their goals. And if they can't progress, they might give up on your courses altogether!
Here are a few things you need to keep in mind when providing feedback:
- Immediate
- Clear and concise
- Personalized (to each individual)
4. Opportunity to improve over time
When you think of learning, do you think of it as something that happens once?
Learning is a process and not an event. If we don't keep learning, we stagnate and fail to grow.
The more you learn about something, the better your understanding becomes—and the better your understanding becomes, the easier it is for you to absorb new information or concepts and expand upon them with creative ideas of your own. You'll feel smarter no matter how small these "eureka" moments may seem at first glance!
5. Active participation with other learners
Learning is a social activity. When people learn together, they are more likely to remember the information. The social aspect of learning is what makes gamification so effective. The game engages students in a way that encourages them to help each other learn, creating a supportive environment and building community within the classroom.
Students can feel motivated by each other's progress and achievements in the game, which will also drive them forward in their learning journey.
6. An emotional connection to the subject matter
For someone to be motivated to learn something, they need to feel like it matters. They need a reason for learning it. If your syllabus or class description doesn't make a student care about the subject matter, then they won't have any reason or motivation to learn from you as an instructor or attend your classes in person.
You can create this sense of importance by showing how learning from you will help students achieve their personal goals (i.e., "If you take my class on X topic, I promise that it will help you get into med school").
Conclusion
Gamification can be a great way to engage them more if you've struggled with engaging your students or employees.
It helps people learn better by making learning fun and exciting, which is why it works so well with kids. And if you want something that will appeal to Millennials (or anyone else), think before choosing an online course platform—after all those years spent on video games, they might prefer one that looks like something they're already familiar with!