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Raise your game: the main perks gamification can offer to online learning
Have you ever thought game space might become a part of the business environment? Or have you ever thought about how beneficial gamification can be to your business and the performance of your employees? Whatever your answer is, this article will inform you about the characteristics of gamified learning and the reasons why it is worth investing in gamification for e-learning.
Gamification has become a colossal thing in both business and online learning worlds. Many people often think gamification is the act of creating an actual game, though, in reality, this process is far more than a game.
Gamification presupposes using a software application or a certain online community as well as utilizing gaming techniques for particular purposes. This process is extremely popular in learning management systems.
On the whole, gamification in business plays an increasingly vital role in bringing people together. This means businesses can engage consumers, partners, or employees this way. That is why organizations or companies can collaborate with a certain type of audience and encourage it to interact.
What is Gamification for E-learning?
Gamification is popular in learning management systems. Thus an increasing number of businesses decide to rely on the given process in e-learning. According to Edgepoint Learning,
Gamification in eLearning is one of the most cutting-edge ways to make your employee training more effective and engaging.
Yet, the success of the gamification strategy in e-learning strongly depends on the planning behind it. Thus, businesses can expect big results from this strategy only if they plan this process in the right way.
There are three main elements of gamification:
- Competition. Employees can boost their knowledge and skills in a particular area by competing with themselves or even their colleagues.
- Game mechanics. Gamification includes a problem-solving approach in the form of a game which allows the audience to find out certain useful information in an entertaining way.
- Story. Gamification allows businesses to create stories which would inform their employees, partners, or consumers about certain products, services, or other important data of the company using the elements of games.
Besides, such elements can be very different (leveling, points, or some others).
Benefits of E-learning Gamification
E-learning gamification has already shown positive results over the last couple of years. For example, in the workplace environment, gamification in learning helps to improve retention. This means gamification in e-learning can become an integral part of the business environment shortly. Thus, companies and organizations around the world should utilize this practice to engage more consumers as well as interact with various types of audiences.
Virtual reality (VR) and Augmented reality (AR) are systems which might also become integral parts of the business environment in the long run. Both VR and AR are types of gamification which enable users to engage in training simulations. Moreover, virtual reality and augmented reality are helpful in the business world since those systems offer the audience a chance to experience certain problem-solving situations. This is the reason why companies can provide effective training to their employees on how to cope with various risky situations they might face in their workplace. The main essence of such a format is it ensures the safety of employees.
Main Applications of Gamification
Gamification is a very flexible concept which has several applications.
- Simulations. By using VR and AR, employees can learn how to make decisions or react in hazardous situations without being worried about their safety. In other words, they might learn how to respond to emergencies. Thus, simulations are effective in engineering and retail.
- Task-oriented approach. This type of gamification has a different purpose for the economy. In e-learning, a task-oriented approach attempts to teach an employee, for example, how to perform a particular task. For instance, this type of gamification can be used to inform an employee how to create a new system of resource management.
What Makes Gamification in the Workplace Successful?
In brief, there are a couple of ways of how businesses can integrate gamification successfully.
- Determine the objectives. A business primarily has to identify the goal before using learning gamification. When it comes to providing employee training, a company has to decide first what it intends to teach its employees and what skills they have to obtain eventually.
- Monitor progress. It might be difficult to measure the effectiveness of gamified learning. Yet, it is still crucial to keep up with the progress of employees both within the game and in the workplace.
- Identify your players. Ensuring that you know who your target audience are is a must. This way, you can create the right concept of gamified learning and achieve the desired results.
- Make time to play. To accomplish the results you expect, it is necessary to engage employees in using gamification in the workplace. To make it happen, it is crucial to ensure this process is not tedious but entertaining. In addition, employees do not have to worry about deadlines and have access to all the resources needed in the game space.
Value of Investing
Should you invest in gamification in e-learning? The answer to this question is YES! If you want to increase the overall performance of your company, then you have to opt for this strategy. Unlike many other strategies in the business world, gamification in e-learning does not only focus on the improvement of the performance of only one employee. Instead, it intends to better the results of the whole company.
Benefits of Investing in Gamification for E-learning
Gameplay makes learning more effective. Even employees prefer entertaining learning to the constant reading of boring manuals. According to the data provided by Karl Kapp,
Employee motivation was enhanced by almost 51.6% in a gamified environment.
This means the majority of employees still wants to make their learning process more fun and easy. Thus, they would opt for gamified learning in their workplace if they had a chance to do so.
For the company, the biggest obstacle might be engaging an employee in gamified training, though once it is done, everything else is much easier to do. The most essential part of gamification is that it keeps an employee immersed in the game space the whole time. Thus, an employee remains motivated and focused.
As a result, the training that involves game elements assists employees in understanding and learning a particular concept or information.
Gamified learning, which uses rewards, makes the player more engaged in the process of learning. For some people, rewards seem to be a temporary encouragement to participate. Yet, an increasing number of employees (as well as consumers and partners) are willing to take part in gamified learning once they realize they can obtain a particular reward for this.
For example, “a three-year analysis of 9.5 million sessions, on the Axonify microlearning platform, points out that employees visited the rewards section 75 to 100 percent of the time, and completed almost three times as many learning sessions.” In simple terms, gamification enhances employees’ participation greatly if it offers certain benefits for them.
To Wrap Up
Employees can perform better when they have access to effective learning. These days, learning should be both entertaining and interesting for participants since it should make employees more engaged in the process. And thus, more productive in their workplace.
Gamification in online learning does not refer to the process of creating a game. Instead, it intends to utilize interactive elements of a game in the learning process to boost the engagement of the player (whether it is an employee, a partner, or a consumer). In any case, more and more companies want to invest in gamification for e-learning because of the benefits they might receive in return. Feel free to contact us any time in case you need some assistance from our professionals.
Keenethics professionals provide assistance in e-learning software development. Together we can find the best solutions for your business.
