Engagement in learning with gamification

We've all heard this concept in a series of a contexts, but what exactly is it and how could you use it to improve your professional activity? It is a recent method, one that can be applied to elements and also strategy games into the context of a non-game. Why? Because, even as adults, we still need the kind of motivation we used to receive when we were little and we were keeping track of leaderboards, badges and others methods.

And this is usually employed in eLearning, a training environment which focuses on finding methods to increase the engagement and interaction rates by means of a series of methods, gamification being one of them.

Moreover, it could be used in the process of eLearning and it brings a series of benefits, such as an increased level of engagement and interactivity and a more applied approach to the gathering knowledge. When using a gamified approach, you should have in mind the following questions:

• What is the HRD has been set?
• What is the main problem an employee has?
• What will be achieved by the training conducted this way?

Methods in eLearning

According to studies, employees appreciate a game centered learning approach, as they feel it boosts motivation and productivity:

• 80% of learners claimed learning would be more productive if it were more game-oriented.
• 67% of students reported that a gamified course was more motivating than a traditional course.

Why do you think that is? We've been working with various learners, with various learning styles, and most of them feel that gamification is a form of active learning, which actually implies them in the training process, bringing both interactivity and engagement. When people are engaged in the learning process, they get motivated to learn more, to know more.

There are a lot of methods you can use with eLearning and we'll talk about some of them. Awarding badges is one of them, focusing on tracking and awarding a trainee professional development, by offering him or her an award for what he/she has done, the skills he/she has acquired, the knowledge he/she has gained.

Therefore, the employees will feel appreciated for what they have done for the company. For example, in the case of a staff training for employees, they could receive some of the following badges: 1st attendance (first employees who were present in a training), Speak Out (the most active Employees when the training took place), or it could be the Best Group (a group of employees in the best training).

Another method is represented by the leaderboard, which displays the results of the achievement of all employees, focusing on rankings. Leaderboards can spur positive competition among employees in already applied. With eLearning, you can make them visually appealing, adapted to the organisation style and learning culture.

To sum up, this has been successful in various corporate environments to apply in various countries, as well as methods of Xerox which is a method that has been used by a company for management training. Its implementation can increase brand awareness, and could provide education for employees' even wider community.

Training and learning methods with the use of a gamified approach can change the training process that was boring and had to take quite a long time, but now it can be more efficient and you could benefit from it.