What You Need To Know About Gamification in Business

At eLearning Mind the definition of gamification we employ is, in particular, relevant to eLearning, education, and training in a corporate environment.

The key is in the mechanics like points, levels, and rewards, and applying specific mechanics when it makes sense based on your specific learners motivations and goals surrounding the learning material.

The mechanics are the various actions, behaviors, and control mechanisms that play into human psychology which are afforded to a player in a game context. They represent the moment-to-moment activity of players, and core mechanics are deployed to create specific patterns of repeated behavior.

So when you think about corporate gamification for learning, or even gamification for eLearning, you are really thinking about how you can take the mechanics from gameplay and apply them to your learning experience to both engage and motivate your participants to drive a meaningful behavior change.

There have been some spectacular successes when gamification is applied to learning, but your thinking behind its application must go beyond just developing a points system or a leadership board for simply the sake of it.

To begin the shift in your thinking around the corporate gamification of learning, let’s go into two of the most frequently asked questions we’ve received from learning leaders at a wide variety of businesses.

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Leveling Up Engagement

Here’s where some people get confused: Both microlearning and gamification are highly engaging ways to entice users to learn. But although both can have similar outcomes, the purpose is different. Microlearning is ideal for quick bites of information, but gamification has a great reputation when you need to trigger some internal motivation to gain full participation and high levels of engagement in a training.

Remember that gamification is not the same as a standalone game; it’s simply using the elements of game play as a learning motivator. Still, because of its lighthearted tone, gamification may not be appropriate for all topics. For information that should be served up in a less playful tone, gamification might be too glib.

Gamification or Microlearning: Which is the ideal solution for Corporate Training?

The truth is, gamification and microlearning aren’t the perfect solution for all scenarios by themselves, and there are plenty of other delivery methods to consider when planning eLearning. Both gamification and microlearning can be used (and even overlapped!) to create engaging training that really taps into how learners receive, process, and store information. Both allow learners to quickly experience the fruits of their labors and both encourage high completion rates– each works great in the appropriate deployment.

So the answer to what delivery method works best, especially with the millennial generation is: it depends on the content covered, training goals, and motivators of your employees. So the best way to find out what method is best for your business is to ask an instructional designer to complete an analysis of your training and the audience consuming it.

Why Understanding Learner Motivation Is Key For Gamified Learning

Just like eLearning can’t take place without a deep understanding of learner motivation, gamification in employee training won’t work without an understanding of what drives and motivates employees. Just adding points or badges to a learning module is not gamification. Each game mechanic taps into different motivators, so to apply the right ones, you have to understand what motivators you are trying to activate, and how they align to the goal of the learning experience. You can find an in-depth look at how different game mechanics appeal to different key motivators in our eBook here.

A great way to think about it is this. Dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit will motivate a reaction from the rabbit. But you wouldn’t dangle a carrot in front of a frog. The frog isn’t motivated like the rabbit is because carrots just don’t appeal to frogs. The same goes for game mechanics in learning. Rewards and leadership boards might work well with someone who is highly motivated by achievement and status, whereas an avatar feature would better engage someone who is highly motivated by self-expression.

The ARCS Model

Learner motivation can be anything from “I want to buy a new car” to “I want to be employee of the month,” but the trick is determining the best way to light a fire under learners speaking to their core motives for the best results.

The ARCS model of Motivational Design Theories (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction) has been the gold standard for how to promote and sustain motivation in learning since the 80s when it was developed by John Keller, professor of instructional systems and educational psychology at the University of Florida. But while the ARCS model is a great place to start, instructional designers must delve deeper to really understand what makes their learners tick.

The analysis phase might seem like it slows the instructional design process down, but taking the time to assess and determine learner motivation reveals which game mechanics align with your learners’ driving motivators resulting in higher engagement and motivation (which basically means deeper learning that sticks).

Can I Have Your Attention Please…

It’s not by chance (or clever acronym) that attention is listed first in the ARCS model. Attention might seem surface-level at first, but it’s what makes learners sit up and take notice of the content. Discover what makes your learners’ ears perk up. In some cases, that might mean leveraging a bit of humor to lighten the mood. In other cases, it’s outlining the “what’s in it for me?” principle to prove to learners that the subject matter is worthy of their time. Whatever the case, good instructional designers know that without a learner’s attention, there is little motivation to continue watching, reading, or otherwise experiencing the material.

Make Sure to Stay Relevant

Have learners been there, done that? Does the subject matter even… matter? These are the questions asked before any information is put into an eLearning module and needs to be considered when applying gamification. It’s hard to get learners to care if, before they even start a program, their brains disengage due to irrelevant content. That’s where tools like analogies, storytelling, and even personal choice and autonomy can motivate learners: The material is modeled in a way that proves that it’s relevant and useful.

Be careful, though: Tying learning back to previous lessons can be a common and useful way to prove relevancy, but too much repetitiveness can turn off even highly motivated learners. Motivation happens when learners perceive value and acknowledge a potential knowledge gap.

Confidence is Key

Learners should know where they stand in order to enhance motivation. Creating key objectives and benchmarking from the start helps learners self-assess and know where they currently stand. A motivated learner needs to understand where they fall in the pack and how that position jives with their personal goals.

Part of increasing learner confidence is communication. An instructional designer might build in assessment and ranking tools such as badges or quizzes so learners are never left in the dark. But that same confidence can come from giving learners control over their own learning path. Learners who can toggle their learning speed, topics and prescribed materials feel confident that they are responsible for themselves.

Learner Satisfaction Guaranteed

Finally, instructional designers must assess how learner satisfaction can motivate–both intrinsically and extrinsically. Sure, a pat on the back might feel good, but it’s hardly enough to make a learner go back for more. Instead, assess the need for rewards as part of the learning process. Human’s all share the same core drivers, like reward, status, achievement, and so forth. Mechanics, like earning points and badges, as well as seeing immediate positive feedback from superiors (who are following along via leaderboard or LMS) can tap into these deep desires.

Doing the research and analysis on your learners’ motivation is what separates successful gamification from misaligned strategies and wasted time. Assessing learner motivation allows you to better create material that engages users and makes a real difference once the program is complete.

Leveraging Your Data

What do you know about your learners? By picking up on some of their major pain points to finding out learning gaps, the more contextualized training is, the faster it spreads. But how do you really dial into what learners want and need?

Using big data can be an untapped resource for neurolearning insights. Taking a look at sales reports, for example, can help you identify areas in which your sales team might be struggling so you can address problems head-on. At the same time, big data from learner surveys can help you weed out pain points that turned them off of previous learning initiatives. If modules were too long or not particularly helpful, you can adjust according to that feedback.

Your learners’ brains are chock-full of memories, opinions, thoughts, and emotions, so it can be hard to find brain share for your training. Still, if you know how the brain works and what motivates your learners, you’ll have a better shot to growth hack your training to get more students on board and increase overall buy-in.

Conclusion

When gamification principles are applied correctly and consistently to corporate learning experiences, they can be a highly effective solution to engage, retain and develop employees.