Are you looking for a way to spice up your training courses and boost the commitment of your learners? Look no further! We have just the thing for you: gamification.
So when you consider that according to a Digiworks study, 7 out of 10 adults play video games regularly, why not use gamification in your training programme?
Gamification: what’s that all about?
We talk about gamification when we apply the codes and mechanisms associated with the world of video games to areas for which they were not originally intended.
Like here with the gamification of vocational training, which consists of integrating game mechanisms into a Learning Management System (LMS) to make the online training system and its content more fun. Without forgetting, of course, the long-term goal of traditional training: trainer and certification .
But how do we do it?
It’s simple, we use the game mechanics that we geeks love so much!
What do you mean you’ve never played Candy Crush? We don’t believe you!
But if you’ve really NEVER played any video games, we’ll give you a little help.
Gamification systems are based on the engagement loop, which consists of three elements:
- Motivation – interest triggered by an external factor,
- Action – assessing oneself, consulting training resources, listening to expert testimonials, accomplishing a mission, etc.
- Feedback – given to the user based on their activity. This will make them want to continue the action and improve, which creates new motivation.
What makes these games so successful is, of course, the systems of points, badges, progression, avatars, challenges and rankings. We will come back to this in more detail a little later.
The objectives of gamification
It’s all very nice and fun, but what is the ultimate goal? Why should you implement a gamification strategy within your Learning Management System?
Well, that’s pretty simple too: By amplifying an existing experience through motivational techniques, you will improve the feeling of belonging and accomplishment and boost user engagement. Who can say better?
Gamification is also of great interest for memorisation. And we realised that long before video games! Remember Benjamin Franklin’s very famous phrase:
Tell me, and I’ll forget. Teach me, and I’ll remember. Involve me, and I’ll learn.
But then how does it work?
As mentioned above, gamification has many advantages, particularly that of enriching an existing experience by introducing the originality and game mechanisms that we love so much. Learners therefore want to come back! And it’s an excellent way to build loyalty. With the game, you want to evolve, to go further, and to be the Olympic champion… of your training! You even learn almost without realising it because the learning is done gradually and naturally. And yes, it’s always easier to learn and remember when you’re having fun. And that’s true at any age!
Thanks to the different points, levels and other badges, learners will develop better self-esteem and a stronger sense of achievement. The view of their progress will allow them to realise how far they have come. It is also possible to set up team games to reinforce the feeling of belonging and team cohesion. Gamification can be used, for example, as part of the onboarding of a new employee or as a challenge between teams from different departments.
How to gamify a training course: the drivers of gamification
Without necessarily having to transform your training programme into a giant Candy Crush or Battle Royale, you can use six game mechanics to motivate your learners and boost their involvement in their training programmes. All the while keeping in mind the company’s objectives.
The mechanics and elements of gamification are as follows:
- Points for gratification (can later integrate a rewards system),
- Levels for status,
- Challenges or duels for competition and self-esteem,
- Badges for creativity,
- Rankings for competition,
- Social dimension for altruism.
In training, gamification uses levers that are often found in games. Points to evaluate the game score, or even levels, the collection of objects or badges, missions, avatars, rankings or even progression. These are elements that will frame the game and create an engaging experience for learners. Gamification also makes it possible to retrieve individuals’ progress data and use it for analysis, skills management or training improvement purposes.
The benefits of gamification
As Elodie Primo, CEO of MOS – MindOnSite, points out :
Gamification of learning portals is a key lever for engagement, because beyond what may appear to be a fad, it helps combat the high attrition rate of certain training programmes. Compulsory or imposed training has its limits with employees who devote time to it, but little cognitive resources… In the end, they don’t learn. Including gamification elements makes it possible to generate buy-in, create emotion, and maintain attention by varying the training methods… Thanks to gamification, you have a wonderful communication tool at your disposal to promote what you have to offer.
Gamifying training portals also helps to strengthen the feeling of belonging and boosts the results and productivity of learners, whether you are addressing your employees or the extended enterprise more broadly.
How do you go about implementing a gamification strategy within your LMS?
To benefit from all the advantages of gamification, first think about the objective that gamification should serve: improving commercial performance or knowledge of a product, measuring the contribution of learners, better integration of new employees or team cohesion, etc.
Once you have this objective in mind, you will no doubt be able to start by setting up a rewards system with points and badges, linked to the completion of quizzes and/or content or training courses. This is fairly easy to set up and will enable you to initiate an initial gamification lever and give your employees the opportunity to be fully involved in their online training and to observe their progress.
To help you implement your gamification strategy, you can also use the ‘GAME’ approach:
- G for Goals: planning of business objectives,
- A for Actions: creation of a fun learning-centred experience,
- M for Merit: deployment of a reward system,
- E for Evaluation: continuous evaluation and monitoring.
The gamification strategy will also need to be supported by customised UI/UX, progress radars, points, credits, personalised badges, challenges, rankings and podiums. It can be fully integrated into learning tracking management using the SCORM standard. Gamification also forces us to ask ourselves interesting questions about the kind of behaviour we want to encourage in our employees, and about the company culture with regard to games, emulation, rewards and recognition within the organisation.
Example of game-based learning environment in a company
Throughout this article, we have suggested different approaches to gamifying corporate training. Let’s now look at some concrete examples of gamifying corporate training.
Solutions and rewards
The challenge is to design a programme that effectively rewards both the frequency and the duration of the activity. Badges are effective in the short term, while rank is a tool for symbolising overall progress. In the long term, it is also a good tool for unlocking rights. Intangible rewards such as recognition and status are very important.
Points and progression
Progression is an extrinsic motivator for your target audience. This comes into play in situations where the learners’ behaviour is instrumental to achieving a goal, in this case obtaining a reward.
This progression can be tracked via:
- customised UI/UX
- progression radar
- points/credits/XP
- gauges/levels
- personalised badges
- countdown
The proliferation of short- and long-term progress elements is essential. The player should be given a choice of activities and clear feedback on their situation in each of them.
Here are two examples of gamified online training systems using the lever of progression:
Challenges and Social Learning
Competition is also an important lever of engagement for a number of individuals. We all naturally want (without necessarily wanting to admit it) to become better when we are playing against other individuals.
The competition mechanisms within the training programme will be well received by target audiences such as sales forces and sales advisors, who have a proven appetite for games and competition.
Within the training portal, challenges can be expressed through:
- Leaderboards of the best players and teams / Podium of the top learners
- Asynchronous duels between learners to move towards a new learning method and situation that emphasises knowledge sharing between learners.
In another area, serious games are content that you can include in your professional training programme. Learning through play? Does it sound complicated to you? Yet that is the idea behind the ‘game-based learning’ method.
Note that the main objective of serious games is obviously still learning and increasing the knowledge/skills of your target audience. The use of serious games in professional training has been particularly successful in the fields of education, defence, aeronautics, science and health. The idea is to be able to put learners in a situation. For example, there are serious games for training medical teams in emergency situations, for training a sales team in different sales techniques or for the correct postures to adopt in handling work.
In terms of the Learning Management System, we can take advantage of gamification at several levels:
- Gameplay, i.e. the plot and the way it is played, if possible immersed in a dedicated portal
- The scenario, content and methods of access to educational resources for a personalised course
- Objectives, instructions, announcements, notifications and feedback
- The evaluation system with progress indicators and a personal dashboard
- Interactions and communication with other participants
In game design, it’s the journey that’s important, not the destination. It’s important to break up uniformity, whether in terms of duration or format, and create several possible paths.
