Does gamification improve eLearning?

All these concepts were initially designed to make video games more attractive, with the goal of selling more copies. Take the classic Space Invaders, for example. You control a spaceship defending Earth from descending waves of aliens. To ensure players are entertained for more than just fifteen minutes, several concepts were applied. Here are four examples:

1. Story – A story about a war with extraterrestrial beings was added to the moving pixels on the screen. This gives meaning to what you are doing and assigns you an important role: you must defend Earth! This makes the game more interesting.
2. Levels – Every time you clear the screen, you move to the next level with a new wave of aliens. This makes progress more visible and provides a sense of accomplishment each time.
3. Challenge Curve – The levels are not repetitive but become increasingly challenging, with more or faster enemies, for example.
4. High score – You earn points for shooting down aliens and completing levels. You can try to beat your own high score or see how you compare to others.

These game elements influence the participant’s motivation. For digital learning solutions, motivation is a hygiene factor: if it is lacking, the solution will have little to no effect. Without motivation, a participant will not engage seriously, will click through as quickly as possible, or even close the training. Therefore, it is crucial that participants are motivated. There are two types of motivation: intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation occurs when the participant is interested, curious, or otherwise internally driven to learn. Extrinsic motivation comes from external factors, such as having to complete a safety eLearning course to be allowed to enter a building.

Intrinsic motivation is much more effective for the learning process than extrinsic motivation. As you can imagine, participants who are externally motivated will try to complete the eLearning as quickly as possible. They complete the eLearning but probably learn very little. If participants are intrinsically motivated, for example, because they are curious about the content or want to achieve a good score, they are much more likely to learn from the eLearning. With gamification, we aim to evoke intrinsic motivation in participants.

There are many elements we can borrow from video games to achieve this motivation, but more is not always better. Choose a few elements that resonate with your target audience. These might be different for doctors than for firefighters. And remember, gamification is a nice addition to your learning solution, but nothing more. Your content must still have appropriate didactic methods and a logical structure. The game elements ensure that participants engage with this content attentively.

Gamification and eLearning

Everyone knows that the ‘old’ way of learning from books is outdated. This applies not only in education but also in the business world. More and more organizations are switching to eLearning solutions to train or retrain their staff and students. But how do you ensure that this way of learning remains challenging for your students?

How gamification contributes to eLearning

Gamification is the addition of game techniques and elements to a non-game context. In eLearning, this means adding game techniques and elements to the learning process to positively influence this process. The benefits of gamification in eLearning are as follows:

• Challenging learning. By adding game elements to learning, such as a high score at the end of the learning or interim rewards for successfully completing a module, students are challenged to do their best and aim for better results. Of course, it is important to tailor the learning to your target audience so that these game elements are meaningful.
• Influence on behavior. People are most motivated when the motivation comes from within. This is called intrinsic motivation. If gamification is correctly applied to the learning (and thus your target audience!), the desired behavior can be achieved. This ultimately influences the mindset and work/learning attitude of the student.

Gamification doesn’t have to be difficult

When applying gamification to eLearning, you don’t have to overthink it. Gamification can, in its simplest form, mean a lot for the learning. For example, you can add the following elements to challenge your student:

• Set a time limit on questions to motivate the student to think faster.
• Play a video that requires interaction from the student, such as clicking on incorrect (or correct) actions.
• Encourage the student to do their best by locking chapters if previous chapters have not been successfully completed.
• Let the student choose a character they can relate to.
• Add a high score where the student can compare their performance with others.
• ‘Show the score’. Display how many points the student has achieved so far and how many points can be achieved in total.

And there are many more examples of gamification to think of!

How you can use gamification for eLearning

Chances are you’re now thinking: “But how do I apply gamification to my (future) eLearning?”

We have a lot of experience in setting up eLearning for our clients with a successful application of gamification. Do you need help with this or want to get started with eLearning? Contact us. We are happy to help!