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Back in 2013, gamification was a vague buzzword that did not yet have any clear construct or approach. Now, with much more research on this topic, it has become vastly used in learning and business.

This article will cover the topics of gamification in e-learning and its potential to make the most complex things fun and easy.

What is Gamification?

Gamification is not just a term; it is a whole mindset that can transform the way we work or learn. Through positive and engaging examples, it reinforces people’s behaviors in a way that would be much harder to do in real life.

I don’t think they are people on this world that do not like games. Whether a simple board game, a fun competition or a console version of Mario Kart, games allow a player to feel a sense of achievement, competitiveness, or get more feedback than in real life – and everyone have their own reasons to enjoy playing.

One should not also put games and gamification under one definition. The latter refers more to the process of adding game design elements to non-game contexts, rather than a fully designed game that immerses you into its world.

Games VS Gamification

Games are more than just quizzes, leaderboards, badges, and rewards, as these elements can be addictive but don't encompass the entirety of games. Some elements like the notion of winning and losing, competition and the completion of task are also taken from games and applied to educational trainings.

Gamification uses game-based mechanics, aesthetics, and game thinking to motivate action, push to learn and promote problem-solving skills in a non-game context. It is also based on the principles of behaviorism and operant conditioning, that has shown to be effective in promoting long-term behavior change. You should agree, instead of being punished for misdeeds, it is much more pleasant to be rewarded for small achievements.

A successful instructional design will combine interactivity and immersion elements to sustain engagement, which eventually results in meaningful, not boring learning. Why do you think we emphasize the High Quality, Interactive and POV-focused elements of our trainings? They help immerse the learner into the process, connect on the emotional level and make it seem as if the scenarios are happening in real life.

Common Gamification Practices

It is a struggle to point out which types of businesses do not use gamification as a part of their employee training, recruitment, evaluation, or organizational productivity. Not to speak on the behalf of everything, we will limit ourselves to our “element” – employee training.

Gamification is the whole point of it, and it is what keeps the attention, engagement, and information retention in place. Here are some of the practices that we employ in our trainings, and which you might use in your next one:

1. Challenge your “players”.

Who is not up to a challenge? Not only providing not-that-obvious answers in the training makes the process much more engaging, but it also helps focus the attention of the individual till the very end. Imagine opening an e-learning and seeing the simplest answer ever on the first question – the interest and challenge are already lost.

2. Build immersion and strong characters.

A speech without a story does not sound promising, so why would a training be? The key to high learning success is emotional connection to the learner, and how can it be done if not through making the training relatable and realistic.

3. Learn virtually & practice in real life.

You know your employees have watched the training, but how do you make sure that when the need arises, all the lessons learned will not evaporate from their heads? One way to do it is reinforcement: repeat till one can recite the information when woken up in the middle of the night. The other way, a bit more entertaining, is to recreate the scenarios in reality. Inform your team about a possible checkup of their knowledge, arrange all the necessary things, and see their ability to detect tailgating in action!