Why Gamification can be Effective for Training – even Essential!
By Jim Helein and Stephen Juliano
Most people shut down immediately at the thought of enduring another training. Whether we force people to the classroom to watch slide after slide (or in our new world the Zoom room to watch slide after slide) or giving them an “engaging” eLearning course that, face it, oftentimes has them clicking through slide after slide, it’s become largely a passive activity. We’ll teach. You listen (and maybe answer a few emails).
That’s why most people dislike training. And most companies do not want to PAY a lot for training. They’re not seeing the results. Those results being retention, better employee engagement, better job performance, and the real big nut – financial rewards, whether it be savings from reduction of rework or do-overs from poorly trained workforces or higher costs for constantly having to onboard new employees because employees are leaving due to lack of engagement or feeling like they’re not able to do a good job.
Windwalker is a company that produces Instructor-led training, blended training, and eLearning. We have done so for over 20 years for both Federal and commercial clients. Our specialty has been eLearning or distance learning or WBT or CBT, whatever asynchronous, user driven training has been called over the last two decades, it’s where our expertise lies. No one knows better than us that just because you put your training on a computer or mobile phone or tablet, does not mean it’s automatically engaging, effective training. It just means more people can access it.
We are seeing a lot of stuff out there about gamification. That isn’t new. Game theory has been around for a long time. Gaming has been around for a long time. And it’s not a new idea to add gaming elements to adult learning. Windwalker’s Director of Innovation and Emerging Technology, Stephen Juliano, is often mystified by the lack of gaming in training. “As a professional in the training industry, and someone who has been actively playing video games for roughly 30 years,” Stephen says, “it has been interesting to see how infrequently eLearning leverages game theory.”
(The Other War is a prime example of Gamified Training that was made for the U.S. Army)
In today’s hyper-competitive training industry, he believes it is critical to have an understanding of why and how video games are so successful with engagement and problem-solving retention. “The aspect that I feel should be leveraged more with training is the ability to capitalize on uncertainty,” he says. Now, there’s a word that will strike fear into most company leaders. But it’s a great word for training…or LEARNING.
A core mechanic in most video games is to let a user face a challenge, often fail, and see how they learn from that failure to overcome that challenge. A reason that this works so well in a lot of the great video games is because there is some sort of narrative driving the experience. A user’s decisions will affect the outcome; meaning the user will be invested in what happens and WANT to succeed but also not be afraid to explore failure to test their theories on what is correct.
This is important to think about and capture when designing training, especially for eLearning. eLearning is all about experiencing something outside of your typical environment in a safe and engaging way. PLAY some games if you have never done so. Think about how the developers have incorporated mechanics that effect your motivations and behaviors. Also figure out what has been done to frustrate you and why. Stephen says, “Playing video games may not make you the best Instructional Designer out there but I am positive that it would make an impact on how you design or how you think about designing future eLearning.”
As we said, gamified training courses are not new. They’ve been around a long time – we’ve produced multiple courses over the years. But now let’s make the whole training – check that – Learning -- experience gamified. Let’s explore a whole gamified learning platform, where the whole experience of going through curriculum is put into a gamified environment to capture the competition, the camaraderie, the desire to perform, and yes, even the fun of gaming is captured in learning.
This is bold way of thinking about Adult Learning. Companies often forget to prioritize the learner, and that lack of care will trickle down and reflect back to the company as disengagement and a lack of respect. It’s important to understand HOW the users work in their jobs and WHEN they need relevant knowledge. Content should focus on WHY its relevant to them and how it impacts them. Providing effective learning tools, and microlearning experiences vs hour long courses, shows them that their time and their job; and ultimately, they themselves, are respected. Whenever possible job-related scenarios put into a narrative format should be used to engage learners. Video or animation should be a priority to explain complicated things in as quick and easy a way as possible. Add competition, and residual learning, rewards, levels – dare we say it FUN – to the whole experience. Could your workforce become more engaged in their learning and in turn their jobs? We think so. Then perhaps those real results everyone is looking for will emerge.
Windwalker’s Training Division is releasing a brand-new experience training platform that will take Gamification in the workspace to a whole new level called WindwalkerXP. With statistics that Gamified Training increases employee engagement by upwards of 60% and a 50% growth in improved productivity, we have only tapped the surface of how Gamification helps employees train better and retain knowledge on a more consistent basis. Gone are the days of instructor led training that can take company time away from the employees. WindwalkerXP will instill that Gamified Training is the new and improved way to train all employees!
For more information, please contact Jim Helein at jim.helein@windwalker.com
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