Gamification can come across as a buzzword but it’s been misrepresented as an answer to all learning challenges. There is no silver bullet. Gamification is an effective tool as part of your wider learning program.
Our learning platforms are gamification solutions through and through! Everything we do is meticulously designed to engage learners, from your very first login to your one-thousandth.
For gamification to work, you need to adopt a strategic approach. You can’t throw badges, points, and leaderboards at your engagement problem and just expect instant results! Let’s discuss some of the things you need to consider in order to create a successful gamified learning solution…
Focus Mechanics On Wider Organisational Goals
All training programs should start with a clear goal in place. This could be an increase in product knowledge or better onboarding of new employees. Setting clear and measurable goals from the get-go will help you to select appropriate game mechanics.
For instance, if you are launching a sales training program, you may lean heavily on leaderboards. After all, salespeople tend to be a naturally competitive bunch.
Ensure Mechanics Are Suited To Your Team
Different audiences will have different wants and needs. Whether you’re rolling out training for employees, partners, customers, or other groups, it’s important to select the game mechanics that will work best for your learning ecosystem.
If you don’t design your gamified training program to suit your audience, you could actively end up disengaging them.
Provide Real-World Context
Many game mechanics provide learners with intrinsic motivation to complete actions on their learning platform. But you could also incorporate extrinsic rewards within your gamified training program.
For instance, earning a pre-set number of Badges could entitle you to company-branded items, a charitable donation, or some other tangible reward.
Level Up Your Users and Your Organisation!
Evaluating your learners’ progress is easy through the use of levels!
As they collect badges and XP, learners can level up, giving the admin a great representation of where each learner is on their journey
This information can be used to highlight areas learners need to work on more, or who in your team might need an extra push!
XP Best Practise
Badges
Users collect badges for completing training content. These badges are usually fully branded by clients to match the product training. This encourages learners to collect badges and establish themselves as a champion of their organization. Quite often clients reward these champions by giving them a Club where people can tap into their expertise. Everyone’s a winner!
A trip to the Badge Cabinet will remind the learner how far they’ve come and spur them on to devour even more content! You can press the greyed-out badges and it will take you to the awesome piece of content needed to fill up your badge cabinet.
Leaderboards
Leaderboards tap into our competitive spirit and act as a powerful engagement tool, driving users to keep learning Leaderboards are based on XP collected through the completion of content and contributing to the social community The pull of pole position, motivates users to engage with the platform and their training. After all, if they know they’re just one action away from beating their rivals to the top, they’re more likely to put the effort in!
