Gagne’s nine events of instruction were first published in 1965. They very quickly took the L&D community by storm and have shaped the way professionals create training ever since.
It’s the perfect framework for classroom training, eLearning, and even microlearning. Here’s how you can apply it to your Genie Quests:
Level 1: Gaining Attention
It’s essential to gain the attention of your learners. How else will they be able to learn what you have to share?
This means that your training needs to engage your learners before they’ve even opened it!
Use the ‘Quest Details’ area of Genie to make your Quest appealing to learners by adding an attractive Feature Image and giving your Quest a title that evokes curiosity.
Rather than naming your Quest ‘Health and Safety Unit 2.3’, consider naming it something more compelling, like ‘How Can You Stay Safe in The Office?’
Level 2: Tell Your Learners What’s In-Store
Learning objectives have been given a bad reputation, but they don’t have to be boring! You can use them to draw learners in. The most important way to do this is to make sure learners know the ‘what’s in it for me’.
Use the details area of the quest builder to share this information with your learners and make it as enticing as possible!
Level 3: Stimulate Recall
Have learners recall what they know about a topic at the start of your learning quest and they’ll be in the best possible frame of mind to learn more about that topic. It will give the new information a strong foundation to build on.
A great way to do this is by using the Discovery Method. By using this unique question type, you can ask learners questions to recall their knowledge of a topic.
Level 4: New Information
Your learners are now in the frame of mind to learn, so this is where the real teaching happens.
In this slide (or slides), present new information to the learner. Try to communicate the information across different mediums, that way you’ll maintain engagement for longer. You should use a combination of text, video, audio, and downloadable documents to maximize engagement.
Level 5: Give Some Guidance
Questions are a useful way to make sure your learners are understanding the information you’re presenting them with. It can be easy to whizz through training content without ever taking anything in.
Using different question formats can be helpful for your learners. It allows them to gauge how well they’ve understood the training and whether they need to revisit it.
Level 6 & 7: Elicit Performance & Provide Feedback
Once you’re sure that learners have understood your training, you need to test how well they can apply it.
A great way to test a learner’s ability to apply training is with dialogue questions. You can use this question type to create scenarios. Your learner reads through the scenario and is then quizzed about how they would handle it.
Afterward, you can provide feedback based on their performance using the positive and negative feedback area of the question builder. This helps you encourage learners who are doing well and provides further support to learners who need it.
Level 8: Assess Performance
Assessing performance is an essential part of learning. And, not just because you need to keep track of your learner’s performance. Your learners need to know how well they’ve understood a topic. It’s critical they know whether or not they’ve correctly understood and applied what you’ve taught them.
A few short questions are an easy way to assess your learners. You can then set a pass or fail percentage of those questions or of the whole unit.
If the learner gets the questions right they should be rewarded with a badge and some points!
Level 9: Reinforce
Reinforcing training is just as important as delivering it in the first place! Did you know that we forget nearly 90% of what we learn within just one month of learning it?
You can make it easy for learners to reinforce their knowledge by providing them with a PDF at the end of the unit. This could contain all the key points they need to remember!
How to Craft Effective Questions
Keep questions clear and simple by avoiding complicated words, slang, and confusing grammar
Keep questions as short as possible.
Questions should reflect material that has already been covered (unless you’re trying to show your learners how little they understand about a topic).
Always keep your learning objectives in mind.
Try to challenge learners with questions. Don’t make them so simple that everyone can get them.
Use a variety of different question types.
Why You Need to Gamify Modules
Gamification in learning is about applying game mechanics to training to increase learner engagement!
Did you know that 89% of learners say that gamification makes them feel more productive and 88% say that it makes them happier?
Gamification is a powerful tool to include in your training. It not only helps engage learners, increase their productivity and happiness but also helps them learn more effectively as well!
XP
In gaming, Experience Points (XP) indicate a player’s mastery. XP can be earned for just about any activity which develops the player’s experience, skills, or understanding of the game. These coveted points are commonly awarded for objectives achieved.
On Genie, points can be awarded for nearly anything, from watching a video to answering a question correctly. The points act as a combined goal and reward, driving learners to power on.
In Genie, you’ll find them at the top of the preview screen. Simply select the dropdown and assign how many you want.
Badges
If you’ve played any kind of video game, you’ve probably received a badge for completing a level, killing a baddie, getting a high score, or creating the perfect town. Badges have long been used to represent achievements in the video game world – and they’re a key ingredient in gamifying learning experiences as well.
Using Genie, building badges to reward your learners couldn’t be easier. Simply hit ‘Badge’ at the top of the preview screen to bring up the badge builder!
Leaderboards
Leaderboards make games fun! Candy Crush wouldn’t be half as addictive if we didn’t know other players’ scores. Without a little healthy competition, many games would soon become pointless, lonely, and pretty boring.
Leaderboards tap into our competitive spirit and act as a powerful engagement tool, driving us to climb higher! To add leaderboards to your training, select Quest Settings then set the slider so that Leaderboards are marked green for on.
Add Question Time Limits
Do you know the feeling when you’re doing a quiz and the clock is counting down? The adrenaline? The rush of endorphins when you complete it?
You can add timers to your questions by navigating to ‘Configure Slide’ and selecting the dropdown with a stopwatch icon. The number you select is how many seconds the learner will be given to answer the question. The number of seconds left is the number of bonus points they receive if they get it right!
Offer Wildcards
Ever watched who wants to be a millionaire? Phone a Friend, 50/50, Ask the Audience… These wildcards make the quiz even more exciting. They are the perfect way to provide support when questions get tough!
Navigate to Quest settings and set the Wildcard slider to green to add them to your Quests.
Add Gaming Templates
Everyone loves playing a game. In fact, research indicates that games get our brains in the perfect mood for learning by releasing helpful chemical transmitters in the brain!
Genie comes fully loaded with a whole library of exciting game templates you can apply to your training with the click of a button. Navigate to ‘Quest Settings’ then select ‘Change Game Template’ to view the template library!
