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Introduction
Gamification for workplace training brings together the defining characteristics of games, such as interactivity and decision making, to cultivate learning. Gamified training expedites the learning process and makes for an engaging learning experience.
Gamification can drive a wide range of goals and practices that are beneficial for product organizations along with their employees and customers. Gamification can be leveraged to increase community participation (employees, extended enterprise, customers) with training programs.
The key qualities of games, such as achieving specific objectives, solving problems and challenges, and the execution of product features to solve problems, can arouse interest and engagement.
Challenges of Workplace Training
Gamified learning mitigates the key challenges of product training. Studies have shown gamification to be more effective than traditional methods to achieve learning outcomes.
- Learner engagement — Participation rates increase with game mechanics. This survey from eLearning Industry indicates 80% of learners feel more productive when learning through a game
- Knowledge retention — Knowledge retention is a major challenge in workplace training. 70% of new information is lost within the first 24 hours of learning.
- Learner motivation — An effective training strategy must result in high completion rates. This study found that when gamification of learning was applied to MOOCs, a global completion rate of 14.43% was achieved, in contrast to 6.162% in the absence of gamification strategies.
The Intrinsic Value of Gamification for Workplace Training
The value of gamification in corporate training can be best understood in light of the Four Freedoms of Play as proposed by Scot Osterweil (Creative Director at MIT’s Education Arcade). Osterweil proposes that if these “four freedoms” are not respected, the play experience is severely compromised and its benefits ruined. The four freedoms are:
- Freedom to fail
Losing without serious consequences is part of the learning process. Training that does not allow progress through trial and error can hinder learning. When learners are free to fail in a risk-free environment, their freedom to experiment is heightened.
- Freedom to experiment
A safe place to fail inspires experimentation. The open-ended environment of Game-based learning programs facilitates self-directed learning through exploration and experimentation. Conventional testing protocols for learners tend to hinder the freedom to experiment. When learners are free to fail, their freedom to experiment is heightened. Experimentation permits greater avenues for self-directed learning.
- Freedom to try on identities
Gamification can easily facilitate role-playing. Learners can experience scenario-based challenges related to their roles and functions and dive into an area of knowledge more readily.
- Freedom of effort
The constant high-focus required by a conventional training environment can induce fatigue in learners. Gamification calls for high focus alternated with breaks where engagement is less active, this refreshes the attention span of learning for longer periods.
Advantages of Gamification for Product Training
- Gamification improves onboarding and Product Engagement
Gamification can improve the onboarding experience for users than conventional methods as it is more fun and engaging.
- Gamification can hasten a product’s time-to-value
Product knowledge training can be improved through gamification to hasten time-to-value. Gamified learning paths can be set up to achieve specific learning goals.
- Gamification facilitates an opportunity to see real-world applications
The product can be familiarised through roles and functions in a simulated training environment. This provides a birds-eye view of how the product fits into a host of scenarios.
- Gamification provides real-time feedback
Gamification provides instant feedback. Feedback is a critical component of upskilling learners. By providing role-centric, constructive feedback, gamification can improve the learning experience.
- Gamification promotes lifelong engagement with a product
Learners may require training throughout the product life-cycle based on factors such as level of competency and the evolving functions of a product. Gamification can make releasing product updates a more active function.
- Gamification makes it easier to track the pain points of a product
Learner performance in a simulated training environment can make it easy to track the pain points of different kinds of users when engaging with your product. This can prove invaluable for the product team. Tracking the performance and usability of training material also simplifies how content can be enhanced.
Do you have a great product but suffer from poor engagement? Do your users require periodic product knowledge training? Origin Learning creates high-fidelity gamified training to fit your product. Our training solutions are deployable across devices without compromising on effectiveness or user experience.
To learn more about gamification for your enterprise, write to us at info@originlearning.com