There are problems when it comes to online learning platforms. How can training sessions be more engaging, for instance? There are lessons to be learned from games about how to boost engagement in work cultures.
Adding game mechanics into non-game environments
Some of the main issues in learning platforms include low data retention and lack of engagement. To put it simply, many training experiences are just boring – but gamification can make these sessions more engaging in so many ways. At the online conference Beyond Games last November 2021, Sam Watts (Make Real) discusses how gamification in learning environments taps into our natural curiosity to play.
Gamification not only appeals to the digital generation, but it also provides a shift from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to the Intrinsic Motivational Network. This means that there is a specific design that addresses user needs and motivations, which involves engagement and social community. It also involves self-expression, thereby increasing overall engagement.
Barriers to learning and what needs to be done
Watts also touches upon the scale of immersion for the user. Nothing will interrupt their state of flow once they’re engaged in the game. For instance, he shares valuable insights learned from case studies about their past works. This includes the EDF Energy Reactor Runner wherein teams needed to keep a power station running effectively. Teams had specific operational objectives, roles and assigned actions.
The same is true with the Severn Trent Water Chemical Delivery training platform via Oculus Quest VR. Here, teams performed an immersive site inspection that required group investigations to check for clues. As always, barriers to these platforms include the availability of hardware and lack of time. What developers need to do, therefore, is to focus more on 4D rather than 2D, to learn by doing and to engage all a user’s senses. This provides more agency for teams during training.
Factors to consider include input and deployment options, competitive elements, teamwork and collaboration, accessibility and availability, and so on. Towards the end of this video session, Watts answers a few hand-picked questions from the audience to cap off the talk.
This half-hour session is ideal for anyone who’s always been curious about how games can revolutionise learning platforms.
Catherine Dellosa Lo is a freelance writer by day and a geek by night. She constantly struggles between prying herself away from her PlayStation console and sniffing the comic books lined up in her bookshelf, to the dismay of her husband. She one day hopes to soar the skies as a superhero, but for now, she strongly believes in saving lives through her works in fiction.
