How Learning & Gamification Go Hand in Hand

How Learning and Gamification Go Hand in Hand

If you have been working in corporate training or learning for the last decade, you understand the struggle of traditional learning opportunities or traditional settings on employee training. Many of us have been there; passive lectures, dull videos for on-boarding, a plethora of modules to complete within a certain time frame that is often unrealistic, and test results that are delivered weeks after completion. Traditional learning just isn’t working the way it used to, which is why learning gamification has been introduced in recent years to corporate audiences.

Learning and gamification go hand in hand because it provides a certain level of motivation to learn. As humans, we are wired to respond positively to rewards and achievements; so, when we unlock certain modules and receive praise for doing so, feel good endorphins are released and we desire to continue on in the game, which reinforces learning.

For more on why learning gamification is changing the eLearning landscape (and why learning and gamification go hand in hand), read on…

Working hard and being rewarded makes us happy.

Chemically, there are many reasons why learning gamification works, but primarily, it’s because working hard and being rewarded just makes us happy. For training managers or specialists, this should come as great news.

How does working and being rewarded make us happy? Here’s some scientific reasoning for you…

The chemical dopamine motivates us to take action towards goals, while serotonin flows when we feel significant or important. If we are gamifying a corporate learning experience, we are activating both dopamine and serotonin. Dopamine provides the motivation needed to start those modules, and serotonin takes over as we reach goals and strive to succeed as it makes us feel significant and important along the way.

Endorphins, on the other hand, are released in response to pain and stress, and helps us to alleviate anxiety. With corporate eLearning in mind, endorphins can be released when we’re taking an exam or problem solving a stressful situation in a module, for example. It’s often referred to as “runner’s high” (which makes us happy!)

Learning gamification creates friendly competition.

Introducing learning gamification to your business creates friendly competition among the learners. This is how individuals strive to be better at what they do.

Through the integration of rewards and achievements, users are always striving to make themselves better - whether it’s learning more about X topic, or scoring higher on Y test - so they can further their learning potential, and advance in their career.

In addition, it creates friendly competition both with peers and within the workplace. For example, if your colleague is constantly achieving a higher score than you are, as a user you are more likely to work harder and strive for more - while sharing your success with your colleagues along the way, of course. While we all want the best for our colleagues and friends, a little healthy competition can enhance learning.

It will help us learn more, while keeping us engaged.

It’s a fact that playing games with a high level of engagement leads to greater memory and learning retention. This means through learning gamification, your users will actually become more educated along the way. Although gamification in a corporate environment has taken time to reach a wider scale, there are a multitude of reasons as to why this is the preferred method of eLearning moving forward. Not only will learning through gamification have a high impact on training in your corporate environment, it will also be an effective application on the job, as users are learning more while staying engaged, thereby helping your business succeed.

Gamification supports all training needs, whether it’s corporate induction, on-boarding, skills enhancement, or knowledge. There are many ways in which companies can enrich traditional methods of learning based training through gamifying the experience. Whether it’s partial or complete corporate gamification, or perhaps a slow integration of this new frontier within your workplace, the opportunities are nearly endless. For your next training opportunity within your corporate environment, consider the benefits of leveraging learning gamification to generate a greater impact for your business, both with your corporate strategies and with the happiness and engagement level of your employees.

Contact Designing Digitally today to gamify your corporate training.