I am recalling a recent conversation with a prospect who said that they had implemented gamification of e-learning in their organisation. My first reaction was, “Wow that’s amazing! How has been the experience?”
My question was followed by uncomfortable silence and then the gentleman replied “Our developers had said that gamification of e-learning can bring us wonderful results, but the things are not looking good here as it seems gamification is not working out and we need expert’s help.”
While I had my deepest sympathy for him and his organisation, as their efforts went in vain, I was sure that they had fallen into what we commonly call as “gamified e-learning pitfall”.
I strongly believe that no strategy is bad, its only how its designed and implemented is what makes the difference between success and failure. In this case also gamification as a strategy did not fail, but the objectives and expectations associated with it failed. Drawing from the recent experience, I have listed down the five gamification pitfalls and how one should avoid them.
1. Trying to gamify everything
“ Don’t worry just gamify everything and the learners will enjoy learning”, I am sure that you have also heard this very popular myth about gamification.
It is true that gamification can bring engagement and higher level of interactivity, but that doesn’t mean that the organizations should overdo it. An organization should perform a need analysis to identify if gamification is the correct strategy and carefully determine what, which and how much to be gamified.
Start implementing gamification in a small way like gamify one small module or one part of your induction program. Once your learners accept gamification then start working on the larger picture.
2.Overuse of game mechanics
It’s proven scientifically that we humans, enjoy being rewarded and recognized for our efforts and tasks. In gamification we use game mechanics like points, badges leaderboards etc to motivate the learners. These game elements act as positive reinforcements to make the learners feel that they are doing well.
But too much of game mechanics can confuse the learners and they might feel no sense of achievement in owning these badges or earning points.
3. Ignoring motivation
Organisations make the mistake of creating gamified e-learning programs that initially hook up the learners and gather eyeballs, but in the end do not connect with the learners because there is no intrinsic motivation to keep playing. While gamification is based on the principle of extrinsic motivation, changing learners behavior over a period of time through constant implementation of gamification leads to intrinsic motivation, where the learners start connecting with the learning and comes back to it because they enjoy learning from these modules. The organisation should be able to identify what are the motivational factors that can keep the learners engaged .
4. Rewarding the wrong behaviors
Your reward structure shouldn’t undermine your goal. You should be clear about the goal and the outcomes you are aiming for. Measure and reward what is important, not what is easy.
5. Ignoring social sharing
If this blog was written a few years back, I think this point may not hold much of a relevance then. But now the importance of social media has risen many folds. With organisations now promoting social learning, it makes sense to leverage social media to promote gamification in the organization. While gamifying the learning content, you can allow the learners to share the scores, points, badges and their progress across the social media platforms. This can help the learners to earn respect and recognition among their peers and interest groups which in-turn motivate them to complete the course.
6. Focusing only on fun
Occasionally, organizations get caught up in an idea of making gamification fun and lose track of the learning element. If the elements of fun are more, the learner will tend to forget the learning objectives. While its true that without fun gamification doesn’t retain its true form, it is to be kept in mind that these fun elements should be at the desired and optimum level while not losing sight of what e-learning should accomplish.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a gamified solution is simple and easy to implement. Gamification can give good results, but only when it is well designed and properly implemented. We recommend to use experts while designing gamification of e-learning to avoid these common pitfalls.
