‘94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development (LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report). One of the sureshot ways to retain high performance employees is to invest in their career development and the easiest way to ensure this is to invest on their training. However, the constant advancement of technology has led to the traditional classroom training giving way to more futuristic and engaging solutions like gamification of e-learning and game based e-learning.
While there are plenty of strategies and technologies to explore, the L&D teams always work with certain constraints like the budget, time, technological integrations etc. Also, various critical factors like the ROI or Return On Investment, scalability as well as flexibility need to be considered. However what is required is an implementation partner who can provide the right game based e-learning solutions.
Do you believe that a game based e-learning can burn holes in your pocket? So keep reading my blog to know, why I just think the opposite and strongly believe that game-based e-learning is a good training investment option.
1.Game based e-learning aids the learning process
In a traditional e-learning or a classroom training, the learning modules don’t induce the learners with an engaging learning experience. While the game based e-learning with the power of game element in the learning approach stimulates the learners to experience and enjoy the learning process.
Imagine a game based learning module with the gameplay of cricket and see how learners are greeted with active, engaging and problem-solving
tasks in the form of every ball they play or failing at an assessment and losing a wicket. The entire process of game based learning is based on the principle of “play-learn-make a mistake-repeat-learn-play” and this cycle continues. When a learner repeats the process, he gets familiar with the content and that’s what learning is about.
Studies have already proved that,games have the ability to stimulate the cognitive domains of the players. The feeling of winning the challenges and tasks, receiving positive feedbacks and awards, points,s cores etc releases the dopamine in our brain which is responsible for effective learning as it can help in increased memory retention for the learners.
2.Game based e-learning keeps the learners motivated
How often you go back and play your favorite game on your smartphone or PC ? What motivates you to play it again and again?
It can be the high end graphics, the characters, gameplay , challenges and milestones and even the motivation to lead the leaderboards. Yes, these are some of the game elements that motivate every players.
The use of a series of game mechanics like wickets, overs in a cricket or goals and penalty shootouts in a football and so on… mapped onto the favourite game that give a kick to the learners can make them motivated to continue the learning process.
For example, the famous game FarmVille on Facebook made the world go crazy, I still remember when I used to wake up early regularly to check if my crops are ready and plan for my online farming activities. That’s the power of the game.
With the continuous feedback in game based e-learning, the learners are able to feel the progress of their learning experience
3.Game-based e-learning with simulation can be a lethal combination
It was in 2011, that Siemens introduced Plantville game, the game simulates the experience of being a plant manager. Players are faced with the challenge of maintaining the operation of their plant while trying to improve the productivity, efficiency, sustainability and overall health of their facility.
The players will be able to interact with the Plant Manager, whose plant has won the “Plant of the Year” award. He helps the players by sharing his best practices to help players achieve outstanding results in plant performance.
When you are able to learn through the simulated experiences of “doing it” as opposed to “seeing it” combined with the game play of your favourite game, undoubtedly its a lethal combination and keeps the learner wanting more of it. A game based simulation makes the learning very effective and it provides the advantage of ensuring a platform to learn without the fear of making mistakes and most importantly to enjoy the learning process.
4.Game based e-learning leads to a better ROI in the long term
The way game based e-learning is designed both from the engagement and learning point of view ensures that learners learn well from the module and are better able to apply it on the job. Thus it is likely that the productivity on the job will improve leading to lower training costs in future and hence better ROI over the long term.
5.Game based e-learning is future proof
The present technology has made multimedia devices available at affordable prices, with the increased penetration of mobile devices and with several organisations promoting BYOD policies (Bring Your Own Device), organisations are able to push the learning content to the device of the users directly.
The new smartphones, tablets etc are very much capable enough to utilise the high end technologies. This enables the organisation to push the game based elearning approach to the mobile devices of the learners.
With future technologies knocking at the door, game based e-learning enjoys the advantage of enjoying the benefits of the same. For example, VR and AR are the technologies which have a great future and there are already games like Pokemon wich has effectively used the strategy of Augmented Reality in it.
Hence, as you see, there is no reason to worry as game based e-learning is definitely a future-proof strategy to invest in.
The game based e-learning is enjoying an undeniable acceptance and importance from the past some years by more and more organizations, which have started to explore and effectively use this strategy for various corporate training requirements. Hence, I have every reason to believe that Game based e-learning will be a good training investment option.
