Gamification seems to be a (not so new) buzzword that is mentioned more and more. Not so long ago apps appeared that enabled you to level up, earn coins or even win contests by behaving in a certain manner like going to the gym, spending money on shopping sites or being a responsible driver. People realised that adults actually liked these playful rewards, and suddenly training programs are also including elements of gamification in an attempt to trick (oops!... encourage!) learners to complete a learning element and hopefully even return for more.
And it works! 🏆
Gamification is a scientific framework to identify desired outcomes (like gaining knowledge or adopting corporate culture) and behaviours (course completion, collaboration, etc.) and selecting and using relevant game mechanics and techniques to drive and achieve these outcomes.
Adding gamification does make it more fun, and does encourage learners to not only complete trainings, but also do this in a shorter time period, ... because people are suckers for extrinsic rewards like points, badges and leaderboards. Most of us enjoy competing, bragging about - and sharing - our achievements, and earning rewards which could potentially even be traded for prizes in a reward shop.
Our Docebo Learn LMS enables you to do all of this. Want to learn how? Take our course on Using Gamification.
We are, however, also driven by intrinsic motivation. Examples of intrinsic motivators include:
- pride
- having and building emotional connections, mastery, autonomy (freedom of choice)
- avoiding guilt
- and many more
Using these intrinsic motivators to motivate learners and drive certain behaviours are also possible through gamification.
For example, adding feedback, assigning mentors and experts to learners as managers, allowing learners to browse and select courses from a catalog, enabling learning plans with mandatory and selective training content, and using words to make learners feel special, build a sense of belonging, and grow team and corporate culture, all work as intrinsic motivators.
Similarly, encouraging learners to complete trainings with FOMO (the fear of missing out) and guilt of being found out for not completing mandatory training in time, are also effective gamification techniques.
Even better is appealing to both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation!
Imagine growing collaboration and engagement by enabling learners to share knowledge with other learners, tag each other in mentions, tag specific assets, contact experts, and even be rewarded for social interactions like asking questions or commenting on other learners’ questions, with points, badges and leaderboards! The Discover, Coach and Share add-on enables you to do this.
Let’s encourage learning and knowledge sharing… Game on! 🎮
