In the last few years, we have heard the word “Gamification” being used with eLearning courses.
Gamification in eLearning means adding game mechanics and theory to the courses for a better learning environment.
Implementing a gamification strategy to your eLearning courses helps you in keeping learners engaged and interested throughout learning.
In this article, we will learn what is this and how it keeps your learners engaged.
What Is Gamification?
The definition of gamification is quite simple and easy to understand. It is the use of game mechanics and strategy in the eLearning courses to make it more engaging and easy. In these eLearning courses adds the features that are normally found in games like- character, story, levels, points, badges, scores, rewards, dashboards, etc. Various game mechanics and nuggets are added to the courses to make them more interesting and fun.
How Gamification Increases Learner’s Motivation
In online learning, keeping your learners engaged and motivated throughout learning is a tough task. Adding a gamification mechanism to your normal eLearning courses makes your courses compelling and interesting. This creates a level of interest among the individual learners to engage with the courses. Almost everyone likes to be rewarded and in the eLearning and with these courses, learners are rewarded with the certificates, badges, or points, after they complete learning. This motivates learners to reach their end goal faster.
Gamification Create A Positive Learning Environment
A positive learning environment is important to keep your learners engaged and motivated. A happy learner is one who enjoys learning with your courses. This can be achieved by rewarding them or providing them a certificate. It is the only way to reward learners. When a learner shares their experience with others it motivates them toward your course and on the other hand, it also enhances them and keeps their morale high. This way gamification in your eLearning courses creates a positive learning environment among the learners.
Builds A Sense Of Competition
If you want your learners to perform well and gain things in a shorter time then you have to build a sense of competition among the learners. This can be achieved by adding gamification elements like- levels, scores, badges, dashboards, etc. to your eLearning courses. Categorizing learners on the basis of levels, scores, badges, and their positions in the leaderboard create a sense of competition among the learners. This motivates them to perform more and complete the levels to be on the top.
Gamification Helps In Recognizing Talents
While training your learners it becomes important to decide who is more talented and who needs more training. This can be easily achieved by adding this to your eLearning courses. Learners who easily unlock all the levels and score all the badges while completing the course can be easily recognized. This makes them feel more satisfied and motivated when they are publicly recognized in the leaderboard.
Provides Goals And Objective Of Learning
Gamification in your eLearning courses underlines the goals and objectives of learning. When your courses are divided on a level basis then learners find it easy to determine what they will learn at a particular level. This way a learner learns a particular skill at a particular level. Thus, it also removes the cognitive load of the learners and motivates them to learn more through fun and play.
Conclusion
To design a gamification based course, you have to decide the type of your eLearning courses. This will help you in deciding the best-suited gamification nugget for your eLearning courses. The WPLMS learning management system automatically identifies the type of courses and adds gamification elements to it.