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See How I Gamified This E-Learning Interaction by Making 5 Simple Changes

AllisonLaMotte's avatar
9 years ago

Gamification is more than just an e-learning buzzword. It’s a great way to engage your learners and make them actually want to complete your course. So if course designers know learners prefer gamified e-learning and it’s more effective, why aren’t we seeing more of it?

One reason I keep hearing is that it’s complicated and time-consuming to gamify a course. With the help of this article on gamification techniques, I decided to try it out for myself by turning this “Meet the Team” interaction into a gamified course. Click here to check out the finished result, and read on to find out how I did it.

1. Add A Story

My original “Meet the Team” interaction was a classic click-and-reveal. To gamify it, the first thing I did was add a narrative. Instead of just presenting the learners with information about each team member, I folded the interaction into a story where their boss introduces them to their team members. Then the learner must seek help from their coworkers to complete a series of tasks. To succeed, they have to use what they know about their teammates to decide who they should approach for help.

While doing this gives the course intrigue, it also helps learners understand why knowing who does what can be useful to them. That relevance increases the likelihood that they will pay attention and retain that information.

The good news is that you don't need much to create a compelling story. In this case, all I did was insert a couple of text bubbles (or captions). Then, instead of simply describing the situation, I let my characters tell the story with a dialogue in the bubbles.

2. Offer A Personalized Learning Path

The next thing I did to give my interaction a game-like feel was to personalize the course and give learners more control over their journey. I did this in three main ways, by:

  • addressing them by their first name
  • asking them to choose their role
  • giving them access to “on demand” content

To accomplish this, I first inserted a data-entry field with a variable reference to capture the learner’s name. Then I added two buttons, each with a trigger linking it to the scene associated with that role. Finally, I added a player tab that linked to the “Meet the Team” content, so they could go back and review it without losing their spot in the course.

3. Present Them With A Challenge

To encourage the learner to not only interact with the screen but also to interact with the content, I added a series of challenges. These challenges, or decision-making activities, present the learner with a task that they will need help with, and ask them to decide which of their teammates would be best suited to help them.

Adding these challenges was easy, as they are basically just quiz questions. The only difference is that instead of getting points for correct/incorrect answers, my boss is more or less happy with me, as seen on the progress meter described below.

4. Include A Progress Meter

The possibility of losing something is more likely to motivate people than the opportunity to gain something else. This basic principle, called loss aversion, can be found in most games in the form of negative points. In this example, I decided to add a progress meter that both adds and subtracts points depending on the learner’s answers, and also serves as visual feedback to them about how they’re doing.

To do this, I downloaded and adapted this progress meter template. I also decided to add it to the player tabs so learners could see it at any time. 

5. Give Them A Second (or Third!) Chance

Have you ever spent hours on the same game, trying to beat your own score? If you’re a gamer, chances are the answer is yes. The opportunity to outdo yourself is addictive. So why not use that same principle to motivate your learners to do their best by allowing them to retry as many times as they’d like?

To incorporate this final element into my course, I added a results slide that includes all the questions in both learning paths. Then I checked the box to allow learners to retry the quiz and adjusted the pass percentage. Easy-peasy!

More Resources

If you want to try out e-learning gamification for yourself but feel intimidated, just remember: you don’t have to add all the elements of a game to your course for it to be fun and effective. A few can be enough to give it a game-like feel that your learners will love. Get a jump-start by downloading this template.

Can’t get enough gamification? Don’t miss all the great resources on this page.

Have you created a gamified e-learning course? Tell us about your experience in the comments section below! And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.

Published 9 years ago
Version 1.0
  • I must say that this blog is the simplest way to understand and apply the concept of gamification into your e-learning course. Thanks for sharing this Allison.
  • GregBest's avatar
    GregBest
    Community Member
    Fantastic way to help people get to know others in the team using gamification :) Thanks for sharing this!
  • Hi Allison

    This is amazing !!!!!

    Would you be prepared to share the source file as, while the blog is very clearly explained, the physical elements are tricky to set up. It would be great to be able to physically play with the elements to see how it works

    Thanks in advance
    Stephen
    • AllisonLaMotte's avatar
      AllisonLaMotte
      Staff
      Thanks for the enthusiastic feedback, Stephen! :) Since you asked so nicely, I decided to put it up in the downloads section. Check it out and let me know if you have any questions: http://bit.ly/1YtvWdg
      • StephenRobinson's avatar
        StephenRobinson
        Community Member
        Thanks so much - I'm a bear of little brain so, while reading it was good, being able to physically see the elements and how they are layered has been brilliant - I spent a few hours playing with it last night and have already identified ways I can use this as a template for some pieces at work

        I will obviously credit you and tell people that I have merely stood on the shoulders of giants as this has saved me hours of work and given me a launchpad to create something really impactful (yeah that's a word and if it isn't then it should be tee hee)

        I really love how this community so freely shares IP and hope, as I get more experienced, to start giving back

        Thanks again, have fun, stay safe and keep learning
        Stephen
  • Nice work capturing simple gamification elements that aren't just points and badges (often what you hear as core "gamification" ideas). Making learning a bit more fun, leveraging game principles, and making it personal are all excellent concepts for any course. Good job, Allison, as always!
  • Really great tips, here. These are the kind that help you customize the interaction and tailor it to your culture or specific outcome needs for the training. Great tips! Thanks for sharing!
  • DeborahDuffy's avatar
    DeborahDuffy
    Community Member
    I like this Allison. Many thanks for letting us download this as a template :-)