Gamify Your eLearning

Gamification is revolutionizing the eLearning industry. Game based learning strategies increase learner engagement and attract new registrations. Gartner Says By 2015, More Than 50 Percent of Organizations That Manage Innovation Processes Will Gamify Those Processes.

According to Wikipedia, "Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems."

Above definition itself helps derive the important concept that there has to be a problem that the learner is supposed to solve. A context needs to be set so that the learn can relate and has a starting point to interact with the game.

Intent is not to create a game but to create gameful experience. This makes sense, else, we would simply call it Game Development instead of Gamification. Games are intrinsically rewarding by nature but in case of Gamification it is optional to reward intrinsically. Games have predefined rules whereas Gamification has tasks with points and rewards. Gamification is done to motivate people so losing is optional unlike games. Through Gamification learners are encouraged to do something to meet the learning objective. Gamification is usually much cheaper than Games.

Gamification adds game like features without making too many changes to the content.  Some of the features that can beadded to to gamify learning are listed here. Choose your features up to a level depending on how much you want to gamify.

• Add points to individual tasks that need to be completed. 
• Provide badges/rewards after a criteria is met or on completing challenges, goals and targets. 
• Unloack higher levels on earning badges or rewards. 
• Create a Leaderboard to show the success of top performers. 
• Define levels to repeat similar complexity tasks and to perform tougher tasks.

To develop effective educational games, identify the ability level of the player and be slightly more challenging for the learner's skill  level. If your game can adapt to learner's performance real time, will be a great motivator for the learner to move ahead at their own pace. eLearning should after all be a self-paced learning mechanism. Provide immediate feedback on the learner's activity performed in the game.

Gamification has the potential to take learning to entirely different levels. For example, winners at different levels can be offered discounts to enter new courses. Learners can hope to add new skills in their kitty at less price. With gamification, educators can be assured to consistently provide same great quality interaction all the time .

While gamification looks like an innovation today to improve learner engagement; real goal very soon will be to enable innovation using gamification.