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What is Gamification?
Gamification is the addition of game-like design elements and techniques with something in order to improve user engagement and to provide a better user experience. Gamification adds huge value to businesses. The right gamification tactics can be useful for user engagement, customer acquisition customer training, customer loyalty, skill development, behavior modification, and more.
What is Gamification in eLearning?
Gamification in eLearning is the addition of some sort of game play for better learning. It’s designed in a way that provides a balance between the subject (that needs to be learned) and playing games. It then utilizes the skills learned to apply them in the real world.
Key Ingredients of Gamification
Motivation – Motivation is responsible for people behaving in the way they do. Where there are people, they need to be motivated. For example, your salespeople need motivation to boost up sales, or your marketing team needs motivation to be more creative.
Mastery – Mastery is the set of guidelines and subject knowledge necessary to complete a task. Game scenarios should be based on skill testing instead of random luck. This is a path to ensure successful gamification. Users should feel like they’re playing a game whereas they should be developing a skill.
Triggers – Triggers act as a stimulus for users to fulfill their motivation. There may be scenarios where users are not confident or are distracted, triggers are necessary to solve such problems.
What Elements of Gamification can be Applied to eLearning?
Addition of gamification to eLearning seems like a fun thing to do. But you need to plan your approach thoroughly for it to yield better results. For eLearning, gamification is the application of gaming techniques to content to make it fun and engaging. In other words, it’s the use of game-like tactics to inspire users to learn while they play as they proceed towards the final goal.
Let’s have a look at some of these tactics and techniques that game based learning companies use.
Story
Just like any good movie, a good story is behind a good game. These stories have a character, a challenge, and a plot. Creating scenarios is the best way to add a narrative element to the game.
Rules
Rules are an important part of any gamification experience. They will tell the users what they can and can’t do.
Player Control
Users need to have control over the player and other gaming elements. You can let the players choose an avatar or give them navigation controls.
Treasure Hunt
Adding a fun element like a treasure hunt or an Easter egg is a good add-on. It gives users an extra bit of excitement for finding extra information. This may result in extra points or a special advantage.
Interactivity
All the games in the world focus on interactivity. Don’t make users click aimlessly. Instead, make them find relevant information. The user should always be engaged while playing a game whether physically or mentally.
Continuous Play
Continuous play is the ability to pick up from where a player left off in the game. This means that any progress made will not be lost. Suppose the user is enhancing a particular skill but the level could not be completed. This feature will then help the user resume the level without needing to restart it.
Rewards
Providing bonuses or additional rewards is an old yet effective element of any game. After all, who doesn’t like an extra reward for their efforts?
Levels
As the game progresses, skills develop, and with this progress, the level of the game should also be increased.
Final Words
These were some of the gaming elements that can be used for the gamification of eLearning courses. Please don’t think of gamification as simply playing games. Gamification is the addition of game-like elements to make learning interactive and fun.
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