How gamification in LMS gives better results

Viren Kapadia December 16, 2020
How gamification in LMS gives better results?

As per a recent survey by Badgeville, gamification has been proven to improve the work experience for 91% of employees. And before we go into the specifics of why this happens in a work environment, it is necessary to point out the reason why gamification would improve outcomes for any endeavor. Humans by nature are competitive. Menial tasks where one just has to ‘get the job done’ often tend to feel uninteresting. However, when there is an element of competition involved, people naturally tend to outdo each other. And gaming is addictive – think about how many hours kids would voluntarily spend before screen playing games as opposed to how eagerly (or not eagerly) they sit down to their homework. Here, we look at why gamification in an LMS gives better learning outcomes for learners and the organization.

Makes Learning Competitive

As has been mentioned above, gamifying learning experience ensures that learners would be competing throughout the training activity. This happens two ways:

Step 3: Devising/Revising a performance evaluation system

This is the most important step. Here, you would want to build an evaluation system that is fair and reasonable for everyone. Thus, you would want to create a system that would be able to:

  • Competing with Self: Learners can keep a track of their performance on every module as also the completion percentage of individual learning paths. Because they know how many modules are done and how many are pending, they would want to push themselves for earlier completion so as the earn a completion badge. Also, they would want to continuously improve their performance on the various tests that they have to take at the end of every module. Once they get the results and they understand what mistakes they committed which lowered their scores, they would feel prompted to go back to the modules to correct their misunderstanding of concepts.
  • Competing with Others: A gamified learning path on an LMS would also have a leaderboard that all members in a trainee group would be able to see. Thus, they see where they rank among everyone. Knowing that their skill level and understanding of various concepts could be judged based on their performance against others, they would be prompted to take the training far more seriously and also take a module more than once if they feel that they have missed out on something. This would ensure a thorough understanding of the training content that the learners are expected to be familiar with.

Thus, gamification taps into the ego of intended trainees positively, seeking to enhance their performance on training through their innate sense of competition.

LMS + Gamification = Increasing Learner Engagement

Adults who have spent 15-18 years of their life in formal education would be averse to getting back in a classroom environment. Oftentimes when you pack adults in a classroom for delivering training through an instructor, the environment tends to be non-serious as an instructor would find it difficult to establish authority over grown-up ‘students’ as against how it happens in schools. However, using an LMS, they can take the training sessions individually, over a digital device (could be a laptop, tablet, or smartphone). Also, they can take the training from anywhere and at any time. When there are lesser distractions, they would tend to be far more focused on the training modules.

Now when you have a gamified experience, the trainees would tend to maximize their energies towards competing on the task of learning and upskilling. This would ensure a higher level of engagement with the training content.

Another aspect you need to consider here is the fact that millennials (who are increasingly entering the workforce) tend to have a low attention span. Thus, if there is a long training session for 2 hours, they would invariably lose focus on it mid-way even as the module plays on. Gamification allows you to break down a topic into small sub-topics which are explained in 8-10-minute modules. Because they are expected to undergo a test on what they have retained during the modules, the trainees are naturally compelled to concentrate on the topic. This is one more factor contributing to better retention.

Gamifying for better collaboration

In a work environment, employees have to work in collaboration with each other. Often, however, they tend to form invisible walls around themselves, or tend to form groups within teams who they are more comfortable with. However, gamification can be an excellent way to break down such walls and compel employees to get out of their comfort zones. This could be done by randomizing group formation among trainees and getting them to compete on collective assignments at the end of training modules. What this would ensure is every employee learns how to collectively work with different groups of people within the organization towards achieving common goals. Thus, by melting the ice between employees, gamification of learning could lead to a better team and organizational cohesiveness.

Improves ROI on Investment on Training

Given the fact that trainees are vying to upgrade their knowledge and skills, it is natural that this would reflect on their work performance in two ways:

  • They would be able to deliver work output with greater efficiency and accuracy as they have a better understanding of their tasks, the best practices to perform the tasks, and the knowledge of the outcomes that are to be delivered.
  • The competitive attitude developed through the training process will spill over on to their routine work, and thus, they would strive to outdo themselves and others every day.

Apart from this, because of a heightened sense of collaboration developed through group assignments during training, the internal chemistry of office teams would also be enhanced. This would ensure that they work synergistically during everyday operations, and would deliver better business outcomes.

As seen above, there are multiple benefits that gamification of learning within an LMS delivers, not just to individual trainees but to the organization as a whole. GyrusAIM allows you to gamify different custom learning paths with points, badges, and leaderboards. Such features can surely deliver an exciting learning experience, which is sure to ensure a higher level of interest and engagement with the training modules.