3 ways to gamify your eLearning and increase employee engagement

The results are in: 83% of employees feel motivated by gamification, and 49% of employees feel bored without it.

Motivated and engaged learners are more likely to pay attention and therefore retain information. This translates to on-the-job performance, meaning your investments in learning are justified.

Tech giants are leading the way

Instagram is currently rolling out gamification elements to their app in the form of “Achievements”, where users are incentivised to reach certain milestones and complete various challenges. This motivates their users to engage with the platform in more depth and frequency, through challenges of increasing difficulty and variety.

The fact that a big company like Meta is adding gamification elements to Instagram (which has 2.4 billion users as of 2023) is proof that it works.

It’s time to start thinking about how you can implement gamification in your eLearning so you can:

• increase employee engagement

• increase information retention

• improve training results

If you’re not quite sure how to implement gamification into your training initiatives, this article will show you 3 ways to gamify your eLearning.

1. Include points and awards

Gamification enhances engagement by tapping into an individuals' intrinsic motivation, through mechanisms like achievement badges, points, and levels. Features like these provide learners with a sense of recognition and accomplishment.

Some examples include:

• Points and awards for correctly answering quiz questions

• Progress bars that track completion of a module or curriculum (beware: this is a fine line, because if it’s too slow it can have the opposite effect)

• Offline, real-world benefits like monetary prizes or recognition amongst colleagues (as long as it is genuine)

These techniques align with fundamental human desires for achievement, recognition, and a sense of progress, which will incentivise them to complete more learning and pay more attention.

2. Break content up into bitesize modules

Bitesize modules (an example of microlearning) mean quicker rewards, encouraging users to continue making progress through the modules as they feel the satisfaction of completing modules more frequently. Four bitesize 5-minute modules are both more fulfilling and more appealing than one long 20-minute module.

Staggering learning across multiple shorter sessions also helps learners to retain information, particularly if you have days between sessions and include recaps at the start of the following modules. This is known as spaced repetition, and is a proven technique to get better results.

Not only is it beneficial for learners, but it’s beneficial for the company too - it’s easier for an employee to find 5 minutes than 20 minutes, so it’s less disruptive to other activities which are business critical.

As a learning designer, microlearning encourages cutting the fluff and avoiding death by PowerPoint - something we’re particularly passionate about.

It’s important to note that not all training content can be broken up into bitesize modules. Some content is complex in nature and will of course require a more in-depth module to teach it effectively.

3. Scenario based learning

Arguably the best way to help your learners get real world experience is to give them interactive scenarios that allow them to immediately practice skills that they have learnt through a course or module.

For example, you might simulate a sales call, an emergency situation, a tough interaction with a colleague, or some other scenario where the learner is given a choice of how they might respond.

This might not sound groundbreaking, but the fact that they can immediately see the results of their actions - whether positive or negative - really helps to translate these skills into the real world.

Also, it’s far better to be able to practice in a low-risk environment like this where the consequences aren’t so drastic.

Something to consider is that the scenario should show the real consequences of their decisions, such as how the people respond or how the situation improves or worsens, rather than a simple “correct” or “incorrect” response.

Most importantly, scenarios shouldn’t be too easy or too hard. You want them to be just difficult enough that the learner has to give it some thought before they choose their response, but not so difficult that they give up or get frustrated.

How to get it right

As with anything, there’s no point doing it just for the sake of it. Make sure to throughly consider whether gamification will help learners achieve the learning objectives, otherwise it could have negative effects on learning outcomes. For example, learners may speed through content just to get the awards and not actually retain the information.

If you want help adding gamification and scenario-based learning to your eLearning and need support to make sure it’s effective, get in touch.