Game-based learning is growing in popularity, but who are Learning Games for? Learning games have been used in schools for decades, but the potential of game-based learning is gradually being realised by the wider learning and development sphere.
As they wake up to the massive problems with learner engagement, learning professionals have been asking themselves where it all went wrong.
When did learning stop being fun?
The answer is simple: learning lost its lustre when the focus was taken off of the people taking the training. Now that the truth is out, there has never been a better time to be a learner.
Learning games are gradually being used in a number of ways for various applications, but who is reaping the benefits?
Here’s our good friend Karl Kapp on the benefits of serious/learning games:
Let’s take a look at the types of people who are availing of learning games.
Learning Games for New staff
What would you think if your first experience in a new job was being locked in a cold room with an ancient TV/VCR combo, forced to watch a poorly produced induction video? When you’re welcoming newbies to your organisation, you want to give them the best first impression possible. Nobody wants to be thought of as boring and organisations are no different.
Learning games are a great way to conduct a successful onboarding programme. They give your new starters all the information they need to get off on the right foot, but that’s not all. They give you a way to tell your new recruits that your company isn’t one of those dull, stuffy companies – it’s a place of enthusiasm, excitement and fun!
Learning Games for Generation Y
The problem of learner engagement has only gotten more serious as the workforce has been populated with the next generation of young employees. These children of the 80s and 90s have grown up with instantaneous enjoyment from mobile phones and the internet.
Although that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it does mean that attention spans have gotten shorter and demands for engaging media have taken the forefront. The unfortunate truth is that they won’t give dull eLearning a second glance and this is precisely why engaging learning solutions receive much better results.
Learning Games for People in high-risk jobs
It’s not all fun and frolics though – some learning games are designed to provide a risk free environment to practice high-risk skills. Pilots-in-training have been using flight simulators since World War I for the simple reason that aeroplanes don’t grow on trees and mistakes can mean the difference between life and death.
Your bottom line is arguably just as important and no company can afford to lose revenue on account of mistakes made by trainees. Many retailers are creating learning games that replicate a sales environment. This lets employees practice various processes without risking a costly mistake.
Learning Games for People who don’t stop
The importance of mobile in online learning is also becoming increasingly apparent. For learners in busy jobs, sometimes their only opportunity to take training is on the train to work. In 2016, no legitimate online learning solution would dare to neglect a mobile offering.
The challenge here is the same as that of non-mobile solutions – how can your learning material (mobile or otherwise) compete with the engagement-factory that is the rest of the internet?
Learning games are particularly effective on mobile devices because they do the job of providing training, whilst offering the same level of engagement as Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga.
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Those are just a few examples of groups that regularly make use of learning games, but it’s by no means an exhaustive list. As an engaging training solution, there’s no limit to the applications that learning games can have. You can probably think of many ways to incorporate learning games in your own training.
If you want to try your hand at creating an engaging, game-based learning experience, visit unleashthegenie.com and sign up for a free 30 day demo of Genie, our game-based authoring tool!
