The Case for Gamification:

Gami­fic­a­tion is much more than a mar­ket­ing tool. As imple­men­ted on our Academy Plat­form LMS it is cap­able of engin­eer­ing unpre­ced­en­ted levels of user engagement.

The fear is that gami­fic­a­tion will help exacer­bate a reward-based cul­ture. That’s to say, we won’t be motiv­ated to act unless it will gen­er­ate a reward. We won’t do some­thing like give to char­ity, unless there’s some­thing in it for us. There’s no motiv­a­tion to learn unless we’re sim­ul­tan­eously earn­ing points (or some­thing equivalent).

But hasn’t this always been the case? If we’re not motiv­ated to act, we wont act. If we don’t provide our learners with motiv­a­tion, they won’t learn. Learners are motiv­ated by the reward of know­ledge and the poten­tial for self-improvement. Gami­fic­a­tion is an attempt to provide fur­ther motiv­a­tion and engin­eer more engage­ment from learners. To that extent, it’s some­thing that should be embraced, not rejected.

Just like the video-game industry, gami­fic­a­tion — the use of gam­ing mech­an­ics in non-gaming envir­on­ments — is grow­ing in pop­ular­ity. By mar­ry­ing eLearn­ing with gami­fic­a­tion we seek to cre­ate a learn­ing plat­form that is more enga­ging. We want more indi­vidu­als to com­plete eLearn­ing courses. Thus, we have to build a plat­form that can provide them with the motiv­a­tion, match their abil­ity levels and offer the right triggers.

By sat­is­fy­ing our basic needs for reward, status, achieve­ment, self-expression and com­pet­i­tion, gami­fy­ing Academy Plat­forms can provide ample motiv­a­tion. By reg­u­lat­ing the dif­fi­culty level and adopt­ing a game-like rela­tion­ship to fail­ure, eLearn­ing can ensure that all users are cap­able of fin­ish­ing every course. Finally, gami­fic­a­tion can provide ‘trig­gers’ or calls to action that amount to the final piece of the beha­vi­oural puzzle.

With all these ele­ments in place within our Academy Plat­form LMS, we can help determ­ine indi­vidu­als to com­plete eLearn­ing courses. By rais­ing engage­ment we can increase pro­ductiv­ity. The res­ult is an entirely new level of motiv­a­tion that can be layered on top of the motiv­a­tion to learn and the desire for self-development. It is a key tool to aid people devel­op­ment and growth. Growth Engin­eer­ing are pion­eers on this rel­at­ively new and fer­tile ground, but the res­ults speak for themselves.

Gami­fic­a­tion is the key to engagement!

• Tweet