What Are Streaks and Why do They Work?

Nearly every coffee shop encourages Streaks. Look through your bag, kitchen drawer or car, and you’ll probably find a host of half stamped loyalty cards.

These cards coax you into returning by offering incentives such as free coffee. Before you know it, you’ve formed a daily habit of visiting said coffee shop.

Earning your line of stamps is known as a Streak.

Offering a reward for completing a series of tasks isn’t exclusive to hospitality. This powerful game mechanic is being used by many of the most successful apps. Growth Engineering have taken Streaks to the next level and brought them to the world of L&D.

It’s time to earn that first virtual stamp on your virtual streak card by finding out what a Streak is on an Academy LMS:

What is a Streak?

To set up a Streak, Admins are able to select a behaviour they want to encourage and attach a Streak to it.

When a Streak has been attached to an action, learners will be notified every time they complete that action. This means that they’ll be notified what their Streak total is.

If an Admin has set a target for the Streak, the learner will be told how close they are to achieving it. Admins are able to set up ongoing targets so that Learners always have something to work towards.

Every time they hit a target, the lucky learner is rewarded with a Streak Badge as a permanent recognition of their achievement.

This means that for Admins to set up a Streak, all they need to do is select the behaviour they want to track, how many days in a row they want learners to do it, and then they need to select a Streak Badge. After that – it’s all ready to go!

Examples of Streaks

Here are some examples of Streaks being used with great success:

McDonalds – McDonalds offer a free coffee for every six bought.

Candycrush – Candycrush offers free prizes such as ‘boosters’ for logging in every day. In fact, the majority of games on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store incentivise gamers to keep coming back each day.

Pokemon Go – After logging in for seven days in a row, Pokémon Go offers a secret location to a rare Pokémon.

Why Do Streaks Work?

In order for people to form a daily learning habit, Duolingo incorporated techniques from the gaming world. Duolingo have put their success down to gamified elements such as Streaks. Here are four reasons why Streaks work so well:

1. They’re Habit Forming

Did you know it takes 66 days to form a habit? Streaks are a fun and gamified way of creating learning patterns.

How? When you learn something new, a neural pathway is created in the brain. Every time you repeat this action, the neural pathway grows stronger, and the information becomes more familiar.

Streaks are a robust repetition tool. They reward you each time you complete an action, meaning you’re more likely to keep doing it. After a while, this new routine will become a new habit.

2. They Allow You To View Your Progress

If you can envisage your goal, then you’re halfway to achieving it.

Learners can view their Streak progress by logging into The Knowledge Arcade and viewing their Scorecards. From here, they can also view their experience points and their position on the leaderboard.

3. They Offer Rewards!

Who doesn’t like to be rewarded for their hard work? Rewards are a great incentive for achieving your goals.  A structured employee incentive can increase employee productivity by up to 44%.

4. They’re Mobile Friendly

We now use mobiles more than any other form of communication. This means that Streaks are becoming ever more popular.

Why? Because they’re easily accessible, which means we use them when we want to.

If you’ve got into a habit of checking your phone on your daily commute, you’ll be more likely to form a habit of completing Streaks at this point too.

Ways to Implement Streaks on The Knowledge Arcade

Having Streaks on The Knowledge Arcade is an effective way to encourage behaviour change. They’re gamified. They break your goals down into steps. They give you a focus to work towards and if you’re lucky, they’ll also offer up a reward at the end!

Here are some of the most effective ways you can create a Streak:

1. Logging in

Nearly one in four people abandon mobile apps after just one use. But why? Surely apps are downloaded because the phone-owner wants them? This abandonment is predominantly down to unformed habits. As an Admin, you can create a Streak for logging into The Knowledge Arcade. A daily login might be the only catalyst your learner needs to start them on their learning journey.

You can also tweak your Streaks for certain days and times.

This means the logging in Streak can be specifically for business hours only.

2. Completing Content

How about setting up a Streak for learners who download content ten or more days in a row? Knowing there’s a reward at the end of absorbing a set amount of modules will undoubtedly boost their motivation to learn.

3. Social Channels

There are endless benefits to strengthening social ties at work. From building intellectual capital to encouraging employee collaborations. Streaks can be a fantastic stimulant for employees to engage with one another. Need some inspiration for socially inspired Streaks? How about these:

• Create a Streak for posting on the social wall five days in a row
• Create a Streak for posting questions to an expert three weeks in a row
• Create a Streak for posting in a club four days in a row

Final Word

Streaks are a great motivational tool. They encourage behavioural change and they’re a visual reminder of your learning progress. Thanks to the high-street, the concept is already woven into your learner’s psyche, so it’ll come as second nature. It’s the perfect feature to introduce to the world of L&D.

It’s part of the next stage of the gamification revolution.

Want to find out how to introduce gamification to your L&D strategy? Download our FREE whitepaper: Effective Use of Gamification in a Business!