When I was a kid, I really wanted an Atari 2600 game console. We didn’t really have any money, so I didn’t get one until much later in life, but when I did get one, I had a blast. I must have spent hours playing all those cutting edge, 8-bit games. It’s kind of a no-brainer, but games are fun and keep you engaged and focused while you’re playing them.
There has been a lot of research into the gamification of training content and the benefits of integrating games into your content. Including gamification can increase student engagement, information retention, teamwork, active listening skills, and critical thinking.
In my current team, we’ve just started the process of integrating gamification into our courses, but we needed to set some guidelines of how to go about this. The rules of the game, if you will. So I put together the following list of things to keep in mind when adding gamification. These are not meant to be exhaustive, and they are specific to our team, but they offer a good starting point for building out your own rules for your games.
The game isn't the goal:
First and foremost, keep in mind that the game itself is not the focus. We don't put in games just for the sake of having a game. The goal is to engage the student with the content and the game is just a tool we use to accomplish that.
Keep it simple:
Don't try to cover too much content in a single game. The more complicated a game is, the more difficult it becomes to maintain and update it as well as it can take too much time away from the rest of the content. Complicated games can become a distraction and end up detracting from, rather than enhancing the content. Make sure your games have a single focus point and objective.
More than just games:
Gamification is more than just adding games to your course. There are many different ways to integrate gamification. Some possible ideas are:
• Points, badges, leaderboards
• Progress challenges
• Storytelling
• Quizzes and assessments (yes, even these can be fun!)
Cultural considerations:
Most often, we design and implement gamification from our own cultural perspective. And if that's our target audience, then there's nothing wrong with that. However, as part of a global company, our courses are taken by people of different backgrounds, cultures, languages, and perspectives. When we add gamification, in whatever form, we must take this into account. We need to be sure that, as with our course content, our gamification is inclusive of cultural perspectives and understandings. Cultural preferences influence the types of games that are popular in different regions. Try to understand how a particular game will be viewed and accepted throughout the world. If possible, work with people from different cultures and countries to review your gamification and ensure it will land properly. As always, be sure to use general, relatable examples and avoid local or regional colloquialisms and vernacular.
Ensure accessibility:
As with all content, we must be sure our gamification is accessible to all students. Games must follow all Microsoft accessibility standards. When you are adding or creating a game, be sure to test it for accessibility using keyboard navigation and screen readers. Use the accessibility checklist and if you're using MS Office (PowerPoint, Word, etc.) use the accessibility checker tool.
Check your timing:
Always keep in mind the course agenda and make sure your games are appropriate to the amount of time allowed for the topic. If you're unsure how long a game might take to complete, try running it with some other IDs to get an idea. Remember, because you know the topic and content, it will take you less time to complete the game than your students who may not be as familiar with it.
Don't overuse (you're building a course, not an arcade):
As Oscar Wilde once said, "everything in moderation, including moderation". The same goes for including games in your courses. Not every section and piece of content needs to be gamified. Now, this is not to say that your content shouldn't be engaging, on the contrary. Moderating the number of games in your course keeps the gamification novel and interesting. It also helps to keep the course moving. Too many games can negatively impact the course pacing and timing and can quickly be more of a nuisance than an enhancement.
Modality considerations (single player vs. multi-player):
When selecting the gamification options for your course, keep in mind how the game will be presented and used. For an ILT or vILT, games that are played individually may not always work and conversely, games that require student or coach interactions would not work in a self-directed OLT. Be sure there are clear directions as to how the game is to be used in the context of the course, whether it's initiated and run by the instructor or the students.
Make sure content is available even without the game:
While adding gamification to a course can be a fun and exciting way to engage the student with the course content, as we've noted before, we also need to be sure that the game doesn't become a hindrance to the content, especially once the student has completed the course and then returns to use the content as a reference and resource. As you add games to your content, be sure to have a way that the content can be reviewed after the fact. Have a way that the student can access the content if they get stuck in the game and need to just consume the content directly.
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