I would like to introduce gamification as a ubiquitous learning concept, as I gained experience with it working as a trainer. Gamification of learning is an educational approach, which helps attract and hold attention of learners in a uniquely powerful way. It was widely used in marketing and in last years is being implemented in many educational programs.

Gamification, broadly defined, is a form of active learning. It brings various gaming elements, such as point scoring, badges or competition with others, to educational contexts. In a corporate learning environment, gamification is used to improve the employee educational experience and achieve better knowledge retention rates. According to researchers of gamifying learning experiences, gamification seems to have the potential to increase student motivation, but requires a big effort in its design and implementation to be fully motivating for participants. Gamified corporate learning can be organized via a Learning Management System, or it can be embedded inside commonly used software and become a part of employee’s daily routine.

My own gamification experience was a project of my former employer, a well-known European car manufacturer. A goal of the project, linked to the market launch of a new car model, was “to test dealer knowledge worldwide in an enjoyable way and to improve the product knowledge of salesmen and enhance their brand loyalty. “ Dealers all over the world could log into a gamification app anytime during the day and fulfill the assignments. The application consisted of few modules, including a game park with a set of quizzes, true/false questions and other simple games.

A special reward system was set up, with giving points for correct answers and choosing winners for each country separately. The gamification project was used as a supportive tool to e-learning, devoted to features of the new car model. It was supposed to test and fine-tune the knowledge gained from the e-learning course. Application generated statistics and analytics about market and individual dealer‘s product knowledge using the ratio of right and wrong answers and of unfinished and open tasks.

Pros:

Gamification technology enabled the learners to be engaged anytime and anywhere, the app run on different types of mobile devices. It motivated employees to review their product knowledge.

Cons:

The heritage of didactic pedagogy was still there. Focus was laid on individual cognition and memorization; learners were isolated in a knowledge-making process. A better solution could be bringing salesmen in each dealership together to work on some of the tasks.

References

Huang, Wendy Hsin-Yuan, and Dilip Soman. “Gamification Of Education.” 2013.

Game-Based Learning vs. Gamification: Do You Know the Difference? https://trainingindustry.com/articles/learning-technologies/game-based-learning-vs-gamification-do-you-know-the-difference/

What is Gamification and Why Use It in Teaching? https://ii.library.jhu.edu/2014/05/13/what-is-gamification-and-why-use-it-in-teaching/