Learning has always been an important topic and, since the adoption of e-learning technologies, it has gained even more prominence. A lot of people are discussing which one is better for teaching people: online learning or traditional learning methods.

Still, online learning is a young concept and there are many new changes that improve this technique. One of the concept and topic that is currently discussed in online learning is gamification and how from game based learning can be used to improve online learning.

One of the most important things in learning overall is to keep the learner engaged during the whole process. Since games are known for being able to maintain the attention span of players for days and even weeks, this is why people started exploring the principles and concepts behind games and how they can be used for learning as well.

1. The leveling concept

With this concept, you will allow learners to have a sense of where they are at the moment and how much they’ve advanced during their process of learning. It’s very important that you show learners how far they’ve come and whether or not they are doing well with your learning course.

When a person has a sense of progress and the ability to reflect on it, they will understand that their efforts were not in vain. On top of that, when learners know that you are in fact keeping an eye on their progress, they will feel motivated to prove themselves to you and to themselves as well.

Additionally, when they’ve reached a certain level, you can allow them to participate in new courses which are more advanced. Learners will feel satisfied, they’ll get a sense of improvement and get rewarded as well.

2. Create a reward system

In games, when players put up a good show, they are always rewarded which motivates them to conquer new feats. This gamification concept can easily be implemented into a learning course created with a learning management system (LMS).

Still, you will have to make a balance and not give out too many rewards for small things. Don’t set the standard low and make sure that people are rewarded only after they’ve finished a course with results that are suitable.

Although the rewards don’t have to be something like in a game, they should give some sort of value to the learner’s achievement and this value could be pride, boosted self-esteem, or a feeling of accomplishment. On top of that, you can publicly display the achievements of a certain learner so that everyone knows that they performed well, this brings us to the next thing.

3. Adding badges

A badge can represent an award which is given to a learner for doing well in a certain course and reaching an accomplishment. Badges could help improve motivation for finishing a training course and showing learners that it’s possible to do it.

On top of that, when a learner finishes a course and gets awarded with a badge, he or she will feel proud to show everyone how well they did and be satisfied with the recognition they got. These badges can be shown next to the learner’s avatar within the LMS, to remind learners what they achieved every time when they access the system.

4. Create a storyline

The adoption of a story line is one of the best ways gamification can help improve learning and keep people engaged during their learning process. The general concept of your training course can be defined with a storyline. With this concept, you can create a consistent theme that will be interesting to learners.

It’s generally a good idea to define the problem and explain the role of the learner when coming up with a solution for this issue. This is how you can make the person get interested in the course and see what they can do to come up with a positive result.

Some of the most important elements within the storyline should be things that they could encounter in real life or on their job positions. By bringing them closer to reality, they will relate to the story and become more engaged with the task at hand. Still, it’s important to keep it interesting and not about something they do on a regular basis.

5. Give learners feedback

In games, when players perform certain important actions, they usually know instantly whether or not they’ve made the right decision. Your online learning course needs to work similarly. Whenever a student is doing something, you need to give them feedback in regards to their actions.

This can sometimes be a tricky thing to achieve, but you can create a course that automatically gives feedback to learners and notifies them if they did well or not. Although building such a course might take longer, it will be much better in engaging people and a larger portion of your students will finish the course successfully.

On top of that, students should be given the option to give feedback between themselves and give instructions to those who need help to finish the course. Depending on the type of course, you can also allow them to collaborate together on finishing it successfully.

Summing up

Given the fact that there are many learning games which help people learn languages, geography, and so on, it becomes obvious how gamification can help improve learning. Still, this isn’t magic, and you need to create content which has valuable and meaningful information that can be adapted easily by learners. If there is no logical structure in your course, all of the things mentioned above won’t matter.