Exploring The Most Effective Uses Of Gamification In A Modern Learning Environment

Today, majority of e-learning and development professionals across the globe look for innovative methods to engage and retain maximum learners. For this, gamification serves as an optimal solution, thereby helping to boost learner interaction, desire to compete with others and goal achievement. So, e-learning gamification is defined as the use of game mechanics in a non-gaming context to motivate employees learn and engage more in the overall learning process.

How Has Gamification Reshaped Learning at Workplace?

Improved learner retention is the key factor driving the effectiveness of gamification in e-learning. When learners remember the information they access, apply it to real-world scenarios and then return to learn more, it leads to successful training outcomes. This is the ultimate achievement for modern organizations seeking for more benefits of gamified learning approach. Apart from learner engagement and behavioral development, another essential benefit of games is the need to capitalize its ability to transform the entire learning process. For this, serious games are embedded with e-courses along with the combination of narrations, challenges, scores, levels, achievements and other elements.

With digitization, serious games in e-learning have become the latest buzz and considered as the latest trend which is going mobile. Some of the effective uses of gamification include boosting learner engagement, developing a sense of achievement, monitoring progress and more. Games help to deliver an intuitive e-learning experience. For instance, dividing courses into levels is a great way to show employee progress, enabling learners to start from the basics and then get more complex with better understanding of the concept.

E-learning gamification is one of the most crucial aspects for long-term business strategy. It is the application of game mechanics such as motivation and recognition to cater to varied learning needs. For instance, a gamified solution can be designed for an insurance company where the business challenge is customer retention and the goal is to address desired behavioral change such as not putting customers on hold, good listening, stop call transferring and so on. For this, employees can be divided into teams, and participants can earn points or rewards on every successful resolution over the call. The company can then update individual team scores on the leaderboard so that employees can assess their own performance.

If gamification is considered as a set of tactics or strategies of learning, its most effective uses will be those that bring a positive change while catering to the pertinent learning needs within a modern training environment.

How Does Extended Enterprise Workforce Fosters Organizational Success?

In today’s modern scenario, an effective strategy to train extended employees aid organizations to meet ever-evolving learning needs. Several organizations consider their internal employees as the biggest asset, but now extended workforce is also providing efficient marketplace opportunities. To effectively manage and train the external network of employees, businesses are using robust Learning Management Systems (LMSs) to boost interaction of all workforce types. Enterprises are going beyond the confines of enterprise to include anew network of vendors, suppliers, customers, partners and other non-traditional workers.

Over the last few years, organizations have changed the way they use online learning platforms to train their extended enterprise. Earlier, they were meant to fulfill an instant need, but then contingent workforce became an essential component for corporate strategy. This shift has provided businesses to achieve agility in the learning environment and access highly skilled talent of professionals. By utilizing the external workforce, organizations can change the blend of skills and expertise available to them, thereby helping them to adapt with changing learner preferences.

Leveraging the Benefits of Extended Workforce

It is crucial for organizations to ensure that extended personnel are as efficient and engaged as the permanent workforce. For this, they need to focus on the following parameters:

• Boost communication 

Engagement within internal as well as contingent workforce aid project-based workers gain better access to resources to work within the organization. This communication can be done virtually, through social media platforms or other robust tools that help build strong collaboration.

• Become talent broker 

Sometimes, organizations and their HR departments become their own talent brokers, tracking the data available to better facilitate mapping between employees and custom tasks. Collection of data based on competency metrics, trainings and certifications can help organizations choose the right talent for specific projects, bridge skill gaps and take informed decisions.

• Adopt talent management

To attract and retain more talent, organizations have started to provide robust support for extended employees. For instance, by providing orientation training they can work more efficiently in their job roles. Also, it is significant to grab career improvement opportunities, providing external employees with the scope to improve skills and performance at workplace.

Earlier, work was arranged in hierarchies as per diverse job roles. In the coming time, it will be featured by dynamic teams who will include both internal as well as external employees. Bringing together the best talent from diverse locations, will certainly help organizations  achieve the desired business outcomes. Facilitating the use of LMS for extended enterprise will aid enterprises gain a plethora of benefits and stay ahead in the competition.

Improved Mobile Access To Cater To Learning Needs Of Multigenerational Workforce

Today, major driving forces behind technological changes are the Millennials looking for different ways to connect and deliver innovation using social media and mobile learning tools. Modern workplace comprises of five generations including Baby Boomers working with Millennials, Generation X supporting Traditionalists and Generation Z filling the positions of organizational workforce. Every generation has its own learning style & preference, based on their varied learning methods and workplace culture.

Why Choose Mobile Learning for Multigenerational Workforce?

The key factor that millennials consider in a new job is e-learning at workplace. Instead of seeking training on workplace efficiency, flexibility and culture, what millennials want is to analyze whether they made an optimum employer choice or not. As work-cycles evolve, skill competency and workforce development becomes a priority. Today, majority of the organizations are investing in effective e-learning solutions to help them dominate in the world of continuous learning to engage and retain millennials. A few reasons why mobile learning is effective for multigenerational employees include the following:

● Number of smartphone users is on the rise

Today, everyone owns a smartphone and many people even have access to multiple mobile devices. So, accessing e-learning courses across devices that you already own is a financially efficient approach. It aids learners to experience an added value of responsibility as training is simply in their hands, which they do at their own pace of time and location.

● Availability of mobile apps

The mobile app revolution has left a tremendous impact on small as well as large enterprises by reducing costs and improving efficiency of overall learning processes. For instance, if a small business wants to host trainings, then mobile access can be an optimal choice. Mobile learning is significant when it comes to remote workforce training, which allows trainers to convey information with just few swipes on a smartphone.

● Personalization

Undoubtedly, mobile learning caters to the customized needs of individual learners and organizations. Some of the major benefits include:

► Better engagement of learners with the content.

► Facilitates the process of chunking content into short and crisp bites.

► Supports knowledge reinforcement to support continuous learning.

The above discussed elements of mobile learning allow a multigenerational workforce to learn at their own pace for an experience tailored to their custom needs. Whether the existing workforce comprises of Baby Boomers, Millennials or others, it is important to deliver innovative mobile learning services for all. Certainly, the use of mobile apps for multigenerational workforce training is the key to organizational success, because it is cost-effective, reliable and tailored to individual learning needs.

Extending Learning Management System For Increased Productivity And Excellence

Most organizations try to arrange instructor-led training sessions for their external partners on a regular basis, this approach often falters on many levels. Instructor-led trainings can be arranged sporadically, as per the availability of trainers, learners as well as required resources like classrooms and other equipment. This leads to large gap in the skill as well as knowledge competency among the external partners. 

The trainings do not have a uniform efficacy as most organizations employ external trainers to do the job. With varying expertise, the efficacy of the trainer led session also varies. Moreover, there is no real measure of training efficacy to understand how much the learners have understood and the areas which need special attention. The learning content itself is also not updated reducing the relevance of training. Together, all these factors result in a high attrition rate and low morale among the external partners – a cause for concern for the organization.

Here is how an external learning management system can create increased sales and show better results through continuous training:

• Whether to deliver sales presentations or create as well as submit reports, the external partners are adept at using hand-held tablets. The extended learning solution has to be accessible to them on their hand-held tablets. Being multi-device compatible, the extended LMS can be customized and made available to the learners for all their learning needs.

• The extended learning program should start with an initial online test and gap analysis, where the competency of the learner was gauged. Accordingly, a learning plan can be created as per the profile of the learner with suitable courses assigned for online learning as well as classroom sessions. The learners can view allocated courses available to him or her as per the learners’ role in the organization. Thus learning is customized as per individual need. This helps learner gain relevant knowledge, something that can be used instantly on the course of work.
  
• The cycle of continuous learning should be suitably strengthened by periodic assessments - both online as well as offline. This provides a suitable push for learning and encouraged learners to aspire for better scores and come up as winners. In addition, certificates can also be issued for chosen courses. This provides a sense of achievement for the learners. The certificates can be made time-sensitive to assure that there is perceivable knowledge retention and learners have the opportunity to refresh as well as revise from time to time.

• The extended LMS should be able to track a variety of data and create logical as well as relevant reports that can provide a lot of pertinent information on the effectiveness of the training initiative. The reports should churn out as per the requirement of the administrator – as per chosen criteria of department, region, area, job title, dealers and so on.

With extended LMS, the external workforce is able to learn better techniques and skills, increase work satisfaction and provided better sales figures as well.

Reference: ExtendedLearning Networks can be supported by E-Learning – An Effective Case

Boosting Your E-Learning Experience Through Interactive Video Games

Most of the learning and development organizations leverage the benefits of integrating latest technologies into modern learning environment. From serious games and mobile learning to simulations, the best corporate training practices are more likely to leave a strong digital impact.

There are several new methods that blend hands-on participation of learners with traditional instruction. So, enterprises should open their minds and adopt the latest supplement to training so that they can provide learners with a better approach. As per the research conducted by Ambient Insight, revenues generated through game-based learning reached $2.6 billion in 2016. The global five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for game-based learning products is 20.2% and revenues will double to $8.1 billion by the year 2022. [Source: http://seriousplayconf.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Metaari_2017-2022_Global_Game-based_Learning_Market_Executive_Overview.pdf]

How are Video Games Effective?

People of all ages love the concept of introducing gaming elements with e-learning.  Incorporation of video games into workplace learning has proven to be an optimum choice,  because of the following reasons:

Video games help modern learners to understand the concept from a different view point. Through videos, learners put themselves into a situation, which imparts more meaning than simply accessing text-heavy courses.

Understanding a particular situation through videos offers a better sense of response when it happens in real-life.

It improves learner collaboration as different learners participate as a team during the gamified learning process, thereby reaching to a comprehensive solution.

As long as gamified learning solutions are designed to cater to customized needs of new-age learners, video games can allow the learner to take ownership of learning. Serious games are meant to result in measurable changes in workforce performance and behavior. These are used in diverse industry domains, including healthcare, military, aviation, construction and more. Through video games, learners ensure to apply what they learn within a safe and simulated environment. Consider an example, healthcare experts practice medical procedure using a serious game before it happens at the workplace.

Introduction of video games to digital workplace learning is no more a new concept. Modern workforce prefers learning via playing fun-filled and engaging games rather than boring text-based training sessions. So, it is of no surprise when most of the organizations adopt game-based learning strategies to reinforce skills and talent development. Truly, serious video games in e-learning provide an insight that organizations can leverage to assess workplace performance and identify behavioral patterns that may happen in real-world scenarios. Supervisors and managers attain better understanding of an individual’s capabilities, identifying their skills gaps and measuring performances. Today, many organizations are integrating video games in e-learning to tap into the knowledge and proficiency of an entire organization and even beyond. 

Extended Workforce: A Crucial Aspect For Organizational Success

To compete in the future, enterprises will need to push their workforce beyond the confines of the organizational wall to involve the extended enterprise: a wide network of outsourcing partners, vendors, contractors, suppliers and others. By optimizing the potential of permanent employees as well as extended workforce, enterprises gain incredible benefits including agility, high productivity and access to esteemed clientele. This also aids organizations provide their existing employees with a highly dynamic and mobile workforce that caters to the ever-evolving business challenges.

The extended workers are expanding at a fast pace and becoming an essential aspect for organizations’ competitive success. Today, contingent workforce holds competent skills to deliver optimum workplace performance and reinforce engagement during the entire learning process. They choose this type of work because of the working flexibility, chance to work on diverse projects and the opportunity to boost skills more efficiently than permanent employees.

Impact of Extended Workforce on Business

For the past few years, enterprises have transformed the way they tap into the extended personnel. Earlier, they needed them as a tactical response to sudden needs, but then they considered them as a key component of effective corporate strategy. This shift has allowed enterprises to leverage the twin benefits of highly proficient talent and gain agility in a turbulent business environment. Consider an example, to gain a competitive edge, time to market can certainly make a difference between failure and success. By seeking help from people at the moment of need without time-consuming training, organizations can outshine their products or services on a global platform. Also, they can adjust to changing demands, scaling up and down efficiently to fulfill those demands in different parts of the world. With the help of extended workforce, enterprises can blend the desired skills, thereby adapting to the changing learning styles and preferences.

In addition, extended enterprise also helps to foster innovation- a key aspect for any growth-oriented business strategy. Bringing in talent from external sources can help organizations open to new ideas and strategies. With digitization, most of the companies are customizing their talent practices to meet the ever-evolving needs of their modern workforce. For instance, they tailor talent management strategies to contingent workforce performance, diverse demographics or any other criteria. One of the greatest advantages of extended workforce learning is that organizations understand and manage their external workforce in a better way. Organizations can ascertain that the external workforce has the capability to create attainable targets and then achieve them as well. 

Choose Beyond The LMS And Unleash Your E-Learning Content

The idea to adopt e-learning as an effective corporate training strategy is not new. The transformation from information delivery to just-in-time learning began to take place within few schools. Later, organizations started using e-learning to train their workforce, followed by the deployment of robust Learning Management Systems to cater to customized training needs. By leveraging investments in modern technologies, enterprises are taking e-learning to the next level- generating more revenues and going beyond traditional reach. This concept is known as extended enterprise that showcase the relation between external and internal employees, with some sense of competitiveness.

The extended enterprise uses the most valuable content, seeks support of distribution technology and adopts a focused marketing strategy to extend the organizational reach, revenue and success.

• ·     Reach- It imparts an opportunity for organizations to reach an extensive network of learners.

• ·   Revenue- E-learning extended enterprise helps to generate maximum revenues by reselling the courses beyond existing learners.

• ·        Success- Organizations build a strong network to share its mission and values, thereby boosting its reputation in the market and chances to attain success.

Building a Successful Extended Enterprise

The term extended enterprise in e-learning signifies that the organization can deliver custom e-learning courses through external distribution channels. These channels can comprise of partners, distributors, resellers, affiliates and more. An LMS for extended enterprise requires more than robust technology to boost the business growth:

• ·       Identify the distribution channel

Mostly, digital learning programs begin as a member-focused internal training sessions, with the potential to access courses for non-member learners as well. A proficient channel expert can identify this network of potential learners. Once done, organizations can reach out to them through partners or other resellers that would benefit them.

• ·         Develop an adoption model

The initial step is to develop a business model to incentivize external partners. For distributors, they design optimum quality course which can be delivered at the moment of need. The second step is to market the course, by leveraging existing materials such as collaterals, web content and emails to make their investment time shorter.

• ·         Embed technology to make it easy

Technology for the extended workforce should also support distribution, helping the enterprise flawlessly move courses through distributors and partners. Sophisticated analytic and reporting tools enable organizations to track course delivery in real time.

So, when the extended enterprise takes a strategic decision, develops an effective adoption model and implement new technology, the results can significantly improve and leave a tremendous impact on an organization’s growth and productivity.