Our ways of working have continued to evolve dramatically over the past three years. Not since WWII has the global workforce experienced the degree of transformation and social change that’s currently taking place. In particular, today’s hybrid work environment has become the norm. As fewer employees are co-located in an office setting, Learning and Development professionals are challenged to find new and innovative solutions for building and developing disparate teams.
We have learned that just “lifting and shifting” traditional learning methods may not yield the desired results. While learners benefit from accessing content at any time and from anywhere, they may struggle to keep their level of engagement high. Self-paced digital learning modules alone are one-dimensional. Learners miss the opportunity to build on each other’s thoughts, innovate, or develop new habits that will sustain behavioral change in the workplace. Thus, L&D professionals must adapt program design and delivery elements to ensure the content is relevant and the learning methods.
Two popular methods that can enhance the effectiveness of development programs are gamification and active learning. By exploring best practices on how gamification and active learning components can be added to your development solutions, either alone or in combination, it is possible to create a blended learning solution that motivates and engages learners by catering to their preferences and driving desired long-term results.
Here are five tips to successfully add gamification and active learning to your learning and development program.
Tip 1: Begin with the end in mind
Gamification can add fun to the learner experience, but “fun” alone is not enough. As with any developmental option, when augmenting digital learning solutions with other program components, it must be purposefully targeted if it is to deliver results. So, consider what challenges must be resolved and what behaviors need to change, and ensure that any learning experience is designed to meet these objectives. Even better, engage participants by challenging them to consider organizational objectives and what is required of them to meet these.
Tip 2: Remember that Time + Engagement = Impact
Engaging learners through activities, as opposed to lecture or rote repetition, does take time. That investment of time can yield greater results by increasing knowledge gain and sustained behavior change.
Consider how to make the best possible use of the time by balancing traditional lecture time with active learning or gamification to keep people engaged and increasing learning simultaneously. In particular, collaborative problem-solving activities, which engage learners in the process of asking questions, researching options, and reflecting on outcomes, have been shown to solve business problems and develop critical workplace competencies concurrently.
Tip 3: Use Best Practices for Gamification
Whether used as a standalone approach or in conjunction with active learning, gamification can significantly boost engagement and collaboration in development activities. Begin by establishing clear game mechanics that outline the field and rules of play. Take learners on a journey that encourages them to use what they already know, explore possibilities, and apply new knowledge and skills to their work environment. Introduce an element of friendly competition through points that let participants “level up” and leaderboards that allow them to evaluate progress compared to peers.
Foster a sense of community through online chat features or team assignments that challenge learners to solve real-world problems together. Use badges, gift cards, or other rewards to celebrate success as players “unlock” new challenges, pass through knowledge gateways, or reach development goals.
Some studies show that when gamification is used, particularly in task-oriented simulation, it has a vital role to play in team interaction and recognition. Individuals who achieve highly in gamification and virtual tasks are also twice as likely to be rated as ‘top performers’ by their supervisor and are considered more engaged and likely to stay.
Finally, keep it simple and visual with analytics and dashboards that provide visibility into all the fun and learning.
Tip 4: Use Best Practices for Active Learning
The most challenging impact of remote work has been the difficulty in forming new work relationships, maintaining existing relationships, and collaborative activities. In the absence of casual, unplanned conversations that naturally emerge in an office setting, we must find ways of intentionally creating opportunities to connect with others, especially those outside our immediate circle.
Cross-functional and cross-team collaborations, in particular, increase exposure to diverse ways of thinking, expand options, and enhance collaboration. Employees are increasingly fatigued by routine virtual meetings, which is not surprising after three years of being tied to computer monitors.
However, by combining the power of readily available technologies with the principles of action learning and gamification, it is possible to replicate many of the fundamentals of traditional learning within the context of a remote learning environment.
Here are some best practices for doing so:
- Manage the number of participants to 15-20 for maximum engagement and impact.
- Carefully select or design the challenge the group is working on to ensure it’s relevant to the participants and the business. The challenge should be a genuine one that has no immediately apparent solution. Not a puzzle for the group to solve.
- Combine synchronous and asynchronous learning methods for efficiency and interest.
- While collecting data and researching topics may be important to the group’s success, the real measure of success will come from its ability to reflect on the data, make meaning from it, test assumptions, and build on each other’s ideas.
- Assign a dedicated coach to serve as a guide through the program. The coach’s role is not to answer questions for the group but rather to ensure they are asking the most powerful questions, holding each other and themselves accountable, and balancing learning with doing.
- Conclude the program with a formal presentation from the group to program stakeholders. The presentation should include an overview of the process the group followed to solve their challenge, a summary of their findings, a recommendation and a call to action. In addition, the group should report not only on what they learned about the research topic itself, but also on how they worked together. Some commonly reported competencies include collaboration, communication, critical thinking, adaptability, and negotiation.
Tip 5: Measure Sustained Success
An advantage of delivering a virtual blended learning solution is that many learning platforms include features that measure learner engagement, knowledge gains, and even time spent in collaborative activities, all of which provide useful data on the uptake and effectiveness of the program.
But learning is a two-way street, and additional return on investment will be delivered if the organization implements any recommendations from participating in the training. Business success can then be bench-marked and measured continuously, utilizing qualitative and quantitative data at regular intervals.
