7 Tips to Integrate Games into Your eLearning Course

Everyone loves to play! What if I tell you, that you can use games to teach complicated subjects like Compliance Training or processes like Account opening? Yes, these games for training or serious games, do create an engaging learning experience.

Let’s find out how you can integrate these serious games into your elearning courses.

1. Set learning objectives

Yes! Games are for fun! But everyone plays to win! Set your learning objectives beforehand to make sure your game stays in tune with the content.

2. Communicate desired outcomes

Inform the learners what they will gain from playing this game. This will motivate them to participate actively in it.

3. Tell little, engage more

Do not give out all the details. Communicate what is required. Don’t reveal all the suspense. This will keep the learners engaged as well as won’t take out all the fun!

4. Create opportunity for application

eLearning allows one to learn in a safe environment. Create situations such that learned concepts can be applied. This will help in retention and create a favourable learning experience.

5. Keep it real and relevant

Keep all the descriptions and details like measurements, tools, techniques, spaces, etc., accurate. Virtual practice reduces room for real life mistakes.

6. Value content over gaming

Games make eLearning very interesting, no doubt there! And yet, if they distract your learner from the learning content, then it will fail your learning initiatives.

7. Get regular feedback

Feedback is the best way to know how well the game or module is. A quick quiz works best!

Why Companies Should Train their Employees

There are 3 aspects of an individual that needs to be worked on to make them suitable employees – Attitude, Skills and Knowledge.

Attitude training determines the behavioral characteristics that the employee needs to show. This differs more from role to role rather than industry to industry. Salespersons have to be hungry and persuasive. Operations teams need to be resourceful and detail-focused and senior management needs to perform as able leaders. Attitude training is best done through exposure activities, coaching and workshops, in that descending order of effectiveness.

Skills training allows the employee to perform his activities better. This typically is a combination of industry and role. While workshops and on-the-job training are the dominant modes for skills training, they are expensive both in terms of logistics and the error costs. In recent times, simulations and serious games have started finding favor on account of the spaced repetition and exploration aspects that they offer for skills training.

Knowledge training is company and function-specific for the employee. Products, policies and functional knowledge are the typical types of training that come under this bucket. This is best done over an e-learning platform due to the sheer size of content that often forms the base of the training. E-learning allows for self-paced self-selected learning which reduces the time overhead that typically is involved in such volume training. Assessments become an important part of ensuring that knowledge training has been adequately absorbed.

Getting Started with Online Training (Part 2)

In the last post, we tried to understand the difference between Instructor-led training (ILT) & online training, and the essentials that are required in order to implement online training in any organisation.

Now, let’s learn about the processes one needs to go through while moving from classroom to elearning.

1. Learner Need analysis

Try to understand the demographics of the learners – age, gender, education, language, etc. Find out whether the learners have any prior knowledge of the subject matter or they are completely new to it. This is important since very few people would have the patience to sit through the whole session.

Now that the learners would be dispersed, you need to figure out how to boost interaction between them. Based on these observations, try to decide on the technology or format which you would like to use. Use the one which would be easy to deliver, easy to understand, boost interaction and also, motivate the learners.

2. Content Design & Development

The question you need to ask here is what is the best way to present the content.

Should there be a narrator? or a Sutradhar? or a character which would act as a facilitator? Another option is to use the department head or Subject Matter Expert to act as a facilitator.

Your tools would be one of the deciding factors here. Using tools like Articulate or Ptotemy (www.ptotemy.com) would give you an edge over MS Powerpoint, as these tools help you make your content more interactive and engaging. Other than these, you can even use webinars or videos or serious games to explain concepts. Or a combination of these tools could prove much more effective.

3. Deployment & Marketing

The best way to deploy elearning courses is using a Learning Management System (LMS). You can find many options out there in the market ranging from Open source platforms like Moodle to licensed ones like SkillSoft, Ptotemy, Blackboard, Saba, etc. Using these platforms, you can manage and update the content as well as the learners. You can also record their activities for future reference.

Once your LMS is in place, the next challenge is bringing the learners to this platform. Remember, this methodology is new to the learners. Hence, you need to create curiosity around this to attract the learners. Teaser campaign is one of the effective ways to do this. Create a buzz, put out explainer videos, launch marketing campaigns to make this big.

4. Evaluation & Monitoring

Once the learners start using the system, monitor their activity. Conduct polls or surveys to gauge user feedback. Every learning management system has this facility of creating online polls.

Find out what could be done to improve the effectiveness of the content. LMSes also have provisions for detailed reports. Use them, analyse them and gain insights on what works and what not.

“Remember, what matters is whether the learners understand the content or not. Technology is just an aid and how one uses it to make the content effective is the crux here.”

Getting Started with Online Training (Part 1)

For some, online learning is a buzz word and for some, it is an impasse. Let’s try to find out why people are trying to adopt this phenomenon and how one can do that without any hitches.

Why online training?

Imagine, you are in a classroom with 20-25 students and there’s a teacher explaining you certain concepts. Here, the learning is centered on the instructor (teacher) and she sets the structure, sequence and methodology of the learning. She chooses the content and how it will be delivered.

In this setting, students often don’t ask any questions. There is less interaction with the focus being on the completion of the activity, rather than on the transfer of knowledge. The students don’t even have the option of going through the content again.

Online training or elearning, works the other way. It focuses on the learner, and not on the instructor. It facilitates interaction between the learner and the content, plus, is easily accessible anytime and anywhere.

Below are a few tools and techniques that are used in elearning.

• Devices for accessing the content (Desktop, Laptops, Tablets, Smartphones)
• Learning Management System (LMS)
• Content Creation Tools like MS PowerPoint, Articulate, Ptotemy (ptotemy.com), etc
• Instructional Design Study
• Interactive boards
• Webcam/ Webinars
• Communication tools like email, chat, forums, discussion boards, etc

These tools help in bringing the content to the learner and allow him to learn as per his convenience.

Converting existing training material into online content

Even converting existing training material into online content has become easy and cost-effective due to these tools.

There are 3 types of delivery for elearning through which content can be disseminated.

1. Synchronous learning

This type of learning is live. It happens in real time, like a webinar or Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

2. Asynchronous learning

This can be done as per the learner’s convenience. Online modules or web forums are a few examples of this type of learning.

3. Hybrid learning

Here, you mix the strengths of the first and second to achieve your objective.

Irrespective of the mode, the focus of any learning activity should be to enhance the learning experience through engagement, discussion and application.

The next part of the article will explain the process of transition of ILT to online in detail.

 

 

5 Simple Tricks to Engage the Learner

When it comes to e-learning, engaging the learner is the most vital component that would determine the success or failure of any learning platform. Retaining the learner’s attention is crucial and should be an incessant process because once you have lost the learner, then you have lost the learner.

While one can never run out of ideas to achieve a successful elearning platform, there are some factors which, if nothing else, would serve as a useful reference guide. Let’s find out about them.

1. Content Relevance

Keep the content focused and consistent. Not everyone intends to play scrabble with information. Content information should be tailor-made to suit the audience. Even if there is a minor disconnect, the learners would tend to dismiss or devalue the information. Generating enthusiasm amongst the learners will be achieved only if the content is seen to be directly related to the topic being covered.

2. Always Explain ‘Why’

It is extremely useful and encouraging to learners if they always understand fully why it is that they have been asked to complete a certain task. This takes one back to the relevance of the elearning content. Understanding ‘Why’ piques a learner’s interest in the material and assists him in understanding what they will achieve upon completion of the course.

3. Using the ‘Gauntlet’ approach

Everyone loves a challenge. Even as kids, we like to experiment, experience and solve. People like to find out answers themselves. They feel like they got to the answer by themselves and that they are more worthwhile.

If you provide someone with a challenge, you find a much more thoughtful and creative employee approach in the end.

4. Gamification

Game elements can complement the content information dissemination in a big way. Everyone loves to complete. People like to be seen to have participated and won. Rewards work as a great motivator. This enables them to break the inertial barriers and exert their potential even more. With a target oriented approach, one can make the learner to strive towards improvement. Gamification allows a learner to feel more informative, confident and above all, competitive.

5. Serious Gaming

Serious Gaming or games for training enables over 80% memory retention capabilities. Playing games seems and feels more like a pastime than a chore. Cleverly introducing serious gaming into the course content material could create an exponential increase in the engagement levels than static images, videos or other forms of reading content.

Serious gaming delivers a perfect combination of interaction, engagement and insights. They fit into any Instruction Design effectively. Even while playing a game, the learner is on an active learning path.

You could start with these tips, but remember – engagement is a continuous process. Keep experimenting!

P.S.: Check out our website (www.ptotem.com) for a few examples of serious games.