Gamification is a strategy used to influence and motivate the behavior of people. It encourages participation and long-term engagement, which can be displayed by the employees of a company. It is applied in numerous scenarios.
The procedure consists of adding game mechanics or elements to non-game environments like websites, online communities, learning management systems or business’ intranets; hence it is not an actual game. This will aim to increase user engagement, happiness, and loyalty. Learners can complete more course elements and to a higher standard. The goal is to engage better with consumers, employees, and partners in order to inspire collaboration, sharing and interactions.
Gamification and Dopamine :
Gamification training or gamification learning has gameplay elements as part of the learning experience. Psychology and gamification training go hand in hand and can be used to help inspire students to challenge themselves. Dopamine is a hormone that controls pleasure and affects one’s mood, memory and thinking process. The human is like a lab rat in a maze that is getting food rewards for correctly navigating through it and finding the way out. In an analogous, way the human that is participating in gamification will respond to rewards that include levels, points, quizzes, badges, progress tools, timers and sounds that make up the user interface for gamification. Therefore, the brain will release dopamine. This will allow one to learn and be more likely to hold what one has learned in the long term, as well as to have a pleasurable experience at the same time thus making gamification a powerful and fun eLearning tool.
Gamification and E-learning
Gamification can be great for corporate training as well and in E-Learning, since it rewards learners and challenges them to keep going. As individuals are motivated to improve and/or beat the competition, it gives them autonomy, since they can learn at their own pace and level. Games give instant feedback as players demonstrate their mastery and if one does well then, they will move onto the next level, if not then they have a chance to try again. From another perspective, the learning process has a social theme, since it creates friendly competition and collaboration that will allow learners to forge new connections. Emotional and social connections are formed through storytelling in gamification. Moreover, gamification can also be used by people of all ages 5 to 50 years old. Learning can be done in digestible pieces. This kind of games is usually segregated into making learning interesting and fun. This process of Gamification will allow an immediate application and interaction with the material. This means understanding can be increased and so the
engagement, retention, grades, and overall happiness.
Gamification and Training:
Gamification has in fact been around for a long time. Astronauts have used it to train for years before leaving for areas with no gravity. The military uses ‘war games’ to simulate battlefield conditions and so do pilots to simulate flight. Gamification can keep soldiers, pilots, and astronauts alive. It surprisingly functions well which means that it can also be
used for corporate and other training.
To conclude, the gamification experience must translate to what motivates the audience and what game features matter most and the game must translate to the workplace and not distract the learner from productivity. Gamification should also be simple and not complex.