By Galina Culpechina on January 18, 2015
Many companies and institutions are using gamification in eLearning trying to improve the way their students and employees learn. Although many companies agree that gamified eLearning is great, many of them have no idea how to implement it.
The article presents some case studies of the following enterprise and educational learning companies that gamified eLearning.
- Deloitte has an online training program for employees with a series of missions, earning badges along the way and ranking on a leaderboard.
- Exact Target introduced an online game platform that teaches users about desired subjects through an interactive narrative andrequires players to go through challenges to climb a mountain and deliver a “scroll of wisdom” to the Guru.
- Brainscape uses a customized game approach. Their learning philosophy centers on “confidence-based repetition”. 7 million users collaborate on creating “smart flashcards”.
- Class Dojo is a cloud-based classroom management tool, where teachers incentivize good behavior through gamification. Learners receive badges that can be customized for specific activities.
These examples show how organizations and schools can combine game science and technology to enhance learning.
Source: http://elearningindustry.com/4-innovative-companies-gamified-elearning
I am a huge proponent of the gamification of learning. I view the model as being highly motivating for learners, because they are engaged and eager to move to the next level. They enjoy being able to freely practice their skills, track their improvement quantifiably and be rewarded for their effort, whether through earning points or badges. Thank you for sharing concrete case studies of organizations that are currently promoting this model. I have used Class Dojo and can attest to its effectiveness (although it needs to be used with caution). The article alludes to scientific evidence indicating a positive correlation between the gaming model and students’ learning. I would have liked to hear more about this research and to have seen some data to support these eLearning games.
osummers
I checked out a couple of the games above and they look like they could be useful when applied to the right context. I’ve used a couple of digital games created by MIT’s Educational Arcade with my middle school students and have had quite a bit of success. The games I’ve used (Radix Endeavour and Lure of the Labyrinth) focus on math and science related concepts and incorporate them into the a role playing genre scenarios. The students really get into them, so there is no need for extra motivation. It is interesting to see the effect of using digital games in a classroom environment, as some students compete against each other to solve the levels the fastest, where others work together to solve the problems more quickly. Since they are role-playing games which require students to navigate simulated-world digital environments to solve various problems, I feel that they might help in the transfer of knowledge. This would be an interesting investigation to pursue and document