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Selecting the “next” arrow only to be brought to another page full of text can quickly make learners feel like they’re reading an endless textbook. Gamifying learning can make it more immersive, interactive and fun.

Gamification incorporates game mechanics into learning experiences to generate motivation naturally. That said, certain types of game mechanics can affect different forms of motivation. The levels of each motivation type can be measured by using gamification expert, Yu-Kai Chou’s, Octalysis Framework.

Each section, or “core drive,” of this framework represents a type of natural human motivation:

• Meaning: the feeling that your work contributes to something larger than yourself.
• Accomplishment: the desire to accomplish a goal.
• Ownership: the principle that once you own something, you will want to improve it and add on to it.
• Scarcity: the feeling of either being unable to obtain something immediately or having great difficulty in obtaining it.
• Avoidance: the fear of losing something or having undesirable events transpire.
• Unpredictability: the main force behind your motivation to pursue uncertain and chance-based experiences.
• Social Influence: the integration of social elements like mentorship, acceptance, feedback, teamwork, competition and envy to fuel your motivation.
• Creativity: the event in which you are involved in a creative process of discovery, allowing you to continuously uncover new possibilities and test different combinations.

With these core drives in mind, let’s explore the different types of game mechanics that can be used to facilitate learner motivation and engagement in training programs.

The Power of Narrative

Including a narrative as a game mechanic can fuel learner motivation and engagement. Incorporating a story into a learning program provides an immersive experience that the learner can connect to on a personal level and therefore build purpose from. Whether the narrative is told through a second-person perspective with the learner in the driver’s seat or there is a character that the learner follows in third person, a unique story can give meaning to the training material and deliver it in a realistic way that’s similar to what the learner would actually encounter in their role.

A way in which narrative can be implemented into a training program is through role-play. For example, a learner can be positioned in a scenario-based client conversation where they must choose the best response out of a variety of options. This not only allows the learner to experience a realistic event, but also creates a safe environment for them to make mistakes and improve their skills.

Including narrative into a training program can strengthen the meaning and unpredictability core drives.

Visual Rewards

Some of the most used visual mechanics within training-based gamification are status points, progress bars and badges.

Status points are awarded to a learner for accomplishing goals, such as completing chapters and assessments. These points can be added to a progress bar that displays the learner’s current position in a training program. The more points earned, the more the progress bar fills. When accompanied by appealing visuals, these paired mechanics can drive learner motivation by visually encouraging them to continue until the progress bar is full. Learners will naturally want to avoid stalled progress and will therefore want to continue the program to see the satisfying visual of a bar filled with the points they worked for.

But what if points aren’t enough? That’s where badges come in. Badges are visual representations of accomplished goals, often taking the shape of stars or trophies. But stars and trophies alone do not hold any weight unless they are given with meaning. If badges are rewarded to learners when reaching milestones in the progress bar, or even at the very end, they signify the completion of goals, empowering the learner with pride and encouraging them to continue building their skills. In addition, allowing learners to post their badges on company social media profiles could greatly improve their confidence and help them feel more connected with their peers.

These game mechanics can level up the social influence, avoidance, scarcity, ownership and accomplishment core drives.

Creative Customization

A way to give learners more autonomy in their education is to provide them with the opportunity to own something. This could be anything from an avatar, a tool, to even the color palette of an eLearning program’s interface. Learners can “own” these elements by having the ability to customize them.

To take it a step further, customization can be treated as an award for either reaching certain milestones or completing exercises correctly, much like the status points and badges mentioned before. Perhaps answering a question correctly unlocks a new shirt for a learner’s avatar or it presents the choice of a new color scheme for an item or tool. Like when earning status points for a progress bar, learners will want to avoid letting their efforts go to waste and will naturally want to experiment with the customization opportunities they’ve earned, even share them on a social company profile, if available. Customization can improve engagement by simply letting learners feel more in control of their educational experience.

Game mechanics that provide customization opportunities can promote the creativity, social influence, avoidance, ownership and accomplishment core drives.

Conclusion

By applying gamification strategically, you can design a learning experience that takes learners on a personalized journey, rewards them for their accomplishments and connects their creativity to the content. A blend of these game mechanics can help generate a motivationally balanced training program that speaks to your employees’ individual learning preferences, all while establishing a fun, effective learning environment.