7 lessons hybrid learning teaches us about gamification

Classrooms often leverage gamification and game-based learning tactics to engage students to participate in lessons and motivate them to keep learning. 

Why? Gamification works. “Games are the only force in the known universe that can get people to take actions against their self-interest, in a predictable way, without using force,” says Gabe Zichermann, co-author of Gamification in Design. Activities that stimulate bodies and minds release endorphins, leaving learners excited and feeling accomplished whenever they complete a game-based lesson. As a result, they are motivated to engage with the lesson more and keep learning. 

Most studies on gamification in schools have reported increased learning and motivation among participating students. Game elements associated with competition, such as leaderboards and points, have been most common, resulting in higher engagement and learning outcomes. Similar results have been reported in simulation procedures and quizzes. 

Clearly, organizations can learn something from the teachers who have been leveraging gamification to great effect. So, head back into the classroom and explore these seven lessons that hybrid learning teaches workplaces about gamification. 

1. Make gamified initiatives competitive, not destructive

Many games include at least some degree of competition, such as leaderboards, rewards for top players and badges of recognition for high achievements. Educators leverage this to drive students to participate and improve learning effectiveness. But the aim of learning gamification isn’t to create cutthroat competition; it’s to foster a positive environment. 

Competition can have a constructive effect on participation and learning, but it also has the potential to undermine a student’s motivation. Destructive competition that requires tearing other people down makes people feel irrelevant and oppressed, which is not what frontline workers should be experiencing. Instead, consider constructive competition opportunities focusing on collaboration and mutual support, such as exercises to improve everyone’s skills instead of defeating others. 

2. Capitalize on the instant feedback gamification encourages

One of the biggest benefits of gamification is how quickly your frontline can get feedback. Whether organizations leverage it for training, communication, task execution or other initiatives, there’s a valuable opportunity for continuous improvement and growth. 

You can show players how they’ve performed immediately, allowing quicker and more effective learning and information retention. Leverage this as much as possible when constructing your gamified programs with quizzes, challenges and puzzles that instantly tell staff where they did a great job—or how they could have done better. 

 3. Focus on competence, not performance

In the study Why Gamification Fails in Education and How to Make It Successful, authors Rob van Roy and Bieke Zaman write, “Learners who experience competence are found to be more persistent and have better study results than learners who feel incompetent. In order to optimally motivate learners, tasks should be designed in such a way that they just fall outside the learners’ comfort zone while still being perceived as attainable.” 

In other words, gamification is supposed to challenge staff, but not to the point where they begin to feel incompetent. Judging by performance means there is always going to be a loser. An employee could do a perfectly good job and learn all their job skills properly, yet still be considered a ‘failure’ because one of their peers outperformed everyone else on the leaderboard. That’s not very motivating, is it?

4. Offer badges of achievement

They worked for Cub Scouts for a reason! Badges validate excelling participants—or those who are at least competent—even if they’re not top performers yet. 

“Compared to traditional grading in educational settings, these badges can provide more information and yield more motivational power,” explain van Roy and Zaman. “More particularly, well-designed badges can give both outcome and progress feedback.” 

5. Award points for non-academic objectives

When it comes to gamification, organizations should remember that it’s not just about training employees to learn concepts or absorb knowledge. It’s about enabling staff to do their jobs more effectively. You want to use gamification to incentivize the correct behaviors—and points can help. For example, an employee might collect points for helping a coworker or successfully resolving a customer complaint. 

The idea behind this system is positive reinforcement. Nothing terrible happens to the employee if they’re too busy to help a coworker, but they do get rewarded if they do so. Penalizing employees or deducting points will lower morale and make them less likely to participate, especially if they’re already overworked or burnt out. 

6. Make it social

The magic of game-based learning is that it can bring a classroom together and create camaraderie among the students and teachers. Maybe there’s a little friendly competition between classes or grades—all of it helps to drive participation and enthusiasm in the program. 

The same is true of frontline workforces. Organizations can implement group challenges where employees work with others to accomplish goals or set up a competition between locations. The competition could be as simple as driving awareness around specific new products or menu items. Don’t overthink it. 

7. Allow for choice and autonomy

People don’t love being told what to do. Students, employees… some things don’t change no matter where they are learning. Embedding a sense of choice in your gamified programs will set your organization up for success.

“If the challenges form an obligatory part of the course, learners will rather feel externally controlled by the obligation to complete the challenges, and as a result may start feeling anxious and losing autonomous motivation,” explain van Roy and Zaman.

The key here is to provide choice. According to van Roy and Zaman’s research, staff can feel autonomous in a no-choice situation if they are free to choose how they want to approach the task. One example could be letting the employee choose which training they want to start with or what skill testing question they want to answer. The study notes, however, that the choice should align with your staff’s values and priorities. If you give an employee sales training who doesn’t want to be in sales, then no amount of choice or gamification will motivate them. 

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Gamification can be a powerful and effective tool for training your frontline employees, but it has to be approached with care and thought. Adopting proven lessons from the academic community allows you to embed a little friendly competition into any learning and development program. Game on!