You know you’re an eLearning nerd when you watch a movie and all you can think about is gamification and instructional design.
eLearning Gamification in Ender’s Game
I recently rewatched Ender’s Game, and love it. It’s about a kid named Ender who is a possible candidate to save the world from an impending alien invasion. They train him for a special mission at a school in space. During the movie Ender plays and interacts with a variety of game simulations and interactive graphics. It was cool eLearning game stuff!
Here are some of the eLearning technologies I saw in Ender’s Game:
- Ender carries some kind of mobile learning game device that simulates game scenarios and interacts with other students through a flight simulator.
- Instead of having a chalkboard, they have an interactive board in which the teacher is showing animations and graphics to show what happens during certain cosmic events.
- They have a simulation room. A place where they students can practice/experience combat and strategy in a zero gravity environment.
The take away I see is the game technology used in Ender’s game can be used in eLearning today and gamification has a great future. But first…
What is eLearning Gamification?
Gamification is visual storytelling, feedback, and visual cues. It is measurable and has an objective for the learner. It reinforces previous learned behavior or facts. It’s a trick the learner to play a fun game that results in retaining information. Gamification allows the learner to explore information in a way that doesn’t feel like a test. These are part of the elements for awesome eLearning games.
Remember, Gamification Does Not Equal Games
Gamification does not equal games. There, I said it. Let’s not get the two confused. Games are for fun and relaxing. Gamification takes the best elements of games and applies them to a learning situation. By utilizing game elements we can improve the retention of our learners. Gamification adds an extra layer over existing activities.
Bring Gamification to Life
In one of the activities I have built was a hypoxia chamber interaction. Hypoxia happens when your brain is deprived of oxygen. Pilots will go to places that have a hypoxia chamber to experience hypoxia. So they can learn how to manage and what to do if they ever experience it while flying. My version was in Adobe Flash and not in a hypoxia chamber. I had to simulate the activity. I started by asking the students to trace a few shapes, do a few math problems while the chamber changes altitudes. While in a simulated high altitude, they were instructed to trace shapes and do math problems again. But this time, the curser shook, and the math problems would change (with hypoxia your problem solving ability is that of a 5th grader). This course allowed them to experience hypoxia and they never even left their seat.
Gamification doesn’t have to be complicating. For example, I love to run. I regularly use a running app called, Strava. The app lets you challenge and compare with other runners throughout the globe. It congratulates me when I hit a new personal record. It allows me to follow other runners and their accomplishments. I can comment on their runs. This has gamified my running and is good example of gamification. It reinforces good habits, and I enjoy running even more.
Using eLearning Gamification
Gamification increases user engagement, can influence behavior, and motivate participation. These are all very measurable. If you are using eLearning games for training this will directly affect your bottom line. If the simulation is remember-able, your workers will use what was taught and apply it. They may go back and play it over again and again. They will want to learn the next module. It can help rebuild the culture into a learning/training machine.
What have you done to help others in eLearning gamification? What kind of scenarios have you enjoyed that have helped someone learn something?
