Report Card: Gamification in Learning (What Works?)

Gamification applied to learning is receiving a lotof attention these days, and corporate learning teams are being tasked with identifyinghow best to incorporate it into their learning strategies.

At its simplest, gamification is the process ofmaking non-game activities more fun and engaging. Karl Kapp, a respected experton the convergence of learning and technology, defines gamification as “acareful and considered application of game thinking to solving problems andencouraging learning, using all the elements of games that are appropriate.”

While there’s a great deal of information availableon how to add gaming elements to learning, there hasn’t been much intelligence publishedabout how people react, act, or perform within gamified learning environments,until now.

At Axonify, we believe we’ve accumulated thelargest body of data related to which game mechanics actually work in the realworld of corporate learning. Every day, hundreds of thousands of employees fromworld-class organizations like Walmart, Toys R Us, and J&J interact withour gamification elements, resulting inmore than 50 million discrete interactions per year! From theseinteractions, we are able to extract important information about gamificationand its impact on learning.

What we’ve discovered is pretty amazing.

Lesson one:Game popularity is a formula

The Axonify platform embeds learning in short gamesthat range from arcade-style play to word puzzles to brain games. Indeveloping, testing, and releasing hundreds of games to learners, we’veconcluded that it’s not the style of game that makes a game popular, but ratherthe presence of three key components (Figure 1).

• Multi-level action: Learners must be able toprogress through levels of difficulty, which gives them a continuing sense ofachievement.
• Challenging: Games must continuallychallenge the learners, encouraging them to stretch beyond their comfort zones.Sometimes this will result in success, and sometimes it will result in failure.But with their comfort level from recreational gaming, most of today’s learnerstake failure in stride and, within a game environment, find it motivational.
• Fun: learning games must befun, which helps keep learners excited, motivated, and engaged in the learningprocess.

Figure 1: Game popularity =multi-level + challenge + fun 

When you combine multi-level action with challengesand fun, participation goes through the roof. Pep Boys has been using Axonifyfor several years to help reduce retail shrink by a whopping 55 percent, aresult almost unheard of in retail. Bryan Hoppe, VP Operations, says, “The mostsurprising benefit of Axonify was how well it was received and continues to bereceived by our employees. We get well over 95 percent participation in ourAxonify learning, and the game approach is a big part of why employees aresticking with it.”

Lesson two:Game-play variety is critical

Offering a large selection of games and game typesis essential to driving participation in learning.

A key reason is that learners become partial tospecific types of games and will participate more enthusiastically if the gamesmeet their preference. For instance, a Millennial retail associate may prefer “AngryBirds”-style games, while a Baby Boomer may be more drawn to “Color Fill,” agame that combines luck and skill.

One of the things we’ve found is that of the totalnumber of learning games played on our platform, there’s no clear winner interms of user preference. Learners are creating their own variety by choosing differentgames to keep the experience fresh and interesting. This helps avoid thedisconnect that could occur if learners master a particular game or get bored.

Lessonthree: Leaderboards drive competition and community

It’s important to have both personal and teamleaderboards. In fact, nearly 100 percent of Axonify users check theirleaderboard weekly, and 37 percent check every single day! Clearly they careabout how they and their teams stack up against the competition (Figure 2).Team leaderboards drive social connectedness, creating a strong sense ofcommunity.

Figure 2: Team leaderboards drivecompetitiveness and social connectedness, creating a strong sense of community

Capital Blue Cross is a US health-insurance companywith over 2,000 employees in Pennsylvania. They were looking for a solutionthat would allow them to centralize training, reinforce classroom-based instructionfor improved effectiveness, plus easily and swiftly communicate procedurechanges.

What surprised them was how engaged their employeeswould become in their own learning. According to Mike Keeler, their VP of operations,“It’s the ongoing friendly competition that has our people looking forward totheir daily training session: that, and the fact that they can immediately seehow they are stacking up against their colleagues. Our employees check theirleaderboards 64 percent of the time that they log on for their trainingsessions. I’m sure that’s a major contributor to the results we’re seeing,which include knowledge lifts of up to about 85 percent on most of our criticaltopics. That’s huge for our business, where we have complicated procedures, andgrowing complexity driven by healthcare reform.”

Lesson four:Tangible rewards are a key to participation

While intangible rewards such as recognition,interesting challenges, and badges motivate many people to learn, we’ve foundthat by adding tangible rewards employers can dramatically drive participation andenhance the overall learning experience. These rewards vary from company tocompany, but can include everything from gift cards to company swag to vacationdays.

Clients that take advantage of the Axonify-reward auctionfeature with tangible prizes achieve at least 15 percent more participationthan those who don’t.

We’ve seen the most dramatic impact of addingrewards with the Kaplan Higher Education Group, who utilize the Axonifyplatform to reinforce learning with their student support and internal trainingteams.

J.D. Dillon of the Kaplan Higher Education Group describesthe impact of rewards in their environment. “In our Axonify implementation, we’reexperiencing over 90 percent voluntary participation for those pockets oflearners with achievable, tangible rewards. That contrasts to 40 percentvoluntary participation when learners do not yet have tangible rewards inplace.”

Lesson five:Learners appreciate having a coach

In our learning environment, learners have theoption of choosing a coach. These virtual coaches motivate learners bycelebrating when they do well, and looking disappointed when they don’t.

At first glance, it wouldn’t seem very critical tothe learning process, but we were surprised to find that of the hundreds ofthousands of people using Axonify, over 80 percent of them take the time toselect a Coach that appeals to them. It was also interesting that people preferredthe term Coach over the term Avatar. In the video-gaming world, an Avatar is a virtualrepresentation of the person playing the game. This suggests to us that peoplefeel more comfortable with someone at their side offering support, rather thanlooking at a virtual representation of themselves.

We’ve also found that it’s important to offer theability for learners to select from a variety of Coaches, so they can chooseone that they feel most comfortable with. Some select very realistic lookingcoaches, while others prefer a fun, “cartoony” character.

Lesson six:Employees like to see their progress

While tangible rewards motivate many learners,there are also intrinsic motivators that drive many people to succeed, such asthe feeling of achievement or desire for self-improvement.

These learners want to see their own progress sothey can analyze their performance and make the adjustments necessary toimprove (Figure 3). It’s extremely important to provide a progress report that:

• Iseasy to access and understand
• Providesa graphical interface
• Allowsfor drilling down to deeper detail

Figure 3: Access and illustrate anindividual’s progress in a simple, digestible format

We have found that 9 percent of Axonify users checktheir report card daily, and 7 percent take extra training so they can improvetheir scores. This can be quite significant when you consider that theseemployees likely represent your population of self-directed learners, often onthe promotion track.

Lesson seven:Social connectivity creates learning engagement

One of the most powerful engagement tools in next-generationonline-learning environments relates to social connectivity—connectingemployees to each other, to learning content, and to the organization.Providing a forum for employees to engage socially and contribute content isnot only beneficial, but in the age of Facebook and Twitter, it’s expected.

We’ve found that the ability for learners tocontribute content is quickly becoming one of the most popular features of oursystem: over 15 percent of Axonify users engage socially every day, and thatnumber continues to grow.

This is exciting news; it’s an area whereorganizations can dramatically improve employee engagement. We believe thereare significant benefits to adding social connectivity to the learningexperience:

• Socialconnectivity relies on active participation, increasing engagement in theoverall learning experience.
• Employeesare able to contribute as collaborators and team players, increasing theirconnectedness to coworkers.
• Employeesfeel they are contributing to the learning experience of their coworkers.
• Ascontributors to the knowledge base, employees feel more connected to thesuccess of their organization. 

Get A+ on yourlearning report card

These powerful—and surprising—lessons prove thatgamification more completely engages learners. But you also need to payattention to detail. Provide variety, challenge, and community. Offer rewards. Allowemployees to contribute to your knowledge base.

By adding gamification to your learning, thenrefining it to meet learner preferences, you will more fully engage youremployees to deliver the results you need: better knowledge retention, improvedjob performance, and a workforce aligned with your vision.