Deborah Thomas, president of SillyMonkey, has aninspired solution for insipid compliance training: Seriouslearning games. But why limit yourself to compliance training?Serious learning games—and well-constructed gamification—can enhance anyeLearning.
“Games are exciting because they use people’s core compulsions,”Thomas said. These include a compulsion to collect things, which, she said, iswhat drove the appeal of Pokémon Go. People also like to organize things, asillustrated by the appeal of Bejeweled. It’s possible to build thesecompulsions into learning games, so long as it’s meaningful and ties in withthe learning objectives, Thomas said.
Playing to these compulsions helps hook learners and drawthem into the game; it also reinforces the learning. “They’ll play until theyget it right—and that’s what helps us embed the learning,” Thomas said. “Peopledon’t mind failing when it’s fun and interesting like that.”
The serious game framework also leans on the element ofstory. A great story engages learners’ attention while teaching content,procedural steps, sequencing, prioritizing—whatever the needed lessons are. “Havinga story that people can connect to—that means having a protagonist thatsomebody cares about, and building in the back story,” she said.
Harness the power of storytelling
Buildingtraining around stories doesn’t require a huge budget or massivemanpower. “A small team can create a good story—and we’ve got the topics forit,” in compliance training, Thomas said, whether you’re creating safetytraining or teaching people the HIPAA rules or to recognize and preventharassing behavior. “We can build stories on that stuff so easily.”
“We want people to be intrigued by what we’re telling them,and adding stories is so fun to do anyway. I think it helps us as designers,”Thomas said. “We get more excited about what we’re designing and developing,and then the learner gets excited about it as well. It’s win, win, win.”
Addressing resistance to games, gamification
Many in the industry don’t like the idea of usinggames or gamification in eLearning. Thomas pushes back against thatattitude. “It’s not fair to give gamification a bad rap,” she said. Anyapproach can be poorly implemented. “We have lots of examples of poorlydesigned instructional learning and videos…”
And badly executed gamification: “Poorly designedgamification is when you take the course, and then you add some fun questionsto it. You stop the learning to ‘now let’s ask some questions and do it in afun way,’” she said. “If you have a training course that’s already developed,and you want it to be more interactive, then we add gamification to it. It canbe done well. But you really do need to tear the course apart a little bit toembed the game elements so it’s part of the learning objective, not justplopped on top.”
Gamificationof content is a completely different approach from creating a serious learninggame, though. A serious learning game is the product you’d set out todevelop—and you’d make the content work within the game framework and the storyyou are telling. “A great serious game has borrowed from the movie industry andfrom stories,” she said.
Anyone can create game-based learning
Immersive environments offer advantages to serious gamedevelopers—like the ability to track what learners notice and pay attention to,and the ability to time them as they complete processes. “All of those elementsjust added to the excitement of it and it helps put the learner into thesituation,” Thomas said. “That’s hard to do in basic question-and-answertraining.”
While an immersive environment is can enhance learnerengagement, it’s not necessary. “If you can’t do a serious game, you can borrowfrom the things that allow you to create a great serious game,” she said, suchas storytelling.
With an engaging story as the foundation, “A small team canpull that together, even in a fairly simple eLearning course—or even with justPowerPoint—by designing things that can draw the learners in and help them seethe environment,” Thomas said. “We can make a difference even with very low-endstuff, just by making it compelling. We want them to be intrigued to pick it up.”
Getting started
“There’s a wealth of information out there,” Thomas said. Indeed,the resources and information about creatinggames and adding gamification to eLearning can be overwhelming. Tohelp L&D teams get started, Thomas recommended a few of her favorite books:
To hear more from Thomas on serious games for compliance training—and tolearn from other L&D leaders on creating compelling compliance training—downloadThe eLearning Guild’s free white paper
CreatingCompliance Training Learners Will Love, and register for the ComplianceTraining Summit, November 14 & 15, 2018, where Deborah Thomaswill present ComplianceTraining Is a Serious Game Opportunity.
Deborah Thomas, president of SillyMonkey, has aninspired solution for insipid compliance training: Seriouslearning games. But why limit yourself to compliance training?Serious learning games—and well-constructed gamification—can enhance anyeLearning.
“Games are exciting because they use people’s core compulsions,”Thomas said. These include a compulsion to collect things, which, she said, iswhat drove the appeal of Pokémon Go. People also like to organize things, asillustrated by the appeal of Bejeweled. It’s possible to build thesecompulsions into learning games, so long as it’s meaningful and ties in withthe learning objectives, Thomas said.
Playing to these compulsions helps hook learners and drawthem into the game; it also reinforces the learning. “They’ll play until theyget it right—and that’s what helps us embed the learning,” Thomas said. “Peopledon’t mind failing when it’s fun and interesting like that.”
The serious game framework also leans on the element ofstory. A great story engages learners’ attention while teaching content,procedural steps, sequencing, prioritizing—whatever the needed lessons are. “Havinga story that people can connect to—that means having a protagonist thatsomebody cares about, and building in the back story,” she said.
<H2>Harness the power of storytelling
Buildingtraining around stories doesn’t require a huge budget or massivemanpower. “A small team can create a good story—and we’ve got the topics forit,” in compliance training, Thomas said, whether you’re creating safetytraining or teaching people the HIPAA rules or to recognize and preventharassing behavior. “We can build stories on that stuff so easily.”
“We want people to be intrigued by what we’re telling them,and adding stories is so fun to do anyway. I think it helps us as designers,”Thomas said. “We get more excited about what we’re designing and developing,and then the learner gets excited about it as well. It’s win, win, win.”
<H2>Addressing resistance to games, gamification
Many in the industry don’t like the idea of usinggames or gamification in eLearning. Thomas pushes back against thatattitude. “It’s not fair to give gamification a bad rap,” she said. Anyapproach can be poorly implemented. “We have lots of examples of poorlydesigned instructional learning and videos…”
And badly executed gamification: “Poorly designedgamification is when you take the course, and then you add some fun questionsto it. You stop the learning to ‘now let’s ask some questions and do it in afun way,’” she said. “If you have a training course that’s already developed,and you want it to be more interactive, then we add gamification to it. It canbe done well. But you really do need to tear the course apart a little bit toembed the game elements so it’s part of the learning objective, not justplopped on top.”
Gamificationof content is a completely different approach from creating a serious learninggame, though. A serious learning game is the product you’d set out todevelop—and you’d make the content work within the game framework and the storyyou are telling. “A great serious game has borrowed from the movie industry andfrom stories,” she said.
<H2>Anyone can create game-based learning
Immersive environments offer advantages to serious gamedevelopers—like the ability to track what learners notice and pay attention to,and the ability to time them as they complete processes. “All of those elementsjust added to the excitement of it and it helps put the learner into thesituation,” Thomas said. “That’s hard to do in basic question-and-answertraining.”
While an immersive environment is can enhance learnerengagement, it’s not necessary. “If you can’t do a serious game, you can borrowfrom the things that allow you to create a great serious game,” she said, suchas storytelling.
With an engaging story as the foundation, “A small team canpull that together, even in a fairly simple eLearning course—or even with justPowerPoint—by designing things that can draw the learners in and help them seethe environment,” Thomas said. “We can make a difference even with very low-endstuff, just by making it compelling. We want them to be intrigued to pick it up.”
<H2> Getting started
“There’s a wealth of information out there,” Thomas said. Indeed,the resources and information about creatinggames and adding gamification to eLearning can be overwhelming. Tohelp L&D teams get started, Thomas recommended a few of her favorite books:
· TheGamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Ideas into Practice,by Karl Kapp
· Fundamentalsof Game Design, by Ernest Adams
· AdvancedGame Design, by Michael Sellers—don’t let the “advanced” title scareyou away, Thomas advised.
To hear more from Thomas on serious games for compliance training—and tolearn from other L&D leaders on creating compelling compliance training—downloadThe eLearning Guild’s free white paper CreatingCompliance Training Learners Will Love, and register for the ComplianceTraining Summit, November 14 & 15, 2018, where Deborah Thomaswill present ComplianceTraining Is a Serious Game Opportunity.
