Seven Ways to Add Stories to Your eLearning Courses

We all know that stories are a great way to engage an audience, yet it seems so few people actually study and use the tool in a manner that truly impacts their audience.

So what does it actually take to create a story that is not only engaging but also a highly effective training tool?

Summertime Memories to Make You Smile

Let’s go back for a moment… What are your favorite memories of summer from when you were a kid that make you smile? What were you doing? Who were you with?

People and Ideas I follow

by Jeffrey Riley
​Practical Learning Concepts, LLC

There are several people I follow in the learning and development world. I hope listing their blogs or websites here will help you as well.

Tom Kuhlmann The Rapid eLearning Blog A must for Articulate users but of benefit to anyone who wants to know more about eLearning and design. Did I mention Tom is a PowerPoint guru?

Cathy Moore's Blog has a lot of great ideas. She may be best known for Action Mapping and Scenario Design.

How to Design Game Boards in PowerPoint

Do you have BIG ideas for your eLearning, Gamification, or Instructor Led Training programs, but your time and resources are limited? Are there ways to find a cheaper way of doing things? A way to make the best use of the resources that you do have?

Are You Ready to Take the Learner Persona Challenge?

Learner Personas are a fictional representation of your targeted learners. They are based on real data about learner demographics and behavior, along with educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.

How are Learner Personas Created?
Learner personas are created through research, surveys, and interviews of your target audience. That includes a mix of new and seasoned employees – both “good” and “bad” -- who might align with your target audience. You’ll collect data that is both qualitative and quantitative to paint a picture of who your typical learner is, what they value, and how your program fits into their daily lives.

Game Thinking and the MVP of Instructional Design

On this episode of Gamification Talk Radio, I interviewed special guest Zsolt Olah and our topic of discussion was: Game Thinking and the MVP of Instructional Design.

Zsolt participated in Kevin Werbach's G.A.M.E. (Gameful Approaches of Motivation and Engagement) along with researchers and practitioners of game design and gamification such as Karl Kapp, Amy Jo Kim, and Sebastian Deterding.

While researchers and practitioners might have disagreed on many levels about gamification, there was one big take away for L&D we all agreed on.

The Gamification of Learning Part 3: Rules, Rewards, and Results

This week on Gamification Talk Radio, we finish exploring the seven continents on our journey, and review Rules, Rewards, and Results.

Level 5:  Siberian Express – Why would they want to play?

As you create your gamification experience, think of creative features that will appeal to a variety of intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivators of your players. Define what core drivers of motivation will be most dominant in each phase of the experience. For example, in your onboarding phase you can get your players in quickly with some simple extrinsic motivators. The longer your players are in your game, you’ll want to design for different motivators such as: 

The Gamification of Learning Part 2: Measurement and Behaviors

This week on Gamification Talk Radio, we continue by exploring two more of the seven continents on our journey, and about keeping score and how the game is played.

Level 3:  Jungle Standoff – How are you keeping score?
How will you know the gamification program you put in place is driving the behaviors you need in order to meet your business objectives? What are the KPIs or benchmarks you will use to measure progress? Define the business metrics or quantifiable output indicators on the basis of achieving your business objective. Decide what numbers you must hit in order for your gamification program to be deemed successful.

The Gamification of Learning Part 1: Objectives and Players

Using the metaphor of a World Explorer, Monica takes you inside her hands-on, gamified playshop to explore the beauty, awe, marvels, and dangers of the seven levels of successful gamification. You'll learn how to plan for your journey and pack wisely to make every item count.

This week to get started we explore two of the seven continents on our journey, and begin with business objectives and who is playing our game (our learners).

Columbus or Gilligan?

Judi, a friend of mine, told me about a training program she attended, Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting for Non-Financial Managers. Her goal was to learn to use financial documents to create ratios to guider her business decisions. I know, it was already a boring topic, but the presenter didn’t help things out. He was so ineffective that Judi gave up in frustration. She couldn’t learn from the subject matter expert.

She told me, “Monica, it was like trying to steer a ship without a map, and at this point, I don’t know if I’m Christopher Columbus or Gilligan!”

Judi had the desire to learn about financial statements. She needed the information the expert had to give. And she was motivated. And yet, the presenter could not give her directions she could use. Her three-hour-tour resulted in a shipwreck.

Find your personal gamification guru

A curated list of games and gamification experts that offer practical tips for your L&D needs.

Introducing new learning methods can involve an overwhelming amount of information. A Google search for gamification in business has more than 1,340,000 results.

Should Narrative Be a Part of EVERY Corporate Learning Program?

Imagine that you’re asked to create a training program/job aid to address quality control issues within your organization. You could start with flow charts, statistics, and time studies… OR you can create a Quest. Now every problem becomes a challenge to overcome, a mystery to be solved. The focus is on the goal and if the team works together and makes the necessary sacrifices – everyone will be able to achieve that goal.

The Gamification Quest: A 7-Minute Design Challenge

This challenge was created for participants at the Training 2016 Conference and Expo sponsored by Training Magazine. It is designed to give a quick overview of the gamification strategy design process for Talent Development Programs. 

Are you up to the challenge?

    

The Gamification Quest: A 7- Minute Design Challenge from Monica Cornetti (LION)

About the Author:  A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as a #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the Founder and CEO of theSententia Gamification Consortium and the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You. Monica is hired for her skill as a gamification speaker and is considered at the top of her field in gamification design for corporate learning.

Connect with Monica on Twitter @monicacornetti or the company websitewww.monicacornetti.com or www.SententiaGames.com

What You Should Know About Learning in the Mobile Era

With special guest Jordan Fladell, EVP and Co-Founder of mLevel (www.mlevel.com)

In this episode of Gamification Talk Radio, we explore mobile learning. As I’ve worked on gamification strategies for organizations that plan to use mobile devices in the delivery of the content – I've learned that mobile learning is so much more than just reformatting our eLearning on a mobile device.

Top Gamification Statistics and Facts for 2015 You Need to Know

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

Igor Radic - A Different View on the World of Gamification

With special guest, Igor Radic - CEO and VP of Funifier Gamification Platform.

For someone new to the industry, the concept of Gamification can be hard to grasp let alone implement.

Funifier is taking it back to the basics – Their platform is built on the question: Why can't the implementation of Gamification projects be simple and straight forward?

Karl Kapp - The Research Behind Games, Gamification and Immersive Learning Techniques

Games, gamification and game-based learning have entered into the vocabulary of trainers, eLearning developers and instructional designers around the globe in the past few years.

But, while the use of games for learning seems like a good match… there are a lot of questions that arise, such as - How should games be integrated into the curriculum? Can attitudes and behaviors change from playing a game? What elements of games can learning designers borrow from game designers?

The answer to these questions can be found in the research on game-based learning.

In this episode of Gamification Talk Radio, Karl and I discuss:

• How to apply game-based strategies to the presentation of learning content
• Three principles for adding gamification and game-ideas to learning curriculums
• Attributes of games that improve learning recall and application
• How gamification impacts learning design and development

About our Guest: Karl Kapp, Ed.D., is a researcher, analyst, speaker, professor and designer of instructional games and gamification. He is a full-professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA. where he teaches subjects related to games, gamification and learning technologies. Karl is the Director of Bloomsburg’s Institute for Interactive Technologies which works with organizations to create interactive instruction including games and simulations. Karl has authored or co-authored six books including The Gamification of Learning and Instruction and its accompanying how-to-book The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook. Connect with Karl: www.karlkapp.com and on Twitter @kkapp

About Your Host:  A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as the #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the Founder and CEO of the Sententia Gamification Consortium and the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You. Monica is hired for her skill as a gamification speaker and is considered the best in gamification design for corporate learning. Connect with Monica on Twitter @monicacornetti, Web: www.monicacornetti.com and www.SententiaGames.com, Email: monica@monicacornetti.com  

Gamification... What Really Motivates Us?

Jan Bidner and I met recently at the Gamification World Congress in Barcelona. We sat together at the first session and became instant friends.

In fact, we had the opportunity to participate in a Gamification Guru Panel, which you can listen to here:

Gamification World Congress - Gurus Panel Part 1

Gamification World Congress - Gurus Panel Part 2

Of course we had a lot of discussion about gamification and gamification design. Gamification is an amplifier of the core activity. Which means you have to know what the core activity loops are. Which also mean that the if the core activity is crap you will amplify crap. It is the core experience that we are designing for. 

Children Learn Through Play… What Happened?

Children learn as naturally as they breathe. Every day they observe and explore the world around them. Everything is new, everything is interesting, and learning is FUN! They process new ideas and information, and even if they do not yet have a verbal language, they work to articulate the joy and excitement of their new discoveries.

Play is critical to the healthy growth and development of children. As children play, they learn through trial and error what works and what doesn’t.

Children use play to learn how to solve problems (Do these two pieces fit together? What does this do?) Through play, children enhance their memory skills as well as their attention span. They move to higher levels of thought as they continue to play in more stimulating environments.

Play teaches children how to cooperate, negotiate, take turns and play by the rules, all necessary skills for both children and adults. Take a few minutes to watch this child play. When was the last time you saw 1/10th of that kind of determination, engagement, and excitement in any of your adult learners?

An Introduction to Gamification Design - Part 1



Gamification is motivational design… the use of game elements and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems.

In Corporate Learning and Talent Development, gamification works by making learning more engaging and by encouraging desired behaviors. Gamification takes advantage of our predisposition to join in games and game-like activities. When designed properly, this powerful strategy can encourage users to participate in desired behaviors in connection with your organizations business and learning objectives. 

Many organizations are looking to expand their understanding of gamification as an overall improvement to the structure and quality of their employee engagement and talent management programs.