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).

Gamification Design: We All Play Games

The reality is… you enjoy playing games. We’ve been playing games since the days of cavemen, and it is your nature to compare yourself to see how you measure up to others.

Games drive emotions, build loyalty, and create character.
What if you could take game mechanics like competition, collaboration, and chance -- and apply them to your organization to teach, persuade, and motivate people?

Is it possible to make dull training; or difficult, tedious, or challenging tasks just a little more fun?

The answer is YES!

Forward thinking organizations understand the power of Gamification to increase engagement, and are quickly learning how to leverage its power.

Gamification does NOT equal technology or playing video games. It is an important and powerful strategy for influencing and motivating people. Simply defined, Gamification uses game mechanics and rewards for non-game applications in order to solve a wide range of business problems.

An excerpt from an Introduction to Gamification class with facilitator Monica Cornetti, Sententia Founder and CEO.

Here are three factors to consider as YOU explore how Gamification can help you and your organization.

• Clearly Identify the Business Objectives – Instead of asking, “How can we leverage Gamification in our organization?” begin with clearly defined business objectives and an analysis of the suitability of Gamification to achieve those business objectives.
• Think of the Audience as Players not Puppets – Slapping some meaningless points, badges, and leaderboards into your event or marketing strategy does not mean that you’ll be able to get people to do what they’ve been unwilling to do before. Engage the target audience with meaningful incentives.
• Design for Player-Centricity –The sweet spot for Gamification is where the business objectives and player objectives overlap. Gamified applications must be designed to motivate players to achieve their goals.

At its core, Gamification is about finding the fun in the things that we have to do.

Making business processes compelling by making them fun. It's about the most fascinating and coolest thing that I can think of. 

More Gamification Articles:

• The 4 Questions to Ask Before Implementing Gamification
• Gamification Simplified

For information on earning a Gamification Certification for Learning, Talent Management and Organizational Development Professionals visit www.SententiaGames.com

About the Author:  Monica Cornetti
Founder and CEO, Sententia
www.SententiaGames.com
www.monicacornetti.com

A gamification speaker and designer, Monica Cornetti is rated as a #1 Gamification Guru in the World by UK-Based Leaderboarded. She is the author of the book Totally Awesome Training Activity Guide: Put Gamification to Work for You, writes The Gamification Report blog, and hosts the weekly Gamification Talk Radio program.

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.

Millennials - the Largest Living Generation... Is Your Workplace Ready?

Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers in the United States as the largest living generation.

According to a recent analysis of U.S. Census data by the Pew Research Centerr, millennials - defined as those ages 18-34 in 2015 - now number 75.4 million, surpassing the 74.9 million Baby Boomers (ages 51-69) for the top spot.  And the ranks of millennials are expected to swell nationally to roughly 81 million by 2036.

What does this mean for you?

Johnathan Peters - WHY We Play

People don't fit nicely into categories, and we're in the people business. So, what if we looked at things differently? 

Once we know why people do things, we can anticipate what they enjoy doing and what they consider fun. 

Once we know that, we can add game elements that they'll actually enjoy, that will cause them to want to play. 

HDI2016 Session 303_Monica Cornetti - Gamification Breakout - End of the World as We Know It from

It’s the End of the World as We Know It –
5 Proven Ways to Create Change with Gamification

Whether we like it or not, life is like a game with rules, challenges, and scores – so let’s take the advantage and make it FUN! Gamification captures measurement, behavior analysis, and engagement in ways that can provide a real-time understanding of performance, generate needed change, and enable organizations to meet their objectives.

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.