Games Can Provide Authentic Experiences
To provide effective instruction, it needs to be as authentic to the actual experience as possible. The context of an online course or the context of a classroom is not authentic. Most people do not work in a classroom (except teachers or trainers) so learning how to perform a task or negotiate an outcome in a classroom setting doesn’t always translate well to the work environment because of the disconnect between the environments. May times in a classroom or in an elearning module, there are no consequences for wrong decisions or actions. Sure, you may get a slightly lower score on your “final” but, really? are most people impacted by that. No, they simply take it again until they get 100%. In authentic environments, that is usually not an option, few real life situations allow “do overs.”
Practicing skills and concepts in an environment or setting as closely approximating the actual setting as possible minimizes cognitive overload and allows for a more effective transfer of knowledge to application. Every major life and death training involves authentic rehearsal (flight simulators, war games, etc.) The same type of instructional environment should occur for skills such as working out a financial transaction or closing a sale.
Gamification of content allows that to occur. You can create an authentic environment through graphics, storytelling and visual cues. Additionally, forcing the learner to apply concepts within the right setting encourages them to act in an authentic manner which is different than how most people interact with courses. In a course, the person “feels” removed from the content and acts as they think the instructor or material would like them to. Then, when they return to “work,” they behave authentically. The goal is to have them behave authentically in the learning situation and then correct to achieve the desired outcomes or behaviors.
Gamification of context provides two key advantages.
One, the environment in which the learning occurs can closely resemble the actual environment in which the task takes place. A game could have the setting of an office or a warehouse, a conference room or a workroom. Wherever the tasks are accomplished, that can be reconfigured in a game setting.
Second, a game can actually enhance or highlight elements of an authentic situation that do not unfold at a rapid pace. In other words, games can accelerate authentic experiences and highlight consequences in a way other instructional tools cannot. So for example, a person who writes a mortgage that a client can’t afford might not see the consequences of his actions because the new home owner may be able to struggle in their home for 6-8 months before they can no longer pay the mortgage. In a game environment, the writing of a bad mortgage could impact the player the very next turn or in two or three turns. This accelerates the consequence and illustrates to the learner the cause and effect relationship that is hard to convey in a classroom setting and that isn’t always seen in the real situation because of the passage of time.
So, providing a game for learning creates an authentic environment other than a classroom or a slideshow and highlights how certain variables or actions taken in situation play out over time.
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Well, not completely. Not all learning requires accomplishing tasks or are hands on. Also, replicating a working environment in a game is not adequate for every single aspect of learning.
Gamification is completely useless and inadequate in certain learning environments. Furthermore, preaching gamification as a replacement of traditional learning completely misses the mark when it comes to acquiring interpersonal, team work and communication skills, not to mention that encourages an attitude of entitlement (“I’m not learning it if it’s not fun”).
Reading, interaction with other people, and above all, self discipline, are not acquired by just playing games.
Thanks for your comment and I agree that not all learning requires accomplishing a task or hands on, but, a large majority of it in the work environment does. The reason people are hired is to “accomplish tasks” these tasks require knowledge as you indicated) but they also require action.
So the work of an economic analyst takes place primarily in someone’s head but they then must create a work product as a result of the analysis. That is a task that requires hands on activity…typing a report or filling out a form.
So, I think there are many, many activities that require accomplishing a task and that most training would be better served helping learners/employees learn to better accomplish those tasks, like conducting an analysis and reporting on the results.
And yes, ABSOLUTELY gamification is completely useless and inadequate in certain learning situations but so is lecturing, reading a document and listening to an instructor. One size does not fit all in learning, learners are different and, just as importantly, content is different. All content should not be taught in a game but neither should all content be taught by a lecture or by automated powerpoint slides with voice over and multiple choice questions. The problem in today’s learning environment is that far, far too much content is only provided via automated powerpoint with multiple choice questions and very little is engaging or interactive.
Gamification doesn’t have to equal fun. It does have to equal engagement. So it is possible to use game elements that cause a learner stress or confusion as part of the learning process and that’s not fun. So, careful use of gamification avoids the entitlement concept but, also, why can’t learning be fun. Have you ever watched children learn, young children before first grade. To them, the lover of learning and the thirst for knowledge is so high you can see the excitement on their face when they learn something new.
Then we send them to school and remove any and all fun from learning. We punish attempts at learning by giving bad grades, we tell them there is only ever one right answer and we show them that their learning is not as good as another persons via grades. Maybe we need to inject more fun into the learning process and less punishment and humiliation.
Again, I agree that reading, interaction with other people and self-discipline are not acquired just by playing games but they aren’t acquired just by lectures or memorization. It takes a toolkit of techniques to help a person learn not one method.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment and I think we are more in agreement than disagreement. Gamification is one method of conveying knowledge but not the only method and we as designers and instructors need to be aware of when gamification is not the solution and…when lectures, reading and worksheets are not the solution either.