How to set up an effective and motivating learning system? La Gamification can solve this problem and ensure the achievement of educational goals.
Today, many businesses and educational trainers seek to distinguish themselves from the competition by adopting new learning processes. Innovations that have met with varying degrees of success, and yet it remains a sure value at the educational level: gamification, also called fun training. A process that has existed for years, but that continues to develop.
The GAME method to achieve your educational goals
The GAME method is a tool to help a trainer create gamification systems that meet specific objectives. GAME is the acronym for the names of the four main parts of the method:
G: Goals
A: Actions
M: Merit
E: Assessment
This method is easy to learn and helps the trainer design gamification systems Who will help thelearning to reach their educational goals And thecompany to achieve its business goals.
STEP 1: Goals to set goals
Goals is the first step in creating a gamification system and allows you to: Define players' goals and the educational objectives to be achieved. During the first creation stage, the trainer defines the objectives. The goals of the system represent two things.
First, we define the goals of the players, those that the system gives to the users. These are the tasks and actions they are going to have to perform. Second, there are the goals of the creators of the system, namely the trainers. To create user goals, the trainer must understand what his own goals are and the behaviors he wants to promote in the target.
STEP 2: Actions to choose a fun experience
If the Goals part made it possible to define the objectives, the Actions part will make it possible to create the fun experience, in other words the game layer that will cover these educational objectives.
Each trainer offers experiences to their learners:
- Learn a lesson
- Perform an exercise
- Solving a problem
- Respond to a case study
The idea of gamification is to make these experiences more effective by adding a fun level to them. We will therefore borrow from game mechanics (role-playing, Serious Games, storytelling, cooperation, competition) to encourage players to achieve the educational goals that have been set for them.
STEP 3: Merit to build a rewards system
At the end of the Actions part, the game designer knows how to build a fun experience that will push players to perform the actions requested. However, this experience can be short lived and there is no guarantee that the gaming experience will motivate players in the long run.
A good way to maintain engagement is to set up a rewards system.. This system will create retention among users.
To define rewards that match players' expectations, the trainer can use the Reward pyramid based on two axes: internal or external motivation, and the level of expertise of the players. Indeed, depending on the motivation and the level of the players, the needs are different.
External rewards are an incentive for unmotivated individuals and have value outside the gamified system: vouchers, money, discounts, etc.
Internal rewards, on the other hand, make it possible to strengthen the motivation of individuals. Motivated intrinsically and have value within the gamified system itself. We then talk about feedback: progress bars, unlockable badges, etc.
STEP 4: Assessment to check the effectiveness of the system
Gamification is based on a balance between player needs and the achievement of business goals. At each design stage, the ROI (return on investment) of a gamification system must be evaluated by answering these two questions:
- Is the experience adapted to the player's development?
- Does the experience make it possible to achieve business goals?
This evaluation can be done throughout the Goals, Actions, and Merit games.
