Interactivity and Gamification
Today I had a meeting with a prospective client regarding the development of some eLearning resources. During the meeting, the client mentioned that they wanted the resources to be interactive and asked me if I would be able to incorporate some gamification in them. Two simple requirements but at the opposite ends, from a functional perspective.
I asked the client what was their idea of interactivity. Their response was that I should add in "some kind of tabs that the learners would need to click or some other things which would make the learner interact with the course". Now, granted, click on tabs would technically qualify as interactivity but is this really the sort of interactivity that actually leads to learning and retention?
My view is that this type of interactivity would hinder rather than aid learning and is no better than courses that put the next button at the bottom of every slide. The end result being that the learner, instead of focussing on the learning material, becomes more interested in clicking on all areas that have this sort of interactivity to race to the end of the course. This is not interactivity, this is a waste of the learner's (and the developer's) time. Instead of this, if interactivity is indeed required on every slide, why not have a pop-up question come up that assesses the learner on the concepts that they have just read about. Only on answering this pop-up question can the learner proceed further. I do not recommend this approach, nor am I a proponent of interactivity for the sake of interactivity on every slide, but if you have to have interactivity on every slide, then this might be a better approach than putting tabs that the learner can click on to reveal information. Some relevant interactivity examples have been discussed on this page of the Articulate community.
The second client request was around gamification. Gamification is the use of game elements and game principles in non-game contexts such as learning. I am all for gamification. Gamification is actually a very good way to make the course interactive, provided it relates to the learning in some way. The reason why I like Gamification is that it enhances focus, which in turn leads to greater retention of learning. Games and by extension Gamification, operate on the principle of attaining reward for completing desired tasks. Now comes the interesting neuroscience bit - getting rewarded activates secretion of endorphins such as Dopamine (the reward hormone) in the brain. The secretion of Dopamine helps in staying focused and remembering information. Endorphins on the other hand help in reducing stress. Reduction of stress is extremely important as stressful situations induce secretion of the stress hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol has its own benefits but is a complete killjoy when it comes to learning retention and recall. So gamification, essentially allows us to kill two birds with one stone. There are some other benefits as well to gamification such as reducing cognitive overload that I will talk about some other day.
In the meantime, I will try to convince my client on why his idea of interactivity needs to be reconsidered.
I asked the client what was their idea of interactivity. Their response was that I should add in "some kind of tabs that the learners would need to click or some other things which would make the learner interact with the course". Now, granted, click on tabs would technically qualify as interactivity but is this really the sort of interactivity that actually leads to learning and retention?
My view is that this type of interactivity would hinder rather than aid learning and is no better than courses that put the next button at the bottom of every slide. The end result being that the learner, instead of focussing on the learning material, becomes more interested in clicking on all areas that have this sort of interactivity to race to the end of the course. This is not interactivity, this is a waste of the learner's (and the developer's) time. Instead of this, if interactivity is indeed required on every slide, why not have a pop-up question come up that assesses the learner on the concepts that they have just read about. Only on answering this pop-up question can the learner proceed further. I do not recommend this approach, nor am I a proponent of interactivity for the sake of interactivity on every slide, but if you have to have interactivity on every slide, then this might be a better approach than putting tabs that the learner can click on to reveal information. Some relevant interactivity examples have been discussed on this page of the Articulate community.
The second client request was around gamification. Gamification is the use of game elements and game principles in non-game contexts such as learning. I am all for gamification. Gamification is actually a very good way to make the course interactive, provided it relates to the learning in some way. The reason why I like Gamification is that it enhances focus, which in turn leads to greater retention of learning. Games and by extension Gamification, operate on the principle of attaining reward for completing desired tasks. Now comes the interesting neuroscience bit - getting rewarded activates secretion of endorphins such as Dopamine (the reward hormone) in the brain. The secretion of Dopamine helps in staying focused and remembering information. Endorphins on the other hand help in reducing stress. Reduction of stress is extremely important as stressful situations induce secretion of the stress hormone called Cortisol. Cortisol has its own benefits but is a complete killjoy when it comes to learning retention and recall. So gamification, essentially allows us to kill two birds with one stone. There are some other benefits as well to gamification such as reducing cognitive overload that I will talk about some other day.
In the meantime, I will try to convince my client on why his idea of interactivity needs to be reconsidered.
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