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Gamification can help learning heads and trainers deliver interactive and fun-oriented learning experiences, which generate knowledge retention and attention among learners.
This article is brought to you by AhaSlides.
You're in the fast-paced modern workplace; your deadlines loom above you, the workload is heavy, and you have a whole team relying on you for guidance. Despite the whirlwind situation, you recognise the importance of training your employees to help them grow. To make that possible, another set of challenges appear — ensuring engagement and interest, personalisation, and even technology integration. How can you possibly find the time to effectively manage and deliver the crucial training and development programmes your employees need to grow?
In current times, the pressure of high workloads and a super-packed schedule at work is causing a lot of stress for office workers, and learning and development (L&D) staff are no exception.
Many trainers and L&D executives need help balancing their workload, KPI, and passion to deliver excellent training sessions. Exacerbating this issue, it may get overwhelming to deliver a training session to unfamiliar trainees effectively, be it remotely or in-person. Corporate L&D heads, therefore, face a common challenge in balancing intense workloads while maintaining and aiming to improve the quality of their training sessions.
Leveraging the four pillars of learning
Stanislas Dehaene, author of How We Learn, has been widely cited for identifying the four pillars of learning, namely:
- Getting the sustained and direction attention of learners,
- Active engagement of learners, driven by curiosity, motivation, and metacognition.
- Feedback that is immediate, objective, and reassuring.
- Consolidation by transferring information from the working memory to the long-term memory.
Neglecting any of these pillars can result in disengaged learners, limited retention of information, and ultimately, less effective training. On the contrary, keeping them in mind ensures that training is not simply a one-off event but an ongoing, effective process.
So is it possible to keep training efficient and engaging, while making it enjoyable for employees? Well, it is possible – and gamification is possibly one of the most powerful ways to get this done.
Gamification is the incorporation of game-based mechanics and elements, such as competition, interactivity, and even rewards, into everyday situations, including business. It helps to drive engagement and interest by tapping into the innate and universal desire for achievement, recognition, and the pursuit of goals.
It goes without being said that learning should be enjoyable for learners. Gamification takes away the tedium from tasks, making it a more fun experience.
Mundane programmes can turn into an engaging and interactive experience, where employees can be actively involved in their own development, instead of just receiving information passively.
Naturally, turning training fun can boost engagement and even knowledge retention. Beyond that, it can also It helps build team spirit and strengthen company culture, all while achieving training goals.
Sounds fun – where do you start?
To kick things off, it is important to first ensure that your gamification efforts align with your business and learning objectives. It is also key to remember to personalise the training experience. Avoid using complicated game mechanics or viewing gamification as a simple way to fix ineffective training programmes – instead, see how it fits in line with what you want to achieve.
Once you’ve established your objectives, you may choose gaming mechanics that align with your training goals.
Some simple ways to start gamifying your training can include implementing a points system, where employees can earn points as they advance through the training. Stacking up these points through leaderboards can serve as motivation for employees for recognition. Even a simple progress bar can help boost training completion rates!
When starting your gamification journey, implementing a tool such as AhaSlides can be helpful, and here’s why.
Bring to life the joy of engagement
As a training tool, AhaSlides allows you to create various exercises that can either be embedded directly into a presentation or viewed in the browser. Predefined exercises are also available to be easily added to the presentation.
This enables trainers to achieve effective training via gamification and group activities. It also reduces the workload of overwhelmed trainers by allowing them a streamlined process. Ice-breaking activities and check-in, knowledge delivery, brainstorming, assessment, and feedback can all be covered in a single session.
The interactive presentation software created by AhaSlides provides:
- Content slides. Users can also import their ready-made slides.
- Quizzes and games, covering multiple choice questions (pick answers/images), a spinning wheel, match pairs, and correct orders.
- Polls and voting functionality.
- Moderated Q&A sessions.
- In-app feedback for quicker turnaround.
- A template library to speedily get building.
- Microsoft Teams integration.
These features, which have been thoughtfully curated, make AhaSlides suitable for all kinds of training, including blended training, face-to-face and remote/online training.
Francesco Mapelli, Director of Software Development, at Italy-based Funambol shares his experience leveraging the AhaSlides portfolio: “I used AhaSlides for my lessons – it really helped build engagement and create the right mood in the class, allowing for spontaneous moments of fun during a complex lesson.
“Give it a try if you work with presentations!"
And while AhaSlides might be a young organisation founded in 2019, it has already established a portfolio of 14mn users worldwide.
With AhaSlides, you can look forward to effectively delivering interactive and fun-oriented learning experiences, which can generate effective knowledge retention, all with less effort and time for preparation. Whether your learners are working in office, remotely, or hybrid, this solution is equipped to engage all types of participants, by bringing the joy of engagement to life.
AhaSlides is a leading interactive presentation tool that enables users to facilitate the most intuitive and engaging presentations, training, and events in a simplified way. Helping trainers to prepare and deliver interactive and fun-oriented learning experiences with ease, training with AhaSlides is where engagement meets efficiency.
Start your free trial now for an engaging training session. Click here to get going!
Lead image / 123rf
In-article images / AhaSlides
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