What Is Active Learning? How Can You Use Gamification To Promote Active Learning in Your Workplace?

Active learning frameworks have started gaining momentum among the modern dynamic workforces of today. As an increasing percentage of remote workers use eLearning, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain their interest over extended periods of time. In order to solve this issue, we will describe in this essay how your firm’s L&D professionals might utilize gamification to promote active learning in the workplace.

Active Learning: An Introduction

In contrast to passive modes of instruction, active learning motivates your employees to interact actively with the material being taught. Workshops, collaborative exercises, research papers, role-playing, gamified tasks, problem-solving, as well as other relevant training delivery techniques can be used to accomplish this.

Active Learning and Its Importance in the 21st Century

The dominance of digitalization characterizes the economy of the 21st century. Our current technological advancements have created a digital culture that is constantly changing. The labor market requires adaptable, innovative individuals who can constantly redefine themselves and take an active role in their own modes of acquiring knowledge and skills.

These new professionals need to get acclimated to functioning in interdisciplinary teams and situations, where willingness to gain knowledge from an unbiased and comprehensive viewpoint is more rewarded than over-specialization in a particular area.

Hence, corporate training approaches must be set up in this framework — wherein working situations may be simulated via active learning methodologies. This encourages high-quality technical instruction and also permits the formation of the competencies required by natural job environments.

By giving learners a leadership position in their educational process and encouraging their independence, active learning transforms the instructor from a mere sender of information to a driver or supervisor of training. Your employees’ creativity is encouraged by active learning, which allows learners to build the abilities that will progressively decide their professional success and self-growth.

In fact, there are multiple illustrations of global conceptual learning architectures that showcase the value of active learning for skills development related to content-driven knowledge — necessary for professionals to prevail in this fast-chase environment.

What Role Does Active Learning Play in Today’s Workplace Dynamics?

The prevalence of team members working geographically and physically separated from one another in settings wherein there are multiple diversions is a distinguishing feature of today’s modern remote work frameworks. It is now more difficult compared to a decade back to nurture and sustain knowledge acquisition in such contexts.

Active learning is highly beneficial to employers today because it increases student participation; breaks up the routine of being confined to one place 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; and provides interaction via role-playing, arguing, and problem-solving. Also, it keeps staff members interested and dedicated to the learning system.

Why Is Active Learning Still Not Accepted as a Widespread Framework?

Despite its multiple advantages, active learning still isn’t widely used, particularly in corporate training. Numerous academicians oppose it. According to research, organizational training instructors still heavily stress passive learning settings and utilize master classes as their primary teaching tool.

They don’t trust learners and find it hard to believe that they would discover this information on their own by engaging in experiential education. Since active learning might result in delays and obstruct their learners’ academic success, most trainers are similarly apprehensive of it.

However, from the trainees’ perspective, transitioning from passive roles to being the heroes of their personal learning necessitates more effort and dedication. You must also keep in mind how closely contemporary employees are connected to elements of instant gratification and consumable encounters.

In order to connect with contemporary learners, it is imperative to provide a high level of fulfillment with active learning opportunities. Otherwise, your training programs may be condemned to collapse, regardless of the multitude of benefits it offers concerning professional success and skills enhancement.

How Can You Develop Feasible Active Learning Frameworks in the Workplace?

Our write-up’s goal is to examine if it is feasible to develop active learning opportunities in your organization that enable the formation of the competencies considered necessary by the 21st century, digitized, and connected business world — without compromising the quality of instruction or training.

Considering all of the aforementioned background information and balancing the interests, skepticism, and requirements of stakeholders linked to corporate training, let’s understand if it is conceivable to match the preferences of employees, learning specialists, and the digital community. 

As per research, the execution of adequate active learning configurations in organizations is indeed viable without sacrificing participants’ intellectual development and permitting the growth of a number of skills particularly pertinent for futuristic professionals.

The model successfully promotes the ability to operate in factions, listen to another’s viewpoint, self-learn, and apply knowledge in solving real-time issues. Such an instructional setup, if implemented properly, can result in creating engaging and effective educational experiences.

Expert findings also show that the application of gamification, and more precisely, the creation of gamified active learning opportunities, is essential to satisfy the demands of all stakeholders involved in active learning. The most generally used description of gamification is the application of game-based design features in non-game situations — which aims to draw attention, change behavior, or address issues. 

The creation of internal motivation, which fundamentally alters people’s behavior, is where active learning with gamified elements will ultimately succeed. This is, however, a difficult task that is overly dependent on the gamified experience’s architecture. It has various and expanding uses in a variety of industries.

Recent research in this domain shows that gamification positively and significantly affects trainees’ learning results. Increased learner enthusiasm and engagement, as well as the cultivation of their rational reflection and entrepreneurial learning skills, are additional advantages of this strategy.

How Can You Use Gamification to Create Efficient Active Learning Experiences?

Gamification adds the much-needed “fun” aspect to a traditionally unimpressive learning session. Not only does this inject humor into instruction, but it also promotes a feeling of connection, teamwork, and competition — all crucial traits for success in today’s workplace. Active learning techniques like games, simulated scenarios, and online activities are crucial for preparing students with the transferable abilities they will need in the future.

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Why Does Gamification Work So Well To Promote Active Learning?

Playing games demands more focus than studying instruction booklets or keeping up with Powerpoint presentations. Game-based instruction is thus a great method for encouraging active learning within the workplace.

Consequently, what does game-based learning comprise, and how can it integrate into more comprehensive workforce training methods? Gamification refers to using games to advance business training goals. The purpose of using Gamification is to:

• Help learners develop new abilities, boost worker skill sets, encourage cooperation and teamwork through collaborative and competitive games, and more.
• Behavior modification can be achieved by rewarding participants who adopt and succeed in the targeted behavioral changes promoted by gaming.

A gamified strategy can involve employing either specially created gaming material or third-party activities to supplement a training course. Game-based learning promotes higher levels of engagement and passion among trainees since it is fun — as opposed to simply listening to lectures, perusing a handbook, or skimming over Powerpoint slides. It is, therefore, a fantastic tool for encouraging active learning in the workplace.

Gamification offers a wide range of applications in organizational active learning models because of its enormous appeal and adaptability. Gamification also works well with VILT frameworks and considerably improves mixed or totally self-paced learning performance. Professional instructors consider gamification an incredibly helpful tactic for addressing most of their training objectives due to how easily it can be converted to practical uses.

How Can Gamification Promote Active Learning Within the Modern Workplace?

Below are a few effects in the actual world you can anticipate from gamification if executed right: 14% more skill-based knowledge and 11% more factual knowledge, and an increase in retention of 9%.

However, inserting game pauses at a whim won’t prove productive; achieving such outcomes requires a thorough strategy. Let’s discuss some strategies to take into account while gamifying active learning:

Understand your learners

• Know who your trainees are, their gaming history, and how comfortable they are using the equipment and technology you propose for your games.
• Acknowledge their apprehensions and concerns.

Gamification as a formal method of active learning inside the workplace might not be readily accepted by all participants. As a consequence, individuals will have doubts, worries, and concerns about the plan; removing those doubts is essential to its success.

Avoid becoming boring

Among the most frequent causes of learner alienation is this. One strategy for preventing repetition and separation during the training is to intersperse gaming sessions.

Allow students to decide what happens

Pre-made gaming regimens encourage predictability, which makes students disinterested. Trainees always have control over the game’s outcome thanks to the utilization of learner-defined elements — characters, roles, surroundings, branched situations, and learner-driven choice routes.

Use well-known themes, people, tales, and case analysis

Synchronize your games so that a subject or plot is always present. Make use of well-known case studies, personalities, and roles for the attendees. This develops the players’ involvement with the games and motivates them to continue playing with tremendous excitement throughout each chapter.

Engage players all through the game to effectively use gamification as an approach for active learning inside the office. Do this by offering prompt and valuable advice, tips, remarks, and suggestions. Don’t neglect to honor students’ achievements with certificates, awards, and scoreboards.

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Four Guidelines for Using Gamification to Promote Active Learning Inside the Workplace

Spend some time thinking about the following suggestions and techniques to increase the effectiveness of gamification when you begin implementing it to enhance active learning at work.

Customization over pre-packaging

Avoid the temptation to map out your gaming strategy in advance. Rather, allow for the customization of game routes in accordance with student preferences and decisions. Use personalized avatars, specialized game paths, and role-specific characters to achieve this.

Disconnected segments against interwoven storylines

The greatest way to use gamification to increase and maintain learner engagement for longer periods is to weave a captivating narrative into the gameplay. This will hold learners’ attention longer than completing one-time, single-event activities.

Isolated versus group gaming

More than just exchanges between the trainer and the student are involved in active learning at work. Team games encourage peer-to-peer communication, which is one of the most efficient methods of learning.

Learning is more important than winning or losing

Game-based learning isn’t about either winners or losers, even if many students — particularly in team-based activities — enjoy winning. Rather, create your games with several opportunities for players to do it properly — which corresponds to active learning.

Most essential, employ frequent and honest feedback as a tool to encourage students’ motivation if you want to use gamified elements as an effective approach for organizational active learning. Provide learners with constructive criticism on their progress rather than fail or pass comments so that they can utilize it to improve.

Summing It Up

Employing passive training approaches to keep learners engaged for extended periods of time is difficult. Gamification is an approach, which not only encourages professional active learning, but also aids in producing superior learning outcomes.

Our article should help you understand how to use gamification to promote active learning at work and actively involve your learners. In the interim, please get in touch with us or leave a note below should you have any special questions.

Ad: PlayAblo’s Enterprise-Grade Micro-Learning platform is built for millennial learners. Micro-Learning, assessments, and gamification features ensure learning outcome measurement and sustained engagement.
Find out more and request a custom demo!