Gamification and Learning Technology—A Training Win for the Digital-Savvy Workplace

In today’s and tomorrow’s Advisor, Broderick shares three ways trainers are making tech work for them.
Many learning and development professionals who are looking for more effective ways to reach a new generation of learners have begun to incorporate technology solutions into their training strategies. Digital tools can be a great way to connect with learners of all ages, but they are especially effective in reaching younger students, including Millennials—the generation now taking center stage in the workplace.
 

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But integrating technology into training and development programs isn’t a simple matter of posting educational content online or setting up a social media account for the class. Gamification and learning technology can deliver big wins in the workplace, but it takes a deliberate strategy and the right digital toolkit. Here are three ways corporate trainers are making it work today:

1. Using gamification in training sessions. Introducing some friendly competition into the learning process is a great way to engage participants and motivate employees to focus on educational content. With the right learning software, instructors can gamify lessons by setting up a leaderboard and creating individual or team competitions using a quiz show-style format.There are gamification software packages available that allow instructors to embed games into their training presentations and allow students to answer via mobile phones or clickers. Instructors can choose software that supports wagering-style games that allow learners to amass points and bet them on their ability to correctly answer the next question and other types of quiz show-style games.

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2. Turning training lectures into two-way conversations with response technology. It can be a challenge to capture and hold students’ attention during a lengthy training session. That’s especially true of younger students, who are used to constant interaction on social media. Corporate trainers can gain greater levels of student engagement with a learning strategy that features more give-and-take.Response technology is a great way to turn a traditional top-down lecture into a two-way conversation. Instructors can use response technology to embed questions into slides, allowing students to answer with smartphones or keypads. Then instructors can instantly display aggregate responses in chart form right into the slide.

Tomorrow, Broderick reveals the third way technology is helping trainers make a lasting impact during their sessions.