WHAT GAME-BASED LEARNING AND GAMIFICATION CAN (AND CAN’T) DO

Games and gamification are not magic bullets.

Lumos Labs, the maker of a suite of so-called brain-training games called Luminosity, has recently been ordered by the Federal Trade Commission (U.S.A.) to pay $2 million in damages. The reason? Lumos Labs’ aggressive marketing strategy is built around the false claim that its games promote brain health and can reduce or delay the impact of brain diseases such as dementia. There is no valid or reliable evidence – qualitative or quantitative – to support the claim that Luminosity causes improved brain health. And anecdotes, as compelling as they may be in advertising, are not evidence.

So what can game-based learning and gamification actually do?

Multitasking

There is some evidence to support the claim that gaming may improve our ability to multitask.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have studied the cognitive ability of older adults, aged 60 – 85, as they complete sessions in a driving simulator called NeuroRacer. The complexity of the simulation increases as gameplay continues thus forcing players to multitask the more they play. The study has demonstrated that with practice, players can improve their ability to multitask and the effects can be felt in subsequent NeuroRacer sessions months after game-play.

It is unclear if these skills can be transferred to the real world.

Strategizing

A European study of 152 participants (of which 80 were female, 72 were male and the average age was 14) found a “robust positive association” between gameplay and physiological changes in the brain – these changes are related to higher-order activities such as decision-making, prioritizing and strategizing.

What does this mean? We may be able to leverage games and game elements to promote the development of complex decision-making processes that involve sorting through and prioritizing mass amounts of information.

Focus

Flying in the face of popular and often vocal alarm about video games and shrinking attention spans, a Bristol University study used neuroimaging to see gaming brains at work and found they remained focused throughout gameplay. How did they do this? Researchers had participants study in the conventional way (reading notes and reviewing sample questions) while viewing their brain activity. Then they had participants complete a gamified, competitive study session while viewing brain activity as before. The result? Learners were much more focused when study was gamified.

Implications for adult learning

So what does all this mean for Instructional Design and adult learning?

Do, not tell: Science does support the claim that we retain information better if we’re able to apply it immediately. Games and gamified learning, if designed well, can provide learners with genuine opportunities for application and feedback that would support the retention of new information and set learners up for knowledge transfer.

Remember your audience: Digital natives are, obviously, more familiar with games and game elements than those of us who were introduced to digital life via the Commodore 64 or the Atari. Using games and game elements for digital natives means you can streamline or dispense with cumbersome text-based instructions.

Design a fun experience: Learning solutions that incorporate game elements or adopt the game form should be fun. And if the learning is fun, odds are, you’ll find higher engagement, retention and completion rates. Capture and interpret the data and share the results.

If Luminosity has taught us anything, it’s that we must learn to be critical of grand claims about the effects of games on the brain. Yet despite the abundance of misinformation about the cognitive effects of gaming, it’s clear that games and game elements can be used to support learning. They’re powerful tools, not magic bullets.

MEANINGFUL GAMIFIED ELEARNING

AN INTRODUCTION

When people are building eLearning programs, a lot of the focus is placed on having the user take something away from the experience. However, many people don’t realize that games offer a lot of takeaways as well, which aren’t exactly the same, but have become fixtures. So much so that doing anything different means the game isn’t intuitive, and the new ideas need to be explained. The challenge is really finding where these two ideas meet and offering something that hits both the eLearning and gaming ideals.

WHAT ARE THESE TAKEAWAYS?

What I mean by games having takeaways is mainly in the controls. Every type of game in our minds has that certain set of familiar keys (for example, W, A, S, D) we use that are the standard for how we interact with the material on screen. The same goes for eLearning in the sense that we’re expecting to be able to the exact same things with our controls, like Play, Stop, Next Screen, Previous Screen, and volume. Any breaks in those conventions means we need to explain how everything works. Immediately in that small detail ,is a takeaway.

In the grander scheme of things, however, we’re dealing with games that are becoming more sophisticated in their overall quality. There are deeper stories, larger worlds, and generally more immersive experiences. All things that could benefit an eLearning program that uses a simulation, which I talked briefly about in my article on virtual reality. There’s also another aspect to the issue, which is generational.

We have a group of people in eLearning who grew up in a time where games and learning were two very different worlds and they have problems combining the two ideas. To them it means you’re developing one thing or another because a lesson can’t be conveyed. Completely untrue! A game can teach you a lot without you noticing, and still make the experience enjoyable.

HOW CAN WE COMBINE THESE IDEAS?

We’re always looking for ways to keep the enjoyment of pure gaming, but also use that idea to help the user learn more detailed things in an eLearning program. The main one of which is via simulation. It offers an environment where the user can be immersed in the activity and get an idea of what to expect when the learning comes more from practice. It’s also something that already exists, because there are simulators for driving and fight simulators, therefore this idea is easy to grasp.

WRAPPING UP

If you would like to explore more about gamification, mobile learning and eLearning, take a peek at our company website: Pathways Training and eLearning, at http://www.pathwaystrainingandelearning.com/. We always look for fresh ways to engage learners and to make the learning experience as fun as possible!