MY PROGRAM

The learners that take the courses I manage are adult learners that are usually working full time and are taking courses because their employer has nominated them, or because they recognize that they need to upskill in order to be successful in their current position. They are busy and stressed and gamification would be a way to make their courses fun and something that they look forward to. If I were to create a quick how to and why of gamification, I might be able to encourage some of my faculty members to incorporate aspects into their course design. In addition, I hope to be onboarding new colleagues soon, and when I do so I plan to incorporate some gamification principles. An easy way to do this might be to create a Smartsheets with all of their tasks on it, which are treated like challenges. They might have choices as to how they complete each challenge, and I could try and figure out how to set up an automatic message that they receive when specific challenges are checked off. I could use this as a way to congratulate them and encourage them in their tasks. Checking off the challenges would act as a progress bar, so they can see how much they've completed and what they still have left to do. Some challenges would involve community collaboration and meeting with new colleagues. While working through the Smartsheets challenges they would also be becoming familiar with a tool that they'll have to use daily and building behavior momentum. Ideally they end onboarding with a sense of urgent optimism! 

 

The skills that I built in this course an also be applied to my outside of work hobby, which is creating courses for beer education. I have already started creating courses that build upon each other and that result in badges. Now I have a better idea of how to make sure my learners are intrinsically as well as extrinsically motivated as they move through the course material. I'm also now thinking of ways that I can add in additional community collaboration, challenges and feedback. I will definitely be going through my course materials as I make updates. 

 

Gamification skills are useful in many careers, and I expect to use what I've learned, whether I ultimately end up in learning design or not. Gamification principles could be used in onboarding, when collaborating on a project, as motivation to complete a challenging task, or to make chores more fun.