Introduction
We will explore how serious games can be effectively integrated into your e-learning training. Serious games combine elements of gaming with serious learning objectives to create an interactive and immersive experience for learners.
We will cover the following points:
- Defining a serious game
- Common challenges in e-learning
- How serious games and e-learning can coexist seamlessly to enrich your training offerings
- Finally, we will see how a serious game can be used as an effective testing tool at the end of an e-learning course.
What is a serious game?
Serious games are digital games designed to achieve specific learning, training, or awareness objectives. Serious games incorporate gaming mechanics to encourage learners to take on challenges and solve problems while acquiring new skills.
These educational games use realistic scenarios, simulations, and interactions to actively engage learners in their learning process.
Challenges in e-learning
While e-learning has become a popular method for online training, it also presents some challenges. One of the main issues is the monotony that can lead to a lack of learner engagement.
Static content and traditional quizzes can be repetitive, resulting in a decrease in motivation. Additionally, conventional assessments lack efficiency in measuring information retention and knowledge application in real-world contexts.
Synergies between serious games and e-learning
Incorporating serious games into your e-learning training offers several advantages. By adding playful and interactive elements, you can boost learner engagement.
Gamification, with its playful mechanisms, motivates learners to progress and take on new challenges. Furthermore, serious games enable realistic scenarios where learners can apply their knowledge in practical situations. This results in improved problem-solving abilities in real-world scenarios.
Integrating serious games into e-learning
To successfully integrate serious games into your e-learning training, start by identifying topics that can benefit from a playful approach. Regulatory topics, soft skills, and awareness subjects are often suitable areas to transform traditional courses into playful experiences.
Next, adapt existing content to include elements of serious gameplay. You can use simulations, quests, or interactive scenarios to make learning more engaging. Ensure that the game aligns with learning objectives and reinforces the desired skills.
Serious games as tools for practice and testing in training
Serious games are essential tools for synthesis and testing in training. Their playful and interactive approach allows learners to revisit and reinforce their knowledge dynamically.
By immersing learners in practical scenarios, serious games provide an immersive experience that facilitates the retention of essential information. Integrated assessments in these games also allow for testing acquired skills in a stimulating manner, promoting continuous learning improvement. Thus, serious games are indispensable tools for optimizing revision and online testing effectiveness.
The same serious games used for online testing can also be leveraged as recruitment tools.
The NowEdge method in 6 steps for designing a serious game
We have developed a 6-step framework for effectively creating an online serious game:
- Scope: define pedagogical objectives and business expectations...
- Serious game scenario: develop the game scenario in alignment with established objectives...
- Experience design and POC: design the gaming experience and create a Proof of Concept (POC) to validate feasibility...
- Serious game development: implement the technical developments of the solution...
- Validation and deployment: validate the serious game and deploy it for practical use...
- Benefit measurement and continuous improvement: evaluate the benefits of the serious game and update the content as needed.
What sets us apart in the serious game landscape?
NowEdge distinguishes itself in its approach to serious gaming in several ways:
- Simplicity: we offer accessible innovation by providing all information in a consistent and open format, ensuring free access...
- Realism: our approach combines futurism and realism. We think in the present (now) while offering immersion in real environments, enabling an authentic immersive experience...
- Practical situational learning: our platform focuses on behavior modeling through our mathematical and computer modeling engineers. This allows us to create realistic simulations and offer authentic immersion in business situations.
Our content focuses on key themes relevant to businesses undergoing transformation today, with four verticals:
- Business transformation: Agility, digital culture, cybersecurity, data analysis...
- Business: strategic thinking, competitive market analysis, strategic decision-making, business strategy, management, financial markets, investment...
- Pharma: pharmacovigilance, compliance, good manufacturing practices...
- Health & Safety: workplace health and safety.
Our vision is centered on humans before technology. We believe technology should serve to transform humans and businesses. We embrace the principle of Learning by doing by making games the best way to impact human learning.
As the famous quote goes: Tell me, and I will forget; Teach me, and I may remember; Involve me, and I will learn.
Examples of serious games
Here are some examples of our serious games designed to meet your training, acculturation, and awareness needs. Our games offer an interactive and immersive learning experience, enhancing your e-learning training and increasing learner engagement.
- PV Game: faced with Covid-19 restrictions, our client sought a solution to deliver impactful pharmacovigilance training despite distance and virtual formats. For this, we created a serious game covering key steps in setting up a pharmacovigilance center and its daily activities based on the World Health Organization's best practices.
- Insights: we created an engaging journey to help companies overcome the barrier of lacking data analysis culture during digital transformation projects. In this journey, each player embarks on a mission with multiple challenges. By making the right decisions, the player advances the company through the power of data.
Conclusion
By integrating serious games into your e-learning, remote, or in-person training, you can transform the learning experience into an interactive and immersive adventure. The synergies between gamification and e-learning improve engagement, information retention, and learner motivation.
Whether for awareness topics, regulatory training, or onboarding programs, serious games offer an innovative and effective approach.