How to Add SPARK! to your Training for more Effective eLearning

Corporate Training; Small Businesses; K12 Education | By: Erin Patrick-Proza

Did you know that the eLearning industry has grown by over 900% since the year 2000? According to Skill Scouter, this dramatic increase is due in large part to the advances in technology and the internet and will only continue to climb. In addition, the reality is that remote working is here to stay, which generates the demand for companies to find more unique and engaging ways to connect with their employees or clientele. In this blog, we will tackle this challenge with one of our gamification templates called SPARK!

What exactly is eLearning?

According to the Association for Talent Development (ATD),

“E-learning as a structured course or learning experience delivered electronically; it can also include performance support content. There are also many different elements that can make up an eLearning program, such as live or pre-recorded lecture content, video, QUIZZES, simulations, GAMES, activities, and other interactive elements.”

This ‘on-demand’ kind of learning has been exploding in popularity since the pandemic and seems to be here to stay. Platforms in the market share of the eLearning industry, like LinkedIn Learning, for instance, have helped pave the way for many organizations to let go of more traditional training methods and adopt this newer way of upskilling their talent pool. This is largely due to the observable benefits online learning offers:

  • eLearning takes employees and students 40% to 60% less time than conventional learning (source)

  • Online learning increases student retention rates between 25% - 60% (source)

  • Up to 82% of students choose a hybrid learning environment (with online learning) over a traditional one (source)

  • eLearning courses produce 86% fewer greenhouse gases (and cost in materials) (source)


It also helps keep training relevant- in both the content and the way in which it is being consumed- by a workforce that prefers information that’s delivered electronically and easily digestible. But how do we create “sticky” learning remotely? How do we measure performance or identify knowledge gaps to remediate if the participants are not in real-time? And most of all, how do we keep it engaging?

Gamify your content for self-paced sessions.

Learning something new is hard work for your students, and finding ways to encourage participation and interaction remotely can be very challenging for the instructor. This is exactly where gamification comes in to create a sticky (and less threatening) learning environment for the participant and a superhero status for your trainer. When applied appropriately, gamification will encourage participation with incremental learning while boosting retention for better knowledge recall and comprehension.

Engage.

Self-paced learning can, admittedly, feel monotonous at times, so make sure your program has as many opportunities to interrupt that as possible. Microlearning combined with online learning is the best way to achieve this. This means that you build in “breaks” from the learning and allow your students to revisit that information in smaller and more manageable chunks. The mobility and flexibility of online learning mean that you can provide this engagement tool before, during, and after a live session to really shore up knowledge and engagement.

Teach.

Before a live session, send a teaser eLearning quiz that allows your students to see what they may need to know and provides the instructor a chance to address knowledge gaps (through reporting and data) with a baseline that could help inform the session.

During your live session, perhaps on a lunch break, allow them to interact with an informational online session that’s also gamified, light, and fun. This will encourage them to apply their new knowledge right away in a fun way.

After the session, measure the comprehension rate with a self-paced review quiz that also presents situational and scenario-based questions to really get a clear picture of comprehension and competency.

Assess.

This is an important aspect of gamification because we need to be able to measure something (no matter how fun it may be), to determine if it’s working or where we need to improve. In our platform called the BRAVOZONE, the student receives feedback throughout a game or quiz that is reinforcing their knowledge or alerting them to where they need to revisit a concept or skill. However, the instructors can also receive data from each eLearning session in our reporting tool that can track performance per student and per session.

In addition to our reporting tool, our templates are SCORM compatible, which means they can be integrated into any Learning Management System (LMS) and become an interactive and engaging element as a part of a learning module that tracks that performance for you.

Gamifying your training can be a simple and effective way to transform your learning from ho-hum to a-ha. But don’t take our word for it:

"The platform is brilliant and we love it! I have built multiple games and incorporated them into our LMS for learning about Materials Management. All is going really well with the software!"

- Ingersoll Rand

SPARK! is a powerful publishing tool for eLearning, as well as our other customizable templates that offer self-paced learning. It is an effective and flexible way to create and manage your eLearning content for delivery to any mobile device. With our easy-to-build platforms, you’ll have an impactful way to place your training material front and center.

  • Quizzes

  • Games

  • Review

  • Polling

  • Tutorials

  • Newsletters

  • Pre-assessments

  • Screenings

  • SCORM Compliant for LMS

  • Mobile compatible

  • Real-time Results

  • Data & Reporting Feature

TRY IT in your next training session

Get a FREE 14-day unlimited license to use in your next training session. Try it in the classroom, on a webinar, or in an eLearning session and see for yourself how powerful gamified training can be.