Businesses have long struggled with how to effectively train their employees, while showing a solid return on investment (ROI).
The rising costs associated with instructor-led training have added to the dilemma. According to research performed originally by Edgar Dole and proven by the US National Training Laboratory Institute, learners only retain 5% of information taught through instructor-led training.
This leads to the challenge training and HR practitioners face – the traditional approach to learning is dry, passive and disengaging for today’s society. Today’s workers need more than a “talking head” and a projector to keep their attention and get them engaged. This generation, thrives in connected, interactive, and social settings; they excel in competitive, strategic situations.
“When education or training feels dull, we are not being engaged and motivated. In other words, we’re not really learning. ‘Learning’ doesn’t mean rote memorisation—it means acquiring the skills and thought processes needed to respond appropriately under pressure, in a variety of situations,” explains Lize Monametsi, head of the game-based learning division of specialist training company Aim. “We don’t need more time in the classroom to learn how to think and perform in the face of real-world challenges. We need effective, interactive experiences that motivate and actively engage us in the learning process. This is where game-based learning comes in.”
Good game-based learning applications can draw learners into virtual environments that look and feel familiar and relevant. Within an effective game-based learning environment, learners work toward a goal, choosing actions and experiencing the consequences of those actions along the way. They make mistakes in a risk-free setting, and through experimentation, actively learn and practice the right way to do things.
“In contrast, traditional, passive training approaches drill us on certain narrow procedures, and then evaluate us on our memory of what we were told. Even when we successfully retain the lesson’s facts and procedures, our behaviour in true-to-life situations remains untested. In addition, even the most comprehensive training program cannot cover procedures for every complex eventuality that we will encounter—no matter how thick the binder is. In game-based environments, we learn not only the facts, but also the important, underlying hows and whys. This understanding of deeper, more abstract principles prepares us to perform consistently and effectively, even in new and unexpected situations,” says Monametsi.
She explains that especially when it comes to learning tools, all games are not created equal. ‘To be effective, game environments must be structured around how we learn. This keeps us highly engaged in practicing behaviours and thought processes that we can easily transfer from the simulated environment to real life.”
Flexibility and accessibility combined with an interactive experience for the learner make game-based learning the ideal solution for corporate training today. According to a 2008 eLearning Guild Immersive Learning Simulations survey, 93% of the organisations using game-based learning rated the approach as better than other forms of rich-skill practice and 76% reported a positive ROI.
“Today’s workforce is increasingly made up of Millennials — they have grown up in a world where digital games have always been an important part of their lives. They have never lived in a world without a global network. Recently, Carnegie Mellon University released a statistic stating that the average American spends 10,000 hours gaming by the age of 16,” says Monametsi. “Research supports the effectiveness of game-based learning in virtual environments, and with the increasingly digital demands of the modern workforce, digital game-based learning tools are becoming an essential element to corporate training.”
The ideal of interactive, highly-engaging training and education is ancient. A Chinese proverb says: “Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.” However, the gap continues to grow between antiquated, passive training methods and a workforce that lives an ever more interactive, multimedia, user-controlled lifestyle. With game-based learning tools to bridge that gap comes the promise of vastly more productive and engaged workers—ones who embrace learning rather than view it as a disruptive burden.
