How to use Core Gaming Dynamics Within Learning to Get Better Learning Outcomes

I read a fantastic blog post written by learning legends Karl Kapp and Sharon Boller, where they spoke about the core dynamics that exist within games. In this article I look at how these core dynamics can be applied to learning delivery, giving examples from Growth Engineering’s awesome clients along the way...

Lots of companies have a learning management system (LMS) but tragically most of them aren’t head over heels in love with it. The alarming truth is that at any one time, 30% of all companies with an LMS are actively looking for a divorce and want to upgrade to a newer model. What is the root cause of such a spectacular falling out? They must have fancied their LMS at some point!

The answer is a fairly straightforward one. Learners within their organisations think the LMS is pretty irrelevant and have zero engagement with it. Your mission is to make your online training programme more engaging so that your users fall in love with their learning!

What are the 9 Core Dynamics of Gaming?

The core dynamic of a game is why certain people love Monopoly (who doesn't love owing their child ￡9.5million for landing on Mayfair) and others love Othello. It breaks down why people engage with various gaming types.

In Karl & Sharon's article, they talks about 9 core dynamics :

• Race to the Finish- Fastest to complete the game wins e.g. Mario Kart
• Territory acquisition- Create an empire of your own or own the most of something e.g. Risk
• Exploration- Wander around the game environment and seek out things of value e.g. Grand Theft Auto 
• Collecting- Locate and acquire specific objects or people e.g. Tomb Raider
• Rescue or escape- Get out of a situation or place you are in e.g. Temple Run
• Alignment- Arrange game pieces in a particular order e.g. Tetris
• Matching- Recognise things that are alike or fit a specific description; create pairs or descriptions e.g. Candy Crush
• Construct-Create something uniting specified resources e.g. The Sims
• Solution- Solve a problem or puzzle e.g. Cluedo

It’s vital to have multiple dynamics running on your LMS. The more of these core dynamics we can deploy within the overall strategy, the more engaged the audience will be. 

How to Implement Gaming Core Dynamics into Your Online Training Programme

Race to the finish - The goal is to set up competition between divisions and regions to make sure content is consumed in the quickest time and with the highest score. The success of this hinges on communication of a leaderboard. Soon your learners will be competing to top the leaderboard and unlocking their potential along the way! Everyone’s a winner!

Territory acquisition - You probably have a large amount of training that is ‘optional’. This core dynamic is about motivating people to complete this additional material, something that will speed up their development. Reward those who go out of their way to acquire or share knowledge with a prestigious status on your LMS. A dedicated experts area fulfills this role perfectly and will have learners desperate to absorb every inch of your LMS!

Exploration - Social is the bridge between learning and behaviour. We know that if learning is reinforced, repeatable and applied then behaviour change will follow. Therefore, learners should be encouraged to explore a topic in a way that ticks these boxes. Issuing Challenges once a piece of training has been completed is a great way of doing this. A popular challenge amongst our clients is getting learners to post videos of how they have applied the learning in a real world situation e.g. telling the story of how they closed their most recent sale. Such challenges reinforce the behaviour and act as a learning opportunity for other employees.

Collecting - In order to create a long term learning culture many of our clients have harness the power of ‘streaks’. This is where learners are encouraged to log on every day and complete a piece of material, adding to their ‘personal streak score’ along the way. I’m sure you’ve heard of such a feature before as many of the top tech companies such as Snapchat, Fitbit and Headspace all deploy this powerful tool!

Rescue or Escape - Learners can’t advance to the next level until they have collected sufficient XP. Narrative is an important part of this core dynamic. At Growth Engineering we use it for onboarding. New recruits escape the clutches of boring online learning as they learn about our culture, values and products.

Alignment - This is all about getting learners to complete objectives in a sequence that delivers the most impact. When a platform is launched, the learner wants to do the things that are fun and easy as soon as they logon. The dopamine rush learners get from this will propel them up the engagement mountain quicker as they begin to fall in love with your LMS. We can engineer the easier stuff at the bringing of the journey so they have more tenacity when the learning gets more challenging of less fun. 

Matching - To deliver the holy grail of online training, behaviour change, we have seen our clients design corresponding badges for learning, reinforcement and application. This means their learners need to demonstrate these three key actions in order to get one big reward. This works because it embeds a learning process that guarantees potential is unleashed!

Construct - We have seen this core dynamic successfully implemented when used for security training. What we are looking for them to do is construct a plan around their learning which they can deliver using a variety of content types e.g. video and written defence. These challenges are wrapped in levels, where upon completion of the task, they collect armour to construct a defence around their territory. Narrative is key for this gaming dynamic, be creative! For example learners could be building defences to protect your company from nefarious activity such as a cyber attack.

Solution - Every organisation has a problem it’s desperate to solve. Perhaps your sales team is struggling with objection handling? Discovery method to the rescue! Salespeople would be posed these objections as part of their online training and asked to write a defence. This can be downloaded to track their development until the problem has been solved. This allows the learner to hone in on a problem and dissect what actions need to be taken.

I really love this core dynamic model as it forces learning development folks to move away from just thinking about content. Learners want entertainment, not education! Deploying core dynamics within your training strategy means it’s inevitable your learners will once again fall in love with your LMS!