Making Adult Learning Fun again

Learning is a life long journey and one needs to continuously pursue learning to remain relevant in this competitive world. Most of us have been conditioned that learning equates to going to a School / College / University and stops with that. Many times, we rationalize within ourselves that we have learned enough and we should just be allowed to coast through life on what we already know. However, there is no such thing as static buoyancy in learning.

The Hot Air Balloon is a classic example. It takes off filled with hot air and cruises to a great altitude but after some time, the air inside cools and the balloon loses height. In order to propel it back to the heights or to prevent it from falling down, we need to release fire to heat up the air inside. Similarly the downward spiral caused by an unwillingness to learn can quickly be remedied by choosing to embrace a lifestyle of learning.

The COVID 19 pandemic has forced most of the Education to the online platform for some time to come atleast. The world (Students & Teachers) wasn’t prepared for it. Added to that , the new generation of learners is hard to please and harder to engage. You put in all efforts to make your online classes amazing and learners are still not impressed. So, how do you engage your online learners?

We started our learning as KIDS. As KIDs we learning through Play and Curiosity.

Play : Play is the first language we learn. It’s how we discover the world and learn through our experiences.

Curious :Curiosity is part of human nature, and it lies at the heart of all innovations.

To make learning awesome we need to combine the two, in a fun and social way, so that we can unlock the learning potential within all of us, no matter the subject, age or ability. Learning is not a spectator sport. Learners learn better and retain more when they are directly involved in their learning, not just sitting back and being lectured.

We need to make learning fun again to make it make it engaging for everyone.

How do we do it?

Here are some tools that helps us to bring in some fun, stimulate our brains, challenges our IQ, simulates real life situations through gamification and helps us to apply classroom theory in the real world and learn through the experience.

1.    CLASSROOMSCREEN

THE best teaching tool for your classroom - free Digital White Board with options for timer, clock, writing, creating groups, an online poll and many other features. It’s a wonderful screen and a base to use in your online presentations.

2.    CROSSWORD LABS

Crossword Labs was built in 2011 by Matt Johnson while he was an undergrad at Washington State University, Vancouver. Now, it's one of the largest repositories of crossword puzzles on the internet – with over 1 million puzzles made.

Cross word games

3.  PROPROFS

Online Brain Games & Puzzles - Create or play exciting online puzzles and mind games

Are you ready to challenge your brain? Play exciting online puzzles and brain games at ProProfs or create a unique one. You can also make your own brain teasers, trivia or online puzzle games and share it with friends. Combine fun with learning, challenge and enhance your brain's processing speed and performance. You'll love it!

ProProfs is the leading provider of comprehensive online tools for building, testing, and applying knowledge.

• You have games like Wordsearch, Crossword, Hangman, Wordscramble, Jigsaw, Brain Teasers etc.

4.    PUZZLEMAKER

Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, criss-cross, math puzzles, and more-using your own word lists.

5.    MENTIMETER

Create interactive presentations & meetings, wherever you are.

Get real-time input from remote teams and online students with live polls, quizzes, word clouds, Q&As and more

?       Prepare

Build interactive presentations with the easy-to-use online editor. Add questions, polls, quizzes, slides, images, gifs and more to your presentation to create fun and engaging presentations.

?       Engage

Your audience uses their smartphones to connect to the presentation where they can answer questions. Visualize their responses in real-time to create a fun and interactive experience.

?       Follow-up

Once your Mentimeter presentation is over, share and export your results for further analysis and even compare data over time to measure the progress of your audience.

How to create your first Mentimeter presentation – Mentimeter

6.    AHA SLIDES

Involve your participants with live polls. Crowdsource the best questions and ideas from your audience. Excite your class with some quiz competition. There are so many great things you can do with AhaSlides.

?       Create interactive questions and slides in minutes

?       Get them all onboard in one simple step

?       Host fun quiz competitions (that can get pretty serious too)

?       Voice Q&A Sessions - no microphone needed

7.    RAPTIVITY

Design Enthralling Learning Experiences

The new generation of learners is hard to please and harder to engage. You put in all efforts to make your online classes and eLearning courses amazing and learners are still not impressed. So, how do you engage your online learners?

Well, it is time to make your online learning stand out with Raptivity. With Raptivity, you bring in interactions and activities that engage learners. Raptivity’s never-seen-before, vibrant, and fun interactions and activities are at your fingertips. Now, you can completely focus on your content; leave learner engagement to Raptivity.

8.    CESIM

Online and Virtual Business Simulation

What is a business simulation

A business simulation is an experiential learning tool where participants learn by running a virtual business in an interactive, risk-free, and realistic environment. Business simulations games help practice and improve business skills, such as business acumen, financial and market analysis, operations, decision making, problem solving, teamwork, communication, and leadership.

9.    NUTURNS

Gamified Learning

The gamification of learning is an approach to motivate participants to learn by game elements (rules of play, point scoring, competition with others). The goal is to maximize enjoyment and engagement through capturing the interest of learners and inspiring them to continue learning. Gamification, broadly defined, is the process of defining the elements which comprise games that make those games fun and motivate players to continue playing, and using those same elements in a non-game context to influence behavior. Gamified learnings are exciting, immersive, business-relevant, fun and infinitely more memorable than a keynote speaker or of ‘death by PowerPoint. Experience the impact of well-designed, well-delivered, and well-supported learning.

Gamified learning combines immersive activities that mimic real-world challenges with a targeted debrief that connects the lessons learned with the reality of the workplace. It allows participants to learn by doing, and not by just listening, reading, or watching. Because they have personally experienced the results that come with applying their existing skills (both successes and failures) they are more inclined to do things differently next time. New competencies are developed, more information is retained, and individuals are more likely to enthusiastically apply their new knowledge to their real-world back on the job. Key benefits of Gamified Learning

– Immersive and engaging

– Connecting to day-to-day work realities

– Captivating and fun-filled Powerful, relevant and engaging debrief

– Participants see the direct impact of their behaviors on the results

10. SratX Simulations

Business Simulation Games

StratX Simulations, with its leading-edge business simulations, has been helping professors deliver memorable experiential learning experiences. over one million participants in more than 500 universities and business schools are using StratX simulations and we serve the top professors from 70 countries from across the globe.

BUSINESS SIMULATION GAMES

An example : Marketing Management: Markstrat Simulation Overview :

MIT SLOAN BUSINESS GAMES SIMULATOR

MIT Sloan has long been a pioneer among business schools when it comes to action learning—creating real-world applications of classroom knowledge. These innovative and interactive games create a virtual world in which students explore and participate in the critical management issues facing a range of industries and organizations.

KAHOOT

Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform, used as educational technology in schools and other educational institutions. Its learning games, "Kahoots", are user-generated multiple-choice quizzes that can be accessed via a web browser or the Kahoot app.

These are some of the tools that I found very useful to help us to engage our students. Im sure there are tons of other tools available online in this journey of making Learning Fun Again…..