Game-Based Learning: 5 Trends In Serious Games And How To Use Today
The latest trends in serious games show that there is a growing game-based learning industry. Learn how serious games can also support your business!
Advantages of Serious Games Trends
For thousands of years, games have been around. Games have also evolved a lot from Tic Tac Toe and Hangman to Tetris and Super Mario Brothers. Nowadays, modern technology allows most of us to access any type of game by pressing a button.
There’s amazing the sheer number and types of games out there. Few of us could ever have imagined that the sole purpose of playing a game would be to connect 2.2 billion people on or off-line. And, the trends in serious games tell us that game-based learning is still making progress.
This takes us to the essential motivations people are playing games for:
Fun
Relaxation
Freedom to make mistakes
Gain new skills
Keep their memory fresh
Increase their processing speed
Learn to multitask
Keep in mind that for more than pure entertainment, serious games are created. Their main goal is to educate, teach new skills to the players and help them gain new knowledge. Typically this is in the sense of rising job performance, increasing employee productivity and growing the company’s bottom line. The game should undoubtedly still be enjoyable, but in the right format and at the right time it should also provide the right information. Bite-size content, presented in an enjoyable way, is the best learning format for serious games that has a practical application on the job. Through combining gamification with just-in-time and microlearning, learners will improve their processes of knowledge retention and decision-making.
You may read: Why Gamification Can Attract Top Talent In Recruitment
The concern of games
It’s new, it gets old, then it’s obsolete, like any technology. So how different are serious games? Which makes game-based learning more enduring and successful? In order to discuss the direction in which serious games are heading, we need to start by addressing the current issues relevant to them.
We humans are learning from ‘errors’. So, it’s fair that we are revising our game platform so often to sustain rates of player engagement. Level of engagement are the most important factor in your culture of learning and development. Therefore, first you need to develop a serious game that adapts to the needs of the player and changes the skill level-based difficulty. And indeed, the development of the game also has to be visually pleasing.
There are 5 places to be explored by designers so developers to boost the shelf-life of serious games. Such patterns are a direct result of feedback from the consumer. And so a game designer’s job never fails.
The main challenges for serious game designers are to maintain or increase employee engagement with the game when adding new data.
1. Increasing Engagement
As reported, the planning and development stage should provide a dynamic, growth-enabling wireframe for the game to improve serious game engagement. If your platform and software do not allow future expansion of the game, your workers will lose interest in this method of learning. A game that isn’t growing also doesn’t allow growth. Therefore, a serious game used for induction or onboarding could serve its purpose very well. But a game that can teach in multiple departments new skills and knowledge is a real gem.
Therefore, in order to include the latest technology, the platform you choose to run the training game. The minds behind the programming also need to be forward-thinking and set the ground for improving the game. Therefore, pushing the envelope for eLearning and game-based learning growth is essential to ensure that the player becomes more engaged.
2. Making It Adaptive
When incorporated in your learning plan, a serious game needs room for expansion. When you develop a soft skills game to enhance communication skills, empathy, and listening skills between employees, the opportunity for customized learning paths will need to be provided. Otherwise, the game will become repetitive and boring, resulting in less participation. You can easily create customized learning paths when you understand the needs of your employees and the personal learning goals. Basically, these would be your steps:
Socialize with and get to know the people who work for you.
Charge managers with helping create a nurturing, learning-oriented environment.
Concentrate your findings into customizing your serious game.
Allow the game to generate personalized learning paths based on employee preferences and level of knowledge.
Keep the conversation going.
This brings us to the next trend: the need for social interaction.
Also read: Benefits Of Gamification LMS For Your Online Training
3. Socially Bound
For gaming, social media always had a soft spot. As such, from social media channels, game creators and developers get a natural boost. People like to talk about sports, to play with friends, and to share games. This was the case for serious games lately. And that’s because people enjoy learning as well as having fun.
The trend in social circles online is increasing the popularity of serious games. People and businesses use them to create a new type of conversation — one where self-learning through eLearning and game-based learning is a serious objective. This happens when you build a fun, educational game.
4. Cross-Industry Use
Serious games, including fitness, physical therapy, and politics, are used in many industries. Many companies around the world are successfully employing serious games in the recruitment and onboarding process. This is mainly due to the pleasure of learning through gaming and the bonus of learning new, useful skills.
At the same time, employees are able to build on their experience when they participate in friendly competition in the workplace. However, irrespective of your industry, serious games can also be used to improve the company’s productivity.
Used as a method of just-in-time or microlearning, serious games can bring enormous benefits to your company’s growth. This is because learning through games makes it possible for the player to fail and make mistakes without fear of failure. They put the player at the center of the action in real-life situations, such as responding to a client inquiry.
Serious games can be used by branching to help employees find multiple solutions to one problem. Scenarios of branching will expand the player’s experience and provide a new perspective. Consider that in a limited period of time you have to treat a client. The symptoms might be telling you he could be suffering from various ailments. But, finding out which ailment is not as important as it would be to treat that particular ailment on time. Therefore, with various scenarios available, health students can explore a disease or its causes in-depth, without fearing for their patient’s death.
5. International Recognition
Then it gets to the bottom line. Gamification is being adopted by organizations around the world because they see the benefits attached.
Happy employees that stay on longer
A more relaxed workspace
Higher employee productivity
Increased company revenue
The game-based learning industry is growing, and serious games find their way into worldwide corporate cultures. Virtual reality can also be used successfully in the education of workers and is quickly becoming a favorite organization. This means that with this employee training method, the faster you get on board, the better.
Conclusion
Whether you are curious to learn more about the serious games industry, one thing is clear: games are the future! Adopting serious games into the learning and development culture of your company will give you an edge over the competition and the well-oiled company with it. Because it is important for people to develop, it is important for us as leaders not only to help make learning easier, but also to make it easy and fun. We hope you are sold on the idea of gamification by these 5 developments in serious games. But don’t take it for our word! There are plenty of companies out there that reinvent themselves and evolve by integrating game-based learning into their culture in the workplace.
Source: https://elearncommunity.com/news/game-based-learning-5-trends-in-serious-games-and-how-to-use-today/