World of Learning 2015
Well we had a great few days at the World of Learning Conference and Exhibition at the NEC last week. We met some really cool people (well to be honest anyone in Learning and Development are really nice people anyway!) It’s always refreshing to learn from others, not only from our clients but from our fellow competitors too!
The event enabled us to meet a variety of L&D Managers, Trainers, HR Managers and MD’s whether they were hands on or techy just like us. This is so important to us, meeting other people in this exciting industry is exactly what we love. It’s a way to be part of this every growing community, meeting new friends, learning new tips and enjoying the bustle of the exhibition.
It is common knowledge that we all learn in many different ways and that being why blended learning is the key to types of trainees. With our eLearning courses we make it fun and interactive as if you are playing a game, together with text and audio guiding you along the learning journey.
We also attended two of the seminars at the World of Learning. The seminars were very intuitive, inspiring us to push our eLearning further.
How to create effective design goals
The first seminar we went to was a great way to start the event, an insightful look into how to create effective design goals, why we need them and how they improve the overall design journey.
The general idea behind creating goals is to give whatever it is you are doing some focus, this is especially important within any creative journey as it can get pretty hectic in the creative mind! Having design goals can help align your plans and content with the fun aspect of eLearning. It is important to bare in mind the purpose of eLearning throughout the design process; to teach, motivate and inspire the learner.
Effective design goals are vital for the whole design process, and not just for the designer themselves to keep track of their progress. They are important when considering the people involved such as the learners, clients, and peers. But also the methods that are needed to be targeted when thinking about current trends and brand.
Gamify your content
The second seminar was all about gamification. The trend that everybody is talking about. This seminar was engaging, fun and had some really helpful points. It dissected the obvious factors within the gaming world making it really easy to understand why gaming has always been and is going to be the next biggest way to learn!
Everybody loves gaming, the advances in technology were always going to inevitably enhance the gaming world. However this seminar really helped the gaming newbie to understand why games are so addictive, so good at persuading us to hand our cash over to them and such a key element within learning!
The seminar was pretty generous in handing over some key tips when thinking about gamification, it’s not necessarily about how addictive the actual game is or how great the graphics are. It’s down to the simple but genius concept of ‘levelling up’. This being the success story behind some of the most popular and addictive games such as the famous candy crush. The concept of levelling up will make even the most sensible person part with their hard earned cash just so they don’t have to wait 20 minutes for their next go. However this idea isn’t just about getting people to spend their money it’s about getting people extremely engaged, gaming being the top activity to do on a device that has the lowest percent of multitasking, i.e. social media scrolling, texting and everything else is always usually done in between doing other things. Gaming always has our full and dedicated attention.
Levelling up is a great solution to engaging the learner in the format of eLearning as it is a way to give regular feedback. It creates focal points for the users to understand easily which stage they are at.
Another huge benefit of levelling up in gaming is the idea of having social inclusion. Competing against friends or colleagues is something that is really popular when gaming. Being able to compare levels or see which stage your friends are at encourages the competitive side to gaming, motivating the player to do better.
These are all fundamental elements to eLearning; motivation, encouragement, praise, focus, interaction and engagement. Which is why gamification is going to be such a huge movement within the eLearning industry!
