DOES LEARNING HAVE TO BE FUN?

A few years ago, I was asked to develop training for a minor technology change. This was the type of update for which I would normally publish a job aid. However, because this change had significant safety implications, the leadership team wanted some form of assurance that employees had looked at and absorbed the information about the change. So, they asked me to create a learning module with a test associated with it.

After giving this some thought, I decided to create a gamified course. At the start of the course, learners would review a job aid. They would then play a series of three games to confirm that they understood the information. When I ran this by the leaders, one was supportive of the approach, while the other described it as “precious”. That leader was concerned that rugged field workers would find the course silly. This is an opinion that I have heard repeatedly over the course of my training career. But I have learned over the years that we never get so old that we don’t want to enjoy what we’re doing.

So, what makes learning fun and enjoyable? Basically, any elements that you add to your course to make it engaging and entertaining. This includes storytelling, humor, competition, rewards, progression, choice and interactivity that is RELEVANT to the material being presented. In order words, these tools should be a means to an end, and not the end themselves. Irrelevant course content will not magically become fun because someone throws in a joke every couple of slides.

Back to my client, since they didn’t outrightly forbid me from doing it, I trusted my gut went with my approach anyway. This ended up being one of the most completed eLearning courses that these groups of employees had ever taken. I had leaders sending out emails asking their teams to take the course because it was “fun”.

Now, I would like you to try your hands at this game about Christmas traditions that I created in Articulate Storyline 360. Then, let me know in the comments how you did, and what you think about fun in learning:  https://360.articulate.com/review/content/ce306548-7a37-4b06-8962-eadd8fc5b99c/review

If you have an Articulate license and would like to peek under the hood to see how this course works, download the Story file here: Downloads | Soar Learning

If your organization is looking to create engaging learning in the new year, or learn how to better utilize your eLearning tools, I am always happy to chat.