3 Killer Examples On How You Can Use Microlearning, Gamification, And Social Learning To Engage Millennials In The Workplace

With the increasing millennial workforce, organizations are re-evaluating their existing learning strategies. In this article, I showcase 3 examples (featuring microlearning, gamification, and social learning) that you can use to engage Millennials in the workplace.

How You Can Use Microlearning, Gamification, And Social Learning To Engage Millennials In The Workplace

Before I move on to the examples that would help you create corporate training to engage Millennials in the workplace, let’s take a quick look at some basic details on Millenials – who they are, what makes them tick, and why they need a different learning strategy.

Who Are Millennials And Why Are They Important To Organizations And Learning And Development Teams In Particular?

People born between 1980s and early 2000s are said to be belonging to the millennial generation, “Gen Y” being their other moniker.  This generation is now a significant part of the overall workforce composition of most organizations across the globe.

Millennials have had a different upbringing compared to their predecessors (read Gen X and Baby Boomers), and hence deserve to be treated differently. What may have worked for older generations may not work with Millennials, making it important for Learning and Development professionals to create corporate training for Millennials by understanding what interests them, what puts them off, and what catches their attention to help them learn “their way”.

Why Do You Need A Different Learning Strategy For Training Millennials?

According to TIME magazine, by 2025, 3 out of every 4 employees around the world will be Millennials. That’s a huge percentage of Millennials in the workplace and 2025 isn’t too far away.

It is, therefore, essential for organizations to create corporate training for Millennials by factoring for learning strategies that would help them internalize trainings and demonstrate the required level of employee engagement.

Corporates are waking up to the Millennial-centric challenge and going back to drawing boards to craft learning strategies for training Millennials that can appeal to them and engage them in the workplace.

In this article, I will showcase three Millenial-centric approaches featuring microlearning, gamification, and social learning that you can use for training Millennials.

Why Is The Existing Or Traditional eLearning Not Enough For Training Millennials With The Required Level Of Engagement?

While traditional learning finds takers in the Baby Boomer or Gen X communities, Millennials are not so fond of this method of learning.

According to a survey:

• 50% of college-going Millennials said they are not in favor of a physical classroom form of learning.
• 53% showed preference for online colleges.
• 39% of them expressed their desire to see education being more virtual in the coming days.

To create engaging corporate training for Millennials, organizations, and Learning and Development teams alike need to focus on providing them with OMG-inducing learning approaches, making them feel at home with the training material.

What Are The Traits Of The Millennial Workforce That Impact The Learning Strategy?

Some of the key characteristics of the millennial generation are:

First generation “digital natives”: This generation has grown up with the internet, tablets, and smartphones.
Tech savvy: They understand technology better than others.
Strong multi-tasking capability: They are comfortable having their fingers in multiple pies and performing different tasks simultaneously.
Are ambitious: They nurture high ambitions and look to make it big at a very young age.
Have short attention spans: Their concentration levels are low and keep shifting their focus on different things every now and then.
Easily distracted: Distractions get to them very quickly.
Need a clear and definitive goal and outcome: They don’t like beating around the bush and like it when “to-the-point” information is given to them.
Need recognition: They relish the limelight and have a strong desire to be recognized for the smallest of their achievements.
Need constant feedback: The fact that they resort to internet search engines every now and then indicates that they look for constant information and feedback.
Need flexibility: They don’t like rigid processes and feel at home when offered with the flexibility to do things the way they want to.

What Are Their Learning Styles That Should Be Factored To Create The Required Learning Strategy?

Some of the aspects related to the learning style of Millennials are:

• They appreciate the concept of learning and growing at work.
• They have a penchant for visual aids and rich media.
• They like exploring information rather than being asked to follow a rigid learning path.
• Technology and online training resonates with them and they enjoy learning through interactive and engaging multimedia formats.
• They are social media addicts and love collaborating as a group.
• They will learn provided the learning is short and fun.

So far, we have noted how the millennial workforce is different and why the existing or more traditional eLearning strategies may not work to engage Millennials in the workplace. Next, we look at three examples that feature microlearning, gamification, and social learning strategies. These strategies would certainly help you in engaging and training Millennials in the workplace effectively.

EXAMPLE 1: FEATURES MOBILE APP FOR LEARNING OFFERED IN A MICROLEARNING FORMAT-INCLUDES GAMIFICATION AND PERSONALIZATION OF LEARNING

This solution features elements of gamification, personalization, and microlearning packaged as a mobile app. The app has been built to help learners build their own personal brand by helping them understand their strengths and mitigating their weaknesses.












The use of fitbit devices, gamification, and social learning elements helped engage the employees, especially the millennial workforce and served the organization’s purpose to create health awareness among them and encourage teamwork.

EXAMPLE 3: FEATURES A MICROLEARNING-BASED APPROACH THAT IS EASY ON LEARNERS AND HELPS THEM LEARN THE BITE-SIZED WAY

This solution features a series of microlearning nuggets for a popular zoo to help its tour guides enhance their skills and conduct effective tours to engage their visitors.

As the subject matter was largely on wildlife, we had to make sure our presentation of the content was effective enough to do justice to the mandate. We collaborated with the Subject Matter Experts and did an extensive research on various tour guides to come up with scenarios, examples, and best practices that could be incorporated in the learning experience.










The Microlearning format coupled with the use of engaging visuals and a rich blend of various learning elements helped us meet the mandate of providing the required level of learner engagement. The survey results carried out by the organization after the initial rollout indicated that tour guides who went through the first set of nuggets got visitor ratings of 8-9 on a scale of 10.

I hope these insights have helped you understand the significance of gamification, social learning, and microlearning to engage Millennials in the workplace. If you need any further assistance in terms of what strategies you can use to engage your millennial workforce, do contact me at apandey@eidesign.net.

Also Read:

• How You Can Engage Your Millennial Workforce – Tips And Learning Strategies That Work
• 6 Strategies You Can Use To Design Effective eLearning For Your Millennial Workforce

Source: https://www.eidesign.net/engage-millennials-in-the-workplace-3-examples-microlearning-gamification-social-learning/

A Step-By-Step Outsourcing Guide For eLearning Content Development

Before you begin your outsourcing initiative, you need to watch out for several factors that can impact its success. In this article, I will share a step-by-step outsourcing guide based on my 14 year experience of providing offshore eLearning content development services to customers worldwide.

eLearning Content Development: A Step-By-Step Outsourcing Guide

Background: This step-by-step outsourcing guide is an outcome of my own practical experience over last 14 years. My company EI Design has been providing offshore custom eLearning content development services to our customers across the globe.

As you embark on the journey to outsource eLearning content development, you can use the following pointers mapping to 4 key steps:

Step 1: The Start Point

Begin the exercise by setting up a team to deliberate on:

Why do you want to outsource?

What are the expected gains (over what period of time)?

What are the possible options to outsource?

What should be your outsourcing strategy?

Outcomes: At this stage, you should be able to identify:

1. Why Outsource And Expected Gains.

This exercise should help you quantify the triggers that are prompting you to evaluate outsourcing. These could range from scaling, higher profitability, enhancing your portfolio of services, access to a specific talent pool, and so on. These would have a bearing on the profile of the partner you should seek and the evaluation criteria.

2. Outsourcing Strategy.

Once you have done this and arrived at one or more reasons why you should outsource, the focus shifts to evaluating the options:

Onshore vs. offshore.

Selection of an onshore partner has a bearing on the cost (and your profitability) but has advantages in terms of access to additional talent, enhancement of your existing portfolio, and so on. The offshore partner will have cost advantage, plus the other gains, but you will need to plan for related risks of time zones, communication, and cultural differences.

Single vs. multiple partners.

In my experience, I see that several organizations prefer to begin with multiple partners to offset the perceived risk (do not put all eggs in one basket). However, my personal assessment is to adopt a more rigorous evaluation process, pick pilot projects that give you a 360 degree view of the interaction but go with one partner.

Step 2: Partner Evaluation And Selection Process

At this stage, you need to extend the core team that you had set up to carry out the evaluation and selection process. Also, ensure that your Project Management team is now part of the team. Then:

• Draw up the criteria for evaluation.
• Create frameworks to review and analyze the information you receive from potential partners.
• Decide on the weightage of the evaluation criteria and create a scorecard that will enable you to compare and select.
• Identify the list of potential partners (that map to the value proposition you are seeking).

Outcomes: At this stage, you should be able to:

• Create a target list of partners.
• Put together criteria for evaluation.
• Establish how to rank the partners.
• Create comparative scorecards and select a partner (or a maximum of 2-3 partners) to initiate a pilot project.

Step 3: Engage With The Selected Partner Or Shortlisted Potential Partners For The Pilot Phase

At this stage, re-look at your team composition and identify the team members who need to undertake the critical phase of pilot initiation. Prior to the pilot roll-out:

• Validate your assumptions (collated during the evaluation process).
• Review the success factors that you had identified and if they still look feasible.
• Identify the risk areas and mitigation plans.
• Outcomes: At this stage, you should be able to:

1. Initiate A Pilot Project.

Do ensure that the length of the project will enable you to evaluate the engagement model, processes, and communication capabilities of the potential partner. Check for ease of collaboration, the way the brief is being processed, whether they are asking the right set of questions, and so on.

2. Identify Other Costs You Will Incur.

Besides the quality of the product and if it was delivered on time (as per the agreed upon schedule), quantify the time your team took to:

• Ready the brief.
• Handle the partner team during the pilot project’s execution.
• Review updates and various builds.

3. Arrive At The Total Cost Of Outsourcing (TCO).

The aforementioned pointers will help you determine the TCO that includes the costs you have to budget over and above the project outsourcing cost.

Step 4: Create The Road Map Of The Engagement

At this stage, you should have successfully completed the pilot project and you should be able to select a partner (onshore or offshore) or multiple partners.

At this stage:

• Do go back to where you started and relook at the expected gains and create a framework for on-going check-pointing against the required success factors.
• Create a road map on how you will outsource, how you will scale, and most significantly, how you will track your progress.

I hope this outsourcing guide adds value to your initiative to outsource your eLearning content development. If you have any questions or need any specific assistance in your outsourcing initiative, do contact me.

Source: https://www.eidesign.net/a-step-by-step-outsourcing-guide-for-elearning-content-development/

Why Adopt Gamification For Corporate Training – 8 Questions Answered

Today, gamification is poised to impact corporate training significantly. It is more than a buzz and is gaining momentum on account of increased adoption of mobile learning. This article addresses 8 questions on why adopting gamification for corporate training makes sense.

8 Questions Answered: Why You Should Adopt Gamification For Corporate Training

At EI Design, we have an established gamification practice and we have seen a steady increase in the last two years in its adoption for serious learning (for corporate training). Using this experience, I am listing the following 8 questions that will address your queries and concerns as you take a call on adopting gamification for corporate training.

1. What Is Gamification?

Gamification is an approach where elements and principles of gaming are used to create a more effective and engaging learning experience. Gamification can be used effectively to help the learners apply their learning on-the-job through real life situations in a controlled environment.

Gamification-based learning courses will typically have the components like a storyline, challenges, rewards, and analytics shown here:

2. What Are The Benefits Of Gamification?

1. Better Learning Experience.

When learner engagement is high, there is greater recall and retention. With gamification, learners show high levels of engagement as they learn and have fun at the same time.

2. Better Learning Environment.

The learning environment that gamification in eLearning provides is not just informal and effective, but also safe and apt to reinforce learning. Learners get to place themselves in circumstances similar to real life situations and the decisions they make here go a long way in helping them retain knowledge.

3. Instant Feedback.

The learning reinforcement is immediate as learners get instant feedback telling them whether the decisions they make are right or not. This is also a great way to up the learner engagement and retention quotient.

4. Prompting Behavioral Change.

Gamification is not just about points, badges, and leaderboards. When used wisely in tandem with scientific principles of repeated retrieval and spaced repetition, gamification can bring about the desired behavioral change effectively.

5. Can Be Applied For Most Learning Needs.

Who says gamification has a limited scope? It finds a fit in learning strategies for most learning needs – induction and onboarding, product sales, customer support, soft skills, awareness creation, compliance, you name it!

6. Appeals To The Millennial Workforce.

Organizations globally are seeing an increase in the millennial workforce and this group of learners needs an approach that is different from the traditional eLearning approaches. This learner profile relates well to gamification for corporate training.

7. Impact On Bottom-Line.

With all these benefits and factors contributing to a better learner experience, gamification for corporate training helps rake in a significant gain for organizations and their businesses.

3. Where Can Gamification Be Applied?

Specifically, gamification can:

• Be applied to address varied training needs (including induction, onboarding, behavioral change, soft skills, and compliance).
• Enhance the impact of traditional eLearning courses (through partial gamification and gamified assessments).
• Be used in ILT trainings (through gamified assessments).
• Be used to better the impact of learning through learning paths (with wide and varied range of learning assets).
• Get well with the concept of collaborative learning (social learning).

At EI Design, we have expertise in creating learning material using “gamification for serious learning” and have gamified solutions for various corporate training needs, including:

• Professional skills training.
• Product training.
• Soft skills.
• Induction and on-boarding.
• Compliance.
• Social collaboration – featuring Performance Support Tools.

4. What Factors Contribute To Successful Gamification In Training?

For a gamification initiative to hit the bull’s eye, the concept that it is built on needs to be spot on. When gamifying a concept, one needs to check if it is:

• Capturing and retaining learners’ attention.
• Challenging them.
• Engaging and entertaining them.
• Teaching them.

This is how an effective concept of gamification in training looks like:

5. Can It Meet Specific Learning Outcomes Like Traditional eLearning Or Is It “Just Fun And No Specific Learning Gain”?

Gamification is not just about having fun. Much like traditional eLearning, it can be used to meet specific learning outcomes.We have used it precisely for this and we’ve done it through:

• Applying game mechanics in a non-game situation.
• Providing a platform and a safe environment for learners to face challenges that they would face in real life situations.
• Designing solutions with “serious game-based” concepts and mapping the game objectives to the learning objectives.
• Creating web portals that integrate the best of microlearning techniques, social learning, and customizable learning paths.

6. Can Gamification For Corporate Training Integrate With Social Learning?

Yes. The answer lies in designing a gamification concept that can leverage on social learning. Definitely, concepts like learner curated content can add value. Similarly, access to peers (as a helpline) to clear questions/challenges can be integrated into the gamification concept.

Besides, the concept of “online gaming” has been around for a while now where users from various parts of the world compete against each other/play together online on the same gaming platform (some online games even come with an in-game chat feature) – striking resemblance to the collaboration/networking bit that social media provide today, one may feel. There’s no reason why this element cannot be leveraged on through the marriage of gamification and social learning approaches.

Here is an example that showcases how elements of social learning and gamification can be used together to create a high impact learning experience:

7. How Can Gamification Leverage On Microlearning?

With dwindling attention spans, the power of microlearning-based training is gaining momentum. Microlearning nuggets are of short duration and tailor made to address the challenge of short attention spans.Today’s population does enjoy the gaming experience in short bursts (think mobile games) as opposed to keeping track of their “saved” levels and picking from where they had left in the long series of TV video games a few years ago. Gamification concepts can be easily adapted to microlearning to further increase the engagement and impact.

8. Is Gamification For Corporate Training Development Expensive And Time Consuming?

Certainly, gamification-based training is more expensive than traditional eLearning based training. However, its benefits will clearly help you maximize your ROI (the business gain) and learner engagement, besides helping you achieve higher completion rates and better recall and retention (the learner’s gain).

Final Thoughts

I hope this article provides answers to your questions or concerns and provides enough ammunition to help you adopt gamification for corporate training.

You can embark on this journey with partial gamification techniques (these are inexpensive, improve the stickiness of learning, and add tremendous punch to the learning experience).

You can also opt for portal based approaches (using microlearning– and learning path- based approaches).

These approaches allow you to build over time (rather than a huge investment upfront) plus provide the flexibility in updating your learning assets.

Do contact me if you need any assistance in crafting your strategy to adopt gamification for corporate training.

Source: https://www.eidesign.net/why-adopt-gamification-for-corporate-training-8-questions-answered/

Go Beyond Badges And Leaderboards: 5 Examples Of Gamification In Corporate Training

With the usage of gamification in corporate training maturing, the focus is shifting on adopting strategies that can further leverage on it. In this article, I share 5 gamification examples that go beyond just badges and leaderboards.

Gamification In Corporate Training: Beyond Badges And Leaderboards

Consider this: According to the national engagement data, businesses in the U.S. —and in turn, the U.S. economy as a whole— might not be reaching maximum worker performance because of the high percentage of not engaged and actively disengaged employees.

Why Should You Adopt Gamification As A Significant Strategy To Engage Your Employees And Boost Performance?

The goals of gamification are to achieve higher levels of engagement, change behaviors, and stimulate collaboration and innovation. The opportunities for businesses are great – from having more engaged customers, to collaborative platforms to enable innovation or improving employee performance.

In their gamification 2020 report, Gartner predicts that gamification, combined with other emerging trends and technologies, will have a significant impact on:

• Innovation.
• The design of employee performance.
• Globalization of higher education.
• Emergence of customer engagement platforms.
• Gamification of personal development.

In addition, gamification is being looked at as a key tool to drive engagement in the following ways:

• Accelerated feedback cycles.
• Clear goals and rules of play.
• A compelling narrative.
• Tasks that are challenging but achievable.

Which aspects of corporate training are suitable for gamification?

From an approach that corporates were skeptical about to earning a reputation of being a high impact learning strategy, gamification has come a long way. Organizations today have realized its potential and the fact that it is being widely adopted today doesn’t come as a surprise at all.

At EI Design, we have been using gamification techniques for corporate training for over three years now.

We have crafted gamification-based solutions to address a wide range of corporate training needs. We have used gamification techniques:

1. To address various training needs (including induction, onboarding, behavioral change, soft skills, and compliance).
2. To make traditional eLearning-based training interesting with partial gamification.
3. To pep up instructor-led training (through gamified assessments).
4. As part of set learning paths (featuring various learning assets).
5. In tandem with other innovative strategies like social learning, microlearning, and Performance Support.
6. Over the last three years, our gamification strategies have evolved and matured. Our approaches now go beyond the badges and leaderboards and leverage on other approaches like personalization, microlearning, social learning, mobile apps, and learning portals.

In this article, I pick 5 examples that illustrate how you can use gamification in corporate training.

How Can You Go Beyond Badges And Leaderboards To Create A Powerful Learning Strategy?
Let me share 5 examples from our repository that showcase how we have used gamification techniques to create high-impact corporate trainings. Each of these solutions is aligned to meet specific learning goals (serious learning) and embraces several of the current trends including:

• Learning portals.
• Microlearning.
• Learning paths.
• Social learning.

These examples also align to the wish list that most Learning and Development teams around the world currently have, including:

• High employee engagement.
• High completion rates.
• High retention.
• Push for application of acquired knowledge.
• Collaborative learning.

Examples Of Gamification In Corporate Training

Example 1: Induction And Onboarding

The best time to make a lasting impression on your employees is the time they step into your facility as new joinees. The last thing you want is your employees feeling lost, and worse, yawning their way to sleep in boring Induction sessions.

This is one of our latest portal-based solutions to provide our new joinees with an engaging induction and onboarding experience featuring a learning path woven with key information bits about the organization in the form of microlearning nuggets.

The solution is multi-device (runs seamlessly on smartphones, tablets, and desktops). Learners have the flexibility to access the portal on the device of their choice. That’s cool. Well, that’s what they say!

A key element of this engaging journey that the learners go through is the gamified assessment part. There are stages that the learners have to go through and at the end of every stage, they get to play a game that tests their knowledge of the aspects they have learned about the organization in that particular stage.

For each stage, we have provided the learners with a different game. In the end, learners need to clear a final assessment that has also been designed using gamification techniques.

The impact:

Gamification techniques have played a huge role in the success of this induction and onboarding platform, as:

• Learners (especially new joinees who are Millennials) can relate to them and enjoy going through the portal.
• They make answering questions about the organization look cool.
• Learners end up gaining and retaining more information about the organization than they would after a standard Induction session loaded with information-overdose.
• Bring in an element of variety (the microlearning nuggets are offered in different formats and there is a different game at the end of each stage).
• They instill a spirit of achievement and recognition as they can see their names feature in the organization’s leaderboard.

Example 2: Employee Engagement

With our gamification solutions, we assure our customers a higher level of learner engagement. That’s exactly what we did when one of our customers sought our help in gamifying a learning solution – we “walked” the talk!

The customer wanted to spread awareness on health issues among their employees. We designed a program that highlighted the advantages of exercises in the form of walking, helping the employees walk virtually between their various office locations, carrying out various team-building and awareness-building activities along the journey.

The entire concept was game-based and learners could record the steps they have walked in a day. With an increase in their scores, they would get the opportunity to go to the next location. Learners could create their own profile and be part of a team that would perform different activities along the journey. They could also see the “top walkers” of the day and feel motivated to do better.

The impact:

This gamification-based technique created a huge impact as it:

• Helped the organization channelize its HR initiative in a fun, engaging way.
• Improved team bonding within the employees of the organization.
• Encouraged employees to take part and do better than their colleagues.
• Enabled the organization to fulfil its objective of creating awareness on health issues and bring about greater employee engagement.

Example 3: Application Simulation

Something that you learn in a classroom versus something that you learn by practice or on your own – which learning do you remember more? It’s the latter, isn’t it? How often have we experienced this ourselves? The “Do-it-Yourself” concept works big time and that’s exactly what we tried to do with this gamified Application Simulation solution.

It enables learners to learn MS Office the fun way. They can view demos, try them, and test themselves in real tasks in a real environment. It challenges learners to perform tasks through a point system and provides hints at various stages.

It also helps them to pick and choose what they want to learn and follow that as a learning path, enables them to see the progress of courses, points gathered, rank and leaderboard in a dashboard, and post any questions they have to their guide through the platform.

The impact:

Learners found this solution extremely beneficial as it:

• Allowed them to explore the features of MS Office on their own with the level of assistance that they opted to have.
• Challenged the learners to do the steps right and enabled them to give their best shot with points at stake.
• Provided hints to learners if they felt lost.
• Allowed the learners to choose what they want to learn as opposed to being asked to learn.

Example 4: Compliance

Compliance can be boring. Not with gamification techniques though! This solution of ours showcases how we have conveyed a dry compliance concept in an engaging way using the gamification technique.

This learning nugget features a mix of gamification and scenario-based learning and explains the concept of Insider Dealing in a nutshell. The learner has to play the role of a Crime Investigator and investigate a case of Insider Dealing involving two characters. The learning journey involves examining the evidences available and taking decisions to progress further in the case to identify the tipper and the tippee. The concept resonates well with learners and they’re able to “bond” well with the subject – they get to feel what it’s like to be in James Bond’s shoes after all!

The impact:

The gamification technique along with the scenario-based learning flavor makes this compliance nugget highly effective as:

• The nugget effectively conveys the concept of Insider Dealing and helps learners understand instances where they may come across Insider Dealing at work.
• It presents the learners with a challenge right at the beginning and captures their attention from the word go.

Example 5: Skill Development

Account Management is serious business but as Heath Ledger would have said it, a course on the same need not be “so serious”. With this gamification solution, we made understanding concepts related to Account Management fun.

We converted an existing ILT based course to an engaging gamification based learning module. The content was for Project Managers who needed to understand and apply various key concepts related to Account Management which would help them to handle clients better and establish EI Design as a strategic partner for its clients.

We divided the content into levels. Learners had to clear each level to advance to the next with a minimum number of points. In the interim, they would learn through various resources like videos, interactive videos, info nuggets, job aids, and so on, and solve challenges. When presented with a challenge, learners could attempt to solve it directly or seek help from peers (social learning) or an expert.

The impact:

The solution served the purpose of employee skill development as it:

• Aided better information retention and application of information on the job.
• Helped increase the module completion rates and brought about learner engagement.
• Provided the learners with just-in-time support.
• You can also take a look at this video to see how we have used gamification techniques beyond the simple points and leaderboard approaches to make corporate training engaging.

Source: https://www.eidesign.net/go-beyond-badges-and-leaderboards-5-examples-of-gamification-in-corporate-training/