Tag Archives: learning technology

e-Learning, Employee-Training, Game-based learning, Gamification

7 gamification trends to follow in 2021

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Gamification is likely to fill in the gaps that were not earlier considered. The gaming factor is positive and good. Here are 7 gamification trends you can follow in 2021.

Games tend to be fun and engaging, which has paved the way for the popularity of gamification across multiple sectors. After all, gamification can turn a boring task into a refreshing one. Gamification has been around for quite a while, especially in the academic sector. In recent times, however, it has become rather mainstream.

Therefore, it does not seem like gamification would become obsolete any time soon, and the trend is likely to go on in the near future.

What exactly is gamification?

Gamification is just a technique where the designers integrate non-gaming settings with gameplay elements. This ensures better user experiences with any product or service. For example, in a business, gamification can help keep the team motivated and provide them with various incentives.

Gamification can be as simple as integrating badges and leaderboards into a system that already exists.

What are the top applications of gamification in 2021?

Various gamification trends have emerged in recent times. Some of the applications of gamification are:

Remote onboarding

Lately, work from home has become extremely popular across different sectors. As an increasing number of activities have gone digital, so has onboarding. Various companies are onboarding their new employees remotely, through mobile apps.

These apps come with features such as trivia-style games, team rankings, and provisions for challenging colleagues. This helps to build a sense of belongingness and team spirit from the very onset.

Digital events

Currently, there exists a constant need for sophistication in a fast-paced world. As a result, an increasing number of companies are holding their events and meetings online. This trend has grown significantly more potent during the pandemic.

This is because face-to-face meetings became almost impossible. As a result, a growing number of companies have started to utilize video conferencing. Consequently, video conferencing has become increasingly popular among companies.  

Virtual learning

Virtual learning programs have been around for quite a while. One of the key benefits of this mode of learning is that it comes with ample scope for gamification. Students can interact with gamified pieces of information. This is much more interesting than learning statically.

Virtual reality-based games help to understand new concepts without many hassles. Thus, it appears that gamification would remain a part of virtual learning for years to come.

Combating disinformation

In today’s world, disinformation has become a burning problem in society. There is no shortage of hoaxes regarding crucial matters on social media. Various organizations have come up with gamified applications to fight disinformation. These enable the user to have fun while spreading correct information on various matters.

Investment

A large section of society finds interest in investment as a mode of earning. However, not everyone understands all the concepts of investment, which deters many from investing.

Currently, there are easy-to-use gamified apps that help the users to invest seamlessly. Although investing in stock trading may be confusing for those new to it, such apps help make it fun.

What are the top gamification practices to implement?

With gamification growing increasingly popular, several strategies and techniques have emerged. Therefore, it is logical to implement gamification in your organization in the right manner. It would help your business reap the benefits of gamification to the fullest. Some of the best gamification practices are:

  • In a workplace environment, competitive gamification is a good approach to increasing productivity. However, you must not celebrate only the top performer. Make sure to reward all the participants in some way as long as they performed well too. This would help to boost engagement and reduce the chances of demotivation. 
  • Try not to overemphasize the rewards. Funding big rewards can be inefficient in terms of costs in the long run. Moreover, focusing too much on the incentives would make the employees fix the wrong goals. Rather than being more productive, they would focus on irrelevant activities just to win the rewards.
  • Be creative and careful while choosing the rewards. Not every type of reward works in every scenario. Try to keep the rewards connected to the business. It would be smart to reward the performers in ways that would help them gain professional recognition. Simple rewards, such as an invitation to a guest blog, a shout-out at a meeting, or a LinkedIn recommendation, can be highly effective.
  • Track the gamification program and the performance of the team to check how successful the gamification is. It also helps the participants gain insights into their own qualities and understand how they can improve themselves.

Conclusion

These are some of the top gamification trends and techniques that one might follow in 2021. Building and implementing the right gamification strategy is crucial. It would provide a a significant boost to the business. 

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Corporate Learning and Development, Corporate Learning Best Practices, e-Learning, eLearning Develpment Best Practices, Micro-learning, Mobile Learning, QuoDeck

5 reasons to leverage mobile for performance support

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Performance support, as the name suggests, helps the user by supplying the relevant information at the time of need. Research shows that a person will need the necessary information at five different moments, to perform a task effectively and efficiently. These five moments of need are- for first-time learning,for in-depth knowledge,for recall and application,for solving problems and for changing according to upgrades. Thus, it becomes evident why performance support is crucial for a given industry.

Since its conception, mobile phones have revolutionized the market. What was first conceived to be a device primarily used for communication, can now perform a variety of other functions including the ability to deliver relevant content and collaborate with others, especially experts when needed. Hence, it is not surprising that mobiles can prove to be indispensable when it comes to enhancing performance support.

Given below are the 5 reasons to leverage mobiles for performance support-

1. Portable and Versatile

Mobile phones are portable and can be carried everywhere. This makes assessing the performance support system, in times of need, easy because location and time are no longer an obstacle. It is very simple to operate and doesn’t take much time which makes it convenient for the user.

It is also versatile and can support various formats like text, image, audio and video which can be utilized to deliver and receive the relevant content.

2. Offline Storage

Online information would be of no use if it cannot be assessed in a place without internet facility. This is why mobile phones are useful as they provide offline storage. Thus, they function not just as a channel to gain information but also as a powerful computing device. It would therefore, be possible to gather the required data even in a remote location without network access, to solve a problem. 

3. Multimedia Usage

The usage of videos and other multimedia devices in eLearning and m-learning are constantly rising. Similarly infographics and other audio-visual tools are also utilized to enhance the learning experience. These devices are very popular because they deliver information in a brief and engaging manner, which creates a rich interactive experience for the learners. These multimedia tools can be easily accessed from the mobile phone, even without a good network connection. They can ,thus, be very useful in performance support.

4. Responsive design

One of the best features of mobile phones is their responsive design. The modern phone is designed in such a way that the software automatically senses and is able to adapt to the display of the device. This is important because it removes the need of repeatedly developing content to support different device types and allows a company to concentrate on creating engaging content without having to worry about restructuring and reinventing it for the different mobiles currently available in the market. This allows information to be shared and accessed across a variety of platforms and makes the mobile an indispensable tool for performance support.

5. Generating Feedback

Simply gaining access to information is incomplete without provisions for feedback. It is important, especially in regards to elearning and m-learning that the learner’s progress is assessed and tested to see whether they have retained the information provided through the learning modules. Mobiles can also allow access to information and experts in real time who can provide the assistance or feedback that is needed. It also makes provisions for bookmarking or saving a particular information for future use.

It is therefore evident that one must certainly leverage mobile for performance support as they are extremely useful in providing the required information at the right time in a very engaging and versatile manner.

Corporate Learning Best Practices, eLearning Develpment Best Practices, Employee-Training, Mobile Learning, On-boarding/ Induction, Online Learning, QuoDeck

5 Major Challenges With On-boarding During Pandemic

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The Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the working pattern all over the globe. With social distancing and lockdowns in place, a large number of organisations transitioned to telecommuting with some even increasing their hiring to meet the expanding business demands. This greatly affected their onboarding process, making the training and induction modalities rather complicated. 

Integrating new employees into the company isn’t easy. And when one is largely functioning on remote working, it makes it even more challenging.

Let us look at the 5 major challenges with the onboarding process during the pandemic-

1) Inability to personalise the process-

Induction helps in integrating a new employee into the company’s culture while instructing them about their own roles and responsibilities within the organisation’s structure and functioning. It facilitates in establishing personal connections and a great working relationship among colleagues. 

However, in the absence of a face-to-face interaction, it becomes difficult to personalise the onboarding process. Instead of meeting the team and getting to know them in an informal and relaxed setting, the new employees would have to contend with a video call or even in some cases, an email message. This proves challenging in building a strong lasting working relationship among peers. 

2) Ineffective Communication-

Effective onboarding is crucial for employee engagement, retention and for boosting the overall productivity of the organisation. With telecommuting, it may not be possible at times to know everyone in the team and the new employees may get confused about whom to approach for clarifying or obtaining certain information. They may also be unaware about the hierarchy within the organisation or may feel reluctant to ask questions.

On-site Induction allows the new members to get to know their colleagues and establish a cordial relation with them, which allows them to approach their peers for help or clarification regarding a particular situation. In the absence of this relationship, the employees may hesitate to reach out to others which leads to communication gaps.

Also, without facial expression, gestures or tone of a person’s voice as a guide, it is often easy to misinterpret a message as critical or curt when it comes through the email. This, further hampers effective communication, which in turn greatly affects the overall productivity of the organisation. 

3) Ineffective employee engagement-

Onboarding is crucial as it introduces the new employee to the company’s business culture and value systems. They also understand the code of conduct essential to every member and learn to build a good working rapport with their colleagues, other senior managers and the organisation’s leaders. 

This may be very difficult to communicate through a virtual induction program and may result in many employees feeling unwelcome or unable to identify and integrate themselves with the company’s culture. This greatly affects their participation and engagement with the organisation and leads to lower employee retention.

4) Inability to monitor employee performance-

Monitoring the employee’s performance and progress is an important step in integrating them into the company’s work ethics and culture. Feedback is important as it clarifies assumptions and expectations, helps people improve and learn from their mistakes and builds confidence. Constructive feedback also helps in reinforcing positive behaviour and generating a strong work culture. It is therefore essential that the new employee’s progress be monitored and reviewed. 

This however, becomes challenging in a remote working scenario. Not only is there a disadvantage of physical distance, but even the process for documenting and monitoring the employees’ performance may be unclear or not adequately defined. As a result, they may underperform or fail to achieve the targeted milestone. This would not only affect the individual’s growth but also the company’s progress at large.

5) Unavailability of essential equipment-

Digitization of modern business has made it impossible to function well without appropriate technology. Most new employees are provided with their own laptop and other essential software, tools and programs that are necessary for their work. This particularly becomes challenging during the pandemic, especially if the employee has to be trained to use a particular software or program. Some organisations may also find it difficult to reevaluate their employment benefit schemes to make it relevant to the current situation.

These are the 5 major challenges with onboarding during the pandemic. They can however, be overcome by making the necessary changes to the Induction program and leveraging mobile technology to make the process more engaging, interactive and effective. 

e-Learning, Employee-Training, Infographics, Mobile Learning, Online Learning, QuoDeck

Mobile Learning Trends for 2019

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As the Mobile Learning solution becomes a “must have” from a “good to have” solution, the focus shifts to what measures you should adopt to maximize its impact.

Look no further—our Infographic on Mobile Learning Trends for 2019 provides precisely the pointers that you can use to enhance your online training delivery.

With this adoption, this is the impact that you will see:

  1. Higher learner engagement.
  2. Better completion rates.
  3. A sticky learning experience.
Infographic Mobile Learning Trends 2019

By Asha Pandey, Chief Learning Strategist at EI Design

e-Learning, Mobile Learning, Q & A, QuoDeck, QuoDeck Creator Queries, QuoDeck Learner Queries

on my dashboard I see two courses with the same name, How is this possible?

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It can happen in the following circumstances;

  1. There is more than one trainer who created course with same name and enrolled you in their courses. So the two courses come from different trainers.
  2. A single trainer who created two courses with the same name (QuoDeck distinguishes between courses using course identifiers and not by name, hence a trainer can give the same name to multiple courses if he wishes so), and enroll you in both courses.