Introduction: Breaking the Mold of Traditional eLearning

In the past, learning was monotonous, repetitious, and simple to ignore, like crossing tasks off a checklist. In 2025, gamification in conjunction with AR and VR technology is changing the course of history. These technologies provide an immersive, interactive learning environment that is hard for even the busiest, most busy minds to ignore.

From managers overseeing training to professionals seeking career advancement to curious students, these technologies immerse you in digital worlds where engagement and excitement provide measurable outcomes.

This blog unpacks how these trends shape the future of custom eLearning modules, making education enjoyable and effective again.

Gamification, AR & VR: What’s Driving Next-Level eLearning?

There is more to gamification than only accumulating badges or points. When done right, it uses psychology to make pupils feel accomplished and engaged, which promotes intrinsic motivation. With the creation of realistic settings that allow users to practice techniques or investigate ideas directly, AR and VR go beyond this.

Employees may simulate emergency responses without endangering their lives, while medical students can do operations using virtual reality. By superimposing information on actual things, augmented reality enables experiential, contextual learning.

Custom eLearning courses leverage these resources to create personalized learning paths that adapt to the interests and speed of each student. The result? Interactive eLearning that feels like play, with practical benefits for all.

Why Reward Systems, Points & Badges Matter

When you earn a reward badge on an app or points for a challenge, it’s a sign you’re making progress. That’s the magic of rewards in elearning.

Badges, points, and leaderboards tap into our desire for recognition. In AR and VR experiences, rewards are woven into the experience, picture holding a virtual trophy after mastering a safety module or seeing your avatar crowned for teamwork.

This visible progress drives completion, effort, and even friendly competition. Additionally, digital badges can function as micro-credentials that are occasionally displayed to potential employers or included in your professional profile.

Boosting Assessments: From Quizzes to Quest-like Challenges

Basic multiple-choice exams have given way to interesting mission-based difficulties in assessments. Through the use of game elements, the exam is changed into a quest or scenario in which abilities are used in dynamic, realistic settings.

Imagine using an AR-powered scenario to resolve a customer complaint or using a VR module to operate virtual machines. These gamified, realistic tests allow for experimentation and immediate feedback, which helps to cement learning.

Custom module design guarantees that information sticks and skills translate to success in the real world by making evaluations interesting and applicable.

Microlearning & Nano-Courses: How AI Makes Bite-Sized Training Stick

In a world full with notifications and information, microlearning, nano-courses, and shorter modules stand out. With AI, these lectures can be customized to meet the needs of each student by adjusting the pace, content, and delivery.

Imagine a brief, department-specific interactive session on a new software function that is provided when you need it. Training that is divided into manageable portions keeps students interested, guarantees that the material is pertinent, and improves retention.

When microlearning, gamification, and AR/VR are combined, training sessions become enjoyable, memorable, and never overwhelming.

Immersive Learning Environments: Bridging Theory and Practice

Learners may enter simulated settings using AR and VR to practice sales demonstrations, operate machines, or go through emergency drills. Theory and safe, practical practice are connected through these immersive encounters.

Immersion learning stimulates the senses, improves memory, and boosts self-esteem, preparing students for difficulties in the real world.

Social Learning & Collaboration in Gamified Modules

It is best to learn together. Leaderboards, team challenges, group quests, and cooperation are all encouraged in the newest personalized eLearning programs, which foster peer motivation and shared experiences.

Real-time engagement in shared virtual worlds is made possible by AR and VR, which encourages innovation and teamwork among dispersed or distant teams. Social learning improves skill reinforcement, fosters community, and boosts motivation.

Service Catalogue: Enhance Your Learning Experience

Are you trying to find a reliable partner for carrying out your vision for digital learning? For businesses and people prepared to capitalize on the potential of gamification, augmented reality, and virtual reality, our service suite offers customized solutions:

Scroll right to read more.

Service	Provider	Description
Custom eLearning Development	Upside Learning	Bespoke module creation leveraging interactive elearning, gamification, and immersive technologies to ensure your team or clients get training that sticks and delights.
AI Course & Microlearning Build	Brinx.ai (Sister Company)	End-to-end artificial intelligence-powered elearning solutions. Specializing in AI-driven course design, microlearning, adaptive paths, and real-time analytics for scalable, effective training across industries.
AR & VR Immersive Experience Integration	Upside Learning + Brinx.ai	Seamlessly integrate AR/VR environments with your training, onboarding, or compliance programs. Enhance learner engagement and retention with multi-sensory, hands-on virtual approaches.
Data-Driven Learning Analytics & Reporting	Upside Learning	Capture insights from learner progress, engagement, and outcomes. Use actionable data to continuously improve eLearning effectiveness.
End-to-End Consulting for Custom Module Design	Upside Learning + Brinx.ai	From needs assessment and storyboarding to development and launch, expert teams help you navigate the journey to an engaging, state-of-the-art elearning ecosystem.

Ready to create the elearning experience your organization deserves? Don’t settle for outdated, one-size-fits-all training. Explore how Upside Learning and Brinx.ai can help you boost engagement with truly custom, future-proofed solutions.

Ready to Amplify Your eLearning Journey?

Don’t let outdated, forgettable training cause your company to lag behind. Experiences that pique interest, develop abilities, and have an impact are what will shape the future. Create immersive, gamified, and interactive e-learning programs in collaboration with Upside Learning and our AI-powered sibling business, Brinx.ai, to meet the needs of 2025 and beyond. We have the know-how and technology to support you whether you’re beginning from zero, updating existing modules, or yearning for a real learning breakthrough.

Let’s build something remarkable. Get in touch with Upside Learning or Brinx.ai today to discover what’s next for your learners!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How does gamification improve learner engagement?

By using challenges, rewards, and progress monitoring to motivate students, gamification turns traditional education into a game that holds their interest.

What is the role of AR & VR in custom eLearning?

They give learners safe, realistic, and immersive environments in which to practice skills, which boosts confidence and memory.

Can microlearning be effective?

Indeed. Short, targeted teachings are simpler to understand and retain, particularly when AI is used to tailor them.

Are rewards like badges just gimmicks?

No. In addition to motivating learners and acting as a mark of achievement, badges may also be used as business credentials or online identities.

How do gamified assessments differ from traditional quizzes?

Instead of relying on memorization, they engage students with engaging tasks and authentic environments that strengthen their skills.

Is social interaction important in eLearning?

Indeed. Cooperation and healthy rivalry boost students’ motivation and facilitate the application of their social and communication abilities.

How do data analytics enhance eLearning experiences?

They give information on the behavior and results of learners, which makes it possible to continuously optimize and improve the course material.

Do I need special skills to benefit from these innovations?

Absolutely not. These days, gamified AR/VR eLearning courses are made to be easy to use and available to all users.

The post Gamification, AR & VR: Powerful Ways to Amplify Engagement in Custom eLearning Modules for 2025 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

I accepted a new position as a Director. Upon arrival my first day, I was informed that “Corporate” did not approve my position and though it would not affect my pay, my title was going to be “Nurse Manager.” It made no sense. After breaking the news to me I was led to my office and then my new boss left stating, “Get settled in.”

I sat at my new desk staring at bare walls for the next three hours. Finally, my phone rang, and my boss said, “Meet me in the cafeteria for lunch.” I have never been so grateful for a phone call.

At lunch, I asked if I could visit the units I would be tasked with running. “No, we have not told the leaders that you are taking them over. We want you to keep a low profile until the logistics are worked out.”

I spent the afternoon staring at bare walls. Finally, 5pm arrived and I left my first day without speaking to anyone, confused by the entire episode. I regretted accepting the position.

That is an excerpt from what Keith Albert wrote three years ago. Now we are amid the Great Resignation and, hopefully, organizations have an altogether different approach to onboarding.

Onboarding is no longer is just the routine of welcoming a new employee and expecting them to stick around, regardless. Instead, at least in woke companies, the process involves a carefully structured plan that can last a year and involve many people in multiple functions—with Learning and Development leading the way with the gamification of eLearning.

Why onboarding matters

According to Brandon Hall Group’s Impact of Strategic Onboarding Study, companies suffer a 12% voluntary attrition among new hires and most attrition occurs within the first six months in 51% of companies.

Not surprisingly, onboarding is a top business priority today. Mark Stein and Lilith Christiansen, authors of Successful Onboarding^[1] affirm: “Successful onboarding is far more than traditional orientation in new clothes; it is an innovative strategic program that can boost a company’s bottom line and improve its future prospects.”

They caution: “When top-notch people…become disillusioned, a firm’s brand becomes tarnished in the eyes of prospective employees…and it becomes even more difficult to attract the best talent.” The need is to “excite new hires so that they feel motivated to address their challenges enthusiastically.”

Effective onboarding is a win-win for both employers and the employees. While companies gain from “onboarding margin,” employees appreciate the opportunity not just to earn a paycheck but also to attain respect, achievement, and “self-actualization.”

The book names the four pillars of successful onboarding.

• Talking about the organization’s values and work culture “results in happier, better-adjusted employees who work effectively.”
• Before they have a chance to pass judgment on their decision to join, “new hires need to make the right connections.”
• Often used as a late-careerreward, career development can be a “powerful means” to achieve loyalty when integrated into onboarding.
• Most importantly, new employees need to be briefed about business strategy because “the more versed employees become in the strategy, the more they begin to regard their everyday work through that lens.”

According to research by Glassdoor, employees who rate their onboarding experience as “highly effective” are 18 times more likely to feel highly committed to the organization; 91% of them feel strong connectedness at work; 89% feel strongly integrated into the company culture; 49% contribute to the team within the first week. That’s what makes onboarding a serious business investment.

Welcome the gamers

In 2019, there were 2.5 billion gamers, one-third of the world’s population and growing at over 5% year-on-year. They spent more than 7 hours a week playing video games. Those in the 26-35 age group made up 40% of the gamers and were most likely to play at work. The average gamer was 34 years old. Adult women (33%) players outnumbered boys under 18 (17%) when it came to video games. As much as 46% of the gamers were female (average age 34; male average age 32). And they have been playing for at least 16 years.

(More on gamification of workplace learning here.)

Chances are most members of your team are avid gamers, as are those who are planning to get on board. While welcoming them, why not serve them the flavor they like most—gaming!

Experts predict that increased use of gamified onboarding programs will make it more exciting for new recruits to get to know the company, performance expectations, and how best to meet those. Team games can facilitate interactions and quickly establish connections, minimizing the awkward phase of integration. Gamified onboarding can also help eliminate bias while onboarding.

Learning management systems (LMS) will have a greater degree of gamification, making it possible for organizations to leverage the power of productive competition, and track employees’ progress to better match efforts and achievements with rewards.

As the Brandon Hall report puts it, gamification helps meet the dauting challenge of increasing “knowledge retention and employee engagement while shortening the time it takes to get people up and running.” It can “engage learners in the onboarding experience and help them retain more information.”

According to the onboarding study (May 2021), “13% of companies currently use gamification in onboarding, and 34% say they plan to add it over the next 12 months or so.”

Among companies already using gamification for onboarding, 62% say their new-hire engagement is up (versus 48% of those that do not use gamification); 47% say their new-hire retention is up (30%); and 55% have shortened time-to-proficiency (30%).

In his book², Karl Kapp observes: “Games provide the license to think outside of normal parameters, to add a little bit of fantasy or surrealism, and to force people to think in different ways.” Gamification presents an engaging aesthetic interface to learners, including new hires. It is an intensely motivational method for conveying corporate training and education.

Get a running start

Even those organizations that are convinced about the power of gamified onboarding at times wonder if gamification would turn out to be an expensive, time-consuming reinvention of the learning wheel already in place.

This is what Animesh Kumar, President – HR & Transformation at Zee Entertainment says: “Our learning at ZEE while building the digital induction module by gamifying company values and competencies, is that one needs to ‘sweat the design’ for the entire learning process to be powerful and successful.”

The ideal solution to get going would be to start with a template or framework that can be easily customized to fit their onboarding needs.

For example, this framework for gamified induction has a series of themes ranging from space exploration to cyberpunk that can shape your narrative. The framework brings together sleek, minimal screen layouts for content with a library of layouts. It also has an assortment of game mechanics that can selected to amplify your narrative and enrich the induction experience.

Animesh Kumar is happy to have used the framework. “Keeping gamification at its core, the framework designed by Upside Learning, intrigued teams across levels, deeply engaging them with the digital induction module. The impact created by this experience is one that transformed our entire outlook towards designing learning and development modules for employees across the organization.”

If Keith starts a new job today, he probably would be welcomed with gifts and grand announcements on social media. He may not notice how bare the walls are because he would be too engrossed to look up from the laptop, enjoying and absorbing his gamified onboarding. And at the cafeteria, he is likely to tell his manager, “I have a fair idea what is going on in the units. I think I should lie low for a while and wait for the right time to take over.”

After all gamification is not about entertaining diversion. It is about focused initiation.

The post Can gamification level up your employee onboarding experience and boost outcome? first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Being Social: If you’ve played games with your friends, you will realise that playing with friends is a lot more fun than playing alone. Gaming with friends keeps you accountable and in check for your growth, sometimes they carry you and sometimes you carry them. Friends make you want to come back to the game when your interest starts to wane. You happen to learn a lot more about the game world with their knowledge.

Could we imagine learning in the workplace similarly? There are many challenges that one can think of. But, with social systems that have existed in games and designing them for learning would surely help. Learning won’t be tiring and many would get by with a little help from their friends.

Clarity & Direction: Most of the games, except for a few sandboxes and exploratory games have clear and well-defined quests and to-dos. We play as individuals or teams to achieve that goal, beat that level, or overcome the boss and an unending spawn of minions. Even though there may be many to-do’s, we know roughly while playing the game what the beginning, the mid-game and the end-game objectives are. That’s the way level designers communicate and manage to engage the gamers and keep them in the realm of the game world, without their interest levels dropping, until they complete the game, even if it takes upwards of 50 hours to complete.

How many people in the organization do you think to understand the beginnings, the mid-game, and the end-game of the learning that they’re undertaking. Are the quests and the to-do’s even vaguely present for them? Learning without understanding the end-game just doesn’t make sense to me yet, that’s the reality that we are living with.

Speed & Agility: Gamers have this unique ability called ‘pushing’, where they will be able to complete a huge task and progress quickly in unbelievably surprising time. Pushing usually happens to post a session of grinding, which is essentially putting in the grunt work in games.

Grind and Push, with efficient use of the feedback loop available in most games helps gamers complete some real-life tasks with unreal speed and agility.

Could we design learning content and systems that allow for the grind and push in real-life learning experiences? Sometimes, fast progress really motivates the learner to achieve more. This of course cannot be uncoupled from efficient feedback loops.

Mentors & Support Systems: Unlike any other online communities, most of the gaming communities are super helpful, the pro’s who’ve spent a lot of time in a specific game world will spend their time guiding and supporting a novice in that game world (exceptions do exist), gaming communities understand the positive-sum nature of games. There are guilds and parties in games, they help promote a sense of belonging with players and the game world.

If there isn’t a social aspect to games for the pros to guide the novices, there is usually a journal, quest-book, library in a game that guides the player with regards to everything that exists in the game world and keeps them up to date with their progress.

Is there a way to design mentorship and support systems in our learning initiatives in a way that encourages experts to help the novices and encourages novices to ask for help and guidance? Obviously, challenges do exist here with human insecurities and humans understanding this process as zero-sum, but it does benefit everyone in the larger scheme of things.

Of Purpose & Belonging:

Games do a great job of binding players to their broader narrative. Be it overcoming sorrow from their personal life or understanding and knowing more about history or even learning a new language. Games help you eventually find the reason for you playing. Players keep playing till they find their purpose and once they find it, they jump to another purpose. Gameworlds have created environments for the players to be at ease with, to feel a sense of belonging with and that is one of the biggest reasons why games work.

Is there a way to ensure that learning helps the learner bind themselves with their broader narratives? Helps them understand their purpose and achieve what they really desire? Is there a way in which we can look at learning to help learners understand and solve their real-world problems? There won’t be a greater motivator than this.

These five elements through content and systemic gamification could help reshape the way we learn in the workplace along with a host of other mechanics from the world of gaming. However, having said that, there’s no one way to play a game. There are different types of people in this world, with different motivators and different objectives. Everyone is at a unique place and time in their own lives and their journeys are as diverse as they could be. There’s a reason why different genres exist in games, movies, music, etc.

This is exactly where the use of data comes to play. Through traditional data science, we could look at classification models that help us with the recommendation of topics, subjects, skills, media that will help us excel in the workplace in the short and long term. These recommendations could be made basis the parameters that make us who we are and what others like us are doing. This might help us get clarity and directions to our learning initiatives.

Individuals and teams would also benefit from exposure to their learning analytics and would help them set realistic targets, grow and improve their work with their performance. This would make them fast & agile learners, which would help the people as well as the organisation. Learning analytics would definitely help build a decent feedback loop for the learners and many learning initiatives.

Recommendations and analytics aren’t just limited to hard skills that help us perform our workplace tasks with ease, they could also be about the soft skills and hobbies that make us more human.

As far as modern data science is concerned, it may help the learners with predicting their performance in learning as well as in their workplace. With these predictions, the learners could continually fine-tune the way they study and work to achieve higher levels of performance. This could possibly help us push the boundaries of learning and workplace performance with a sense of ease that we haven’t imagined before. Wouldn’t it be nice for everyone to find their own recipe to optimum performance levels in learning and the workplace?

While thinking and designing with gamification and data, we need to ensure that these systems and content are inclusive and equitable. Onwards to a future with better learning initiatives.

The post Reimagine Learning with Gamification first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Watch the full podcast below.

In this discussion, Munch shares how they started experimenting with gamification at their workplace and what they found out through the results that employee output productivity had gone up by 250%, client satisfaction rating had gone up and software quality had also gone up, everyone was working harder than before.

Also in this podcast, Munch mentions that – everyone who wants to try gamification needs to think beyond providing fun or a good user experience and think about how are we making the life of the user or the employee better, what will make their job better, how do we help them grow, how do we help them improve in any way, if the user experiences this, then they will go back to it again.

Munch also shares what he thinks and likes most about gamification which is, learning through gamification allows us to be more human, it allows us to say that I have autonomy, I can make choices, it allows us to explore, it allows us to collaborate as a team or compete as competitors, which is a motivational trigger for a lot of people.

You can also watch the all the episodes from this Podcast series here:

To be notified of all our podcasts and other uploads do subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Gamification of Workplace Learning: Podcast Series Episode 6 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

In this chat, Jeevan quotes the gamification of processes or everyday activities to encourage skill development is of more interest to me because it’s scalable, it can be leveraged and it has an impact on many fronts which helps improve the performance of individuals, teams, and enterprise.

Also in this podcast, Jeevan says that as  I can see in many instances that gamification has been a solution looking for a problem, and its a part of maturing, however, the time now is good along with the technological advancement, you can now design an enterprise gamification strategy approach.

Jeevan assumes that gamification will become mainstream, embedded, invisible, in the times to come. Especially in personal life, since anything that happens in personal life usually translates back to work because that’s what the employees demand.

You can also watch the all the episodes from this Podcast series here:

To be notified of all our podcasts and other uploads do subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Gamification of Workplace Learning: Podcast Series Episode 5 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

If only we were given an opportunity to experience it all in the real world.

Let’s first stop thinking that people play games for fun; fun is extremely arbitrary and is difficult to measure. I would be more comfortable with knowing that people play games to fulfill some unmet needs. Games help us access ‘our story’ through ‘our actions’ to fulfil ‘our needs’, and since this is intrinsically appealing to us humans, we are drawn more to games.

“Having looked at more than 20,000 gamers across all types of games, we consistently see that video games are most successful, engaging, and fun when they are satisfying specific intrinsic needs: those of competence, autonomy, and relatedness” – Scott Rigby, Glued to Games.

(All the quotes in this article are from Scott Rigby’s Glued to Games)

Of Competence

We as humans, want our work to be more challenging every day. We want to keep growing to enjoy our work; the more difficult it gets and the more responsibility gets added, the higher the chances are of enjoying that job over a period of time.

We observe something similar in sports as well, sportspersons strive to overcome challenges, they push through pain, reaching their limits to achieve a level of performance that no one else could reach.

We admire people who perform at their peak because there’s an inherent desire for us to become like them. This inherent desire is of competence. (This is why a platform like twitch exists.)

Competence need-satisfaction through games – a term that has been taken from Scott Rigby, measures the competence needs that are satisfied through various genres of games.

A few examples of competence satisfaction features from the world of games:

Competence Satisfaction in FPS Games
Granular: Blood and enemy reaction when hit.
Cumulative: Increase in strength, reputation, and receipt of new weapons and skills as player advances.

Competence Satisfaction in Driving/Sports Games

Granular: Smoke, sound, rumbles, and representational feedback from on-screen meters.
Sustained: The increasing roar of the crowd and other environmental feedback.
Cumulative: Increase in abilities, advancing in tournaments, and improving win-loss records.

Competence Satisfaction in Platform Games
Granular: Constant stream of micro-challenges (e.g., jumping, simple combat)
Sustained: Power-ups; Chaining actions successfully to overcome obstacles and reach new goals.
Cumulative: Game “collectables”, score/points.

(Glued to Games)

Competence satisfaction in a modern workplace

There might be some obvious answers that might pop in our heads while we think about competence in our workplaces, but the question we should be really asking here is do we need to rethink competence in the workplace? especially when the world and workplace are skewing so much more towards knowledge work, towards managing emotions, towards ensuring good mental & physical health, towards ensuring inclusivity ,and towards being environmentally responsible.

Of Autonomy

We’ve all inducted ourselves into a club, a club that loves the weekends and hates Mondays. Collectively, we must’ve published at least one message on social media about our love for the weekend or our hate for the Mondays. There are books, podcasts, social media pages that talk about this, week-in and week-out. It’s become a huge part of our culture.

This club is called the weekend effect.

“Studies looking at the experience of autonomy at work have similarly found that employees ’ job satisfaction and productivity are significantly related to the degree to which they feel autonomous at their jobs and experience their managers as supportive of their autonomy in the workplace. This doesn’t mean that the “boss” is not in charge, but again it means that employees found in their work opportunities to make inputs regulate their time or efforts and that they feel they have a voice when things go wrong. No matter where they are in the hierarchy of the company, every worker feels better and produces more when they experience some sense of control and agency on a daily basis.”

Let’s look at a few examples from the world of gaming to understand how games fulfill the need for autonomy.

RPGs combine meaningful choices with a heroic narrative that inspires personal agency in one’s actions.

Modern simulations excel at providing you with the tools to build a self-directed story, along with enough structure (missions, goals) to not feel lost.

Long-range victory goals in real-time strategy games provide a sense of meaning, while strategy choices are fully in player control. Games that provide multiple paths to victory further deepen player volition.

(Glued to Games)

Autonomy satisfaction in a modern workplace

The modern workplace can borrow a lot from the genres of RPGs, simulations and real-time strategy games to set new standards on how we look at lifelong learning, goal setting, task management, reviewing, growth management and most importantly, to finding a purpose, a mission to make your time more meaningful here.

Of Relatedness

We must not forget, even when we work with the best data models, robot assistants, AR devices and autonomous cars, that businesses are about humans. We are humans ( some debate that we’re part cyborgs) but that’s a debate for another blog. We are humans and “at the heart of all our happy interpersonal moments, both large and small, is the feeling that we matter to others.”

As the great American writer, Elie Wiesel said, “The opposite of love is not hate; It is indifference.” Even during brief moments of interaction with those that we may never see again, we can feel relatedness operating powerfully.”

and that’s why relatedness is important. “We feel related when we matter—when we are acknowledged, when we are seen as significant, and when we get to express to others similar feelings and be understood.”

Let’s look at a few examples from the world of gaming to understand how games fulfil our need for relatedness.

NPCs(Non Player Characters) in many genres of games help you within the game in multiple ways, from just giving you directions to being your partner who stays with you till the end of the game.

MMOs(Massively Multiplayer Online) are multiplayer games where you can possibly interact with each other, trade and help the community. The mechanics of party, guilds etc help you perform tasks together against other set of players who might attack your base, or help each other by slaying a difficult monster together.

Co-Ops is a unique genre of games for relatedness since only when all the players in a co-op synergise and play, you can complete the game.

MOBAs(Massive Online Battle Arena) gained popularity as eSports came to the forefront, MOBA’s help promote a sense of belonging between teammates as they grind and perform together with a chemistry that is unparalleled. The teammates almost become like your family.

Battle Royale a format popularised by Fortnite and PUBG, essentially a last man/last team standing format that brings together the best of MMOs and MOBA.

Relatedness satisfaction in a modern workplace

From trust to teamwork, from being good communicators to being great decision-makers, the modern workplace will benefit from introducing relatedness need satisfiers inspired from the world of games.

Adopting the Gamers Mindset

Learning in the modern workplace is not something that happens in a silo. We, as humans, are complex, every team is different and every organisation is unique. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution and context should be treated as of utmost importance. Having said that, I’m almost certain that we will be heading to a place where complexities in learning will increase. The fusion and intersections of multiple specialisations will be in vogue and leaders & managers will have to deal with many more variables than before.

Learning cannot happen the way it always has, it needs to evolve to keep pace with the new realities, and with it, we need to as well. Gamers surprisingly evolve every single time they choose to play and complete their game. We need to adopt the mindset of the gamer to navigate this space and figure how we can design experiences along with learning content that helps fulfill the competency-related, autonomy-related & relatedness based needs of the humans that we’re associated with and with it the needs of our business’.

Onwards to the metaverse!

(Quotes are taken from the book Glued to Games – Scott Rigby & Richard Ryan)

The post How Mindset of a Gamer Help Us Navigate Learning in Modern Workplace first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

In this discussion, David shares his thoughts on gamification saying that the learners will learn more and you will have a better return on investment for their learning, for the cost of labour and for the cost of time going through the learning. It just helps if the learners are interacting with the content rather than just looking at it.

Matthew says, for him gamification is like comparing colour television to the radio, basically, it’s giving the same content and information but in a more interesting way. If the learners are presented with content that is more engaging, the learner walks away with more.

David also explains how individuals are overwhelmed by the thought of gamification. To avoid that, just pick out a topic, just whatever you’re looking for — positive results or a change with what’s taking place and look at just taking it one step at a time and slowly —just go into the process and get into the gamification of it. It does certainly help and you will feel less challenged.

Matthew advises that instead of trying to recreate the wheel, it’s always better to start with something that you have a foundation built for. When you’re starting with gamification, have it fill a void, a hole that has been already filled, to see if you can impact it better with gamification. Start with small, existing content and then show that you can improve it. That’s really how you begin.

You can also watch the all the episodes from this Podcast series here:

To be notified of all our podcasts and other uploads do subscribe to our YouTube channel

The post Gamification of Workplace Learning: Podcast Series Episode 4 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

In this conversation, Animesh shared his learning at ZEE while building the digital induction module that one needs to ‘sweat the design process’, which basically means that the focus was largely on the design process in order to make the module powerful and successful. We looked at the entire intervention from multiple perspectives and took 4-5 months to design as well as test the same.

Also in this podcast, Animesh quotes, “Gamification cuts through the general opinion of learning, by empowering an individual to do what they actually enjoy wherein learning becomes a corollary outcome of doing an activity which is winning or playing or building skills.”

Animesh explains how gamification is based on twin insights: holding the interest of the learner by building off the natural dopamine loops to drive more game playing behaviour, and secondly, by giving the learner the flexibility and control of their learning.

Animesh shares as a gamer himself he finds that it’s the unpredictability of the outcome and because winning is not guaranteed, that individuals push themselves to improve their skill level in the game to then enjoy the ‘high’ on winning thereafter!

You can also watch the all the episodes from this Podcast series here:

To be notified of all our podcasts and other uploads do subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Gamification of Workplace Learning: Podcast Series Episode 3 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

In this second episode of Gamification of Learning, Amit Garg, Founder & CEO of Upside Learning Solutions talks to Rob Alvarez Bucholska, host of popular podcast Professor Game, and associate director of IE University. Watch the full podcast below.

In this chat, Rob shares how he stumbled into living the adult version of his childhood dream. Rob also discusses how points, badges, and leader boards have their own space in the world of gamification and presents his perspectives on gamification as a design discipline.

Also in this podcast, Rob quotes Andrzej about how gamification might help those activities that are dreaded, to be ok or at least suck less! This might mean that the gamified activity is not explicitly fun, bit at least better than the original version, Rob mentioned that this is something he had heard or read this first from Andrzej.

Rob’s advises gamification designers that it is important to first understand what is it that you really want to achieve, you first think about the objectives, the specifics, the KPIs etc, then you think about the players and once you’ve thought through and understood those two things, only then you start thinking about the application of the game mechanics.
Rob also points out that L&D has traditionally been all about function, it is completion focused, and need to look at the other end of this spectrum, L&D has to start considering that there’s a human who is receiving this training.

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The post Gamification of Workplace Learning: Podcast Series Episode 2 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Jasmin points out that as human beings being an emotional species have a tendency to connect with content which evokes emotion, and this is the best way to bring about behavioural changes. Yet, in our design processes, we often forget about the importance of emotion and focus instead on designing for efficiency. She says, we ask ourselves the question “What is the quickest way to get from point A to point B? “, instead of “how do we create the best user experience?”.

Gamification puts emotion at the centre. It uses stories and compels the learner to interact. It changes learning from a passive, consumable product to a much more exciting experience.

Jasmin also discusses the need for serious gaming in the workplace as opposed to edu-tainment or the application of a thin gamified layer to existing e-learning content. She shares the power of serious gaming in the workplace in creating rich learning experiences – which draw people together.

Jasmin talks about her own design process, success stories, how she convinces leaders sceptical about gamification’s ability to solve real – world problems to introduce gamified learning to their organisation, her vision for games in the corporate world and so much more!

You can also watch the all the episodes from this Podcast series here:

To be notified of all our podcasts and other uploads do subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Gamification of Workplace Learning: Podcast Series Episode 1 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.