Gamified eLearning
Our stakeholders came to me asking for help presenting eBay’s knowledge management system to new hires in a way that wouldn’t put them to sleep. New hire training was full of dry instructor-led content and they wanted something to ‘spice things up a bit.’
To find the ideal solution, I consulted with new hire trainers and sat in on a few classes to better understand the learning environment. I presented a few options and after some discussion and brainstorming, we settled on an idea inspired by the mountain climber game from the classic TV show “The Price is Right.” It would be visually engaging, included animated characters, and a challenge to help the mountain climber make it to the top while they demonstrated mastery of the content presented.
Working with stakeholders, we identified the types of questions someone should be able to answer correctly after completing the course. Then we sifted through the content, making sure to include only the necessary info to help them achieve their learning goals. We broke the content into chunks to make it more digestible for the learner and to give them a sense of their progress through the course. One chunk would be covered in each section along the mountain path.
As they completed each section, they unlocked review questions which could be answered at any time. As they answered the review questions correctly, they began to reveal a flag with the knowledge base logo which was hidden behind the questions. If they weren’t able to answer the question correctly, they were encouraged to review content from that section and then try again.
After completing all the sections and answering the review questions correctly, the flag would be posted at the top of the hill and the course was complete.
I created all the artwork in Adobe Illustrator and then programmed the game in Adobe Flash using ActionScript 3. The character movements and screen transitions included polished animations and lended to the overall visual appeal of the experience.
User ratings for the course were consistently among the highest for any of new hire modules. New hire facilitators commented that users enjoyed the game and there was a welcome bit of excitement injected into the classroom training setting.