Virtual games to make your eLearning courses engaging

First, we need to understand why adding games is important for your eLearning course. Does it make any sense? Is it worth the time?

The answer to all the above questions is YES!

Using games can enhance the user experience and help learners retain information effectively. It is an effective way to keep learners’ attention and stimulate their curiosity. Choosing the right LMS can help you with planning your games. LMS has interactive features that will ensure to enhance the user interface of your course.

Always compare your LMS with different LMS to get the right choice. You can do comparisons like Thinkific vs teachable, TalentLMS vs Docebo, or any two LMS you are confused about.

So, let’s check out how you can use virtual games in your online course:

1. Timed games: Games that have time set to complete the task are timed games. You can give a question, puzzle, or any MCQ to solve along with a timer to complete it. The learner has to answer before the time runs out. This will help them with their time management skills and will improve their critical thinking.
2. Character Dialogue: Creating a scenario where they have to respond with dialogue is entertaining and educational both. For example, you can create a scenario-based game, where your learner and senior associate get on a video call using a web conferencing tool, and the latter establishes a certain situation and asks the learner to imitate the tactics they will use to handle the situation. This type of game can be created for restaurant employees, where a customer arrives and the learner has to address him.
3. Decision games: A situation-based question or event along with the option to select one. This type of game model will increase their decision-making skills. For example, the learner is an employee at a cafe, and the electricity goes off. What can he do to maintain the calm between the customers? This type of game gives them leadership skills.
4. Detective games: When a learner completes a topic, provide them with an image full of things and ask them to find the objects related to the topic they just learned. This game will act as a refresher of the topic and will check their attention.
5. Collaborative games: These are the team games that can be played with other learners. It will develop competitive skills and encourage the learners to perform better.
6. Tic-Tac-Toe with Questions: Learners will have to answer 3 consecutive questions correctly to win the game. This will help them to test their knowledge and give them an idea of how much they have learned during the course.
7.  Quizzes: These are the easiest types of games. You just have to add a question with multiple answers and the learner needs to select the only right answer from the options.
8. Role-based: A game scenario where the learner is taking a role in the game and has to act according to the situation. In this way, they are able to experience the feeling of acting in real-life situations.
9. Storytelling: You can also use the storytelling method to show the application of concepts. Suppose the topic of the day is how to open a bank account. With the help of storytelling, you can show the step-by-step process of how to do it.

Conclusion;

Games are the interactive part of the learning process. It helps the learners to retain more information and keep them engaged. The most successful LMSs are those that work with the feature of gaming. When you add games to the course, you are enhancing and leveling up your course. This feature will also pop notifications for learners to log back in to have more fun and learn. This notification will act as a reminder to the players to come back and continue the course. As we can see, games can improve the interaction between LMS and learners, which results in improved performance of the learner.