Motivating Learners: Gamification and the psychology of engagement

It’s no secret that not everyone is constantly motivated at work. It’s even less of a secret then, that many people are unenthusiastic about learning on the job. Often, the educational programs we create aren’t helping these problems. But by peering deeper into the psychology of our learners, we can invite them to craft their own story around their development. To explain the power of gamification to boost learner motivation, consultant, speaker and author Karl Kapp joins us on the show this week.

Engagement at work has always been… uncommon. In fact, Gallup polls from the last 10 years show that only about 1 in 5 (at most!) employees can be considered fully engaged in their workplace. Thankfully, learning and development practitioners are perfectly positioned to boost motivation through well designed learning opportunities. But making such educational programs means having a deep understanding of learning psychology, and also understanding how that psychology relates to the tools we use at work every day.

So, where do we start? How about gamification? By looking at the nature of games–rules, roles, competition and strategy–we can optimize our learning content to strike at the hearts and minds of learners. To help us along the way, we welcome Karl Kapp. Karl has more titles than most: Author of multiple books, speaker, consultant, founder and Professor of Instructional Technology at Bloomsburg University. Most importantly, he is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on Learning Design. Today, he theorizes how we can put an end to the motivation crisis by leveling up our learning content.

Join us as we discuss:

Self-determination theory (SDT) and what it says about people’s motivation to improve
What gamification is, and what (more importantly) it is not
The history of gamified learning in real-world contexts and how it relates to modern corporate settings
The importance of effective storytelling for anchoring learning content in relatable terms
Balancing internal and external motivation via “nudging”
The importance of rewards in gamification, and how to incorporate variability
Advice for introducing gamification into an organization

Episode Resources

👉Karl Kapp on LinkedIn

👉Karl Kapp website

👉getAbstract website

👉getAbstract on LinkedIn
👉The Gamification of Learning and Instruction book summary on getAbstract

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