What makes eLearning fun? Well, if your experiences have been like mine, not much! I am aiming to improve this experience, and you are as well or you wouldn't be reading this. Hopefully by now you have figured out the platform you'll be using to host your LMS, and potentially have identified a flexible authoring tool or development company that is going to do some cutting edge work for you. We aren't done yet though, we need to bring this all together so the user experience is enjoyable, memorable and promotes significant learning!
Let me pose another question to you. Do you enjoy playing games? OF COURSE! The best way to bring the entertainment to the learning environment is through"edutainment". New word? According to Webster, and his amazing dictionary, edutainment is "entertainment (as by games, films, or shows) that is designed to be educational" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). If all you're doing is planning on pumping your students through an endless animated power point they will be disappointed.
There are many options to entertain your audience (that's a different concept than student isn't it?), with the use of games, simulations and even video depending on your application. The use of simulation is the most complicated, and potentially most expensive. In my research I have found that the medical industry and rescue (firefighters, and police) have heavily adopted simulation as a means of training. One company I found that is producing cutting edge simulations is Designing Digitally (www.designingdigitally.com). They also do 3D rendered games, and virtual world development to aid in realistic scenario based training. Their list of clients is impressive, and includes several government agencies. The benefit to simulation is that if your business has high overhead related to training (disposal items, or items that can't be reused), or if your business involves lots of people for training, then simulation can be a cost effective alternative to using resources and man hours for realistic training.
Simulations are great for those high overhead scenarios, but a more generally acceptable method of "edutainment" are games. The beauty of games is they are fun even if they are simple. Think of Jenga...a few blocks off wood, and all the fun in the world. But then again complicated games are also a blast. It just goes to show that games are games, no matter how simple. The authoring tools I recommended earlier all have game wizards for the simple games. If you want to go with more complicated interactive games, or graphic rich games you may want to enlist the help of your LMS provider, as just about all of them would be happy to develop the games of your dreams for a few bucks.
One of the most difficult aspects of creating the simulations or games, is simply coming up with the ideas. I have found that my imagination is far more limiting than the capabilities of even basic game wizard programs within a good authoring tool. For inspiration, I recommend searching around the web a little and you'll come across a gold mine of examples. For starters, I recommend www.smartbuilder.com/elearning-examples/ and you can surf to your heart's content! One you get some ideas, you can begin incorporating your business or products into games and simulations.
By bringing this level of entertainment to your LMS, your users will not only attentively participate and reach your learning objectives, they will anxiously await the release of your next creation! The best sign of a good LMS, is people using it. The best way to get people to use it, is to use edutainment. Fun word isn't it?
Resources
DesignDigitally.com (www.DesignDigitally.com)
Smart Building (www.SmartBuilder.com)
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