Why You Should Encourage Learner Autonomy

Encourage Learner Autonomy With A Next-Generation Learning Platform

On the road to learning success there are many paths to get to a final destination. Modern learners have a sea of options available to them that were not around when the concept of learner autonomy was first being discussed by Plato and Socrates. The opportunities for learners to chart their own course has never been more exciting.

Learners now have a vast array of human knowledge constantly available to them at their fingertips. The trick is to organize that knowledge and distribute it to learners when they need it, or at least have it sorted in some way that allows the learner to feel they’re able to easily access the information they need, when they need it. Online learning platforms give learners access to curated content necessary to skill-up on topics important to their day-to-day tasks.  Learning platforms are also able to carry additional learning opportunities that exist outside of the scope of a learners “necessary” learning activity.

What is Learner Autonomy?

Learning autonomy flips the traditional model teacher/learner relationship on its head. Traditional learning focuses on a teacher driven classroom where the student follows the learning path. With learner autonomy, the traditional teacher is removed from the equation and it is up to the student to drive their own learning experience. It is more about a learner’s ability to take charge of their own learning. As opposed to being reliant on the teacher, the student takes responsibility for their own trajectory.

There are plenty of learning opportunities available to a modern learner through their learning platform and beyond on the wider web. It is important as a learning and development professional to carefully consider the roadmap and necessary touchpoints of information that you are setting out within learning modules. While encouraging learner autonomy can increase engagement, L&D admins need to ensure that the engagement is focused on the right content.

A traditional teacher is removed in the context of learner autonomy and the focal point  is placed on the learner, but that doesn’t mean that there is no teacher. There is still an administrator in place to ensure that students are able to access and find the necessary information and maintains a learning environment that supports the development of the learner and their autonomy to seek out the content they want. Additionally, the tools L&D admins use help to provide the direction to learners that would typically be associated with a teacher in a classroom using tools like a syllabus.

Within a corporate learning environment, increasing learner engagement with learning materials alone can be a struggle. Placing an importance on autonomous learning can help to move that need by shifting the mindset of your learners.

Ultimately, learner autonomy means giving the learner a chance to take charge of their own development.

The Importance of Learner Autonomy

The autonomy of your learners to chart their own course is an invaluable asset when setting out a learning strategy. Autonomy in a lot of ways allows for the expression of creativity, and creativity can be pivotal to success. By providing your learners with the chance to make their own path, you are directly empowering the decisions they make and allowing them to creatively embark on their own learning adventure. Creativity also goes hand-in-hand with curiosity and forms the bedrock of what makes individuals hungry to learn. As said by the writer William Arthur Ward, “curiosity is the wick of the candle of learning.”

Consider the adult learning theory of Malcolm Knowles. According the theory, there are 6 key principles that are critical to educational impact.

1. Learners need to know why, what and how
2. Learners want to be autonomous and self-directing
3. Learners’ prior experience is an important consideration
4. Readiness depends on the learner’s needs
5. Orientation to learning tends to be problem-centred and contextual
6. Motivation to learn is an intrinsic value, with personal payoff.

The principles are intended to spark the creativity of the learners, but more importantly they are intended to ensure that the learning method used ultimately benefits the learner. Through autonomous learning, you are providing the framework to allow your learners to be self-directed. Importantly however, you can also  effectively allow your learners to have an autonomous experience while also ensuring that they are spending their time learning the information necessary for organizational success.

This strategy also makes the learner the decision-maker when it comes to what they need to learn and how. Additionally, if your learning platform is set up in such a way that it provides streamlined access to important information that helps learners solve day-to-day problems, you will ensure that the orientation of your learning remains problem-oriented. That problem-orientation will derive mainly from the learner who has sought out the information themselves and therefore provided their own context as to why they are taking the course and utilizing the learning materials.

How to Promote Learner Autonomy

Promoting learner autonomy within your learning platform revolves primarily around promoting a sense of ownership. If an individual feels empowered to learn and understands that it is to their benefit to continue learning, then they will be inclined to do so. In order for a learner to take charge of their own learning, or have a desire to do so, a learning strategy must instill a sense of ownership within the learner. Without that ownership, a learner is highly unlikely to care enough to pursue learning on their own, regardless of how easily accessible their learning material is.

Take the concept of learning back to how we learn as children when we are naturally tuned to learning informally, or through our own direction. In our formative years, it is informal learning in new environments that keeps us revved and mentally stimulated, often without even realizing it.Taking that same approach, by providing courses, videos or learning materials that can be accessed by learners at any time but without formal instruction allow for learners to go at the own pace when it is useful for them.

Ways in Which an E-learning Platform Can Encourage Learner Autonomy

L&D admins professionals can leverage their learning platform to encourage and foster autonomous learning within an organization by:

• Making Learning Available:This is foundationally the purpose in many ways of a learning management system (LMS). It is important that learning materials be made available to learners whenever and wherever they need or want to access the content.
• Making Material Relevant: Setting up your learning platform to deliver engineering courses to your marketing department likely won’t serve the right purpose. Instead, ensure that your learning platform is efficiently organized to provide courses and content that speaks not only to an individual’s role but to specific issues and needs that might arise within a given position. Docebo’s Marketplace, including our recent integration with LinkedIn Learnhelps learners to dig into a vast range of learning opportunities.
• Entertaining Content Wins: While not all course material can be “exciting”, it’s important to try to create a content engagement experience that is simply more than flipping through a slide deck. Increasingly, video has played a large role in its ability to  increase learner stimulation. Providing social learning opportunities as well where the content can be discussed or shared with others can help to provide a sense of entertainment.
• Employing a Flexible and Un-Rigid Structure: For learners to be autonomous, they need to be able to learn at their own pace on their own schedule. Administrators can encourage learner to take the time necessary to learn while also respecting the busy work days we all have.
• Powering User-Generated Content: You likely have content experts within our organization, or after using a learning platform throughout a career, your employees might become the experts. Allow your learners to put their learning into practice not only on the job, but also by creating courses to be distributed throughout their team, department or company.
• Making It Easy To Use: Perhaps most importantly, to encourage learner autonomy, a learning platform needs to be easy to use and be user intuitive. If a user cannot easily navigate the platform, they likely won’t go out of their way to find courses beyond those directly assigned to them with a specific purpose.

Learner autonomy can enhance a learning strategy and move the engagement needle. Docebo provides the ease of use, tools and autonomous experience that learner crave, while also providing learning and development professionals with the control necessary to ensure they’re able to effectively curate, organize and track the performance of their employees.

Fill your employees sails with incredible content and give them the freedom to chart their own course.

Start a 14-day trial today!

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Go.Learn Makes Mobile Learning Better

Put The Power of The Docebo Learning Platform in The Hands of Your Learners, Literally, With Go.Learn

Docebo has some big news that we’re incredibly excited to announce: the latest version of our mobile app is here.

The truth is, not even “working on mobile” does the trick. Today, the threshold for the acceptance of mobile content is very high – much higher, in fact, than “regular” content shared on desktop devices. Mobile is used away from work, away from your desk, at home, or even in line at Starbucks. It needs to be desirable, accessible, frictionless, nice, and immediately useful, to encourage learners to come back for more.

Go.Learn, available now in the Apple and Google Play Stores, updating our Mobile LMS app with top-notch mobile technology with a major step forward towards a frictionless user experience, balanced with the capabilities of an innovative learning platform to augment the overall learner experience – on-the-go.

Access the Docebo Platform Directly From Your Mobile Device

The app has been designed specifically with the end-user in mind, giving them complete access to their Docebo learning platform from the device of their choosing, including  iOS (iPhones, iPads) and Android-powered devices (phones and tablets).

Within the app, learners can easily attend courses, complete training materials, while taking advantage of Docebo’s social and experiential learning capabilities by viewing and sharing learning assets across different channels – no matter where they are, whenever they so choose, either online or offline.

Go.Learn allows certain types of learning objects, including SCORM, videos, slide presentation, files, and HTML pages to be downloaded, played and tracked offline. Full courses can also be downloaded for viewing at the user’s leisure.

Docebo offers your learners a continuous learning experience. Learners can take training courses while offline, and their progress is automatically tracked and synced with your learning platform when back online to promote continuous, uninterrupted learning experiences.

When a learner launches their existing Docebo Mobile LMS app, they will be prompted to download the new Go.Learn app. On the first page, users will be asked to provide the address for their organization’s Docebo learning platform in a text box, then press proceed to the login page. They will be asked to type in their email address and password. They can also flag the option to “Remember Me on this device” to avoid logging in each time the app is launched.

Go.Learn also supports Single Sign On (SSO), with SAML/OKTA or Google integrations to login to the app easily, with one click.

“35% of learners don’t have access to content that works on mobile”

– Brandon Hall Group

More than a third of the learner population don’t have access to a mobile learning solution that works. Docebo has invested a lot of time and research to develop a mobile-first solution designed to meet the needs and wants of the modern learner. Go.Learn is expandable, modern and scalable, adapting to your organization’s learning needs as you see fit to help you create the best mobile learning experience.

Go.Learn in Action

The Docebo Learning Platform, at its core, is built on a blended learning approach designed to bring together the best aspects of formal, social and experiential learning. Alongside our core learning management system, Learn, and our Coach & Share module encourage learners to share their knowledge and ask questions, to help you as the learning administrator identify the subject-matter experts within your ranks and elevate the quality of your learning materials.

Go.Learn puts that power into learners’ hands – literally. Consider the following example:

Kevin is an antenna technician. One day, he’s out on a service call to fix an issue with an antenna that he’s seen many times before. The other technicians can’t seem to get the fix right. After seeing the issue time and time again, Kevin’s developed a quick-fix and decides he’s going to solve this problem once and for all.

He pulls out his phone, logs into his Go.Learn app, and shoots a 15-second video that shows the defective part and his easy and inventive way to fix it without changing the part. With the click of a single button, he makes the video accessible to the entire field tech team and their managers.

Mark, the company’s resident antenna expert, receives a notification that Kevin has uploaded a new video the company’s Docebo learning platform via Go.Learn. He watches it, adding a few notes for all technicians to reference if they ever encounter the problem.

A few days later, Sonny, another technician, watches the video and asks a question. Mark, along with two other technicians, answer the question, giving their insights into the solution. The video, edit and curation, and Q&A thread is published to the new ‘Antenna101’ channel in Docebo (and Go.Learn), becoming a valuable asset for the entire technician community within the organization.

Two days later, a new hire Tyler comes across the same problem that Kevin shot his video to solve. Tyler takes out his phone, searches for ‘antenna defects’, and immediately finds Kevin’s video, Mark’s notes and the Q&A thread, giving him the knowledge he needs to fix the problem on the spot. He marks the video asset as ‘Best Answer’ and gives it a thumbs up, making the video even easier to find for other technicians.

But this story doesn’t end there. A couple of months later, Tina, one of the company’s learning administrators, is tasked with creating a new set of courses for antenna repairs. She gets to work, collecting different assets about different kinds of antennas, including Kevin’s quick-fix video.

She picks the best content based on performance and rating (thumb ups, best answers, most viewed, etc.), building out five full courses over the spans of a few hours, without taking any time away from internal subject-matter experts – the only source of content until now. Specific content units that need detailed and approved technical information are completed by running a content peer review process that only takes a few hours of SME time. 

Create Customized Mobile Learning Experiences

For learning administrators, the original Mobile LMS app settings section is deprecated and will not affect the configuration of Go.Learn. While there are no admin capabilities within the mobile app itself (yet), administrators can manage the complete mobile learning experience in the desktop version of the Docebo platform.

Configuring Go.Learn is easy, requiring only a few clicks to manage the look and feel of their learners’ mobile experience, including the ability to white-label the mobile learning platform with your organization’s logo and colours.

To learn more about the exciting functionalities of Go.Learn and the action L&D admins need to take to roll out the new application while keeping their mobile learning experience working seamlessly, check out this Docebo Knowledge Base article.

Visit the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store to download Go.Learn to your iOS or Android device now!

Empower your learners the learning platform they need – and want.

START A FREE 14-DAY TRIAL OF DOCEBO TODAY

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Your Guide To LMS Integrations

Your guide to all the necessary learning management system (LMS) integrations

Evolving a corporate learning strategy requires careful consideration, research and internal discussions. Modern learning platforms are designed to ensure corporate learning strategies are able to best work within the schedules and constraints faced by an organization’s work environment. Learning Management System (LMS) integrations are an important consideration when researching and adopting a new technology into an organization’s tech, and for a learning platform to perform efficiently, integrations are necessary to save both time and energy.

What’s The Big Deal With LMS Integrations

Chances are, if you’re considering a learning platform, you’re already using a handful of other technologies to help employees do their jobs and communicate with each other, manage different teams, or gather and store important data. It’s important when introducing a new technology to an organizational ecosystem that the platforms “speak” to each other in a way that makes everyone’s jobs easier and more efficient.

Taking a look at the various stacks of cloud-based services in use across an organization, you can quickly see that integrations are an important part of increasing workflows and efficiencies. According to Scott Brinker of the Chief Marketing Technologist Blog, the average enterprise uses 91 different cloud services in their marketing stacks alone. According to the same report, HR departments use 90 different services, and up to 70 cloud tools are used for collaboration across departments. Granted, Brinker’s definition of “cloud services” is broad, even encompassing social media channels like Facebook, but the fact remains that organizations have embraced the idea of using massive tech stacks.

LMS Integrations Are Important to Your Business

When considering a learning management system, carefully consider what technologies are already used in your organization, and what connections will be necessary between your new technologies and those that are already in place. With that understood, you can begin to examine the integrations that are currently available within the market. That initial internal research on what’s already in place will give you the knowledge necessary to ask the right questions about products you will want to integrate with your learning platform.

In the discovery phase it’s important to carefully consider the types of integrations you’ll need to make your online training platform as useful as possible. A learning platform can and should be integrated into the many different applications already in use to share data and drive your businesses workflow.

Important Integrations with Learning Management Systems

Learning platform integrations add value to both the administrator and the learner. There are various integrations available to learning and development administrator, but it’s important to consider some of the most important apps and tools.

Customer Relationship Management Integrations

Your learning platform should be able to integrate seamlessly with the customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Learning initiatives are crucial for improving your sales teams and increasing their results. Integrating a LMS with your CRM can greatly increase training adoption rates and allow you to fine-tune sales and product training while bringing together valuable shared data for better results on both fronts.

Seamless CRM integrations help to ensure that your training directly corresponds and speaks to your sales team working prospects down the funnel. Docebo’s Salesforce integration,  for example, combines your CRM workflows with learning activities and tasks to improve employee’ and partner performance, as well as sales channels operations to increase the value of an organization’s Salesforce investment.

Communications Integrations

Communication is always a challenge, particularly across global enterprise businesses, with several technologies available, including online chat platforms, email systems and web conferencing tools. Iterations of these tools can be integrated into a learning platform to streamline communications between learners, teachers and administrators. Integrating a web conferencing tool into a LMS creates a cost-effective way to execute formal, instructor-led training, while creating more integrated social learning opportunities and communication between experts and learners.

Docebo seamlessly integrates with a number of popular web conferencing tools. Connect your learning experiences with GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining, Adobe Connect, WebEx, BigBlueButton, Teleskill and BlueJeans to name but a few.

e-Commerce Integrations

If you’re looking to generate revenue, or even pay for courses through your learning platform, e-commerce integrations are an absolute must. Make sure that your LMS supports multiple languages to ensure you have the strongest market reach possible.

E-commerce management tools, such as Shopify, allow you to create a “storefront” in your LMS to simplify elearning sales. With the right integrations, you can easily create professional and secure storefronts and refocus your attention on creating the best training materials possible.

Single Sign-On (SSO) Integrations

How many passwords do you use everyday? Hopefully, your passwords are saved within your browser or password vault, making it easier to remember them all. Your learning platform should come ready to assist with SSO integrations. Docebo’s SSO integrations include, LDAP, OKTA, AUTH0, OPEN ID CONNECT and SAML 2.0/ ADFS. These integrations allow you to easily connect your learning platform with your Google Apps and social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook. Additionally, The LDAP integration allows you to import LDAP user bases into your LMS and keep them synced.

The integration of SSO apps is intended to get your learning content into the hands of your learners faster. Along with the increase in access and efficiency, SSO apps also importantly apply an additional level of security through seamless authentication of identities.

Content Authoring Tools

Course design can be a challenging, time consuming exercise. There are options available to help L&D professionals create beautiful and engaging courses. Authoring tool integrations can take some of the pain out of the process. Docebo’s authoring tool integrations include Elucidat or Lectora, giving you an easy to create elegant learning assets.

There’s no longer a need to struggle with standards like SCORM and xAPI when it comes to integrating your internally developed content. Instead, with just a few clicks, you can add learning assets to your LMS, while leveraging the advanced reporting features within your learning platform.

Integrations and Efficiency

Learning platform integrations provide a tremendous opportunity to increase connections and seamless workflows across an organization. They can be the difference maker when it comes to profits by cutting administrative costs and creating a culture of learning. Simplify your learning processes, while making it easier and more fun for learners with sophisticated learning platform integrations.

Download our free 14-day trial to explore what’s possible.

START YOUR 14-DAY TRIAL TODAY!

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Your Learning Platform – Your Sales Enablement Machine

Keep an eye out for Docebo’s upcoming whitepaper that will outline the strategies you need to boost sales performance with your learning platform.

The way people learn is changing, a shift driven by a combination of the distractions and general busy-ness alive and well in today’s business environments. Yet, many organizations’ learning strategy have remained the same, and are not reflective of the times or the evolving needs of their employees, customers, and partners. And this lack of action is having a direct impact on their bottom lines.

The ultimate goal of any organization is to generate revenue, but doing so can be a challenge if its sales staff isn’t motivated to push the envelope and drive performance. Many sales teams juggle similar challenges, specifically those related to the fact that most learning activities remain rooted in formal and event-based training. Sales teams end up being served unstimulating, poorly-organized content that may not even be relevant to issues they’re dealing with daily, and there’s zero post-training reinforcement.

Fortunately, the solution to these ongoing issues is actually quite simple, and involves equipping your sales teams with the tools they need to succeed and enable further growth.

While meeting revenue targets sits on the shoulders of all of those within the organization, a business’s sales staff are on the front lines, leveraging the insights of other departments to secure new customers and keep existing ones happy. It is therefore imperative that your sales staff is trained effectively to ensure they’re communicating your product effectively to prospects in the field.

The better your organization’s sales team performs, the more people will know about your organization and what it does – an awareness that generates more business.

What is Sales Enablement?

Sales enablement, which means getting the right information into the hands of sales people at the right time, remains a common issue at enterprises around the world. As competition increases and revenue targets grow more aggressive, the pressures on sales staff to perform are stronger than ever.

Sales enablement gives sales staff the content, tools, knowledge and skills they need to be effective. This includes up-to-date product information, sales best practices, how to build loyal customer relationships, effective communication skills, time management and the art of persuasion.

While the tools needed to deliver these skills have changed, too few organizations have leveraged them to improve their sales enablement activities. As your organization introduces new products, new customer demands come with them (plus new sales reps), so there will always be learning gaps to fill, demanding more ways to enable your sales teams. In the age of technology, it’s easier than ever to make learning more convenient and, most importantly, more effective. And the right learning management system (LMS) is your avenue to sales enablement success.

Why Your Existing Sales Training Strategy Isn’t Working

It depends too heavily on dull and overly-complex content. The goal of any sales training initiative is fairly obvious: to increase sales. But we must remember that change is never automatic. Encouraging sales staff to adjust the behaviours they know well will never be an easy job, but is possible when done so with the right tools alongside engaging and valuable learning content.

Sales staff struggle to retain valuable knowledge. There’s far too much reliance on formal and event-based training without much effort on reinforcement afterward.

How do you really know if the content served in these formal and event-based settings is actually connecting with sales people in a way that they can take it and apply that information in the field to close more sales?

To maximize ROI on your sales training initiatives, consider using a blended approach using a variety of learning modalities (formal, social, experiential) that consist of facilitated reinforcement, sales coaching by frontline managers, and on-demand reinforcement enabled by your learning platform.

Your Learning Platform is The Tool to Boost Sales Enablement

The modern enterprise needs training opportunities that empower their sales teams to ensure they meet their goals as they evolve. A modern LMS can bring these learning strategies to life, empowering your sales teams to achieve (and exceed) their business goals.

Your learning platform helps you reach your entire sales teams, providing critical information on-the-go, whenever they may need it most, while making learning fun. Tap into the well-known competitive nature of successful sales teams with learning content that leverages gamification, bite-sized video, inputs from internal subject-matter experts, within a learning environment based on models such as the 70:20:10 framework.

Here’s how:

Tap into their competitive sides. Gamify your sales training activities with with leaderboards, points, badges and rewards to inspire some healthy competition within, motivating staff to learn more, retain more valuable information, and deploy that information faster. When your learning content is designed effectively and is relevant to their needs, you’re equipping sales teams with the skills and knowledge they need to drive sales performance for the organization.

Establish brand message consistency. In many cases, sales teams are the face of an organization. They’re the people on the front lines meeting with prospects and existing customers. Their personalities reflect that of the organization and its purpose, ultimately having a powerful influence on the way people perceive your business.

This means that every sales representative must have a consistent understanding of the business, its culture, its products – and how they should be interacting with customers. There may, however, be issues getting that information into the hands of all of those within the sales organization, as they may be located in different cities, or even countries. Getting them all together in a single location isn’t the easiest feat, nevermind an expensive one.

Fortunately, your learning platform allows salespeople to access the same up-to-date content, no matter where they are in the world. Your learning platform is their portal to live product demonstrations and virtual ILT sessions with company higher-ups,which can be absorbed from their own desk, couch and car.

Up-to-date product knowledge training when they need it most. Healthy organizations are those that evolve with its product to emerge as leaders within their industry. But a product is only as good the sales person’s ability to sell it. That means you must be able to provide product updates to sales people in the field on the fly, outlining new features, benefits and applications. Ongoing product knowledge training is absolutely critical to any sales role, but they need a tool that enables it at the point of need. Your learning platform is the most effective way to do so easily and effectively, while saving sales teams’ time and improving their product knowledge.

Enable learning on-the-go. With a learning platform that has mobile compatibility, you’re giving your sales staff a way to learn no matter where they are, on whatever device they choose. Give them access to your library of learning content, best practices and essential product information digitally whether they’re in the parking lot before a client meeting or their morning train ride into the office.

Your Sales Enablement Machine

When the right learning technology is paired with the right content, you can turn your L&D activities into a sales enablement machine. By developing configurable learning experiences with learning technology, you’re equipping your sales people with the tools and the knowledge they need to drive performance and boost revenues – and that’s a good thing for everyone along the learning chain.

Keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for Docebo’s latest whitepaper that will uncover the knowledge you need to empower your sales people with the right mix of learning technology and content, and how you can turn your e-learning platform  into a sales enablement machine.

In the meantime, download our whitepaper, published in partnership with the Brandon Hall Group, How Learning Can Drive Sales Performance. This exciting and wildly popular paper covers a number of insights, including:

• Statistics on the most efficient ways to conduct sales training
• The importance of knowledge sharing
• Closing existing gaps in sales training
• Why sales training is important
• New sales training trends

So what are you waiting for? Enable your sales teams and boost performance (and revenues) today.

DOWNLOAD NOW!

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Gamification Elements That Rocket Boost Learner Engagement

Encourage competition while providing tangible incentives to drive performance.

For years, we’ve heard about applying gamification elements within the e-learning industry. Learning and development professionals are constantly looking for the best ways to increase employee engagement in learning initiatives and activities. There are plenty of tactics in the L&D toolbelt, but it’s difficult to find one that speaks to people on an incentive-based level the way that gamification does.

The desire to win is a part of the of the human condition, occasionally even referred to as “last place aversion”. Given the chance to see how we rank against each other, most people will take it as an opportunity to increase performance to achieve a higher position. When considering an implementation strategy however, it is important be very conscious that gamification fosters interactivity and fun, not added stress. Gamification elements should be used to foster enjoyment and excitement, taking a close look at your employees and what makes them tick to better inform L&D professionals on what exactly would entail a “fun” learning experience.

Beyond winning, we all love to be rewarded for our work and recognized for the effort we put in. With gamification elements, we can implement incentives that encourage competition, while also providing tangible awards for performance, resulting in increased learner engagement and fun.

What is Gamification

Gamification is the process of adding motivational elements within a learning framework or system to increase user engagement based upon sound game theory and game mechanics. In slightly simpler terms, gamifying the learning experience could include leaderboards, badges, high scores, and competitions with announcements of winners.

At its core, gamification has four key elements:

• A challenge or a goal that establishes what a person needs to accomplish to win
• Obstacles or impediments which need to be overcome to achieve the goal
• Incentives or rewards that users receive as they overcome obstacles and objectives
• Game rules that define users’ interaction with the game

The implementation of gamification elements can include the use of badges and points that are then used to provide the “rules” that dictate where a learner will fall on the leaderboard and how they can increase their position.

Gamification Elements

The list of elements that can gamify your learning experience is extensive. Some of the gamification techniques such as Leaderboards, points and badges, and rewards can entice and engage your learners, but it’s important to know that there’s plenty elements available for consideration.

Gamified UK has a great periodic table of gamification elements that provides a great look at how many different elements there are that can gamify a learning experience.

Badges and Points

There have been some recent doubts cast on the effectiveness of gamification elements, particularly the use of digital badges as rewards to learners. The theory was tested and published in an early 2018 study, “To Game or Not to Gamify” by Elias Kyewski and Nicole C. Krämer in Computers and Education. Their research indicated that badges alone were not a sufficient motivator to driving measurable change in the performance. However, the research focused exclusively on “badges” as a motivation tool and didn’t examine a full suite of gamification elements that could be used to create multiple points of encouragement to foster engagement.

In a study by Karl Erenli and Austrian researcher contended, “Gamification is proven to have an enormous impact on today’s learners.” He added that one specific benefit of gamification is the extension of learner engagement and the longevity of their productivity: “A student who is interested in the lesson or course taught will be a more productive learner. Games can be a great tool to help students stay engaged.”

There are different elements available to ensure the success of a gamification strategy. These elements can include leaderboards, a chance to receive points or rewards, and the opportunity to be recognized for committing the time and effort. According to Professor B.J. Fogg, an experimental psychologist at Stanford University, there are three elements that must converge in order for a change in behavior to occur: motivation, ability, and trigger. Gamification elements change the behaviour that instigates a neglect of learning opportunities and improves the engagement of learners and increases their excitement to engage with the content.

Successful gamification elements work because they specifically address those three key elements:

• The give users the motivation to do something (the chance to win, receive rewards or gain recognition)
• The give users the ability to carry out a task – by facilitating it, or breaking each task into bite-size chunks, increasing the perceived capability of the user
• They give the user a trigger or cue to complete the action

These three key elements can help to provide a gamification strategy that works in the long term and helps to achieve a company’s learning objectives.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards are a great place to start when considering how to implement gamification elements into your learning strategy. While they can’t exist without the points system, having a leaderboard presents a public place for recognition and helps you to consider how you want your points/badges system to work.

Simply “introducing” the leaderboard isn’t enough. There are steps you need to take to ensure that your learners understand the purpose of the leaderboard and how to climb it. Below are a few steps you can take to ensure a smooth implementation of your leaderboard.

1. Provide clear instructions on how to rank-up
2. Give newcomers a fair chance: try creating a different leaderboard for each group of learners or training courses
3. Make it a social experience: employees are more likely to engage if they know who they’re competing against and can share their success more widely
4. Include an opt-out for employees who don’t want to participate: leaderboards can be stressful at times so it is always best to make them voluntary

The importance and visibility of a leaderboard need to be established within an organization and with the utilizing teams for it to make an impact. That means when launched, admins need to find a way to communicate that the leaderboard exists. A periodic email that highlights who is leading and finding a way to celebrate the leaders can help to increase excitement and engagement. Leaderboards are fantastic, but providing a tangible reason for people want to be the top makes a substantial difference.

Collecting Badges and Points

The earlier research discussed indicated that badge-type elements alone have been studied and shown not to be enough to encourage a learner. These gamification elements are necessary however for determining what exactly elevates learners to the top of the leaderboards. The Docebo platform allows for the issuing of badges and points for the completion of certain tasks. Learning admins can assign a value to points based on task completion within the learning platform which can then be the system used to set the scale behind the leaderboard.

Scoring systems are a great way to ignite learner engagement and excitement. The Docebo gamification app makes it easy to create badges for the programs within your learning ecosystem. A badge is like a medal your users will gain every time they complete a particular action in the platform. Badges usually have points that are given to the user along with the badge, and points can be turned into coins that learners use in the Rewards Marketplace.

The collection of badges and points can also be amplified by adopting elements found in modern online gaming communities. Increasingly, video game developers are setting weekly online challenges for their users to encourage them to come back and play regularly. Epic Games’ Fortnite, one of the hottest video games currently on the market, employs a weekly challenge strategy that offers their users the opportunity to gain extra experience points to level up their in-game characters or unlock special items. The challenges encourage users to return regularly to play the game or miss out of rewards that other players will be earning. A similar element-based approach can be used in a learning gamification strategy by offering special one-week-only badges, a “double your points earned”a week or a special “earn 5000 points this week to get a free day off”.

For challenge-based elements to be useful in a gamification strategy you need to make sure that the rewards for completing the challenge are tailor-made to address the desires of your target audience. Research from Stephanie Hermann of Reutlingen University indicated that challenges within gamified applications cannot be generalized and need to be diversified on a regular basis to ensure they remain exciting for your user. According to Hermann, “one must consider the context of the underlying application and the user’s state within the player life cycle to sustain user engagement”.

Providing varying challenges, and most importantly differing rewards for completing those challenges will keep learners engaged longer.

Rewarding User Behaviour

A rewards system within your gamification tool helps to elevate the bragging rights from reigning supreme on a leaderboard into real-world items.

Gamification can be used to make learning really pay off, and not just in terms of career progression and growth. People are often more willing to participate and compete if there are great rewards to be won. The Docebo Gamification App features the Rewards Marketplace, allowing organizations to reward users providing an increased incentive to come back regularly.

The Docebo Rewards Shop allows users to spend the points they’ve earned through completing their learning objectives and unlock gift cards, cash, goodies or even extra vacation days. Superadmins are in charge of distributing the rewards and are notified and prompted to approve, reject or message the learner requesting the reward. That gives learning administrators the control over their rewards system necessary, but more importantly, it provides the opportunity to really track and engage in a positive way with learners utilizing the platform.

Map Competencies With Badges

One element that is important to consider when establishing your gamification strategy is mapping points and badges to specifically applicable competencies. Your gamification strategy is going to increase the engagement of your learners by tapping into their desires to win and the ability to turn their learning into immediate real-world rewards, but L&D admins still have the job of mapping those skills learned into visible and usable workplace skills and competencies.

For example, if you have a senior position that requires strong interpersonal communication skills and an in-depth knowledge of a particular product feature, you could assign a badge to each of the courses that correspond with those skills. Once a learner completes the courses associated with those competencies they will be awarded the badge and their profile will reflect their new abilities and employer will have an easier ability to see that they have the knowledge necessary to take on new responsibilities and career advancements. If your learners know that the public display of their badges can act as a signal for career progression they will be more inclined to take the initiative to work through new courses.

The motivation for professional development is apparent in report after report, according to Robert Half, 21% of survey respondents indicated that they are looking for organizations who value them as a resource and invest in their career progression. When trying to fill vacant positions, most companies look “inside” and having competencies mapped through a system will help to motivate employees and provide an easier time to hiring managers when looking to see who have the skills they’re looking for within the organization.

Gamification for the Win

As a strategy, gamification elements within your learning platform experience will encourage your learners to invest their time in the opportunities available to them. By tapping into people’s desires to be at the top, and be recognized for their achievements you can increase the engagement in your learning programs. With the Docebo learning management system (LMS), you’ll be able to utilize the right gamification elements to encourage the engagement of your learners.

Most importantly, L&D professionals want to be able to see if their learning strategies are actually making a difference increasing the competencies within their organization and through an efficient mapping strategy, learners’ increased engagement can be translated into time saved and promotions to more senior job opportunities.

Gamify your learning strategy today with Docebo!

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Boosting Sales Performance with Modern Learning Platforms

Effective sales enablement means getting the right information into the hands of the right people, at the right time.

The ultimate goal of any enterprise is to generate revenue. After all, revenue is what keeps the company going, pays employees’ salaries and enables it to invest in initiatives and tools that enable further growth. While meeting revenue targets sits on the shoulders of all of those within the organization, a business’s sales staff are those on the front lines, leveraging the insights of other departments to secure new customers and keep existing ones happy. It is therefore imperative that your sales staff has is trained effectively to ensure they’re communicating your product effectively to prospects in the field.

Sales enablement, which means getting the right information into the hands of sales people at the right time, remains a common issue at enterprises around the world. As competition increases and revenue targets grow more aggressive, the pressures on sales staff to perform are stronger than ever.

The modern enterprise needs training opportunities that empower their sales teams to ensure they meet their goals as they evolve. A modern learning platform can bring these learning strategies to life, empowering your sales teams to achieve (and exceed) their business goals.

They allow enterprises to reach entire sales teams, providing critical information on-the-go, whenever they may need it most. And they can make learning fun, tapping into the well-known competitive nature of successful sales teams with learning content that leverages gamification, bite-sized video, inputs from internal subject-matter experts, within a learning environment based on models such as the 70:20:10 framework.

With the right learning technology paired with the right content, it can be quite easy to build a customized learning experience that’s guaranteed to enable your sales people with the knowledge they need to drive performance and boost revenues for your organization.

Join Steve Goldberg, VP & Research Director of Human Capital Management Research at Ventana Research, and Nick Thomas, Docebo’s Sales Enablement Manager, on July 26 at 1PM EST for a number of insights designed to boost your sales performance with e-learning, including:

• Common challenges and performance gaps with sales teams
• Assessing ROI and impact of learning technologies
• Active / passive knowledge-sharing
• New digital technologies: 5-minute tour (AI/ML, Bots, VR, Predictive HCM)
• Gamification and sales enablement (leader boards, etc.)
• Predictive and prescriptive analytics
• And much more…

Are you ready to turn your learning platform into a sales enablement machine?

REGISTER HERE!

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Crack Out the Brag Book – Apply for a DoceboInspire Learning Award

DoceboInspire Awards

DoceboInspire Awards Honour Customer and Partner Accomplishments

Go ahead and brag, especially if you’ve knocked your learning strategy out of the park and deserve to be celebrated! The DoceboInspire Awards are a chance to have your company and your learning initiatives in the spotlight!

Docebo’s second-annual learning and development conference, DoceboInspire, is coming to Toronto, Canada on October 10 – 12, 2018, bringing together more than 500 movers and shakers in the L&D industry to learn together and celebrate all the amazing accomplishments from the past year.

DoceboInspire brings leading industry experts together and will allow you to connect with and learn from over 500 L&D professionals from around the world, and gain future forward insights. The event willbe packed to the brim with inspirational speakers, incredible keynotes and highly-valuable networking opportunities.

DoceboInspire Awards Ceremony

We’re taking over Toronto’s newest and coolest adult arcade, the Rec Room Roundhouse, for a night of celebration and fun that you won’t want to miss. Admission to the event is included with all DoceboInspire conference registration.

The Gala will be taking place from 7:00pm – 11:00pm in the heart of the city under the watchful eye of The CN Tower. And what awards ceremony would complete without feature foods, live music, games and an open bar? We’ll be celebrating all the nominees, winners and everyone in attendance in style!

Now Accepting Nominees

Dates to Remember

May 3, 2018: Applications open for submission

August 10, 2018: Deadline for submission of applications

September 5, 2018: Finalists announced for all categories

October 11, 2018: DoceboInspire Learning Awards Ceremony – Winners announced

DoceboInspire Awards Criteria

The DoceboInspire Awards will be presented to the organization that has demonstrated innovation and business results by implementing a unique approach to blended learning.

Applications will be judged based on the following criteria:

• Variety of learning modalities used (e.g. mix of formal, experiential, social learning, push vs pull, micro-learning, self-paced vs instructor-led, etc.)
• Evidence of learner engagement
• Evidence of organizational impact

Keep in mind that we’re looking for applications that showcase real performance stats that are backed by data, and above all we want the submissions to tell a compelling story!

Use promo code MKTG20 at checkout to get 20% off your DoceboInspire ticket!

REGISTER FOR DOCEBOINSPIRE TODAY!

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