Gamelearn’s 2021 annual event has come and gone, and it hasn’t failed to leave an impact. This year, the event was celebrated in 5 sessions and 3 different languages. The objective? To demonstrate that serious games are the ideal format to address the learning and development challenges of all sorts of companies in this changing and ever more digitized world.
Serious Games, Serious Impact has become a collection of events that have reintroduced Gamelearn as a force to be reckoned with. In the last year, the company has experienced unprecedented growth. It has also improved its game-based learning platform and authoring tool, the Editor, which was launched in 2020, as well as adding numerous new serious games to its catalog.
Many experts in the fields of HR, L&D, and Instructional Design shared their knowledge and expertise at these sessions which comprised Serious Games, Serious Impact. Some of them, who are already Gamelarn clients, have had the opportunity to experience the effects of implementing game-based learning in their training programs firsthand and could boast about their accomplishments.
Ian Davidson, Director of Engineering L&D at P&G, stated: “The virtual environment has been great. We’ve taught all sorts of things using gamification and, generally, for 90% of it, the feedback is that this is a great way to learn, they really appreciate it. So, I have found that using these video games has been a great way to teach people virtually.”
Brandon Lock, Director of Training at Express Wash Concepts and another of Gamelearn’s clients, agreed, saying: “These games are really great because they specifically train soft skills and they allow you to practice them, and if you make mistakes, you’re not messing up in real-life.”
As mentioned above, it wasn’t just professionals in management positions within HR and L&D departments who participated in Serious Games, Serious Impact. Consultants and Instructional Designers who offer their services to other companies also shared their experiences. This was particularly the case when talking about authoring tools, such as Gamelearn’s Editor, which allows people to create video games from any content, without the need for programming.
Talking about the Editor, Karl Kapp, Instructional Technology Professor at Bloomsburg University, said: “It’s critical in the field of Instructional Design to use tools to create game experiences. The Editor allows you to easily create serious games that are fun, and to connect them to the learning.”
One of Gamelearn’s clients, Milica Marjanovic, who is an HR Consultant at Assert, said: “It’s an excellent Instructional Design tool. The Gamelearn Editor allows us to make courses that develop specific skills and allow people to practice what they’ve learned and to actually make a change in behavior.”
Serious Games, Serious Impact really confirmed the unstoppable growth of game-based learning in the corporate environment. Rob Alvarez, Product Manager at Ironhack and Professor at IE University, explained this phenomenon succinctly: “When you do online courses, one of the biggest challenges is engagement. People don’t finish the courses. And that’s exactly what game-based learning brings: that engagement, that excitement.”
Interested in knowing more about the current challenges in talent development? Download our Serious Games, Serious Impact report, where we’ve gathered the results of a survey completed by more than 1,000 HR and L&D professionals and training consultants.
