If you still haven’t noticed, the time has come to acknowledge the truth: your competitors are using edugames (educational video games) to train their employees. And they have multiple reasons to do so.
Firstly, and even though this may seem a bit strange, as humans we have been using games as learning tools since our infancy. Children embark upon all sorts of games to help them understand the laws of physics, learn colors, memorize songs and even count. The frontier between games and learning only appears as we begin to get older and enter the regulated learning circle.
Further, in recent years, various studies have proven the effectiveness of edugames in the educational and business fields. According to research conducted by Traci Sitzmann at the University of Colorado, the average scores of students who train with games (compared against other teaching methods) are 11% higher for learning factual knowledge, 14% greater for skills acquisition, and 9% better in retaining knowledge.
Edugames provide several advantages that explain why your competitors are using them to train their employees:
1. They improve the engagement and motivation of learners. Compared with classroom or traditional e-learning training methods, which many employees view as monotonous and boring, edugames offer greater interactivity with the content and, most importantly, they’re more fun. Your competitors are using edugames knowing that they improve course completion rates, increase employee engagement and provide more in-depth and longer lasting learning.
2. Practice, practice and continue practicing. Through the use of simulators, edugames reproduce the real conditions that employees face in their daily jobs, enabling them to practice directly. Your competitors are running training programs through edugames because this method not only provides experiential learning and learning by doing, but also is much more secure for the company (less physical and material risks).
3. Cheaper. Compared with classroom training, which entails significant investment in terms of time and money for the company, edugames offer a more cost-effective solution that yields greater results. Your competitors are using edugames because they know that doing so lets them train thousands of employees easily and simply from anywhere worldwide with only an internet connection.
The foregoing reasons have made edugames one of the hottest growing trends in corporate training programs. So much so that the market for learning via video games is on pace to exceed $8,000 million by 2022. So where do you stand? Have you yet to join the edugames revolution for corporate training?
