Research About Online Learning Games for Employee Training

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Learning Games Increase Engagement

To borrow a phrase, this is not your father’s employee training. No longer are people willing to simply sit in seats listening to an instructor who gives students another three-ring binder to put on a shelf. Instead, people want to be engaged.

Games designed for learning represent one of the hottest areas of emerging e-learning technologies. Online gaming and role-playing games took in over $3 billion in 2007. Major learning management platforms have added simulation or gaming extensions that allow them to launch games and track player results. Educational games and simulations now appear on cell phones, and traditional educational publishers have announced gaming initiatives in higher education and corporate training markets.

This report, written by Gary Woodill, Ed.D., director of Research and Analysis at Brandon Hall Research, is designed to help interested training professionals understand what is happening in this rapidly developing field.

This report is the first in a two-part series about online learning games for employee training. Specifically, it covers the following:

The reputed benefits of online learning games, including the theories and empirical research that might support those claims
How are online learning games developed?
What problems might I encounter implementing online learning games?
What is the future of online learning games in training?
A comprehensive list of game development templates and engines

Because games provide a different way of interacting in education and training environments, their use immediately has the potential to change employee training dramatically.

The second installment in this series, to be released later this month, will cover case studies of organizations that have implemented online games into their corporate training.