Complex learning methods

According to Paul Kirschner and Jeroen van Merriënboer (2008), complex learning is the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and transferring what was learned in school or training to daily life and work.

One of the the complex learning methods is gamification.  According to Susan Holloway (2017), gamification is the use of game design and mechanics to enhance non-game contexts by increasing participation, engagement, loyalty, and competition. These methods can include points, leaderboards, direct competitions, and stickers or badges.

Using gamification to train employees

In my company, in order to use resources more efficiently, Support agents must learn a new way of sharing their knowledge to solve client issues.  This methodology is called Knowledge-Centered Service (KCS).  Our goal is to ensure that each agent practices KCS.  Our challenge is to motivate them to learn it.

KCS has four principles and ten core concepts.  Clearly, pointing agents to the KCS web site and asking them to read the pages wasn’t sufficient.   So we created videos, which alone were also insufficient.  We asked our executive to write a blog and explain why we must follow this methodology.  That didn’t work either.  So, we turned to gamification.

Creating the KCS Practitioner Badge

In order to earn the badge, agents must complete the following tasks:

  1. Complete the video training.
  2. Pass a test.
  3. Practice the KCS methodology by working with a coach to:
    1. Reusing existing knowledge articles for 60-80% of the cases they work on
    2. Create two high-quality knowledge articles based on cases they solve

The International Society for Technology in Education (ITSE, 2018) says that student-centered learning moves students from passive receivers of information to active participants in their own discovery process.  Having an executive tell the agents to “do KCS” and providing a bunch of videos to watch makes the agents passive receivers.  Agents who choose to earn the badge learn how to apply the principles and concepts to do their jobs better.  By completing the reuse and create tasks, agents showcase the skills they learned in the videos.  This is an authentic assessment.

According to Jamie Madigan (2016), the KCS Proficiency Badge has a good chance of succeeding because it encourages agents to complete goals (leading to personal satisfaction), it provides a platform for guidance and feedback, and it triggers social proof.

Linking back to learning theory

The KCS Practitioner Badge is an example of Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (McLeod, 2016).  The training and coach model a behavior.  When agents practices the behavior, they get back feedback from a coach.  The reward for following the behavior is a badge and a more efficient way of managing their workload.

An example of problem-based learning

In problem-based learning, students are assigned a project and learn concepts as they work to solve a real-life problem. (Genareo and Lyons, 2015)

Last month, I discovered that a new group of students outside the company needed to access the online training that I developed.  The publishing system that I used makes training available only to employees.  So, I created a project for myself to develop a new course in the Moodle publishing system.  Along the way, I taught myself how to create and edit training topics, embed videos, develop quizzes, and publish to the web.

This assessment is authentic because it includes the following elements: (Indiana University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, 2018)

  • Realistic: I solved a critical business problem.
  • Requires judgment and innovation: I had to gain consensus to use Moodle to build and publish the course.
  • Asks the student to “do” the subject: I learned how to build a course in Moodle by building a course in Moodle.
  • Use a repertoire of knowledge and skills to negotiate a complex task: I needed to change the original presentation.  I used my skills in information design to divide the topic into smaller chunks.  I used my programming skills to code the HTML to embed videos into pages.  I used my visual design skills to add appropriate images and white space to the page.
  • Provides opportunities to consult resources and get feedback: I asked my colleagues to review the course before I published it, and updated it based on their input.

References