How can trainers and coaches make their e-learning even more successful with gamification? Alexandra Nagy from Kunde 21 has virtually climbed a mountain with participants in her online course on customer experience. In this article, you will learn how she led her course participants to success playfully with "Reach The Top".

Many people envision different things under the term gamification: Many think directly of virtual reality and similar ideas. However, gamification actually means one thing – increasing motivation and thus learning progress for course participants through fun elements. No high-tech devices are necessary! Because even simple playful elements make your course more exciting and interactive. This way, your gamification course appeals to a broad customer segment and motivates participants to successfully complete the online course!

Customer Orientation in the 21st Century

The company Kunde 21 advises businesses in Austria – as the name suggests, with a strong customer focus. Since 2019, Kunde 21 has been working with blink. it to provide its clients with maximum learning transfer. The term customer experience (CX) describes the path companies take to align with customer needs in the 21st century.

Managing Director Alexandra Nagy told us in an interview more about the Customer Experience (CX) Challenge. This took place throughout the last year and followed the motto "Climbing the CX Mountain Together." In her blink.it course, Alexandra Nagy combined storytelling and gamification. Thus, she virtually, together with her course participants, "hiked" up the mountain.

About the person: Alexandra Nagy is the Managing Partner of Kunde 21 GmbH and Managing Director of the Communications Hub Austria. She has been active in the management sector for over twenty years and has already helped build various international brands and companies. In her work, she has specialized in customer experience and customer centricity.

Playfully Climbing the Mountain of Customer Experience

The CX Challenge from Kunde 21 consisted of the following components:

Throughout the last year, a new knowledge unit (a Blink) on the topic of customer experience was published in the online course every month. The Blinks marked twelve stations on the way to the goal. To reach the goal – the mountain summit – participants had to complete the twelve Blinks. Additionally, a prize was raffled off every month to keep participants motivated. This was aligned with the overall challenge and included, for example, a package of granola bars and nuts.

This is how Alexandra Nagy introduces the project in the video:

Alexandra Nagy presents the Customer Experience Challenge from Kunde 21

"We put everything under a motto and carried that through the entire challenge." – Alexandra Nagy

To participate in the raffle for the prize, course participants had to complete a survey at the end of each of the twelve Blinks. The idea behind this: After completing each survey, participants reached the interim goal and came a step closer to the mountain summit.

Chapter overview of the Customer Experience Challenge on the blink.it platform

Through the CX Challenge, course participants not only learned something but also grew beyond themselves level by level. Additionally, gamification elements ensured that participants developed ambition to push through the challenge to the end.

How these gamification elements looked is introduced by Managing Director Alexandra Nagy in the following interview:

Interview with Alexandra Nagy: Gamification using the example of the "CX Challenge"

We asked Alexandra Nagy the following four questions in the interview:

• Question 1: For which topics is gamification suitable?

• Question 2: What should be considered when implementing gamification?

• Question 3: How can gamification be implemented with blink. it?

• Question 4: What advantages does blink. it offer particularly for gamification courses?

Question 1: For which topics is gamification suitable?

Whether dry or interesting – gamification is suitable for all topics! Especially for content where learning is perceived as tedious. Because playful elements lighten such topics. This promotes the motivation of course participants since learning successes become visible through e.g., levels or points collection. This way, you reduce the likelihood of participants dropping out of the online course early. With gamification, you as a trainer have the opportunity to create courses that contain challenges and obstacles. This way, your course participants continue to develop and grow step by step beyond themselves!

Question 2: What should be considered when implementing gamification?

Alexandra Nagy provides the following four tips on how to sensibly incorporate gamification into your online courses:

1. Knowledge level of your course participants

What is the skill level of your participants? By using a quiz or a survey, you can find out how much background knowledge is already present. This way, you can find the perfect balance between challenge and learning success!

Info: The Flow Theory is based on the principle that learners should not be overwhelmed, but also not under-challenged during the learning process. When both balance out, learners exceed personal goals and increase their learning and development curve.

Gamification gives participants the chance to continuously develop their skills. They don’t just learn dry material, but also master challenges and tasks to gradually enhance their abilities.
Alexandra Nagy

2. Tell a story

Consider an exciting story and build your course around it! If you choose a topic and align your course content accordingly, it becomes directly more interesting. The story gives your online course uniformity and a framework. Your course objective will thus be clearly recognizable, and your participants will know what is needed to reach the mountain summit. A unique story also generates attention:

By giving them a story to tell, participants spread the challenge wonderfully.
Alexandra Nagy

3. Transparent goal setting

Clearly formulated goals show your course participants what they will accomplish with your online course. Gamification elements (level thinking, points collection) support motivation and ambition to develop further and achieve the goal.

4. Sustained motivation

Levels, like in the CX Challenge, show the current learning progress and how participants are getting closer to the course goal. This progress works for many like a "positive trigger." Additionally, extra prizes ignite participants' motivation and determination to complete the course. Sustained motivation is therefore the key to growing beyond oneself and reaching the peak of the mountain.

Question 3: How can gamification be implemented with blink. it?

The CX Challenge consisted of a "best-of" selection of content around the topic of customer experience from Kunde 21. This content needed to be adjusted to the mountain summit story and level thinking. Accordingly, the course content was made lively with images and videos, fitting the theme.

Participant feedback from the CX Challenge

Gamification is often criticized, as the playful elements supposedly push the knowledge content into the background. But that doesn't have to be the case! Therefore, it is important to maintain the balance between playful elements and learning content.

Everything you tell – even if it is very funny – must be connected to the theory.
Alexandra Nagy

Question 4: What advantages does blink. it offer particularly for gamification courses?

1. Different media

To make gamification courses particularly immersive, the knowledge content should be enlivened and adapted to a specific topic. You want to tell a story! Therefore, use different formats in the course. This way, your participants can immerse themselves better in the story. You visually support your topic with e.g., cover images of your courses and chapters, images, videos, and audio files in your courses, and hyperlinks to other websites (e.g., YouTube).

2. Intuitive and user-friendly operation

The blink.it learning platform is not only intuitive for course creators but also easily applicable for course participants. This allows participants to easily dive into the story of the gamification course and they aren’t discouraged by complicated applications.

For us, managing participants with blink. it is practically at zero. There are never any problems.
Alexandra Nagy

3. Reflection at the end of the Blink

Despite gamification, the learning effect and personal development must not be neglected. Therefore, the participants of the challenge answered a survey at the end of each Blink. This helped reflect on and apply the learned knowledge. You can choose between quiz, survey, and exam at blink.it, and incorporate these at the appropriate point in the chapter. This further enhances the interactivity of the gamification course, and knowledge content does not fall by the wayside!

Our aim is to convey all our content and easily upload them. The blink.it platform is intuitive for us (as creators) and also for participants.
Alexandra Nagy

Online courses don't have to be rigid and boring! They offer the opportunity to achieve learning progress with fun. You need a story that you tell in your course and a mountain summit that your participants will conquer. If you liven up your content and visually adapt it to your story, your course participants will definitely be more motivated and ambitious to conquer this mountain.

Do you want to see your participants at the mountain summit, but don’t know how? Learn more about the features of blink.it and book your demo appointment!

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