Video Games Are Good For You
During my benchmarking research I thought about what a non-linear learning experience might look like. What if we could pick and choose what skills and principles we learn and in what order? Maybe because we also talked about gamification, I started thinking about video games.
Above: Maplestory 2; Below: World of Warcraft
Oh yeah, this brings me back to 2006.
It’s common in MMOs (like WoW, PoE, other three letter acronyms) for players to be able to customize their characters with a Skill Tree. Points are spent each level to add skills or level up already owned skills. The original intent was probably to allow each player to have a slightly unique build compared to other players. Unfortunately that rarely pans out as meta builds and dominant strategies are discovered. But it’s the thought that counts.
What could this mean for an online learning platform?
We could create a non-linear learning experience whose path is dictated by the user. Core modules and principles would branch out in diverging paths that the user could pick and choose from.
Each principle or module could give credits that contribute to the overall learning progress. Maybe you need a certain number of credits to ‘graduate’ or level up. This sort of gamification could be a determining factor in keeping the users’ interest and contribute to a long lasting relationship with the platform.
Perhaps leveling up could unlock more modules to pick and choose from.
By the time the student ‘graduates’ the path they took to graduation would look different than any other student. They would learn basically all the same things, but they did it at their pace and in the order they wanted to.
What if we wanted to be really evil?
Azur Lane is the best goddamn game on the market, you can fight me over it
A lot of mobile games operate with an energy system. This has a few benefits:
Limiting energy (and by extension the amount users can play) provides an opportunity to generate revenue by selling more energy. Users effectively pay to play the game.
Limiting energy and play time can extend an otherwise short game experience. Most mobile games are idle clickers. If the user was given free reign they would probably get bored very quickly.
For the company this is great, though the general user would likely disagree.
We could apply such a system to our learning platform:
Maybe each student has a limited number of energy tokens per day. Each lesson or module costs a certain number of energy tokens. When the tokens run out, they can’t unlock new lessons. Old lessons should probably be kept unlocked to keep the students busy.
Chaotic Evil option: We could charge users for more energy tokens, allowing them to learn further. I don’t like this idea, and I think it goes against the spirit of what we’re trying to do. But hey, I need to pay rent.
Lawful Good option: We have energy replenish on a timer, or give tokens as rewards for completing tasks and milestones. This feeds further into the gamification idea.
Limiting the amount a student learns in a day is actually beneficial. The human mind can only take in so much new information in a day. Forcing the student to go back over previously learned content will strengthen their understanding of learned principles.
By essentially limiting access to new content on a timer we can create a demand for new content. The student will look expectantly towards unlocking new content the next day. It’s simply Economics 101!
I am neither a psychologist nor an economist. Those last two points are probably utter bullshit.
