Written By: Farah Ahmed
The last week of Ramadan was full of surprises! And as promised, today’s article will feature the international speakers that were guests in the summit.
Let’s take a quick look at these tempting panels…
Day 22 displayed “The Future of E-Learning after COVID19” with Muhamed Reda, technology education specialist and owner of EduVation, Dr. RashaEssam, educational technology lecturer in AUC and consultant, and Rasha Ashraf, software project manager and currently working in a project for the digital transformation of Egypt’s cultural heritage in the Ministry of Culture.
They started the stream putting some lights on the importance of E-Learning. Dr. Rasha described its facilitation for any student to obtain a degree overseas without having to travel, and the possibility of earning a degree while working as well. In short, it makes the person a life-long learner. While Rasha tackled it from the children’s perspective, stating that it provides an interactive environment and gives them a new higher edge of learning. Later, Mohamed added to its importance the achievement of the principle of equality between people; as they can access education anywhere at any time. Also, it saves time, cost, and effort. He then agreed with both women on its global domain and its social interaction.
Discussing the biggest challenges now and post-COVID 19, Dr. Rasha mentioned some points such as the misinterpretation of E-Learning due to the lack of training for teachers, not all schools have the learning management system, besides the unqualified teaching mode. While Rasha highlighted the challenge from the children’s domain stating the biggest one for kids from 3-12 years, is keeping them interested. Likewise, the E-content creators must be always updated, as the market develops very fast. For her, budget and the difference between formal education and E-learning difference are big competitions as well. Mohamed Reda sees the next period as the era of prosperity in digital education; where there will be an increase in initiatives and investment in education’s infrastructure.
Later, they gave some insights on the tools needed for E-learning, like:
- Microsoft Themes
- Google Classroom
- Learnovia
- Learning Management System (Model)
- Flash Adobe and Adobe Captivate
- Articulate Storyline 360
Here you go our International experts’ section! Starting by “Gamification for Solving Problems, Increasing engagement & market research” on the 23rd day.
Betty Adamou: CEO and founder of Research through Gaming (RTG), the inventor of ResearchGames™, and author of academic text-book, “Games and Gamification in Market Research”.
She sees games and data changing the world everywhere and helping businesses grow; games are indeed data collection tools and the most engaging medium. She then clarifies that it applies in any discipline; in employee engagement, training, healthcare industry, online learning, etc.
Steve Bocska: CEO of PUG Interactive, an award-winning company that uses gameplay principles and technologies to solve challenging business problems. For him, ‘Engagement’ is a competitive drive; it keeps the company ahead, like Nike, Sephora, and Starbucks. It is increasingly important for survival and it was highlighted during this period. In the video game industry, engagement is the product, and the bar of engagement in this industry is so high, as you try consistently to attract customers.
Will Stuart Jones: Head of Solutions Consulting at audience engagement specialists 3radical. When asked about how gamification and mobile applications have a positive impact on customer engagement and experience, Will agreed with Betty and Steve, as it is all about data. Businesses use gamification to capture data to target their consumers/audiences more effectively.
Regarding market research data collection, Betty instructs to examine the variables of the market you target and consider the clients’ recent objectives. Thus, it is all about using games as a technique for marketing. At the same time, Will added the role of ‘Gamification’ in market research and gamifying some elements in a website, for instance, to observe consumer behavior. Steve laid down a little disagreement, illustrating that there is another layer that should also be considered, which consists of the personality and the motivation of the sector that I’m targeting. Thereafter, objectively asking about the motivators I’m trying to drag them for and how to keep them in the loop. So, it has to be always tempered with the business goals, and to achieve that, consider 3 factors to create engagement:
- Are the community members making interesting choices?
- What is the consequence of those actions?
- How much time pressure you put on someone for engagement?
Linked to the same topic, “The Impact of Gamification on Marketing, Employee Engagement, and Learning” was the focus of the next day!
Rachel Swann: Commercial Director at 3radical based in the UK. She carries the belief that Gamification is an extension of audience engagement and gives a real-time value exchange.
Karl Kapp: Instruction Technology professor at the Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and the author of “The gamification of learning and instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for training and education”. He maintains the belief that Gamification is all about engagement and methodologies of engaging people; what elements of games lead to engagement over time.
Ferdinand Goetzen: Director of Marketing & Growth at 3D Hubs an on-demand manufacturing platform in the Netherlands.
How can gamification improve the engagement of companies with their customers? Rachel considers that it’s all concerning ‘engagement’ and it’s about cutting in through by saying ‘what in it for me’ as a customer. There is now the privilege of technology in business. As a business owner, I can get so much data about my customers to personalize the engagement and that’s where comes gamification by giving people choice on how and what they are going to do. When the customer feels that he is valued by the brand it generates loyalty.
How can I attract my customers following the most marketing strategies? Ferdinand summarizes the core principles behind successful marketing are:
- Knowing your customer and it’s more than having a customer persona, it is having initial discussions and engagement.
- Having the right data
- Being updated; knowing what/why/how it’s happening
- Using your knowledge of your customer and the right data to test new channels
How can I create more exciting educational opportunities? Karl stated that the most important thing is having a ‘compelling content’; give the customers items that have meaning to them and go through ‘feedback loops’.
How can we get the benefits of using non-financial incentives to increase payer’s activities rates? Rachel agreed with Karl on knowing your customers and feedback loops, and also highlighting what she mentioned before on ‘what in it for me’ question. Moreover, she deeply explained the notion of ‘profiling segmentation’.
More related to the topic, Ferdinand clarified that there’s no difference between’ Growth Hacking’ and marketing, it is just an approach towards marketing. Then clarified the ideologies behind growth hacking are:
- Importance of data.
- Taking a linear experimental approach.
- Taking a full customer journey approach.
What are the appropriate tools to use in a classroom or corporate training environment to increase engagement? Some exercises were mentioned by Karl, such as Self-Motivation Theory and breakout rooms in zoom. In the end, he gives a couple of advice on starting game-based learning:
- ‘Learning by Doing’ technique; start playing different kinds of games, games you like and don’t like, to have the practical experience. For instance, board games and connect games. Then apply it in your situation; applying those concepts to your area or field.
- ‘Resources’ including books, LinkedIn Learning courses, and Growth Engineering courses
Day 25 ended the Gamification round by “The Power of Gamification”.
Lilian AbouHamdan: HR expert in the banking industry, certified in “Applying Gamification in L&D” from Gamification, and did the first board game as part of the “Youth Leadership Workshop”. Mr. Nicolas Babin: President at Babin Business Consulting as well as co-founder of MirambeauAppCare the publisher of the award-winning Diabilive app (diabetes management) since 2017. Rob Alvarez: The host of Professor Game podcast and teaches at IE Business School.
Lilian begins by the way technologies taking place in the administrative work, and how the integration of artificial intelligence is clear. In this way, HR should integrate technology using Gamification to make the employees more productive. Followed by Nicolas ensuring that AI augments HR, and like that, HR persons are transforming. Rob adds that it’s necessary to be associated with the results as well.
Then we find our panelists’ opinions match with each other on the evolution of AI and the various ways to use game-based learning to add value to the learning sessions. Rob illustrates that there is an evolution in AI that takes you to the next level. Everything builds upon each other; there is a lot of materials that we can use as we don’t have to start from scratch. Nicolas and Lilian accord with Rob, although it’s a huge shift for employees and students, it’s considered an opportunity and we shouldn’t go steps back. One of the positive sides, we know have a choice and the strong possibility of hybrid learning.
During transformations, in Gamification, you must put people first, their motives, their mindset, and the consequences on them. It is an element in making education exciting again, making business enhance, and a deconstruction method too.
Concerning staying positive through the pandemic, Lilian started spreading COVID 19 awareness using gamification. While Rob’s method is taking all in and try to grasp an opportunity is a way to stay positive. As for Nicolas, he praises people becoming more connected and assures rebound eventually.
Stay tuned for the last coverage of the summit and don’t forget to check the SPECIAL panels on the links below!
Day 22: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/244565339954027/
Day 23: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/703689977062736/
Day 24: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/744921996249866/
Day 25: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/272898270782923/
