VILT or Virtual Instructor-Led Training is a tried and tested method of remote learning. However, a gamified version of VILT adds a different dimension to the learning process by making it more engaging, playful and entertaining and easy-to-retain by the brain for various on-job roles at workplaces.
Seamless learning
It is therefore no surprising that a gamified VILT with its absorbing content has emerged as the driving force behind a seamless remote learning amid the COVID 19 pandemic that has forced people to learn from the safety of their homes. This is to avoid coming into contact with people infected with the deadly virus that has since killed thousands of people across the globe.
Impediments galore
But then from our own experience also we can tell that it’s no easy task to continue learning from home. There are vendors on the street trying to sell their wares and products from their cycles or motorized vehicles using a loudspeaker. If your house happens to be close to a street then you are bound to face distractions. Learning alone often becomes monotonous, too. And, god forbid, if you are required to go through a dull, boring content then one can well imagine your plight.
Easily retainable
Gamified virtual instructor-led training not only breaks the monotony of learning alone but also makes remote learning content interesting and retainable by the brain. Particularly, come as it did out of the need to ensure continuity in training remotely away from classrooms, some elements of classroom based ILT curriculum is bound to creep into VILT. This may disappoint learners having opted for VILT. How to deal with this problem?
Quality content over ‘right’ platform
By selecting the right kind of platform for delivering or hosting gamified virtual training many of the learners’ disappointment could be circumvented. The idea is to deliver high quality virtual training. An inefficient platform can play the spoilsports. Vendors, IT experts, trainers, and representative virtual learners need to work together to find an appropriate platform for delivering quality learning to remote learners.
Not so good?
Many see gamified VILT as a not so good alternative to actual classroom learning and causing distraction during learning. But when the learners have no ways of traveling to their institution’s classrooms due to a lockdown or many areas being declared containment zones to prevent the spread of Covid 19, a gamified VILT is a much better alternative to having no learning or training at all. The key to a successful gamified VILT lies in changing the focus of the training and recalibrating it from time to time and selecting relevant topics for sustaining remote learners interest in it.
Counting benefits
However, when it comes to counting the benefits of a gamification based VILT it scores over classroom based learning in many ways.
A properly implemented gamified VILT ensures much better learner engagement. It results in increased interaction between learner and instructors.
- It results in heightened levels of motivation among learners.
- Learners get instant feedback on learning processes and outcomes.
- It leads to better recall, retention and transfer of information.
- It results in an improved learning atmosphere.
- It makes effective delivery of learning.
- It makes learning affordable and scalable.
Keeping it small and simple
Having too many remote learners and lessons in a VILT session can easily prove to be counterproductive. The more the number of learners, sometimes hundreds, and lessons, often exceeding tens, the more are the chances of the entire learning process coming a cropper. It is therefore always good to keep the size of learners and lessons meant for them manageable. A learning session with too many lessons, tasks, quizzes and tests may come as a great impediment to learners’ engagement with gamified VILT.
Conclusion
It will, thus, be appropriate to conclude here that gamified VILT with its numerous learning and commercial advantages is the fulcrum on which today’s remote learning architecture rests. It is the need of the hour for remote learners.