Andragogy Through a Games-based Learning Lens
Andragogy Through a Games-based Learning Lens
Andragogy Through a Games-based Learning Lens
March 24, 2022
By Sarah Le-Fevre
Summary
Effective learning only occurs when learners have autonomy to direct their own learning and are intrinsically motivated to engage with the specific topic or skill being offered.
If we were to use these principles as the basis to build a gameful learning environment or a learning game, what might such an Andragogical game look like, and what existing examples can be drawn upon for inspiration?
In many workplace learning settings, this would be a prohibitive overhead. And this is perhaps the Andragogy principle that games can satisfy where other approaches may fail.
Finally, games design itself provides an excellent vehicle for learners to create their own relevance, and has the added advantage that it embeds learning in transversal competencies such as systems thinking and design thinking.
If a mandated game is not a game, and mandated learning is not learning, what do we do when we are creating workplace games-based learning which employees are obliged to engage in? Do we just accept that those who do not want to engage will not receive the benefits we designed in?
One of the objections that we often face as games-based learning professionals, is that games are 'just for kids', the implications being that we cannot use games for 'serious' learning, that we 'trivialise' the important business of workplace learning by making it gameful, or even that we are patronising adults by asking them to play to learn.
A direct mapping of a game's mechanisms to a specifically 'adult' learning theory may help to make the case to skeptics, and if not, I hope it provides food for thought when you are creating your next learning intervention.
Reference
Le-Fevre, S. (2022, March 24). Andragogy through a games-based learning lens. Retrieved April 8, 2022, from https://ludogogy.co.uk/andragogy-through-a-games-based-learning-lens/