How to Engage Learners with Edutainment

Attention spans are shortening by the minute, and instructors are wondering how to capture their audience. The answer? Edutainment.

This popular phrase combines education and entertainment, allowing learning to happen outside of a textbook. 

Say Goodbye to Boring Training

The days of boring training that disconnects employees are long gone. Edutainment allows company culture and personality to shine while creating fun experiences that unite teams. 

At MMG, merging edutainment into the workplace environment is an engagement strategy we take very seriously. We’ve incorporated it into virtual classes, sales kickoffs, and even those familiar eLearning courses. Let’s take a deeper look at how this stimulating theory positively impacts the world of learning and development.

Brain-Boosting Benefits

Edutainment has many benefits. It effectively motivates learners, increases engagement, and improves retention rates.

Trainees see these benefits when they receive information through multimedia or gameplay. For example, when a learner completes training in an interactive environment and receives individualized feedback based on their achievements, they are more likely to be motivated to continue the assignment than if they were learning passively.

As learners’ engagement levels rise, their ability to retain information improves. This is because a more engaging learning process is memorable, allowing learners to approach content enthusiastically rather than reluctantly.

Edutainment incentivizes learners to improve their performance while simultaneously reaching company goals and objectives. Implement various instructional practices to ensure employees gain these advantages.

The Flavors of Edutainment

1. Gamification

Gamification transforms education through scientifically proven strategies to produce an engaging learning environment. Gaming elements such as collecting points, leaderboards, and progress bars motivate these strategies.

When learners encounter these mechanics, dopamine levels spike, and their brains release this pleasure chemical in response to the game’s challenge and the achievement of the goal¹.

Gamification motivates participants to continue learning, making it one of the most favorable approaches to bringing edutainment into the workplace.

Check out the eLearning module our talented team created to show, not tell, our clients about this engagement strategy!

2. Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling in training is both educational and entertaining. This teaching method has been around for years and highly engages learners.

However, the presentation of storytelling continues to evolve. With the advancement of digital media, utilizing videos, podcasts, and interactive eLearning to communicate information is becoming the norm.

3. Scenario-based learning

Scenario-based learning (SBL) allows learners to put themselves in real-life situations and facilitates decision-making skills that drive behavioral change.

Studies have shown that retention rates for scenario-based learning can be as high as 90 percent, whereas retention rates for traditional learning are around 5 percent². This learning strategy is useful for a wide range of training and provides an effective way for learners to apply learning on the job.

Let’s Get Started!

As the world of learning and development continues to evolve, so do educational practices. Edutainment turns learning into engaging, memorable experiences through meaningful interaction. By using these practices, trainees will feel more involved in their learning journey, and you will see positive outcomes. Contact us to discover how we can help you incorporate these benefits!