Franzefoss Experienced an Increase in Engagement through Serious Games for Serious Topics

• Increased efficiency when learning by doing - the employees at Franzefoss experienced games and simulations as a fun way to learn by doing.

• Flexibility of the game and more freedom for the player - this learning methodology offered the participants the possibility to train at their own pace and in a safe environment.

• Increased engagement across different age groups - Apprendly offered Franzefoss a customised experience able to encompass all age groups and technical knowledge. Learning was perceived as an entertaining experience.

“This was surprisingly fun - when are we getting play stations shipped to the facilities?”
— The facility foreman

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“I actually felt that I have learned much more with the Apprendly game than with the traditional methods. I would love to play more games.”
— The accounting department at Franzefoss

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“I like how I can put small easter eggs in the games. Like throwing down something that surprises the players as they go or using humour to drive the story.”
— Sander at Franzefoss

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Challenges

Franzefoss has set a high standard for Health, Safety and Environment (H.S.E.) training, with a Zero Accident Vision. As a part of the strategy, the organization seeks to reduce accidents and aims to eliminate fatal ones.

Premises are that people at Franzefoss are practical and the traditional learning methods consisting of a lot of text have not always been stimulating enough to be prioritised on busy workdays.

The biggest challenge was to wrap serious topics in interactive, immersive and engaging content, increasing the interest and the attention span of the participants.

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Solution

Franzefoss wanted to find a way of getting the employees excited about learning important HSE topics. The solution was game-based learning. Learning through serious games involves interaction, immersion and practicality. These elements contribute to a higher memorability of the concepts.

When it comes to safety, repetition is key in order to assimilate new concepts and game-based learning enhances willingness for reiteration without ever perceiving the task as a burden. The users engage longer with the platform, wanting to constantly improve results and even become competitive.

With the HSE games for learning, the employees at Franzefoss managed to immerse themselves into the game, experiencing a gradual difficulty. Through this methodology, the participants were able to pave their own learning path and acquire skills from the decisions made. The employees that experienced the game for learning found the situations challenging, memorable, and fun and would like to repeat them.

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Advantages

Some of the clear advantages encountered within playing the Apprendly games for learning are:

• The simulation component - the learning is based on replicas of real situations and dilemmas. This facsimile of reality contributes to making simulation-based learning more realistic and captivating for the participants.

• The ease of use and high accessibility of the game to everybody - there is a low threshold for using the game, as it is intuitive and does not require people to have prior "gaming" experience. Moreover, the users have access to the game through a link, without any requirements for special programs.

Apprendly and Franzefoss have managed to accomplish 2 important goals: resonate with a broad target audience and introduce a relevant game-based story to everyone in the organisation. Both objectives were successfully achieved and gave grounds for further implementation of games.

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About the collaboration

Franzefoss co-produced the games together with Apprendly, being involved in the creation process from the very beginning. Franzefoss are now equipped with the perfect authoring tool to start creating their own games for learning and explore new ways to use games as a communication channel.

Franzefoss needed a trusted partner that could contribute to both developing the games for learning and also provide a flexible authoring platform to permanently keep the content updated and relevant.

The solution derived from the collaboration between Apprendly and Franzefoss was a successful practice of crucial safety topics in a simple and fun way, through game mechanics and simulation of reality, with the goal of positively impacting the behaviour and mindset at the workplace.

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“We have been looking for a gamified way to refresh key areas of our learning. It was a struggle to find an optimal solution for our needs - a tool to develop the training and an engaging way to test the knowledge.

The Apprendly Creator offered us the tool we were longing for in terms of creating the training, and the streamlined solution made the training highly accessible to everyone in the organisation.”
‍— Dorthe Sommerseth at Franzefoss

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Final word

The solution developed by the 2 partners, Apprendly and Franzefoss, managed to encompass and engage a broad target audience within the organisation. The learning process was successfully achieved by the arts of doing, which made the employees feel motivated and willing to repeat the experience.

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By simulating real situations in a gamified context, employees at Franzefoss were able to test key organisational notions in a safe environment and learn about the potential consequences of non-compliance in real life.

An authentic training tool that resonates with all age categories and provides an interactive experience, can make a whole deal of difference when talking about serious topics. That’s game-changing!

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