Gamification and m-learning are two dynamic trends. Today, many instructional designers try to leverage them both by adding game elements to mobile content. Yet gamification and m-learning don’t always get along. Here’s how to help them team up.

Decide how much gamification to use.

Mobile courses may seem perfect for gamification, but it’s important to go easy on it. If the content is too gamified, you risk students spending the majority of their time on character development, animations and other frivolous mechanics rather than learning itself. Whatever game elements you add, make sure they don’t complicate navigation on mobile devices or distract students with needless rewards and unexpected pop-up windows.

When deciding on the level of gamification, keep your target audience in mind. The same badges, points and leaderboards may engage one group of users and fatigue another. Analyze your audience’s level of experience with mobile devices, and use (or don’t use) gamification accordingly.

Use systematic repetition and partial rewards.

Linear mobile courses and applications often cover a certain topic in a single lesson and don’t return to it afterward. Once students have completed a lesson, they receive a reward and with it a pleasant but false sense of mastery. The truth is that just 20 minutes after learning a new concept or skill, our brains lose 42 percent of it. The key to knowledge acquisition is systematic repetition and testing of previously learned concepts.

Game rewards should vary depending on the task. You can praise every activity, but leave the most significant rewards for when the lessons are really learned, not just completed. A great example here is ExactTarget’s gamification of salesforce training, which requires students to “climb each mountain of knowledge” using three different paths. On their way, players can collect “Seeds of Knowledge” and “Pearls of Wisdom” that correspond to certain activities.

Consider the learning environment.

Mobile learning happens in different environments, including outside of classroom or office walls. Often, ambient conditions compete with mobile learning. To make sure gamification is still fun and effective, provide text alternatives for all the audio elements. Allow users to mute sound and switch to the text version at any time and to skip the tasks that require microphone recording.

Eliminate hefty content.

Every minute students spend waiting for content to load is a minute that they should have spent learning. Ideally, your gamification elements should load quickly, regardless of the quality of the connection. To adapt your content for mobile devices, choose a corresponding resolution for images, audio and video. The majority of modern authoring tools allow users to convert content for both HD and mobile displays.

Another way to reduce the size of game elements is to cut their number. Including too many images, animations and videos will make the content slow to load and complicate navigation. Try to use text where possible.

Use notifications wisely.

It’s a common thought that a smartphone-carrying student can be drawn into a gamified experience anytime and anywhere. If this were true, we would be happy to receive mobile reminders and would instantly resume learning upon receiving them. However, recent research shows that over 50 percent of mobile app users find push notifications annoying rather than helpful. Allow students to decide on the frequency themselves, and your reminders will always be timely and welcome.

Gamification is supposed to motivate learners, yet poorly-planned gamification in mobile learning can instead be a source of demotivation. These tips will help you combine the power of gamification and mobile learning in a single engaging and convenient course.

Dasha Sokolova is an e-learning content developer who has transformed the teaching experience from a traditional to a virtual classroom.