The 6 Best Gamification LMS Picks to Level Up Your Training

While resistance to training remains one of the key issues that L&Ds struggle with when implementing their programs, finding new ways to motivate learners is essential to foster skill acquisition and achieve a high level of knowledge retention. For this, you need a real game changer.

If you think your learners are too adult to use game techniques, or the subject matter is too serious to gamify the learning process, you probably haven’t had a gamified experience in LMS software. Read on to discover how LMS platforms can benefit you and your learners, and get a complete overview of the best gamification LMS programs to choose from in 2024.

Why Do You Need a Gamified LMS?

Gamification refers to incorporating game elements and techniques into training activities to enhance employee engagement and motivation and make routine corporate training more fun. Some of you may be unsure about “playing” with your responsible training projects, but allow us to show you the benefits that gamified learning management systems bring to the table:

Enhance learner engagement

In fact, many apps we use daily are gamified, even those not directly related to learning. Think about your fitness and budgeting apps, habit and productivity trackers, or social media that make us engage with them again and again or receive likes. By applying similar game techniques to learning, you can turn mundane training into something enjoyable and thus engage learners to achieve more.

And these aren’t just nice words — according to Zippia’s research findings, 70% of the world’s largest 2,000 companies have already implemented a gamification system in their training programs. This widespread adoption makes a strong case for taking LMS gamification strategies seriously.

Ensure clear progress tracking

Gamified elements like a points system, badges, and levels serve as visual progress indicators (or progress bar) and help learners experience those “small wins” that we all love. They also help break the learning process down into manageable chunks, allowing for a focus on one goal at a time and a sense of accomplishment as users progress.

Foster a learning culture

By incorporating game-like elements, you can make learning fun a habitual part of employees’ daily routines and encourage them to engage more frequently with your learning management system. 

In the long run, this approach will help you foster a growth mindset throughout the organization and promote lifelong learning by creating a supportive learning environment in which employees are motivated to pursue personal and professional development goals continuously.

6 Common Gamification Features to Look for in an LMS

Most often, LMS gamification elements are points, badges, leaderboards, and certificates; and sometimes levels and rewards as well:

1. Points

Point systems are the cornerstone of LMS gamification elements. Everyone likes to see their numbers go up, so they serve as instant feedback for learners and immediate gratification for their efforts. For example, you can award 5 points for completed courses and 10 points when learners pass important assessments, helping them celebrate small victories to inspire and keep learners motivated, while also encouraging friendly competition.

2. Badges

Badges are like digital medals awarded for reaching a specific learning milestone, such as completing courses, hitting certain levels, or tackling specific tasks. They provide visual recognition of students’ accomplishments, motivating learners to keep going. 

Some gamified learning management systems enable badge customization, so you can create funny badges like “Sales Shark,” “Code Terminator,” “Legal Eagle,” or those tailored to your business specifics.

3. Leaderboards

Leaderboards are one of the simplest gamified elements, they foster healthy competition among learners. They show who has accumulated the most points or completed more training over a certain period. This inspires them to strive harder and aim for the top spots.

4. Certificates

Certificates of completion are an official way to reward learners’ achievements. They can be awarded for completing courses, concluding certification programs, or passing exams. Besides increasing motivation, certificates also add value to learners’ resumes because they can be easily shared on social media or attached to professional portfolios.

5. Levels

Much as in a video game, in which players advance to new levels after achieving certain learning goals, levels in a learning management system keep students engaged and encourage them to continue learning. Moving up to a new level is often tied to the number of points a learner has earned, such as advancing after earning every 100 points.

6. Rewards

Earning points can be integrated into a broader rewards system in which top performers can redeem them for a variety of tangible prizes, such as Amazon gift cards, branded company goodies, or partner discounts. This adds another layer to drive motivation as students work toward a goal.

Also read → How to choose the right LMS

The 6 Best LMSs with Gamification Features to Consider

We reviewed numerous gamified LMSs to make a short list of the 6 best gamification platforms with plenty of key elements that will help you make mandatory training more engaging and fun. Click on any platform that seems more relevant to you, or continue to the detailed descriptions.

iSpring Learn is a robust LMS that helps companies onboard, upskill, and certify their teams around the globe. Despite its minimalist interface, it offers powerful key features like rapid gamified content authoring, smart training automation, in-depth analytics, and numerous powerful tools to boost engagement.

Internal experts can quickly create courses and other learning materials directly in the LMS and share knowledge with peers. For long-term L&D programs, you can build individual learning tracks with strict navigation, so the next course or module is accessible only when the current one has been completed — just as in games.

With iSpring’s LMS, users receive points, custom badges, and certificates, and track their progress on interactive leaderboards. Communication is enhanced through chat with instructors, course feedback, and star ratings. Also, there is a corporate news feed where you can share your corporate news, updates, and important announcements to keep your learners engaged and up to date.

Pricing

The pricing depends on the number of active users (those who access the platform per month):

• 100 users — $6.64 per user/month
• 300 users — $4.10 per user/month
• 500 users — $3.75 per user/month

Billed annually. A free 30-day trial and a live, personalized demo are available.

Best for

This gamified learning management system is ideal for companies selecting their first online education platform or switching to a more intuitive solution. It’s also perfect for organizations that need comprehensive employee training software that offers all the key features to create, launch, and evaluate learning initiatives quickly.

Paradiso is a highly customizable LMS with a colorful, eye-catching user interface. It offers a robust suite of key features that includes smart training automation, competency frameworks, personalized learning paths, completion rates and plenty of training reports and dashboards about everything that happens on the platform. 

As a gamified learning management system, it places a strong emphasis on social learning and gamification elements. You can award points and custom badges for certain behaviors or activities that learners can share on social media or in the LMS’s interactive portfolio. The point system contributes to the leaderboards that guide learners to check their performance against others. 

This learning platform also lets users work at their own pace, network in discussion forums, leave comments on learning materials and participate in chat rooms and video channels.

Pricing

Upon request. This LMS gamification solution provides flexible pricing depending on an organization’s unique needs and requirements. You can choose from the Professional and Enterprise plan, which can be billed monthly or annually.

Best for

The Paradiso gamified learning management system can be extremely useful for medium to large organizations (150+ employees) that want a single platform to make both internal and external programs more engaging and personalized.

Centrical is a fully gamified learning management system for onboarding, skill acquisition, and driving the performance of internal teams. The platform enables built-in course content authoring and automated microlearning delivery in the workflow, as well as personalized performance insights and actionable AI recommendations.

LMS gamification is at the heart of all key features in Centrical. You can choose from various game narratives (such as dynamic car races), and collect badges, points, and levels, to climb the leaderboard. Training managers can set individual interactive challenges and even group learners to easily create a friendly competition, common goals, and milestones.

This LMS software also encourages peer recognition. You can share badges and kudos in team conversations — and earn points for doing so. Besides awarding points, you can reward students who earn redeemable coins that can be exchanged for tangible rewards, such as a company t-shirt, a $50 Starbucks gift card, and more, in the virtual store.

Pricing

Centrical offers a pay-per-user model. All pricing details are available upon request.

Best for

Centrical is a great LMS gamification solution for organizations looking for a highly gamified learning management system for personalized employee coaching and support, helping them manage training by creating a culture of continuous learning and team recognition.

TalentLMS is a cloud-based LMS with an easy-to-use interface that that provides all the key features you need to launch online or blended learning for both internal and external teams. It allows you to upload virtually any type of course material and create quizzes directly on the platform for a quick start. All of the learners’ results are conveniently displayed in real-time reports and dynamic visual dashboards.

As a gamification LMS, it allows you to personalize the learning experience with individual learning paths and custom homepages with tailored design and gamified content. You can encourage learner progress and activity by points earned and unlocking badges (for completing tasks and courses or even after each log-in) and letting learners upgrade their level every 3,000 accumulated points, for example.

If you’re using the learning management system to sell online training courses, you’ll also appreciate rewards: the platform allows users to earn rewards for discounts on your training products to enhance engagement.

Pricing

With TalentLMS, you can pay monthly or annually, for either the total number of users or only the active ones. There are five subscription plans to choose from:

• Starter — $149 for up to 40 active users/month.
• Basic — $269 for 41–100 active users/month.
• Plus — $389 for 101–250 active users/month.
• Premium — $519 for 251–500 active users/month.
• Enterprise — custom plan, pricing information available upon request.

There’s also a forever-free plan (up to 5 users and 10 online courses) with unlimited email support.

Best for

TalentLMS is great if you’re looking for a single gamified learning platform for delivering training materials to the sales department and other employees, customers, or partners, or want to sell training courses online.

The Adobe Learning Manager is an online training platform that offers a range of key features to facilitate personalized learning experiences for employees, partners, and customers. The learning management system provides AI-driven recommendations based on the learner’s skills, interests, and role. It also allows you to create learning paths, track skill development, and monitor overall learners’ progress through a wide range of reports.

With Adobe’s gamified platform, learners can accumulate points and badges that can be shared on social media and peer workspaces, and keep an eye on their position on leaderboards. Instructors can also reward students with certificates for completing courses and corporate training programs, monitor expiration dates through reports, and reassign training automatically.

To boost social learning, Adobe captivate also features communities of like-minded learners based on specific skills, job roles, or topics where they can share ideas and communicate with each other.

Pricing

With the Adobe gamification features, you can choose to pay for registered users or active users only. Pricing details are available upon request.

Best for

The Adobe Learning Manager is great if you’re looking for an AI-driven LMS for delivering personalized training programs. It will be super handy if you already use Adobe learning programs and want to enhance your suite for training employees. 

Absorb is a powerful LMS that helps companies deliver corporate training to employees, customers, and partners. It offers 6 modules for educational content authoring, AI training personalization, increasing engagement in learners, in-depth analytics, and even in-app digital adoption, so you can set up an ideal platform for your needs.

Absorb Engage is an additional module with a set of collaborative tools that facilitate the learning experience. You can create custom homepages called billboards with static images, videos, and links and promote informal learning fun with peer gatherings, discussions, and a corporate newsfeed in a “journal” format.

Learners can earn badges and track progress on leaderboards. Just like on social media, all LMS users have public profiles and an opportunity to rate courses, interact with each other, view the top performers, and share their accomplishments. 

Pricing

Upon request. The Absorb gamification LMS software provides custom pricing tailored to unique business needs.

Best for

Absorb is a good option for large companies that want a custom training solution to launch employee training or customer and partner learning and development initiatives in a single place.

Gamify eLearning, Amplify Outstanding Training Results

We hope this article helped you understand the numerous benefits of gamification strategies that can be brought to training results, or at least take a look at gamified learning experiences from a different perspective. Pick the most preferable learning management systems from our list and explore them firsthand during free trials. 

If you don’t know where to start or need an additional consultation before you implement game design elements, schedule a free demo of iSpring Learn with our eLearning manager to discuss your training project in more detail and see how iSpring can help.