Today, testing organizations and employers alike are faced with the growing issue confronting today's workforce: the widening skills gap. As employers increasingly search for individuals with the right set of abilities and qualifications, candidates are searching to demonstrate their proficiencies with in-demand skills. As a result, testing organizations are seeing high demand for tailored preparation that allows test-takers to meet their assessment goals and accurately verify those skills that are in high demand.
For many types of assessments, conventional preparation materials such as practice tests are created as a one-size-fits-all solution, and do not necessarily provide test-takers with a way to improve or assess specific skills, as they are not customized to a test-taker's aptitude. The latest trends in exam preparation and continuing education, such as gamification and micro-learning, combined with personalized preparation recommendations, are one way for testing organizations to help close the knowledge-gap of their test-takers at key stages of the exam process, ensuring they reach their goals. Let's take a closer look at micro-learning and gamification to see how these strategies can be incorporated into a preparation program, or a continuing education program, helping to guide candidates through their studies and give them the confidence to excel in their roles and in a demanding job market at large.
What is Micro-Learning?
Simply put, micro-learning is a scientific proven way of dividing content subject matter into small, easily digestible pieces. When it comes to assessment programs, micro-learning can be used to help test-takers focus on the topics they need to study, and to improve knowledge retention in ongoing learning applications. By breaking down the material into small pieces, candidates can better retain the information and feel more confident during their assessment.
With personalized programs, micro-learning is combined with AI to promote long-term knowledge retention, and has a wide range of applications for organizations, including product training, change management, process improvement, and more.
What is Gamification?
If you’ve filled out an online survey, or engaged in online feedback, chances are that you’ve encountered a gamification mechanic. These include gameplay features such as points, levels, missions, leaderboards, badges, and progress. Rated a restaurant recently online by assigning it a score out of 5? That’s an example of gamification. If you’ve completed an online training course with tracked progress bars on your screen, that’s another example of gamification.
When used strategically, gamification is an effective way to increase knowledge adoption, increase retention, and boost motivation to complete a set of tasks. Adding gamification elements to assessment preparation ensures that organizations can significantly increase the engagement candidates have with the preparation material and improve their learning outcomes at the same time. The applications of gamification are wide-ranging, from challenge and competition-based training tools to knowledge checks in content delivery, and more.
What are Personalized Recommendations?
Personalized recommendations are another way to help test-takers understand the material and prepare for their exams. By tailoring the content to the individual, test-takers can receive recommendations that are specific to their needs. This allows for a more targeted approach to studying, ensuring that the test-taker is focusing on the topics that will help them the most.
Preparation offerings that take personalized recommendations the extra step by providing item-level feedback are able to provide candidates with the opportunity to review key areas of their skills and knowledge and leverage deep analytics for real-time insights into knowledge gaps for test-takers and testing organizations alike.
Final Thoughts
Preparation platforms that incorporate both micro-learning and gamification mechanics are powerful tools that can help candidates succeed in their learning goals. When paired with personalized recommendations, these tools can provide candidates with a tailored preparation strategy to help them achieve their desired outcome, not just to meet their score goals, but to remain competitive in a demanding job market that increasingly needs individuals with critical skills.
At Prometric, we've assembled these tools into our Prometric Boost platform. With Prometric Boost, your organization is just one simple integration away from adding Boost to your existing e-commerce solution, where you can offer your candidates personalized preparation while unlocking a new revenue stream that can help grow your program's reach, influence, and reputation. Prometric Boost can even leverage the AI power of Finetune Generate® and Prometric's Test Development experts to quickly and seamlessly create practice content that will help prepare your candidates while protecting your program.
Learn more about Prometric Boost today!