Enhancing Knowledge Transmission: The Perspective of Gamification User Profiles

Abstract

In the realm of knowledge transmission, organizations face the challenge of finding effective strategies to engage individuals and facilitate knowledge transfer. Traditional methods often fall short, failing to capture individuals’ attention and ignite their motivation to actively participate in the knowledge transmission process. This article introduces Colearnis, a novel knowledge transmission platform, which allows peers to transfer knowledge in a gamified manner by using videos and quizzes which are directly created by the employees. This article also presents a long-term field study investigating the use of Colearnis with 130 employees in a worldwide metallurgy and tooling company. A multi-dimensional evaluation approach makes use of user surveys and behavior-tracking data to explore prospective avenues which might benefit knowledge transmission. Users have been profiled under demographical and managerial aspects, however also under their gamification user types according to the Hexad framework for gamification design. This study explores the connections between user profiles and engagement behaviors within Colearnis. The findings suggest that factors such as; age influence the achiever and philanthropist user types, however also that individuals with greater managerial duties are more likely to be classified as socializer, free-spirit, or philanthropist user types. Additionally, this study suggests that socializer or disruptor user types are more likely to consume or react to peers’ self-created knowledge. On the other hand, achiever user profiles are less likely to react or start quizzes. These findings equip organizations with valuable insights to further design and implement engaging ad-hoc knowledge transmission systems. These systems could be further tailored to align with individuals’ managerial profiles and gamification user types, optimizing engagement and increasing the likelihood of successful knowledge transmission.