Organizations that offer gamified exercises to cyber teams report that 96 percent of workers see benefits, including increased awareness of weaknesses, knowledge of how breaches occur, improved teamwork and response times, and enhanced self-efficiency. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Article Author: <\/div>\n

Keenan Skelly, VP, Global Partnerships and Security Evangelist, Circadence <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Gamified learning is a teaching method capturing the attention of more than just university professors and instructors. This engaging technique is being applied to cybersecurity training of professionals and is growing in popularity due to successes in retention, comprehension, and overall engagement. But why does this gamified learning method work so well and what does it mean for the future of cybersecurity professionals tasked with keeping companies safe from adversaries? <\/p>\n

The cybersecurity industry has taken note of the learning retention that a traditional, classroom-style approach yields. In actuality, students forget…<\/p>\n

40 percent of what they’ve learned after 20 minutes<\/li>\n
Between 50 and 80 percent of what they’ve learned after one day <\/li>\n
77 percent of what they’ve learned after six days<\/li>\n
90 percent of what they’ve learned after one month <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Limited retention is driven by the minimal opportunities in lecture-based learning for students to proactively solve problems, think critically, and analyze material. Instead, they memorize concepts to pass the tests, without truly understanding the application to real-world situations. The result is often students who are disengaged, disempowered, and unmotivated. In the cyber training arena, this also can mean students are not building the best cyber abilities or critical thinking skills they need.<\/p>\n
Gamified learning is an active learning approach that teaches techniques through the use of video game-style activities. For cyber skills training, the learning exercises occur in virtual environments called cyber ranges. Cyber range training can engage an individual or a team in critical thinking and problem solving. When used within a gamified environment including a little healthy competition with scoring and leaderboards, as well as digital badges for successes, and even completing work role certification, students not only perform better, they retain more knowledge. When professionals use gamified training platforms, they are more engaged, empowered, excited, and possess deep, conceptual understandings of topics learned. <\/p>\n
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Discover Learning<\/strong>
\n<\/span>Active learning<\/a><\/span> involves collaborating with teams and applying concepts to real-world exercises and scenarios, which <\/span>improves retention rates to 75 percent, compared to 5 percent<\/a><\/span> through traditional learning methods. In fact, the use of “discover learning” or practicing-by-doing, is one of the most effective methods of learning because it engages multiple senses in the learning process. This encourages professionals to apply what they’ve learned and use hands-on applications that promote a deeper understanding. <\/span>This results in a more in-depth comprehension of the material, and greater cognitive retention.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
In gamified cyber learning environments, professionals typically are: <\/p>\n