Renewing my AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification with AWS Cloud Quest
My AWS Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud Practitioner was about to expire. I renewed it for free through the gamified option on AWS Cloud Quest. As a gamer, this process made me consider the benefits of gamifying education.
Making education feel like play
Long sessions on Microsoft Learn and AWS Training content become monotonous.
On Cloud Quest, you control a character to move about a virtual city and help non-player characters (NPCs) with their problems. The problems are like quests in regular video games, except you solve them with AWS features like EC2, S3, VPCs, etc. You can choose new looks for the city section you just improved as you complete quests.
An NPC sharing its problem somehow felt more engaging than reading the business requirements in a scenario.
Finding ways to measure progress
Gamification can help track progress through a topic.
One of the hard parts about teaching myself a new skill is tracking my progress and setting milestones. How do I know if I completed a meaningful amount of content? Gamified learning offloads that responsibility onto someone else, like AWS, when going through their content.
In AWS Cloud Quest, you get a sense of progression as you level up your avatar across multiple cloud domains.
Trying new ways to learn
Gamified learning is another avenue for learning.
By trying different mediums—like video courses, documentation, ebooks, educational games, etc—I break the monotony of sticking to one learning method. In Cloud Quest, the game held my hand through the introduction of the topic and let me do it on my own to complete a quest.
Lessons somehow 'click' when delivered in a different format, so it helps to vary how I learn sometimes.
Will I play through more Cloud Quest content to learn AWS? Unlikely. The platform makes a decent attempt to:
- Turn tasks into play
- Reward making progress
- Give learners different avenues
I like to separate my gaming from my learning time. I don't need to mix the two unless it scratches the itch of curiosity. Recertifying through Cloud Quest was free for a limited time, and it seemed like a chance to see what the platform was like.
Please comment and let me know how you like to learn tech. I'd love to hear your ideas.