Gamifying Mobile Learning to Improve Organizational Efficiency
in Africa's first Insurance for Pastoralists
Experience and Initial Lessons from IBLI's m-learning Experiment with Young Sales Agents
Iddo Dror – Head of Capacity Development, ILRI
Presented at GFIA Africa Conference, Durban, 2 December 2015, in the session:
‘ Agriculture mobile games: What options for sustainability and for engaging youth? ’

About ILRI - At a Glance
Better Lives Through Livestock
The International Livestock Research Institute
(ILRI) works to improve food security and reduce
poverty in developing countries through research
for better and more sustainable use of livestock.
ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium which
works for a food-secure future.
Find out more about us at www.ilri.org and see
(many, many) presentations about our work at
http://www.slideshare.net/ILRI/presentations

Snapshot of Mobile Projects at ILRI –
We believe ICT4Ag is part of the solution.
• Gamified m-learning for Livestock Insurance (today’s focus)
• Mobile phone-based diagnostics
• mNutrition / mPig
• Mobile Data Systems for Sustainable Livestock Genetics
• Leveraging Mobile Technology to Match Research Priorities to Farmer Needs

About the Index-Based Livestock Insurance
(IBLI) project – At a glance
• It is an insurance product that is designed to protect against prolonged forage
scarcity in ASALs
• Insured pastoralists receive a pay-out based on a forage availability index, estimated
according to the amount of forage available over a season as indicated by satellite
imagery.
• IBLI is currently being implemented in parts of Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia
• Over 4000 livestock herders in Kenya have bought IBLI since 2010. The Kenya
Govt./World Bank have rolled out IBLI on a larger scale to targeted pastoralists in N.
Kenya.
• Benefits since inception;
• 36% drop in ‘distress’ sales of livestock
• 25% reduced likelihood of having to
eat significantly smaller meals
• 33% reduction in
dependence on food aid.’
• For more visit: ibli.ilri.org
.

About IBLI’s Gamified m-Learning Experiment
• Design: Led by Prof. Elizabeth Lions, UCSD.
Experimental design looking at effects of
tradition training, mobile training, cash
incentives and gamification incentives
• Time line: Field Testing: June, 2015
Field Coordinator Training: July, 2015
Experiment: August 1 - Sept 30, 2015
• Data: Independent Variables: Treatment group,
prior sales record, location, surveys and tests.
Dependent Variables: Intensity of app usage,
knowledge of product, sales performance,
customer satisfaction
Read more at:
http://www.slideshare.net/ILRI/ilri-panel-
lyons/14

Youth Involvement in the Experiment
• All the agents in our study were under 35 –
avg age 26. They were trained sales agents
of Takaful insurance company (the
underwriter)
• Socio Economic status: The youth involved
were from pastoral backgrounds with
additional engagement in small businesses
and IBLI sales/distribution
• Mobile literacy, is high among these youth
as most (lead agents) already have smart
phones which they use for whatsapp,
facebook and games (Farmville etc.)
• Education: Most have post primary school
education

Why We’re Excited about the
Prospects of mLearning
• Short bite-sized micro-lessons: Fits the
environment where we aim to intervene!
• Transcends the formal learning space and
brings structured learning into an informal
learning space (Flexible, Self-paced, Self-
directed)
• A Form of Performance Support (Just-in-
time / On-demand learning)
Source: http://elearningindustry.com/mlearning-the-way-of-learning-
tomorrow

Games, Gamification, & Game-Based Learning:
Are they the same thing?
• In some situations these terms are being
used to describe the same thing. All have
the same underlying foundations; game
design.
• The difference is primarily in where and how
you apply that game design. They should all
align to the same fundamental principles of
good design to build user engagement and
retention.
• However, to some people these three are
entirely different. Important to get the
terminology right in this space.
Source: http://www.learndash.com/gamification-
or-game-based-learning/

Very Tentative* Initial Insights
• Uptake (use statistics) much lower than expected -
only around 13-15%. We’ll come back to that in a
minute
• Despite the fact that there are many more
subagents than lead agents, lead agents used the
app in much greater numbers.
• Sub-agents are significantly more likely to
participate when in the credit treatment.
Difference between the credit app and the other
apps is most significant among subagents who are
the hardest to reach.
• The credit app leads to significantly more usage
and take up than the basic app. Basic and gamified
app have statistically the same take up.
* Disclaimer: We do not (yet) have all the outcome data so we do not know how app usage affects IBLT
knowledge or sales. In addition, we do not know if having a lead agent invest time in the mLearning app will
affect sub-agent knowledge or sales. These are all things we will be testing once the data is available and cleaned.

Plans Versus Reality
Execution matters as much as design!
Games / Gaming can be
exciting and ‘sexy’, but
unless executed
properly… one can lose
much of the intended
effects
Some examples from our
‘wave 1’ work:

Plans Versus Reality
Some of the key issues in IBLI ‘wave 1 mLearning’
• Training of agents and sub-agents (latter not
as ‘smart phone savvy’ as we thought).
• Mobile App introduced when lots else going
on for the agents – deemed lower priority
than other (sales) app bring introduced.
• Graphics / look & feel very basic –
unimpressive in the ‘age of Farmville’
• Gamification leaderboard not optimized
• Deployment issues: e.g. wrong contract info
provided for many subagents - App
introduced late into sales window.
Key Learning: Do not underestimate time and
complexity of rolling out mobile games in ‘real
life’ settings.

Hardware Matters!
• We rolled out on a relatively basic
phone with small screen size
• Not enough attention paid to
implications of hardware choices!
Key Learning: Games should be fun –
and the applications customized to the
delivery environment. Basic hardware
can have serious implications on what
we can do in a mobile environment.

On The Bright Side, the Hardware
Scene is Moving in the Right Direction
• Last week you could have purchased a
Motorola E 4G (4.5’ screen, Android
Lollipop, 4G LTE, 8GB memory etc.)
for only USD $10 (!)

Also on the Bright Side:
Youth & Mobile
• Young and tech Savvy: The average age of the lead agents was 26 years – most
were tech savvy and knowledgeable on the use of smart phones
• Educated: Most of these lead agents have attained at least secondary education
and could read – opening possibilities that do not exist with the older population in
the region
• Familiar with mobile games: Some of them had interacted with other forms of
mobile games like Farmville and Candy Crush before.

Looking Ahead - Plans for ‘Wave 2’
• We’re still bullish on the role of
mobile and games in ICT4Ag – and
will continue to a ‘wave 2’ in the near
future
• Learning from wave 1 challenges will
help shape our next wave.
• Looking for partners in this area –
please get in touch if you’re
interested! Drop me a line at
i.dror@cgiar.org

The presentation has a Creative Commons licence. You are free to re-use or distribute this work, provided credit is given to ILRI.
better lives through livestock
ilri.org