Rewarding progress: how Learnovate research helped alulu rethink incentives for learning

It shifts learners from focusing on a one-off incentive at the end to a system that allows them to reflect on their learnings and behaviours on a daily or weekly basis.

“They think of the learning as being valuable to them and encourages them to adopt new behaviours, move up the tiers and, over the long term, see benefits for continuous engagement,” says alulu co-founder Myles Thies.

About alulu

alulu is a platform that pairs rewards with learning to encourage positive learning habits in a successful and sustained way. The company was co-founded by Myles Thies (CIO) along with Stefan du Plessis (CEO) and Ian Light (COO).

The platform has 4,000 different reward options across 50 territories, and growing, worldwide. Its rewards appeal to everyone as they include a vast selection of brand options from high-preference luxury brands and apparel to coffees and groceries.

Why Ireland?

“Although we birthed the idea for alulu in South Africa I have strong family connections in Cork so we decided to base alulu here. Ireland is also such a welcoming place for developing entrepreneurs and allows us to expand market wise,” says Myles.

“We find the business is easy to promote in Ireland as the public gets the concept. Also, we use a lot of well-known brands – both aspirational and practical – so it suits everyone.”

Growth plans and a key question

alulu has a presence in the Irish and the UK market but has an eye on expanding into the US and across the European Union by the end of the year.

To aid its expansion ambitions, company leaders felt they needed to research a central issue: whether continuous rewards helped people value the learning more than they would without rewards or with a one-off reward at the end. It goes to the heart of the business.

Disrupting established thinking

While incentives in corporate learning are common, it has been a bit more complicated in academia. Critics argue that external rewards can weaken intrinsic motivation, leaving learners more focused on what they receive rather than what they learn.

“Rewards and education are typically seen as not very good bed fellows. It is common in the corporate space; but not in education,” says Myles.

“Being from an academic background myself, I can understand that but there has been authoritative, legitimate research in this area that challenges the commonly perceived thinking.

“We thought that if we carried out our own research, we could investigate these narratives and get a better understanding of the issues with an end goal of working out how we could possibly integrate the positives of rewards without undermining the primary learning motivations.”

Gathering evidence

The company needed to know whether the concerns were supported by the evidence and, crucially, whether rewards could be designed in a way that supported rather than undermined learning.

“We did not want to be a company making claims simply because they suited our product. We wanted to show that we had examined the evidence, understood the challenges and considered how our platform aligned with the findings.”

Turning to Learnovate for help

“Learnovate has a great public image and the centre does a lot of networking so we already knew about it and what it does to support EdTech businesses in Ireland. We reached out to Learnovate quite quickly after we became a member and integrated ourselves into the network,” says Myles.

“This helped supercharge us into the Irish digital learning space and further afield. It continues to add value as we learn more about Learnovate’s capabilities.”

Funding from Enterprise Ireland

“We thought that working with Learnovate to research this area, funded by an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher, would give us a fantastic opportunity to leverage findings that show learning can be more valued with intelligently applied rewards. Learnovate researcher Dr Peter Gillis had done his PhD in a similar area so his insights were invaluable.”

Innovation Vouchers are a funding initiative developed by Enterprise Ireland. They aim to encourage collaboration between public knowledge providers, such as higher education institutes and research bodies, and small businesses.

Shaping the research question

The alulu team had some ideas of the areas they wanted to research and worked with Peter to draft the research question and refine the topic.

“Peter was familiar with the space and was a great facilitator. He was able to bring in new angles to what we were thinking and we narrowed the question down to ensure that we were really focusing in on the information we wanted to obtain,” says Myles.

The research approach

Learnovate carried out an in-depth review of current academic research on rewards, motivation and learning.

This type of desk research is a service Learnovate provides when an organisation needs a fast scan of the evidence on a specific question. Its researchers draw on existing studies and data to deliver a clear, evidence-based summary without the time and cost of original research.

What the research found

The research showed that poorly designed incentives can become a distraction. When rewards are applied crudely, they risk replacing the learning as the main source of motivation.

However, the evidence also pointed to a more nuanced conclusion: rewards and choice can support engagement when they are carefully structured, appropriately timed and connected to meaningful progress.

Peter Gillis, a researcher and academic with expertise in the psychology of learning, innovation and digital strategy, added: “alulu were encountering a common perception that external rewards weaken intrinsic motivation. There is some truth in that, but our research showed that it is far too simplistic to treat this as a blanket rule.

“When you look closely at the literature, the picture is much more nuanced. The devil really is in the detail.”

That distinction closely reflected the thinking behind alulu’s platform.

Putting the findings to work

“Within six to eight weeks we got to review the first draft and it really met our expectations. We were 90pc happy with the first draft and were delighted that new aspects were integrated into the research,” says Myles.

He says the company has been using aspects of the report since it was in its initial draft phase. “We took some of it into our product design and marketing pitch. We used it almost immediately – and we are still using it a year on.”

Credibility with clients

“It’s been overwhelmingly positive and we have made extensive use of the work. It lends an incredible amount of legitimacy to what we are doing. Our clients respect that we had done this step.

“It is a fantastic tool to have and to be able to reference and share bona fide research with stakeholders that helps their own planning and decision making.”

What’s next

This research with Learnovate in Trinity College Dublin has also been a launch pad for further research, and the company is looking at new, more specialised research questions with Learnovate, again through an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Voucher.

“Having done our first round of research, we understand now the impact it can have and how potential clients can use it. We are ready to focus on a related area of knowledge that has tangible impact for under-pressure corporate learning budgets and spend.”

Myles says that Learnovate was extremely helpful in terms of advice and facilitation on how to use the Innovation Voucher. “It was a seamless and easy process and, for us, was ultimately very rewarding. We are also adding to a very specific subset of knowledge, and it is valuable to answer very focused questions which will have benefits over time.”

Advice for others

His advice for those considering a research project through the Innovation Voucher system is to be very clear on your objectives going into the process and to get involved in setting the research question.

“It will become a far more rewarding process and your business and research is going to be so much better if you are clear as to what you want to learn. If any company is considering doing research with Learnovate and is hesitant, I would question why.”