In games and in education, the “skill gap” or “knowledge gap” is really a moving target. That is, the gap keeps shifting constantly because the player or student’s knowledge and experience change in real time.
This is why game designers have built in a mechanism for maintaining the skill gap: levling.
Most games begin with simple levels and become increasingly complex and more difficult with play. Players maintain the skill gap by moving through the game at their own pace.
Additionally, players can re-play levels to practice skills before moving on to more difficult levels. Self-pacing and monitoring allow the player to monitor and modify their own skill gap.
The players remains in complete control of their own progress and capabilities as they advance in the game. Most people don’t like to be forced or dragged to the destination, and the sense of being in control is the core of gamification and one of the reasons gamified learning is highly efficient.
This method of continual self-adjustment of the learning progress stands in sharp contrast to one-dimensional traditional classroom and lecture based cyber security training.
Humans are competitive by nature and we love to set goals and compete with ourselves, but that is nothing compared to competing with others. Winning against other players on the same level as ourselves, or even higher levels, gives a massive dopamine hit and motivation to keep playing and keep improving.
Highly advanced technology in gamified learning platforms, such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, helps maintain the moving target even within the massively complex and broad topics of cyber security.