Welcome!e-Gaming Strategies

Marjorie Pomper, Ph.D.

Director of Corporate Training

Objectives

• Recognize how learning can be supported with e-gaming strategies

• Apply easy and effective strategies for e-gaming

• Identify practical, inexpensive strategies and tools that can help you meet your objectives

Agenda

• e-Games and Learning

• e-Gaming Strategies for Learning

• Examples/Tools

• Q & A

Think like Addie …

Why am I here?

Are gaming strategies all hype?

Do games help people learn?

Do we need games because we have employees from the “twitch” generation?

e-Games and Learning

Are gaming strategies all hype?NoNo

Do games help people learn?YesYes

Do we need games because we have employees from the “twitch” generation?

It’s a good idea

But, it depends…

On what?

e-Games and Learning

Count the White Shirts Game

Organizational Learning StrategyOrganizational Learning Strategy

Desired BusinessResults

AlignedLearning Opportunities

EngagedLearning

Driven by strategic business objectives

Learner-centered

Interactive

Performance-based

Blended

Process

Learners as partners

Emotional Engagement

• Attracts the learner’s interest and attention

• Relevant to the learner

• Motivates learner to achieve goals

• Requires interaction

• Applied in context

• Driven by the learner

Flow, Enjoyment, Inspiration

EngagedLearning

Emotional Engagement

• Attracts the learner’s interest and attention

• Relevant to the learner

• Motivates learner to achieve goals

• Requires interaction

• Applied in context

• Driven by the learner

Flow, Enjoyment, Inspiration

EngagedLearning

Characteristics of a good game

“If the training organization in every company evaporated into thin air or disappeared through a wormhole to teaching heaven, individuals would continue to learn.”

“We are not the reason employees learn; we are here to help them learn more effectively.”

Jeff Cross and Tony O’Driscoll

Training Mag.com 2006

How Gamers Learn

• Twitch speed vs. conventional speed

• Parallel processing vs. linear processing

• Graphics first vs. text first

• Random access vs. step by step

• Connected vs. stand alone

• Do to learn vs. learn to do

• Active vs. passiveMarc Prensky

Digital Game-based Learning

Gamer Demographics

e-Gaming Defined

Provide an interactive experience

• Electronically provides visual (and audio) information to one or more players

• Takes some input from the players

• Processes the input according to a set of programmed game rules

• Alters the information provided to the players

Operate on one of the following platforms:

• Personal computers

• Mobile devices, e.g. PDA, Phones, etc.

• Video game consolesLiterature Review in Games and LearningFuture Lab

Characteristics of Good Games

• Goal• Challenge• Failure• Reward• Decisions with effects• Characters• Story• Flow

Mark OvermarsJames Paul Gee

Learning Theories and Gaming StrategiesLearning Theories and Gaming Strategies

Behavioral Cognitive Social-Constructivist

Present information, practice, feedback to shape behavior

Create an environment to support learner’s construction of knowledge

Guide and structure interaction so learners can construct knowledge

Tutorials, Drill and practice

Discovery learning, Simulations

Collaboration, Apprenticeship

Action games Adventure games

Simulation games

Multi-player games

Role-play games

Action Gaming Strategies

• Immediate feedback

• Practice to improve performance

• Time pressure

• Consequences

Make Tutorials more engaging:

• Timers

• Accumulate/loose Points

Customers and Solutions Board Game

Simulation Gaming Strategies

• Motivate learners to discover what they need to know

• Create a context that aligns with the work environment

• Align consequences with work experience

• Incorporate time pressure consistent with work

• Offer references and resources

Process Simulation GamesProcess Simulation Games

Gaming StrategyGaming Strategy

Skill, Knowled

ge, Attitude

Skill, Knowled

ge, Attitude

Process

Process

ProcessSteps

ProcessSteps Skill,

Knowledge, Attitude

Skill, Knowledge,

Attitude

Example Sales Process Simulation GameExample Sales Process Simulation Game

Win the CustomerWin the Customer

Skill, Knowled

ge, Attitude

Skill, Knowled

ge, Attitude

Process

Process

Sales Process

Sales Process Sales Skills,

Product Knowledge

Sales Skills, Product

Knowledge

Win the Customer Process Simulation Game

When to Use a Process Simulation Game

If learners need to:

– Identify process steps

– Select process steps in the correct order

– Apply knowledge, skills, or attitudes in the context of the process

Design Decisions

Process Simulation LevelLevel 1: View Process

Level 2: Select steps in linear process

Level 3: Select steps and enter information

Level 4: Select multiple paths

Level 5: Fully simulate process

Visual and Audio Assets

– Need for motion?

– Purpose of voice and sound?

– Must-haves for visuals?

Design Decisions

Interaction TypesE-learning basics

– Multiple choice

– True/False

– Matching

– Hot spot identification

– Drag and Drop

Design Decisions

Gaming Strategies– Earning/loosing points

– Working against the clock

– Competing against self or other learners

– Decision making and consequences for decisions

Design Decisions

Interface Design

– Clear instructions

– Easy to Use

– Easy to Learn

Design Decisions

Reusable

– Process framework

– Gaming strategy

– Templates

– Easy-to-change assets

Design Decisions

References

– On-line

– Paper-based

– Job Aides

Design Decisions

The Enterprise Game

Role-Play Gaming Strategies

• Let the learner assume and potentially customize a character (avatar)

• Equip the character with skills, attributes, and powers that change with experience

• Allow the character to explore and have experiences

• Provide a master or mentor

• Provide challenges to overcome

What learning goals might be supported by these strategies?

Game Engines

• Authoring systems for games

• Range from free ware to expensive, sophisticated systems:– Game Maker

– Learning Beans

• “Mods” of existing games– Never Winter Nights

• Tools for learning by creating games

Multi-Player Gaming Strategies

• Provide opportunities to meet and collaborate

• Present tough problems to solve

• Allow players to assume different roles/develop characters

• Plan to moderate

• Utilize different delivery systems

Multi-player Sim Authoring: Fabulisa

Alternate Realty Games

“An obsession-inspiring genre that blends real-life treasure hunting, interactive storytelling, video games and online community...

“These games are an intensely complicated series of puzzles involving coded Web sites, real-world clues like the newspaper advertisements, phone calls from game characters and more. That blend of real-world activities and a dramatic storyline has proven irresistible to many.”

C-Net

Have you ever heard of

“I Love Bees”?

Off-the-Shelf Video GamesOff-the-Shelf Video Games

Can these games offer anything to Organizational Learning?

– SIMS in Spanish?

Other ideas for off-the-shelf games?

Learning and Gaming Initiatives

• Serious Gameswww.seriousgames.org

• Education Arcadewww.educationarcade.com

• Future Labwww.futurelab.org

Questions, Comments?

Thank – you!