by Annie | Feb 13, 2014 | Game Design, Instructional Design
Ah, eLearning. Unfortunately, when most people come across that term, they immediately groan and roll their eyes, recalling that last boring mandatory online training course in which they spent an hour reading a bunch of seemingly irrelevant text on screen and learning nothing to apply to their day-to-day jobs. But this doesn’t have to be the way it is. Increasingly, eLearning is moving away from the traditional model of content presentation followed by a skills test. Instead, training courses are becoming more exploratory, allowing the learner to try their hand at a real world challenge, make mistakes, and learn the information relevant to the task. Take the example of teaching a learner to use jumper cables. The traditional approach would be to provide learners a manual to read, maybe with a few graphics illustrating the process. If you’re really lucky, you might watch a video showing someone else completing all the steps. However, this doesn’t provide learners with any practice in applying the information and doesn’t provide intrinsic feedback that points to the real world consequences of the learner’s actions. Instead of telling and then testing, exploratory eLearning flips the traditional model on its head. Test first, then tell. In other words, start with the challenge up front, then provide the content in feedback relevant to the learner’s mistakes. In this example, the learner might be tasked with parking their car the correct distance away from the dead car. If the cars touch, they might get a spark and hear a crash. After correctly parking your car, the eLearning might move to a view of the car engines and...
by Annie | Aug 31, 2012 | Education, Game Design, Psychology of Games
Have you heard of gamification yet? If not, you will surely run across it at some point. Gamification is one of the hottest topics at the intersection of game design and business. Many companies are incorporating game design elements in business practices, both externally (e.g., marketing and consumer behavior) and internally (e.g., HR and employee training). In addition, gamification is being used to transform all kinds of fields, from education to journalism. If you’ve ever used a stamp card at a coffee shop (buy 10 and get one free) or gone through the LinkedIn registration process, you’ve been part of the gamification movement. People are just starting to discover the vast potential of gamification in changing human behavior, so many exciting things are happening in this field. If you’re interested in learning more, Coursera is offering a FREE online course on gamification, taught by Prof. Kevin Werbach from the Wharton School at my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Over 70,000 people have already registered, myself included. You have until Sept. 9th to register, so get on it! (Coursera also has tons of other free online courses, so check them out if you get a...
