In games, players immediately take action, make meaningful decisions, and volunteer to spend more and more time finding treasures or defeating villains. Meanwhile, many corporate e-learning experiences are less than engaging. What instructional designers need to do is steal ideas, techniques, and methodologies from game designers and incorporate those ideas into our instructional design. This session will provide a model that can be followed by instructional designers as well as research-based recommendations for helping instructional designers think more like game designers. The result will be interactive and engaging instruction. This will be an intermediate-level session, and some knowledge of instructional design will be helpful. Also, bring your smartphone and devices, as you will be interacting with the content and voting on answer choices while this interactive adventure unfolds.

1. TH301 - Start Thinking Like a
Game Designer: An Interactive
Learning Experience
Karl Kapp
Professor, Bloomsburg University
@kkapp

2. Design takeaway
challenge.

3. Karl Kapp
Presents:

5. You are a game designer at SuperGame Corporation
which has hit some hard times lately.

6. It’s Friday 4:59 PM you and your
colleague have only one thing
on your mind.

7. Suddenly, your boss calls you
and your colleague into her office.
Ito and Jasmine come into my
office.

8. Yes?
Yes?

9. Look, someone
wants us to
create a game
about capturing dragons.It appears to be a craze or
something.

10. Working name is…
“Dragónmon Go”

11. You are competing internally for the
project. Winning team earns the
right to work on the project.

12. Two Teams
ATD Winners ATD Champions
Open Internet browser in separate
window or on mobile phone.
Pollev.com/karlkapp.

13. Pollev.com/karlkapp

14. Each team will be confronted with a
series of questions. The team that
correctly answers the most questions
wins the work.

15. What about the other team?

16. Losers are assigned to the game
“watching paint dry.”

17. Wow, I heard about that
project, its almost as fun
as… never mind. Dragon
Capturing is much better.

18. Get it together.
Now let’s hear about
the dragon capturing
game.

19. First decision about this dragon
capturing game is how to start the
game. What should the player’s first
in-game experience be?

20. You have two choices:
Tell the player three things they need to
know about capturing dragons.
or
Begin with by having the player start
capturing dragons right away.

21. Why does this answer make
sense?
Not Sure?

22. Good game designers know that games
are engaging because they require action
right away.
Action draws in the player and
encourages further engagement.
Start by capturing a dragon.

23. Too often instructional design is
about the content and not about
the actions that need to occur.
Game Design is about action.

24. Research indicates that learners who
used interactive games for learning
had greater cognitive gains over
learners provided with traditional
classroom training.
Vogel, J. J., Vogel D.S., Cannon-Bowers, J., Bowers, C.A., Muse, K., & Wright, M. (2006). Computer gaming and
Interactive simulations for learning: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 34(3), 229-243.

25. Ok, next decision.
Provide a map with the location of all
the dragons.
or
Create a sense of mystery and
curiosity concerning the location of
dragons.

26. It is always a good idea to build curiosity and
mystery into a game. Reveal locations of dragons
throughout the course of the player’s journey.
Check out my notebook on this
subject.

29. A sense of suspense, mystery
and intrigue draws people into
games and can draw them into
learning as well.

30. Twittermission

31. OK, what do we decide next, should we:
Make the game easy so we don’t discourage the
players.
or
Make the game challenging, knowing some
players will fail the first few times.

32. Jones, B., Valdez, G., Norakowski, J., & Rasmussen, C. (1994). Designing learning and technology
for educational reform. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory. [Online]. Available:
http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/profile/profwww.htm and Schlechty, P. C. (1997). Inventing
better schools: An action plan for educational reform. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Chapter 2
“The Gamification of Learning and Instruction.”
It needs to be challenging.

33. Look! Good games give players a set of
challenging problems and let them solve those
problems until they can do it automatically.
Then those same games throw a new class of
problem at the players requiring them to re-
think, their now—taken for granted—mastery.
They must learn something new and integrate
into their old mastery.

34. Well said!

35. Actually, my good friend James Paul
Gee said those words, I’m quoting
him.

36. Always good to cite
sources!

37. Also, keep in mind things that are too easy or
too difficult will not pique a learner’s interest
because they lead to boredom or frustration.
Research has shown that challenge is
correlated with both intrinsic motivation
and motivation related to the desire to
seek competence and self confidence.
White, R.W. (1959) Motivation reconsidered: The concept of competence. Psychological Review, 66, 297-333.

38. In fact, give them the
Kobayashi Maru of challenges.

39. Harsh!

40. Well, the next decision, should we:
Put the player at risk, they could die at
any moment.
or
Let the player safely explore the
environment.

41. Seriously, you are asking me
this question. The player needs
to be at risk.

42. No risk, or danger equal no skin in
the game.
Get the player emotionally involved
by putting him or her at “mock”
risk.

43. In games, failing is allowed, it’s
acceptable, and it’s part of the
process. Games accommodate
failure with multiple lives, second
chances and alternative methods of
success.

44. Research indicates that our brains
grow when we make a mistake
because it is a time of struggle.
Moser, J. Schroder, H.S., Heeter, C., C., Moran, T.P., & Lee, Y.H. (2011) Mind your errors: Evidence for a neural
mechanism linking growth mindset to adaptive post error adjustments. Psychological Science, 22, 1284-1489.
Our brains react with greater
electrical activity when we make a
mistake than when we are correct.

45. Do you punish failure in your
learning design or do you allow and
encourage the freedom to fail?

46. Last decision, should you:
Give player choices about what level to
enter the game.
or
Create one path for every player.

47. Choices, players need choices. Look,
let me tell you what motivates
people.

48. People are motivated when they have
autonomy, mastery and relatedness.

49. Hey, isn’t that the Self-Determination Theory?

50. Why, yes…yes it is.

51. Cordova, D.I., & Lepper M. R. (1996) Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning: Beneficial effects of
contextualization, personalization and choice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 715-730
When given control over their learning, research
has shown that learners invested more and
attempted more complex strategies than when
they had no control. So give learners control.

52. And give our game players control over which
dragon to capture and in what order.
Cordova, D.I., & Lepper M. R. (1996) Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning: Beneficial effects of
contextualization, personalization and choice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 715-730

53. Lot of information, thanks. So
let me ask one more question.

54. Which team gets to design
“Dragónmon Go”? Which team won?

55. Well, they are all winners to me.

56. Ugh….

57. How about a
re-cap…

58. Here are five tips for thinking like a
game designer:
1) Begin with activity
2) Create curiosity, mystery, intrigue
3) Create a challenge for the learner
4) Put learners at “mock” risk—
encourage mistakes
5) Give learners meaningful choices

59. What game elements
are in this
presentation?

60. 1) Story
2) Character
3) Competition/teams
4) Real-time feedback
5) Meaningful Decision making
6) Uncertain ending
7) Allowing failure
8) Uncertainty

61. Don’t forget:
• Turn Learning Objectives into
Questions.
• Incorporate Storytelling into Design
Process.
• “Force” Learner Reflection.
• Establish Team-based Cooperative
and Competitive Situations.

62. You can use more
realistic settings for
storytelling.

63. Can I have a moment
of your time?

64. Well, I am busy…

65. How should I respond?
A) It’s only a moment.
B) When is a good time for us to talk?
C) Ok, but let me ask you one question
before I go.

66. Explore Spectrum of Options
Low Tech
Card/Board Games
Medium Tech
Audience Response/
Augmented PPT
High Tech
Video Game Level

67. Transfer Activity: Your Content
1. Turn objectives into questions. Maintain open
loop.
2. Add a reflective exercise into learning process.
3. Create a story to draw in learner.
4. Use a team concept/audience response to
encourage engagement.
5. Think like a game designer: curiosity, open
loops, freedom to fail,
6. Create meaningful choices (not “no-brainers”).

68. Questions?

69. Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning Courses:
Gamification & Interactive Learning
YouTube Channel: Karl Kapp
Twitter @kkapp
Web Site:www.karlkapp.com
Resources