Article Published: Improving Training:Thinking Like a Game Developer

Training Quarterly just publishey my article Improving Training: Thinking Like a Game Developer

You can find the article here. The article provides 3 ways in which an instructional designer can think like a game designer. I was originally thinking about 4 but one had to go due to space constraints so I’ve add the fourth here. Can you think of any other? Let me know.

And here is a small portion of the article that was cut due to space constraints.

Provide Frequent Feedback

One of the features video games, board games and other types of games have over traditional learning environments is the frequency and intensity of feedback. Feedback in games is almost constant. In a video game the player has real-time feedback on progress toward goal, amount of life or energy left, location, time remaining, how much stuff they have in inventory and even how other players are doing. In fact, often a screen or a player will flash to indicate they are in danger of being eliminated with the next wrong move. On a board game you can see where your piece is related to others, you know who is taking the next turn and you can see how much progress is to be made with the roll of the dice and how close you and your opponents are to successfully finishing.

When you create online instruction make sure the learner is given proper feedback and that it is corrective to guide the learner to the right learning objective, however, makes sure that is the same nature and type of feedback he or she would receive in the actual situation.