Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011 - (Page 34)

PEOPLE LIKE A CHALLENGE AND THEY WILL REMEMBER HOW THEY SOLVED THE CHALLENGE R work and what would not work. As part of the process, they refined the game many times before it was released. It took a great deal of research, engineering and prototyping to make it a success. In the same manner, trainers and developers of training need to carefully consider game elements and how they can be purposefully and successfully integrated into curriculum, courses and e-learning modules. Adding a points system, badges or rewards to a training class or online module does not mean an engaging and impactful learning experience has been created. Instead, the design of the instruction must be rethought from a game developer’s perspective. Game Developer Techniques Game developers have a number of techniques which, when applied to the creation of learning events, provide an engaging and enriching experience for learners. Three such techniques are: • Start with a Challenge • Focus on Replayability • Include a Story Narrative Let’s look at each of these techniques and see how they can be applied to the design and delivery of instruction. Start with a Challenge Games immediately immerse the player in a challenge or a problem. When you first start a game, you begin with a small challenge, maybe it’s moving from point A to B, or aligning the falling pieces or its slaying an easily slayable dragon and then, as your skills progress, you move on to bigger challenges. Whatever the challenge is, there is little didactic instruction telling the player what to do. As soon as the game starts, the player immediately must act and react within the environment. Unfortunately, with traditional classroom and even online training, instruction starts by providing a bulleted list of all the elements that need to be learned. The trainer carefully explains each item and what it means, the concepts and points are described and then, if there is time left, learners are given a case study or role-play. So, think like a game developer and start class or the e-learning module with a probd lem the learner has to solve immediately before any instruction. Tell the learner, something like “you are a manager and an employee has informed you that a coworker has been leaving work early for the past month, what do you do?” As the learners try to figure out what to do, provide guidance and assistance. Be supportive of the learners but only provide information when the learner encounters an obstacle to solving their problem. Create the need for the learner to seek or require the information you want them to learn. This creates motivation and aids retention because people like a challenge and they will remember how they solved the challenge much more easily than remembering an abstract bulleted list titled “Five things to do if you suspect an employee is leaving work early.” Focus on Replayability When game developers create a game, they don’t want someone to play it once and discard it; they craft it so players want to play it over and over again. To encourage what is called “replayability,” the developers add hidden treasures within the games so a player will play it a second time to find desired items, they randomize events and sequences so the game is never the same twice and they create different game levels so that once a game is mastered at the basic level it can be replayed at a more difficult level. The technique of including multiple levels is highly effective from a training perspective because not all learners are at the same level. Including multiple levels provides different entry points into the instruction. It accommodates various levels of knowledge with one program if developed online and provides a natural sequence of learning if delivered in a classroom setting. Learners know they will move from one level of knowledge Additional Resources Check out these books about game design that can help to inform your instruction: • The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell • Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning by Karl M. Kapp • Total Engagement: Using Games and Virtual Worlds to Change the Way People Work and Businesses Compete by Byron Reeves and J. Leighton Read • Game Development Essentials by Jeannie Novak Play these games to get an idea of what game designers are thinking: • Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune by Sony Computer Entertainment • Angry Birds by Rovio Mobile • Sid Meier’s Civilization V by 2K Games 34 Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2011 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011
From Where I Sit: Back to the Basics
Table of Contents
Ad Index
The Learning GPS
Work that Stretches: The Best Teacher
The Promise and Peril of Social Enterprise
Technical Training: How is it Different?
Companies Press 'Play' on Training Games
Redefining the 'e' in e-Learning
Essential Components for Effectively Training a Global Workforce
Five m-Learning Considerations for Your Talent Management Strategy
Instructional Design: Learning Meets Technology
Improving Training: Thinking Like a Game Developer
Casebook: Pfizer: Moving Product Sales Training Online
Why is Mobile Learning Not More Popular?
Tweet Suite
Company News
Closing Arguments: The Three T's

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011