Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Smartphones are everywhere, and one of the most common uses for these phones is to play games. Their smaller screens require more skill to create a strong learning experience, game experience, and user experience.

It’s not unusual to find gamification elements in software applications across nearly every industry, but only a fraction of these platforms prove to have significant impact on performance. While individual gamification elements may increase engagement and enhance performance, they often are not designed with the user in mind, and there are not enough analytics integrated into the process to assess effectiveness.

The use of games in eLearning is growing. However, most eLearning designers struggle to know where to start with games. Building an interactive game can be difficult without skills and practice in coding software.

Workplace learning is a two-way relationship between a company’s desire to stay competitive and employees’ need for information to engage job functions. With the struggle for competitive advantage expected to only accelerate, it pays dividends to create a flexible and technology-enabled learning ecosystem that can foster the future generations in the workforce.

Games and gamification are new ideas to many organizations. Executives may perceive games for learning as child’s play, or may struggle to understand how they’re different from the scenario-based learning you already have. Furthermore, some see gamification as an artificial reward system that will have no long-term benefits.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

You want to make sure your learners are engaged, and you have an idea for a learning game that will help you achieve that goal. You know that it needs to be focused on the content and the learner’s needs and not something you’re going to throw in just for fun. You’re excited to build this, and you think you will be able to repurpose it for other lessons, learners, and content. Suddenly, you hit a wall because you haven’t acquired the higher-order skills in Captivate yet. What, exactly, do you need to know?

Mobile, games, and video are all meaningful endeavors offering unique value propositions, but how do they fit together? Each can be linked, but has unique properties as well. How do you make sense of the opportunities?

Gamification is about using game elements to drive motivation and engagement. Although gamification is most effective when used to drive intrinsic motivation, it is frequently abused as an extrinsic reward system, which hinders learning. Studies have shown that learners seek more rewards in demotivating environments and that players lose interest in an activity after receiving extrinsic rewards. How do you combat bad game design and find the right balance to maintain motivation?

A government office was going through a major reorganization; there was confusion and concern about the future organization. Each division had been working with minimal contact with other divisions, which resulted in a culture of lack of trust and personal connection with other employees. The problem was intensified because employees worked in various geographic locations and time zones. Learning leaders needed to help the employees understand the new organization and purpose.

Consultants face challenging career transitions while working in fast-paced environments with high performance standards. Learning that supports such transitions requires simulation of the complex mix of skills and trade-offs that consultants face on the ground, yet traditional digital simulations often fail to incorporate that complexity.

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 606.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 409.

You got the message about the value of games in helping people learn—and you buy in! Perhaps you’ve even built some games or selected a gamified learning platform. Having a good game or a well-designed gamified initiative is only half of the equation you need for success. The other half is a comprehensive, well-thought-out implementation strategy. Without it, your likelihood of deriving business value or learning results is low.

Everyone plays games, so why not use that interest to help them improve their performance? This session will address how instructional designers and learning professionals can develop a gamification culture in their organization. By describing and experiencing the difference between gamification and gaming, you will learn how to incorporate gaming techniques into traditional eLearning designs.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

In the beginning, gamification was shiny and new and full of promise. But its reputation quickly tarnished when people misused it as a quick fix to create learner engagement. There was too much focus on extrinsic rewards and on elements like points, badges, and leaderboards (PBLs) in ways devoid of meaning to the learner. But gamification is alive and well for those who dug deeper.

Many training professionals are reluctant to start developing game-based learning. They may mistakenly believe their success depends on being able to code as a programmer, being proficient in developing animations or virtual worlds, being able to illustrate as a state-of-the-art graphic designer, or being an expert videographer. By devaluing the effectiveness of low-cost, low-tech solutions, they lose the opportunity to convince key stakeholders to fund more ambitious projects.

Feeling like you can’t get past gamification? Tired of matching, memory, or Jeopardy-style games? Everyone hits creative road blocks. Maybe you see a great example of a learning game online, but feel held back creatively by learning objectives. How do you create a serious game while ensuring you meet your learning objectives?

Many people in the eLearning realm are attempting to use gamification and serious games to spark employee engagement and drive learning retention. And while the intent is to make the best serious games that will enhance the learning objectives and help people retain content, unfortunately, they don’t always go as planned. Common issues with these unsuccessful serious games and gamified learning experiences include little to no planning, tough-to-pinpoint metrics, little to no implementation strategy, and insufficient or nonexistent post-deployment support. So what can you do to ensure your game-based project actually works?

Gamification is not just a trend. It works—when done well. Unfortunately, many organizations get caught up in the “let’s gamify everything” hype and fail to properly align game mechanics to meaningful objectives. L&D professionals continue to face stakeholder and employee objections when attempting to introduce game-based concepts. They also run into conflicting priorities when multiple game ideas are implemented without a holistic vision for employee engagement.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

As technology continues to evolve, it creates new opportunities to let people play, explore, and learn from games that include video, animation, and biometric data, and from one another. How can these new technologies support immersive learning and enable you to re-create “real” experiences in learning games?

Virtual reality has exploded over the last year, extending to conversations in the mobile, gaming, and video landscape. There’s a rapidly rising interest in how to use this new technology for learning and performance. With “VR” now one of the hottest buzzwords, how much is hype and how much is substance?

Mobile, video, gamification; these three trending industry technologies can increase learner engagement and drive business results (while hopefully adding some fun to the workday). Despite the sustained attention these technologies have received from learning leaders across organizations, many are still struggling to apply best practices when implementing them, or are finding subpar outcomes. A solution? Embrace outside-the-box thinking!

Instructional designers and writers are increasingly turning to branching scenarios as a way to embrace experiential learning and move beyond page-turners. But authoring an effective scenario is challenging, as the branches can become overwhelming. Moreover, if you don’t apply good game-design principles, the scenarios can turn out to be as flat, boring, and ineffective as a series of multiple-choice questions.

When a pet is undergoing anesthesia, the veterinary nurses who monitor that process are put in a high-stakes environment where the patient, not training, needs to be the focus. One organization wanted a way to bridge the gap between what veterinary nurses understood about the theories behind anesthesia monitoring, and effective real-world application of those principles. To solve this dilemma, the team needed to find a scalable solution to provide a lower-stakes environment, allowing nurses to practice the important patient assessment and remediation techniques they needed before they began actual anesthetic monitoring on the job.

Over the last decade, there has been industrywide emphasis on developing learning objects with embedded gamification elements. However, taking the concept of gamification past the singular learning objects to the more global, overall learner experience is more of a rarity.

We know that simulations are a fantastic way to allow people to practice skills in a realistic but safe environment that gives them the opportunity to learn from mistakes. However, actually sitting down and creating a simulation that feels real to your audience is definitely harder than it sounds. So learn from the industry that’s been successfully simulating real and imagined situations for years: video games! Video games aren’t just a fun diversion, there’s also a lot in common between how they’re created and the way a strong simulation should be designed.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.