101 Using Games, Characters & Storylines to Improve Learning Outcomes
8:15 AM - 9:30 AM Wednesday, July 8
With learners constantly reporting that they’re bored by training and with traditional training methods (lectures, reading, audio / visual, demonstrations) and have lower rates of content retention then we’d like, there's got to be a better way. How can we engage learners, increase their comprehension and retention, and as a result improve their on the job performance?
In this session, you’ll learn how to create fun games, interesting characters, and engaging storylines, and see how doing so can improve the effectiveness of your training. You’ll focus on scenario-based games and simulations and align them with a variety of soft-skills, such as sales, customer service, management, and negotiations. You'll learn best practices in creating scenario-based games including character, story, and activity design, and get a clear understanding of when to most effectively leverage game features like points, badges, power-ups, leaderboards, prizes, and feedback. You'll learn how to engage learners on a deeper level, sustain their focus, and keep them coming back for more. And most importantly, you'll learn how to measure the results of the training, identify behavioral trends, and adjust or pivot your training to ensure maximum knowledge retention.
Please note that due to a family emergency, Stephen Baer wasn't able to present the session. Richard Lowenthal presented this session.
Richard Lowenthal
Managing Partner
The Game Agency
Richard Lowenthal, a managing partner at The Game Agency, heads-up business services. Richard has more than 25 years of game development, publishing, and training experience. He has worked on training games with such companies as Intel, Microsoft, Colgate, Merck, and Pfizer, and educational games with AARP, National Geographic, Sesame Workshop, Disney, and The Learning Company. He’s also negotiated licensing deals for world-class brands including Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Monopoly, Scrabble, Bicycle Cards, Sesame Street, Crayola, and National Geographic. Richard holds a BS degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
Stephen Baer
Co-Founder & Chief Creative Officer
The Game Agency by ELB Learning
Stephen Baer is co-founder of The Game Agency (by ELB Learning), an INC Magazine Best Workplaces Company. He is a monthly contributor to Forbes.com and a regular speaker at EdTech conferences. For 15 years Stephen has been creating award-winning games to educate and activate audiences for new-employee onboarding, sales and product training, leadership development, safety, security, compliance, systems and processes, customer service, and many other topics. Stephen has also helped shape the education industry and disrupt traditional learning methods with S.T.E.M, FinLit, and Social Skills learning games that have been deployed in over 20,000 schools.