What role should games, simulations and gamification play in learning design and delivery? Games, gamification and game-based learning have entered into the vocabulary of trainers, elearning developers and instructional designers in the past few years. While the use of games for learning seems like a good match, questions arise. How should games be integrated into the curriculum? Can attitudes and behavior change result from playing a game? What elements of games can learning designers borrow from game designers? The answer to these questions can be found in the research on game-based learning. This interactive presentation includes many examples of using game-based learning for performance improvement and highlights how organizations have used games to achieve learning success. Discover how research-based practices fit in with today's fast-paced need for quick, effective instruction.

1. Games, Simulations and Gamification in
Learning Design and Delivery
By Karl M. Kapp
Bloomsburg University
April 26, 2012
Twitter:@kkapp

2. Agenda
1 2
What are 3 principles for adding
How do you apply game-based gamification and game-ideas to
strategies to the presentation of learning curriculums
learning content?
3 4
Six ways gamification impacts
Four motivational aspects of games learning design and development
that improve learning recall and
application?

3. Google “Kapp Notes”
www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes
Blog Book Tour
Learning Circuits Blog
2012 New Book:
“The Gamification of Learning and Instruction”
September 2011 Training Quarterly Article
Improving Training: Thinking Like a Game Developer
July 2011 T&D Article
Matching the Right Instruction to the Right Content

4. Based on the Book.

5. Let’s Play

6. Elements of Games

7. What Research Says
about
Games for Learning

8. Percentages of Impact
Type of % Higher
Knowledge/
Retention
Declarative 11%
Procedural 14%
Retention 9%
Sitzmann, T. (2011) A meta‐analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness
of computer‐based simulation games. Personnel Psychology .Review of 65 studies

9. Percentages of Impact
It wasn’t the game, it was level
Type of
of activity in the game.
% Higher
Knowledge/
Retention
Declarative 11%
In other words, the engagement
Procedural of the learner in the game leads
14%
to learning.
Retention 9%
Sitzmann, T. (2011) A meta‐analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness
of computer‐based simulation games. Personnel Psychology .Review of 65 studies

10. Do simulation/games have to be entertaining to be
educational?

11. NO
Sitzmann, T. (2011) A meta‐analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness
of computer‐based simulation games. Personnel Psychology .

12. Simulation/games build more confidence for
on the job application of learned knowledge
than classroom instruction.
20% higher
confidence levels.
Sitzmann, T. (2011) A meta‐analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness
of computer‐based simulation games. Personnel Psychology .

13. A math facts game deployed on a handled computer
encouraged learners to complete greater number of
problems at an increased level of difficulty.
Learners playing the handheld game completed
nearly 3 times the number of problems in 19 days
and voluntarily increased the level of difficulty.
Lee, J., Luchini, K., Michael, B., Norris, C., & Soloway, E. (2004). More than just fun and games:
Assessing the value of educational video games in the classroom. Paper presented at the CHI '04
Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Vienna, Austria.

14. Engagement
Learning
Game Game
Pedagogy
Adapted from Aldrich, C. Learning by Doing. Pfeiffer, page 80

15. Instructional games should be embedded
in instructional programs that include
debriefing and feedback.
Engagement
Instructional support to help learners
Educational
understand how to use the game increases
Simulation
instructional effectiveness of the gaming
Game
experience. Pedagogy
Hays, R. T. (2005). The effectiveness of instructional games: A literature review and
discussion. Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (No 2005‐004).
Aldrich, C. Learning by Doing. Pfeiffer, page 80

16. Recommendations
1) Provide a context for the learning.
2) Don’t focus on “entertainment.”
3) Carefully craft the simulation/game to provide
opportunities to increase engagement and interactivity
to increase learning.

17. Use game-based mechanics,
aesthetics and game thinking to
engage people, motivate action,
promote learning, and solve
problems.
Gamification

18. Four
Elements of
Games that Aid
Learning
1. Stories & Challenges
2. Levels
3. Feedback
4. Freedom to Fail

19. Stories & Challenges

20. Provide a challenge
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

21. Re‐design the Instruction to
Start with a Challenge

22. Investigatory Training
• Course Objectives
– Identify the Forms Required for an Investigation
– Practice Interview Techniques
– Understand and Follow the Investigation Model

23. It is your first day on the job as an investigator and
Jane, an employee in Accounting, just accused her
boss of embezzling $10,000.
What is the first thing you need to do?

24. Researchers have found that the Yep, People tend to remember facts
human brain has a natural affinity for more accurately if they encounter
narrative construction. them in a story rather than in a list.
And they rate legal arguments as more
convincing when built into narrative
tales rather than on legal precedent.
Carey, B. (2007) this is Your Life (and How You Tell it). The New York Times. Melanie
Green http://www.unc.edu/~mcgreen/research.html

25. Story Elements
1. Characters
2. Plot (something has to happen).
3. Tension
4. Resolution
5. Conclusion

27. NikePlus Stats for Karl

29. Challenge and Consolidation– Good games offer players a set
of challenging problems and then let them solve these problems
until they have virtually routinized or automated their solutions.
Games then throw a new class of problem at the players requiring
them to rethink their now, taken-for-granted mastery, learn
something new, and integrate this new learning into their old
mastery.
James Paul Gee,
University of Wisconsin-Madison

30. Recommendations
• Embed facts to be learned in the context of stories.
• Start the learning process by providing a challenge to
the learner.
• Provide a progression from simple to more difficult
tasks.
• Use stories that are related to the context of the
desired learning outcome.

31. Levels

32. Scaffolding: Process of controlling
the task elements that initially are
beyond the learner’s capacity.
Guided Practice. Step‐by‐step
instructions and then fading of
instruction

33. Once that task is accomplished, the
learner is then led to accomplish
another goal which builds upon the
previous.

34. Level One: Talking with the
receptionist.

35. Level Two: Talking with the nurse
gatekeeper.

36. Level Three: Talking with the
physician.

37. Level One:
Demonstration

38. Level Two:
Guided
Practice

39. Level Three:
Performance
Assessment

40. Recommendations
• Provide different entry points into the
instruction.
• Provide different learner experiences within
the same e‐learning module.
• Consider “leveling up” learner challenges.

41. Feedback

43. Games like The Sims provide feedback on
many dimensions which provide
opportunities to consider tradeoffs and
higher level cognitive thinking.

46. Leaderboards provide
opportunities for players to
receive feedback about their
performance as compared to
others.

50. Recommendations
• Provide authentic and realistic feedback.
• Feedback should be continuous through out
the learning.
• Feedback should be instructional and provide
knowledge of learner’s performance.
• Allow learners to create their own social
“leaderboard” of friends.

52. Freedom to Fail

56. Recommendations
• Allow failure.
• Provide for multiple attempts.
• Focus on learning from mistakes and failure.

57. Putting It All
Together

58. Fostering Pro‐Social
Behavior
Greitemeyer, T. & Osswald, S. (2010) Effective of Prosocial games on prosocial behavior.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 98 . No. 2., 211‐221.

59. 28% helped to
pick up pencils

60. 33% helped to
pick up pencils

61. 67% helped to
pick up pencils

63. 22% intervened

64. 56% intervened

65. Learned Procedure

67. Go ahead…jump in!

68. Summary
1 2
What are 3 principles for adding
How do you apply game-based gamification and game-ideas to
strategies to the presentation of learning curriculums
learning content?
3 4
Six ways gamification impacts
Four motivational aspects of games learning design and development
that improve learning recall and
application?

69. Questions/More Information
• http://www.kaplaneduneering.com/kappnotes/
– Recommended books
– Samples and Examples
• Email: kkapp@bloomu.edu
• Email: karlkapp@gmail.com
• Twitter: @kkapp
• Pinterest: Gamification Happenings
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gamificationLI
“The Gamification of Learning
and Instruction”