What’s in a Game?

Margie and Alex are each leading a classroom-based course on coaching employees. They use quotations to help the learners process the attributes and benefits of effective coaching. The course is delivered to two different groups comprised of similar learners.

In the first session Margie posts flip charts around the room. Each chart contains a quote with blanks for some of the key words. She then divides the learners into three teams, giving each team an equal number of words that belong in the blanks. Teams have two minutes to place their words in the correct blanks. Teams then earn points as follows: three points per correct placement; minus one point for an incorrect placement; two points for being the first team done.

In the next session, Alex knows about Margie’s plan but wants to save time. He hands out the quotations on a sheet of paper and asks learners to take a minute to read them. He then moves on to the next topic.

Which teaching method was more effective? What made it more effective?

Margie created a “game” to help teach her points. The way she crafted the game enables learners to process information about all the quotations. Motivated by scoring, teams had the added benefit of needing to strategize to win. Learners reported that they learned the content better than had they simply read it.

What’s in a game? Using a game as a teaching approach can help improve learning. In an article entitled “Designing Games for E-Learning: A Framework” by Purnima Valiathan and Puja Anand published by ASTD in 2008, the authors describe three factors included in most games. Those factors are scoring, strategy, and message. While a game need not include all three factors, it must include scoring, according to the authors.

• Learners score by earning points based on correct responses. They may also lose points for incorrect responses.

• Strategy enables learners to maximize their scores. For example, there might be “bonus” rounds.

• The message ensures the game relates to the learning objective.

Describe a game you’ve designed. What learning objective prompted you to create the game? Which factors were used? What was the benefit to learning?