Thinking Like a Game Designer: Gamification, Games and Interactivity for Learning

Thinking Like a Game Designer:
Gamification, Games and Interactivity for Learning
By Karl M. Kapp
Bloomsburg University
Gamification of Learning & Instruction

Please Play:
Tic Tac Toe
HO Page: 1-5
Please Play:
Hangman

Game Results
• Did you like playing?
• Was it fun?
• Did you score points?
• Who won?
I Won!
HO Page: 1-5

Personnel Learning
Objective?
HO Page: 1-6

Gamification Project
HO Page: 1-8

10,000 hrs of
Game play
13 hours
of console
games a
week
Digital divisions. Report by the Pew /Internet: Pew Internet & American Life.
US Department of Commerce
87% of 8- to 17-
year olds
play video games
at home.
Average game
player in US
is 30-38.

Females play 5 hours a week of
console games. They make up the
majority of PC gamers at 63%.
Almost 43% of the
gamers are female
and 26% of those
females are over
18.
Digital divisions. Report by the Pew /Internet: Pew Internet & American Life.
US Department of Commerce HO Page: 1-9

“A study of 2,300 people found only 6%
of organizations are successful in
influencing behavior change among
employees.”
--Al Switzler

A Gallup poll found that the average
company has as many as 18% of employees
who are actively disengaged.
Exude negativity.
Aren’t interested
in learning or
development.
Aren’t interested in
anything related to
the company.
Close themselves out
of solutions to
organizational
problems.
Thwart efforts for
improvement.
Putting in time until
something better
comes along.

The average person checks their phone
150 times a day that’s about 9 times an
hour.
People send or receive an
average of 41 text messages
per day.,
Smartphones users spend
over 2.5 hours a day on their
phones, with 32% of that time
playing games.

Are games effective for learning?

Let’s Play
Fact or Fishy…
(true) (False)

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Lectures are an effective
method for fostering higher
order thinking skills.
Fact or Fishy…

Lectures are NOT effective for
fostering higher level thinking?
Gibbs, G., (1981). Twenty Terrible Reasons for Lecturing, SCED Occasional Paper No. 8, Birmingham.
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/resources/20reasons.html and Bligh, D., (1972). What’s the Use of Lectures? Penguin.
Bloom, B. S., (1953). “Thought Processes in Lectures and Discussions.” Journal of General Education Vol. 7.
Isaacs, G., (1994). “Lecturing Practices and Note-taking Purposes.” Studies in Higher Education, 19:2.

67% of the lecture is spent
in ‘passive thoughts about
the subject’ and
‘irrelevant thoughts’.

During lectures students'
thoughts involved
attempting to solve
problems, or synthesize
or inter-relate
information for 1% of the
time.

21 studies found
lecturing to be less
effective than:
discussion, reading
and individual work in
class.

Lectures are not a very effective way
of teaching-- if the aim is to teach
thinking, or to change attitudes or
other higher aims beyond the simple
transmission of factual knowledge.”

Playing learning games
results in higher gains in
learning and retention than
lecture-based instruction.
Fact or Fishy…

Type of
Knowledge
/Retention
% Higher
Declarative 11%
Procedural 14%
Retention 9%
Percentages of Impact Over
Traditional Training
Fact:

Type of
Knowledge
/Retention
% Higher
Declarative 11%
Procedural 14%
Retention 9%
Percentages of Impact Over
Traditional Training
17% Higher than
Lectures
5% Higher than
Discussion
HO Page: 1-10

Percentages of Impact
Type of
Knowledge
/Retention
% Higher
Declarative 11%
Procedural 14%
Retention 9%
It wasn’t the game, it was level
of activity in the game.
In other words, the engagement
of the learner in the game leads
to learning.

Games Must be Embedded
into the Curriculum to be
Effective for Learning.

Engagement
PedagogyGame
Educational
Simulation
Instructional games should be embedded in
instructional programs that include
debriefing and feedback.
Instructional support to help learners
understand how to use the game increases
instructional effectiveness of the gaming
experience.
Hays, R. T. (2005). The effectiveness of instructional games: A literature review and
discussion. Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (No 2005-004). Chapter 4
“The Gamification of Learning and Instruction.”
Sitzmann, T. (2011) A meta-analytic examination of the instructional effectiveness
of computer-based simulation games. Personnel Psychology .Review of 65 studies
Fact:

Example
Wouters, P., van Nimwegen, C., van Oostendorp, H., & van der Sek E.D. (2013), (February 4).
A Meta-Analysis of the Cognitive and Motivational Effects of Serious Games. Journal of Educational Psychology.
Advanced online publication. Doi: 10.1037/a0031311 39 Studies.

Games are more effective
than traditional instruction
when players work in groups.

With serious games, both learners playing
individually and those playing in a group learn
more than the comparison group, but learners
who play serious games in a group learn more
Wouters, P., van Nimwegen, C., van Oostendorp, H., & vam der S[el.
E.D. (2013), February 4). A Meta-Analysis of the Cognitive and
Motivational Effects of Serious Games. Journal of Educational
Psychology. Advanced online publication. Doi: 10.1037/a0031311
39 Studies.
Fact:

While playing a game,
learners will voluntarily do
harder problems and more
difficult work.

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.
Fact:

Overview of
Gamification in Action
HO Page: 1-14

t was a quiet Monday morning, very
quiet, really quiet… almost too…

Then, out of nowhere, she flew into my office,
like a Boss who had a problem that needed
solved …
Hi Boss.

I have a problem that
needs to be solved.

We need more
engagement.
She wanted to increase learner
engagement and have more interactive
learning.

You came to the right guy
that’s what I do…

Yeah, I know…that’s
why I hired you.
Now take the new person here
and go ask Clyde, he went to a
session on the subject.
Ugh….

For some reason, she didn’t seem bothered
by the fact that she was breaking the
company’s strict no smoking policy…

Here’s where you come in. Help me figure
out the clues …and fast.

Figure out the clues and solve the mystery
and you will become first class detective.

Next, take out your smart phone or text
device.

Next you need to choose your disguise…

First stop…Clyde’s office…look for clues

Fact or Fishy?
Games and
Gamification
are the Same
thing?

Whole Part
Gaming
Playing
(Serious ) Games
Simulations
Gamification
Qstream
Toys
Legos
Playful Design
iPhone
From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining “Gamification”, Deterding, S. et. al
I found a strange
drawing on Clyde’s desk.
HO Page: 1-15

Look…I found some things written on one
of Clyde’s notebooks.
Could be a lead…or
…it could be this session’s
learning objectives

Now we need to find Ivan…the Informant...
I knew one of his old haunts.

He was about as friendly as a fly at a fly
strip convention.
Hello, Clueless…

Look I am going to ask you some
questions, the right answer gives you
a clue to gamification and
interactive learning.
He was about as friendly as a fly at a fly
strip convention.

What do you and your detectives here have
to say about this?

How many types of gamification are there?

There are 3 types of
gamification.

He grabbed his typewriter and made some
notes to explain to me the difference between
the two types of gamification.

Content
Gamification use
of game thinking
to alter content
to make it more
game-like but
doesn’t turn the
content into a
game.
Content:
 Challenge
 Story
 Characters
 Missions
HO Page: 1-16

Structural
Gamification is
use of game-
elements to propel
a learner through
content with no
alteration or
changes to the
content.
Structural:
 Points
 Badges
 Leaderboard
HO Page: 1-17

Performance
Gamification goal
is to promote
behaviors or
actions. Employee
actions are tied
to game elements.
Performance:
 Points
 Badges
 Feedback Loop
 Targeted
Intervention
HO Page: 1-18

Ivan then grabbed his laptop to show me a
demonstration of the two types.

First Structural Gamification….

Gamification
The concept of gamification
Consists of many different
elements.
These elements can include:
• Story
• Character
• Mystery
• Curiosity
• Curve of Interest
• Surprise
• Chance
• Points
• Badges
Screen captures courtesy of MindTickle….

The Boehringer Ingelheim group is a large
pharmaceutical company.
Then he showed me another example…

Field reps are squeezed for time, yet have to
understand multiple disease states, product
attributes and competitive positioning and complex
healthcare system issues of concern to their
physicians. They wanted an effective way to pull
through the information.

They rolled out Competitive Gamification which
consisted of 25 questions, answers and explanations.
Reps simply answer two questions from their laptop
or mobile device every other day.

They are immediately scored, can see how their
peers answer the same question, are presented
with a concise explanation and on their way in 3 to
5 minutes.

Reps said:
“I feel this is an awesome way to review and continue to maintain our
knowledge. 5 Star rating.”
“Great reminders of important points to make for the supplemental
calls.”
“I enjoy the challenge.”
“Love the concept. Keeps me up to date. Thanks!”
“It gives us a chance to really think and confirm what we know, what
we really need to know, and where to expand our knowledge.”

ExactTarget is a global marketing organization
focused on digital marketing tools – email,
mobile, and web and was recently purchased by
Salesforce.com. ExactTarget is a leading cloud
marketing platform used by more than 6,000
companies including Coca-Cola, Gap and Nike.

Introducing a new product, MobileConnect and
wanted to bring the sales force up-to-speed on
the features and functionality of the product.

“I can’t tell you how many people are coming to me wanting
another game solution.”
“The repetition of the different paths helped me retain the
information.”
“I’m a pretty competitive person so challenging myself to get
one of the top scores added a layer of fun to learning about
the MobileConnect product.”
“The game was a fun way to learn about MobileConnect. I
enjoyed the scenario-type questions, which put it all into
context.”
Player Results

Business Results
Average contract value 2x higher than for previous
mobile product.
First call resolution ($35 a call/average) is up 45%.
Of all the launches done in the previous two years prior
to MobileConnect, the sales team built the quickest
pipeline for this product.

Then wanted to demonstrated content
gamification....
Of course, we’ve seen this
already.

It was a little like déjá vu ….this content
gamification…..

It has elements of story, characters and
content that was altered to be more game-like…

Here is an example of Content Gamification.
Zombies Sales Apocalypse

Case Study:
SUSTAINED ENGAGEMENT AND FEEDBACK
SUPERCHARGES PERFORMANCE @ AGERIS
The Challenge
Maintaining high levels of employee focus and
motivation in an outsourced contact center
Before Gamification
Monetary bonuses, unmotivating competitions
and monthly employee performance reviews
With Gamification
Employees bet on their targets. Daily learning &
challenges. Automated immediate feedback
Productivity Absenteeism
Knowledge
& Compliance
+9% -10%
x2
Sweden
Here is an example of Performance
Gamification. And more on this in a bit.

It doesn’t all have to be electronic....
Cards can be a powerful
learning tool for
gamification.

This mystery of interactive learning was
starting to take shape…

Ivan had another question for me…I was the
one who was supposed to be ask’n questions….
Fact or Fishy?: Learners remember
facts better when presented in a
bulleted list or when presented in a
story?

Research shows humans
have an inclination toward
stories

Researchers have found that
the human brain has a natural
affinity for narrative
construction.
Yep, People tend to
remember facts more
accurately if they encounter
them in a story rather than
in a list.

Let’s brief the boss on what we know so far…

So far, so good. Follow the next clue on the
matchbook I found in my desk drawer….

I arrived at the place on the matchbook, as
shady as a clump of oaks caught in an eclipse…

Enter Question TextWhat could this location and clue mean??? Tell me.
Does engaging instruction start with…

Action draws in the learner and
encourages further engagement.

Make the learner do something
Answer a question
Role Play
Make a decision.
Solve a mystery.
Confront a challenge.
Solve a Problem.
Bet on Performance
Hands On
Play a game.

Here are some more
matches for your boss. She
smokes a lot.
She shouldn’t smoke.

Put the learner at risk.
or
Let the learner safely explore the environment.

No risk, or danger equal no skin in the
game.
Get the learner emotionally involved
by putting him or her at “mock” risk.

Losing (points, game)
Not Solving the Problem
Social Credibility
More Work
Then they mysterious stranger started
talking about what learners can “risk”…
Starting Over
Multiple Lives

In games, failing is allowed, it’s acceptable,
and it’s part of the process.

Time for a recap with the boss… she looked a
little frazlled…she needed to know one more
thing.

I want to know one more
thing.
What did you detectives
learn about gamification?

What are some gamification
practices that can engage
learners?

Great stuff, you folks really seemed to have
cracked the case as to what makes engaging
learning.

Mystery solved, just in time for the
weekend. I was anxious to get some rest…

But…to my surprise as the Boss was driving
away, she threw yet another matchbook….

Unfortunately, we’ll have to leave that
mystery for later today….

Credits:
Detective Artwork Courtesy of Vanessa Bailey
Flow Diagram by Kristin Bittner
Typewriter and Mysterious Eyes are Clip Art
Audience Response by Poll Everywhere
Demo of Gamification Software by MindTickle

Now for the Takeaway
Challenge
HO Page: 1-9

Now for the Takeaway
Challenge
1) Story/Characters
2) Polling/Audience Input
3) Winners/Teams
4) Mystery/Curiosity
5) Blend story/instruction
6) Suprise
7) Humor

Don’t need to have a
detective. You can be
more realistic.

Suddenly, your boss calls you
and your colleague into her office.
Ito and Jasmine come into my
office.

Boosts and Triggers
in Action
HO Page: 1-20

Need to Know: Basic
Game Lingo
Game goal
what
player(s) have
to do to win.
No goal. No
game.
Core
Dynamic
what game
play is about;
what you
have to do to
win.
Pick a dynamic to
design around;
it’s easier to get
started that way.
Mechanics
rules for
players; rules
for system.
Rules define how
people achieve
the goal. Don’t
make too hard or
too easy.
Game
Elements
Features that
help immerse
you in game
play
Tinkering with
one feature can
entirely change
play experience
HO Page: 1-21-24

Need to Know: Basic
Game Lingo
Game Space
environment in
which the
action of the
game takes
place.
Impacts experience,
mood and sense of
“world” in game.
Balance
adjusting
elements so
game is at
the right level
of challenge,
fairness and
punishment/
reward
Balance a game to
develop the
desired
experience.
Feedback
natural and
artificial
instructions,
hints and
indicators to
players.
Feedback should
not interrupt the
game play.
Rewards and
Achievements
elements of a
game used to
provide
motivation
through the
game and to
quantity
ending.
Tinkering with one
reward can entirely
change play
experience.
HO Page: 1-21-24

Need to Know: Basic
Game Lingo
Lose State
the condition
under which one
or more players
is unsuccessful at
completing the
game.
Win State
the condition
under which one
or more players
achieves success.
HO Page: 1-21-24

Core Dynamics = How you
achieve a game goal.
HO Page: 1-22

Core Dynamics
• Race to the Finish
– Fastest person.
– Mario Kart, Gran Turismo

Core Dynamics
• Territory Acquisition
– Acquire – or take – land or
resources, typically to create an
empire or own the most of
something
– Risk. Age of Empires.
Aldrich, C. (2005) Learning by Doing.

Core Dynamics
• Exploration
– Wander around and check out
various aspects of the game world
to see if you can find things of
value.
– Clue, Infinite Sky

Core Dynamics
• Collecting
– Find and get specified
objects/people.
– Trivial Pursuit.

Core Dynamics
• Rescue or Escape
– Get out of a situation/place you are
in.
– Forbidden Island. Escape Rooms.

Core Dynamics
• Alignment
– Arrange game pieces in a particular
order.
– Connect Four, Candy Crush

Core Dynamics
• Forbidden Act
– Get fellow players to break the
rules, make a wrong move, or do
something they shouldn’t.
– Cards Against Humanity.

Game Dynamics
• Construction or Build
– Create something using specified
resources.
– Minecraft. Jenga

Core Dynamic
• Outwit
– Use specialized knowledge or skill to
defeat an opponent.
– Chess, Stratego.

Game Dynamics
• Solution
– Solve a problem or a puzzle.
– Puzzle Games. Five Nights at
Freddy’s

Game Dynamics
• Matching
– Match physical items or match
agains criteria.
– Codenames. Guess Who?

Question:
What Kind of Core Dynamics Do You
Like Best?

Things to Consider
Game component Things to evaluate
Game Goal Is it challenging? Do you like it?
Core dynamic(s) How do you achieve the goal…collecting things,
exploration, racing to the finish, territory acquisition? Is
THAT fun?
Game mechanics Do the rules contribute to your enjoyment? Are they
too complex? Too easy?
Game elements What game elements are part of this game and how do
they enhance it?
Feedback How do I know how I am doing? Is it effective?

Think about your
gamified learning
event over lunch to
reach top of hierarchy.

Review of
Gamification Project
HO Page: 1-25, 1-8

Desirable Difficulty
Desirable difficulties are desirable because responding to the challenges they
create requires encoding and/or retrieval activities that support learning.
There can be other types of difficulties in learning (non-desirable difficulties)
but the key is the process of encoding the information to be learned.
Term coined by Robert and Elizabeth Bjork
HO Page: 1-26-29

Manipulations that speed the rate of acquisition during instruction can
fail to support long-term retention and transfer, whereas other
manipulations that appear to introduce difficulties and slow the rate of
acquisition learner can enhance post-instruction recall and transfer.

What creates Desirable Difficulty?
• Testing
• Spaced Practice (rather than blocking)
• Switching Between Topics (Interleaving)
• Freedom to Fail (learning from errors)
• Organizing Unfamiliar Information
• Generating Ideas (instead of reading or watching)
• Self Feedback
• Vary Conditions of Practice or Learning
• Transfer Knowledge to New Situations
• Solving Multiple Types of Problems at Once
• Allow for Confusion
• Kobayashi Maru (seemingly impossible challenge)

How We Learn
• Do not learn by making a literal copy of
information.
– Learn by encoding and storing new information
– Relating it to what we already know.
• Mapping new information onto current information
and link our new information with existing information.

How We Learn
• Act of retrieving information is itself a potent
learning event.
• Retrieved information becomes more
recallable in the future than it would have
been otherwise.
• Using our memories, in effect, alters our
memories.

Your goal as a designer of
instruction…
Create conditions that foster storage and enhance
later retrieval in multiple contexts.
Source: https://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/07/RBjork_inpress.pdf
The conditions of learning need to induce encoding and
retrieval processes that are substantial and varied, and
incorporating desirable difficulties helps to induce those
processes.

In an experiment on a group of college
students to examine the effects of testing
on fact memorization and language
learning..(Swahili & English)
One group was asked to keep testing themselves on all
items without dropping what they were getting right. The
other group could drop the correctly recalled items..
The students who dropped items from testing
remembered about 35% of the word pairs. Those
who kept testing items even after they had learned
them could recall 80
Source: https://www.goconqr.com/en/examtime/blog/testing-effect-how-self-testing-helps-memory-improvement/

In a study, immediate testing after reading a prose passage
promoted better long-term retention than repeatedly studying the
passage. This outcome occurred even though the tests included
no feedback.
In an experiment, students in a repeated-testing
condition recalled much more after a week than did
students in the repeated-study condition (61% vs.
40%), even though students in the repeated-testing
condition read the passage only 3.4 times and those
in the repeated-study condition read it 14.2 times
had learned them could recall 80
http://psych.wustl.edu/memory/Roddy%20article%20PDF's/Roediger%20&%20Karpicke%20(2006)_PsychSci.pdf

Students who are tested over time have better recall
than student who are simply asked to read.
Participants who had been tested (rather than re-
reading the material) outperformed the other
students on two tests given 18 days later and again
5 weeks later
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4235419/

Soderstrom, NC, Kerr TK & Bjork RA. The Critical Importance of Retrieval –and Spacing– for Learning. Psychological Science, 2016;27(2):223-230.

Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve
Modified from: Bersin, J. (2017) The Disruption of Digital Learning: Ten Things We Have Learned.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/disruption-digital-learning-ten-things-we-have-learned-josh-bersin/
We discussed last time
in microlearning.

Citation: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-
mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/
Interleaving
Mix up instruction rather than cover one topic
completely before moving on to the other.
Instead of the learning pattern looking like AAA, BBB, CCC.
It looks more like ABC,BCA,ABC, CBA.

Citation: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-
mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/
Interleaving
Mix up instruction rather than cover one topic
completely before moving on to the other.
Instead of the learning pattern looking like AAA, BBB, CCC.
It looks more like ABC,BCA,ABC, CBA.
Learners should have
familiarity with subject
materials before interleaving
begins (or the material should
be fairly simple). Otherwise,
interleaving can be more
confusing than helpful.

Actionable Data:
• Review incorrect questions
• Track learner progress over time
• Spot anomalies
• Diagnose instructional issues
• Identify areas of improvement
Analytics
HO Page: 1-30

• Transactional
Data collection
• “We need to
track our
activities…”
Data
• Viewing
grouped,
filtered and
sorted data
• “We need to
see our data
organized…”
Reporting
• Visual data
display
• “We need
quick, visual
view of data…”
Dashboards
• Data against
critical
business
indicators
• “We need to
know when we
hit a certain
threshold…”
Metrics
• Predictive use
of data to help
take action
• “We need to
make data-
driven
decisions
proactively…”
Analytics
Analytics Maturity Model
SUBMITManagementCollection Contextualization Measurement Decision Making
1 2 3 4 5
SUBMITREACTIVEREACTIVE INFORMATIONAL TRANSITION PROACTIVE
HO Page: 1-31

Overview of
Analytics in Action
HO Page: 1-32

Teaching Problem Solving
HO Page: 1-33-35

Training
• Course Objectives
– Adhere to the proper policy for providing
information to clients
– Understand what is permissible to share with
clients and what is not
– Identify three methods of conducting an audit

You are gathering data during the first day
of an audit. During lunch, Mary
approaches you and tells you that she has
something important to discuss. The two
of you go to your office and she makes the
accusation that the VP of Finance is hiding
an account…
What is the first thing you should do?

Here are three more tips to teach problem
solving:
- Multiple, Realistic Scenarios (case studies)
- Provide a Question Protocol
- Learning Documentary

Provide a list of prompts or questions to
help trigger thoughts and question sets.
Check out this folder.

Create a learning documentary of
how to do a job, how decisions are
made, how dots are connected.
Show learners how experts think
through problems and solve them.
It’s a “think aloud.”

Questions, Follow Up, Action
items.
Stay in touch:
Twitter: @kkapp
Email: Karlkapp@gmail.com
HO Page: 1-37

Thinking Like a Game Designer: Gamification, Games and Interactivity for Learning

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