Play to Learn: Designing Effective Learning Games

Presenters: Dr. Karl Kapp, Ed.D, Sharon Boller
Cost: $389 for CIASTD members or their coworkers. ($70 value – fee for non-members is $459. Use promo code CIASTD23 when registering to get the discount.)

Registration: http://bottomlineperformance.com/play-to-learn

Learning games are a hot, hot trend – but why? What makes them work and how in the world do you go about designing one? In this workshop, you will explore a variety of games to identify what makes them playable and then design your own learning games using a step-by-step approach to design. You will then build a prototype of your game and actually play itundefinedlearning how to play test and how to iterate to improve the game’s playability and efficacy as a learning tool. You will leave the workshop with a coherent road map to help design future games (whether those games are digital ones or tablet-top games). You will also take away a list of resources to help further your learning and skill-development as game designers.

The best parts? 1) The workshop is in downtown Indy. 2) Bottom-Line Performance is giving CIASTD members and their coworkers $70 off. 3) Workshop attendees receive a signed copy of Karl Kapp’s newest book, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction, as part of their registration fee.

Take-Aways

You will design a learning game as part of the daylong session. What you’ll leave with:

A six-step process you can use to design learning games back at your job.

• A playtesting process to do rapid iteration of your game design.
• A list and description of various core dynamics and game elements you can incorporate into your games with ideas on how to use them appropriately.
• Ability to answer the question, “Why games?” when talking to your stakeholders about the value of learning games.
• A signed copy of Karl Kapp’s most recent book, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction, a $50 value!!

Register to attend or download the full agenda for the day: http://bottomlineperformance.com/play-to-learn

Presenters

Karl M. Kapp, Ed.D., is a scholar, writer, and expert on the convergence of learning, technology, and business operations. Karl is a professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, He teaches graduate level courses including Learning in 3D and Instructional Game Design.

Karl also serves as Assistant Director of Bloomsburg University’s acclaimed Institute for Interactive Technologies (IIT). In that role Karl helps government, corporate and nonprofit organizations use learning technologies to positively affect employee productivity and company profitability through learning solutions.

Karl is a frequent, popular speaker at the national and international level on the topic of learning game design. He has written five books including Learning in 3D, Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos for Learning, and his most recent, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction.

A long-time member and past-president of CIASTD, Sharon Boller, M.S. Ed., is president of Bottom-Line Performance (BLP), a learning solutions firm she founded in 1995. Sharon is the creator of the Knowledge Guru brand that focuses on game-based learning. She is the lead game designer for its inaugural product, known as Guru Classic, and she is leading the development of a second, more robust offering known as the Guru Game Builder.

Sharon frequently speaks on game-based learning and learning design topics at the local and international level. She authored one of the chapters in Karl Kapp’s upcoming book, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Field Book. In addition, she’s authored numerous white papers on the topics and learning game design and learning trends.