Can we learn through play? Can we really play while learning? Of course! But how?! We all learn and educate others in our own unique ways. Successful educational games adapt to the particular learning needs of their players and facilitate the learning objectives of their designers. Educational Game Design Fundamentals embarks on a journey to explore the necessary aspects to create games that are both fun and help players learn. This book examines the art of educational game design through various perspectives and presents real examples that will help readers make more informed decisions when creating their own games. In this way, readers can have a better idea of how to prepare for and organize the design of their educational games, as well as evaluate their ideas through several prisms, such as feasibility or learning and intrinsic values. Everybody can become education game designers, no matter what their technical, artistic or pedagogic backgrounds. This book refers to educators and designers of all sorts: from kindergarten to lifelong learning, from corporate training to museum curators and from tabletop or video game designers to theme park creators!

Are you interested in learning more about gaming? Are you trying to determine whether it might be an appropriate training and development solution, but aren't sure where to start? While games have long been an important part of human social development--think learning to take turns in a board game, and strategizing about future moves in chess or checkers--we are only now beginning to understand how games can be a powerful tool in learning. This issue of TD at Work will: - define games, gamification, and simulation; and discuss the types of games people play - walk you through the process of creating a game by outlining its design and gaming framework - describe how to get stakeholders and sponsors to support the gaming solution.

Principles for designing educational games that integrate content and play and create learning experiences connecting to many areas of learners' lives. Too often educational videogames are narrowly focused on specific learning outcomes dictated by school curricula and fail to engage young learners. This book suggests another approach, offering a guide to designing games that integrates content and play and creates learning experiences that connect to many areas of learners' lives. These games are not gamified workbooks but are embedded in a long-form experience of exploration, discovery, and collaboration that takes into consideration the learning environment. Resonant Games describes twenty essential principles for designing games that offer this kind of deeper learning experience, presenting them in connection with five games or collections of games developed at MIT's educational game research lab, the Education Arcade. Each of the games—which range from Vanished, an alternate reality game for middle schoolers promoting STEM careers, to Ubiquitous Bio, a series of casual mobile games for high school biology students—has a different story, but all spring from these fundamental assumptions: honor the whole learner, as a full human being, not an empty vessel awaiting a fill-up; honor the sociality of learning and play; honor a deep connection between the content and the game; and honor the learning context—most often the public school classroom, but also beyond the classroom.

"With an increasing use of vido games in various disciplines within the scientific community, this book seeks to understand the nature of effective games and to provide guidance for how best to harness the power of gaming technology to successfully accomplish a more serious goal"--Provided by publisher.

A comprehensive and up-to-date investigation of what research shows about the educational value of computer games for learning. Many strong claims are made for the educational value of computer games, but there is a need for systematic examination of the research evidence that might support such claims. This book fills that need by providing, a comprehensive and up-to-date investigation of what research shows about learning with computer games. Computer Games for Learning describes three genres of game research: the value-added approach, which compares the learning outcomes of students who learn with a base version of a game to those of students who learn with the base version plus an additional feature; the cognitive consequences approach, which compares learning outcomes of students who play an off-the-shelf computer game for extended periods to those of students who do not; and the media comparative approach, which compares the learning outcomes of students who learn material by playing a game to those of students who learn the same material using conventional media. After introductory chapters that describe the rationale and goals of learning game research as well as the relevance of cognitive science to learning with games, the book offers examples of research in all three genres conducted by the author and his colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara; meta-analyses of published research; and suggestions for future research in the field. The book is essential reading for researchers and students of educational games, instructional designers, learning-game developers, and anyone who wants to know what the research has to say about the educational effectiveness of computer games.

When trainers use games, learners win big. As a trainer interested in game design, you know that games are more effective than lectures. You've seen firsthand how immersive games hold learners' interest, helping them explore new skills and experience different points of view. But how do you become the Milton Bradley of learning games? Play to Learn is here to help. This book bridges the gap between instructional design and game design; it's written to grow your game literacy and strengthen crucial game design skills. Experts Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp share real examples of in-person and online games, and offer an online game for you to try as you read. They walk you through evaluating entertainment and learning games, so you can apply the best to your own designs. Play to Learn will also show you how to: Link game design to your business needs and learning objectives. Test your prototype and refine your design. Deploy your game to motivated and excited learners. So don't just play around. Think big, design well, and use Play to Learn as your guide.

Provides step-by-step instructions on creating computer games without any programming skills.