Serious Gaming in an engaging workshop

Online Educa is in full swing again.

The opening plenaries were held this morning. So far my best experience comes from the Serious Gaming pre-conference workshop held yesterday.

Ian Dunwell and Nicole Steils had designed a good combination of informative presentations and participatory group activities.

Ian started with an introduction to serious games. Right after that we had a group session on identifying a challenge suitable for game-based learning. Our table decided to create a game for teenagers on net safety.

Not only did we learn what makes a game "serious", but we also got some practical tools for the design process. Insight on game elements and game designs gave me practical tools and ideas to take into account when planning gamified learning content.

Ian's students had made a cool deck of cards to facilitate brainstorming game ideas. For example a card on social mechanics might have a topic like Collecting, and designers playing with cards should discuss how the interaction between players would change if that was added to the game.