Learners are distracted with daily competing priorities and struggle to retain information presented through digital learning. Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve shows that retention rates are abysmal. Educators and instructional designers are pressed for time and resources to deliver learning that maximizes retention and desired outcomes.

What’s the good news? You can leverage neuroscience and seven fundamental game mechanics to combat the forgetting curve! In this session, you will learn how to apply seven simple techniques in your eLearning projects to naturally boost your learners’ dopamine and enable them to learn more effectively. Explore how to leverage scientific knowledge of the neurochemical dopamine, which is linked to the reward centers of the brain. Research shows that higher levels of dopamine enhance confidence, memory, and learning. Prime your audience for success. Give your learners a turbo boost!

In this session, you will learn:

• How to apply game mechanics to your eLearning projects
• How to increase learning retention
• How to improve learner confidence and accuracy in applying learned information
• How to dramatically increase engagement

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Twitter, LMSs (in general terms), and mobile devices.

Many eLearning professionals are attempting to use gamification and serious games to spark employee engagement and drive learning retention; it seems everyone is working to make the best serious game that will enhance learning objectives and retention. The biggest setbacks for some have been little to no planning, tough-to-pinpoint metrics, little to no implementation strategy, and insufficient or nonexistent post-deployment support.

In this session, you will learn about planning, developing, implementing, and supporting serious games for companies that have never gone down the route of serious games and gamified learning experiences. You will learn what makes a serious game a success or a failure. This session will also address the proper steps to take throughout each phase of a project to ensure success, as well as the pain points you will have to deal with when going down the route of gamification and serious games. You will walk away with knowledge of best practices, what not to do, and how to support serious games at your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why serious games work
• The best practices to ensure a successful serious game implementation
• The best practices learned from other organizations in different phases of this effort
• What not to do, and how to support serious games at your organization
• How to approach a serious game

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Gamification is here to stay, as more and more organizations are using learning games to help improve performance and achieve business results. Find out how Learning Pool’s multi-device, SCORM-compatible game engine is making budget barriers a thing of the past and placing rapid, customizable learning games firmly in the present. Game on!

Gamification is a multibillion-dollar business that has touched a wide variety of fields, but especially learning and development. At the same time, according to research from Gartner, approximately 80 percent of gamification projects fail. So how can you use gamification in a way that’s actually successful? You need to think like game designers and go beyond the buzzwords and definitions.

Come to this session to bust five of the biggest myths about gamification of learning. As you find out more about these myths and play an interactive game, you’ll clarify the differences between gamification, game-based learning, and game thinking; uncover why points, badges, and leaderboards may lead to disappointment; and explore the mindset of a game designer. You’ll also find out more about player types and their motivators, a piece of knowledge that can make or break your design.

In this session, you will learn:

• The truth behind five key myths about gamification
• Why there is serious confusion about gamification and game-based learning
• About common player types and motivators and how you can use them to avoid design mistakes
• How to shift from content-driven to action-driven thinking

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, managers, and directors.

Click here for the session trailer

“Gamification,” “learning games,” and “serious games”: These are trendy buzzwords in L&D right now, but how can you actually create these experiences yourself if you’re not a game designer? Designing your first learning game can be a daunting task, and it’s quite common to think you don’t have the skill set or tools needed. But in many cases, you actually do have a tool for creating games, and it’s one you likely know well: Articulate Storyline. That’s right: With a few tips and tricks, you can actually create rich and engaging learning games using Storyline.

In this session, you’ll learn the basics of Storyline game development through looking at a real game developed with this tool. You’ll learn a bit about the game’s background and the gaming elements used. You’ll then spend the rest of the session in a hands-on activity that will teach you how to create one of the main elements from this game: interactive panoramic graphics. This common gaming element allows you to navigate around a digital space and is found in many search games, adventure games, and virtual tours. With a little creativity, it’s also easy to replicate in Storyline. You’ll leave this session with a better understanding of what game experiences you can build into Storyline and the practical skills to implement them.

In this session, you will learn:

• Tips for getting started designing a game
• How Storyline can be used to create learning games
• About gaming elements that can be created in Storyline
• How to create interactive panoramic graphics in Storyline

Audience:
Designers and developers with intermediate experience developing in Storyline 2.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline 2 and interactive panoramic graphics.

Technology required:
Laptop running Articulate Storyline 2.

The task of incorporating gaming into an organization’s learning solutions can seem overwhelming. The lack of understanding as to what gamification and gaming are confuses the issue, and many of the off-the-shelf vendor solutions offer only rudimentary gamification techniques. No wonder organizations tend to discount gamification and associate these techniques with “playing Jeopardy” and not meaningful learning.

This session will address how learning professionals can develop a gamification culture in their organization. Through exploring the difference between gamification and gaming, you’ll learn how to incorporate gaming techniques into traditional eLearning designs. You’ll also find out how to use existing rapid development tools, such as Articulate Studio and Storyline, to develop engaging gamified learning solutions, allowing you to incorporate gaming elements in your projects even if you don’t have a large budget. Finally, gamified solutions work best when your whole team is on board, so the session will give you strategies for how to help your team learn to design and develop simple gamified solutions.

In this session, you will learn:

• The difference between gamification and gaming
• How to identify gamification elements that you can add to your learning solutions
• How to develop simple gamified solutions using your current rapid development tools
• How to teach your team to develop simple gamified solutions

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline.

It’s harder and harder to catch the attention of learners, especially field sales representatives. It is also difficult to encourage them to practice important skills like sales techniques and how to speak with customers in different situations. While they need to practice these critical skills to succeed in their roles, they don’t always take the time to do so. What could engage this audience?

The solution was Zombie Sales Apocalypse: a game to reinforce key sales skills. This serious game made practice easier by creating an exciting and immersive experience using the popular genre of zombie games. In this session, you’ll discover how a branching story simulation combined engaging game activities—such as fleeing from zombies, moving furniture, and smashing through walls—with sales-focused challenges like choosing the right response to customers, bringing the right materials to a sales call, and properly diagnosing customer issues. Through examining Zombie Sales Apocalypse, you’ll find out more about the key elements and influences you’ll want to consider when creating your own games for practice and reinforcement.

In this session, you will learn:

• About three key elements that are required in any serious learning game
• Why the use of fantasy was a critical element in the design of this learning game
• How immediate feedback changes learner behavior
• How learner input was used to drive engagement with the sales model

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:
Unity game platform.

Click here for the session trailer

Poor leadership is a significant drain on organizations, with some estimates claiming it costs the US economy billion of dollars a year. That’s why leadership development remains a top priority for many companies. But while organizations want to invest in this training, in many cases the training they offer doesn’t fully meet the needs of the leaders taking it. So where should you look for inspiration on how to make your leadership development more effective? Games!

In this session, you’ll examine a number of ways to build leadership experience through gaming. You’ll uncover the psychological benefits derived from games like Candy Crush. You’ll then explore the ways adults build leadership capabilities by looking at how chess players master their art. Finally, you’ll discover the advantages of practicing high-stakes skills in game-like environments, much like pilots do in flight simulators. And throughout this talk, you’ll find out how organizations are already using gaming mechanics successfully to develop leadership capabilities. By the end of this session, you will understand not only how games are effective for learning, but also how serious gaming can close the leadership gap in your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• What behavioral science reveals about how complex capabilities such as leadership are developed
• About the psychological forces that make gaming a powerful learning mechanism
• Why games can be particularly effective for teaching leadership
• How you can incorporate serious gaming into your learning and development plans
• About four best practices for using gaming in leadership development

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
A game created specifically for leadership development.

Many instructional designers would like to incorporate games into their projects but aren’t sure how to get started and often find the prospect of designing a game to be intimidating. What are the various approaches to instructional game design? How do you determine which approach is most appropriate for your instructional need, taking into account your budget and timeline? And how do you get started designing a game?

This session will explore several approaches to instructional game design and, using real-world examples, discuss how to determine which approach is most appropriate for your specific situation. Finally, once you’ve selected your game design approach, this presentation will help you get started designing your game experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• About several approaches to instructional game design
• How to select a game design approach relative to need, time, and budget
• How to get started designing a game experience
• How to determine whether a game experience is right for your instructional goals

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers, and managers.

Yesterday’s sales enablement strategies are no longer enough for the “new normal” that most L&D professionals face. The marketplace grows more competitive each year, and the regulatory landscape is always shifting. Trainers must help reps become trusted partners to their customers, and that means moving beyond just features and benefits selling.

In this session, you will explore several examples in which a game-based solution was used to both engage sales reps and help them retain critical knowledge. You will learn how to identify various learner personas, create the right game-based learning experience for the learning need, and implement games effectively.

In this session, you will learn:

• Which kinds of sales enablement learning objectives lend themselves well to a game-based approach
• How to use a planning worksheet to identify learner personas and plan a sales enablement program that targets those personas
• Seven best practices for implementing a new learning technology such as game-based learning or gamification
• How to identify attributes of effective game design based on examples shown in session

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, managers, and directors who have a basic understanding of the training needs specific to sales reps.