Blog posts

1. Keep game complexity simple, particularly when you are using a game to support relatively short lessons.

<strong>2. Reward players for performance, not completion</strong>.

<strong>3. Be cautious with leaderboards</strong>.

4. As much as possible, align the game element choices you use to the learner’s actual job context.

<strong>5. Make the in-game goal align with the learning goal in a reasonable way that “makes sense” for the learners who will play your game or complete your gamified lesson</strong>.

6. Stop thinking you have to make the game super “fun.”

The number of hours required for course design and development covers a wide range from 70 - 600 hours, with an average of about 250 hours.

<p>The study's authors speculate that the reason the numbers are so high is because women at remote or mostly remote companies are more likely to be fairly evaluated.</p> <p>“It’s because remote work requires companies to focus on the most important aspects of work—<a href="https://www.workingmother.com/show-this-to-your-manager-people-who-work-from-home-have-been-proven-to-be-more-productive" class="linkTargets-processed">productivity</a>, progress, results—rather than less important things like face time in the office, office politics, traditional notions of what leadership ‘looks like,’ popularity or likability, or hours spent at your desk,” they write.</p>

<p>Recently, in working with a company to improve their smile sheet, a first draft included the so-called World’s Best Smile Sheet Question. But they were thinking of piloting the new smile sheet for a course to teach basic electronics to facilities professionals. Given the topic and audience, I recommended a simpler version:</p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;"><strong>How able will you be to put what you’ve learned into practice on the job?&nbsp; Choose one.</strong></p> <p style="padding-left: 30px;">A. I am NOT AT ALL ready to use the skills taught.<br> B. I need MORE GUIDANCE to be GOOD at using these skills<br> C. I need MORE EXPERIENCE to be GOOD at using these skills.<br> D. I am FULLY COMPETENT in using these skills.<br> E. I am CAPABLE at an EXPERT LEVEL in using these skills.</p> <p>This version nicely balances precision with word count.</p>

The amount a learner will forget varies depending on many things. We as learning professionals will be more effective if we make decisions based on a deep understanding of how to minimize forgetting and enhance remembering.

To be specific, when we hear statements like, “People will forget 60% of what they learned within 7 days,” we should ignore such advice and instead reflect on our own superiority and good looks until we are decidedly pleased with ourselves.

Many of the experiments reviewed in this report showed clearly that learning methods matter. For example, in the Bahrick 1979 study, the best learning methods produced an average forgetting score of -29% forgetting, whereas the worst learning methods produced forgetting at 47%, a swing of 76% points.