Engaging Learning Designing e-Learning Simulation Games

Learning is at its best when it is goal-oriented, contextual, interesting, challenging, and interactive. These same winning characteristics also define the best computer games, which suggests that the most effective learning experiences are also engaging. Learning can and should be hard fun! The challenge is to get in touch with what it takes to design learning experiences that will excite your audience. Engaging Learning offers a much-needed guide for training professionals who want to create learning programs that are both effective and engaging. Clark N. Quinn Learning, a system designer, presents a unique framework for systematically aligning the key elements of learning and engagement with a proven design process for e-learning games. This nuts-and-bolts guide, which is both research-based and grounded in experience, offers the tools needed to transform learning experiences from humdrum to fun.

 

Reviews

 

Quinn presents an enhanced instructional design model that is grounded in the concepts of cognitive apprenticeship, situated learning, constructivism, and the Zone of Proximal Development. (The Journal of Continuing Higher Ed, 06/08)

"I believe you will find that the book you are holding is equally useful for the curious learner as for the e-learning developer interested in creating something truly special. It explains beautifully and gently not only how to craft more meaningful learning experiences, but also why it is vital to do so. I look forward to seeing what you create as a result of what you learn here. You have the opportunity to truly change the world."
--From the Foreword by Marcia L. Conner

"I have often said that simulations may work in practice, but they certainly don’t work in theory. Clark Quinn has proved me wrong. He has uncovered and presented the academic underpinnings to tell us why simulations work as well as they do, both at the highest level and in the nitty-gritty of design."
--Clark Aldrich, author, Simulations and the Future of Learning and Learning by Doing

"Many so-called e-learning simulation games are neither good games nor good learning experiences.  Engaging Learning bridges the chasm between the engaging world of great games and the essential elements of effective learning experiences in clarifying ways to create truly powerful e-learning."
--Michael W. Allen, CEO, Allen Interactions Inc., and author, Michael Allen’s Guide to e-Learning

"Games are great motivators—sometimes you can’t tear players away from their session. How would it be if we could harness that motivation for the cause of education? In this book, Clark Quinn leads us through the necessary stages of development. He provides precisely what you need to know: systematic, logical coverage of how to create simulations and games that engage the learner and create the compelling learning experience we all dream about."
--Donald Norman, professor, Northwestern University and author, Things That Make Us Smart