7 Ways to Reward the Brain

1. Experience bars measuring progress: Looking at some of the examples of games that we have played in this course, I have consistently felt that this is a key factor in whether or not a game is successful. I think that is is also important in learning, to give students a sense of where they stand in the big picture. The concept of having progress and "grading" by addition, rather than subtraction, is another important shift in the application of games to learning. We typically let students know how they performed by telling them how many points they lost. In fact, that is one of the most common conversations I have with students after a test, "Why did I lose a point for this?" The XP model turns this around to a positive reinforcement concept. Not, "You lost points because of what you did wrong," but "You earned points for what you did well." I think that this can be a powerful motivator for students, since it emphasizes their success, rather than punishing their failure. This has to be a key element in any game or game-based course I design. 2. Multiple long and short term aims: This is perhaps the easiest part of the gaming model to shift to education. In a well-designed lesson, there are clear overall objectives, as well as indicators of what steps will be taken to achieve those objectives. The biggest difference between the game/quest model and the traditional education model is the freedom of choice given to the players. While differentiated instruction seeks to implement a similar set of choices, gaming has an established history of open choice and multiple pathways to the objective. I will have to consider ways to implement this freedom in my educational game. Choice adds complexity to the design, and it will be a challenge to determine what types of options are appropriate to the learning objectives. 3. Rewards for effort: This is something that I have long tried to be aware of in my teaching. I tend to be very generous with "partial credit" and credit for attempting homework, whether the homework is correct or not. I think that it is important to recognize that, even if a student does not arrive at the correct answer on a particular problem, they deserve credit for demonstrating some level of thought and effort. Again, this is where educational practices are still catching up to gaming. Gaming is built on continuous progress, and small incremental rewards for simply being engaged. This is challenging in education, but things like attendance and participation points can go a long way toward giving students a chance to make consistent progress. 4. Rapid, frequent, clear feedback: Giving frequent, individualized feedback is a difficult task when faced with a class of 20 or 30 students. Technology can help, if students work at their own pace and receive feedback from a computer system as they progress. From a design perspective, it is important to recognize this element, and to ensure that it aligns with the first three points. The rewards and progress are their own form of feedback. Beyond just adding XP, however, there needs to be some guidance that allows the student to improve on their previous efforts. 5. An element of uncertainty: Uncertainty is a difficult thing to build into learning, though there are ways in which to do this, and it is important for higher order thinking. Students need to be able to handle the unexpected in order to achieve true mastery. This can be achieved by asking students to apply what they have learned to a novel type of problem, and this same mechanic can work in building an educational game. Multiple examples of a problem can reinforce the underlying concept, and then the "boss" battle could be designed to require a different level of application of the concepts that have been learned along the way. 6. Windows of enhanced attention: Careful timing of the introduction of new or challenging information can take advantage of a well-designed level to enhance student understanding of the concepts. If the designer has a grasp of which activities are likely to stimulate various parts of the brain, then the structure of the mission can be tailored to slide key concepts in during these windows of opportunity. 7. Other people: Education has long incorporated group work and projects, but the structure of these projects can easily result in one student doing the bulk of the work. When game mechanics are tuned properly, then it benefits all players to work together. Or, as discussed in the video, if the game does not include a shared benefit mechanic, players may take it upon themselves to create one. This may be an even more beneficial aspect of gaming, since it forces players to think on a different level and encourages consensus-building and mutual respect.