Be careful on what you call it: Perception, perception, perception.

In my previous blog, I talked about how a client was concerned about the “gamey look” of a game and that it may not be viewed as a serious teaching tool. I’ve since followed up with that client, and here’s what we found:

Of the 7,817 people that played the games in the past 15 days (3 different groups and three different games), the data suggests that it was a success. The majority of those who played a game, played it all the way to the end. About one-third, played the game at least twice, and the average time spent playing the game was 5:15 minutes. The game consisted of 9 questions, and featured additional teaching points in most questions.

The issue, as they saw it, was with one of the test groups. This group had the largest audience, and in fact had the smallest number of plays compared to the other groups. At first, they thought the “frivolous” look of game may have prevented many from playing the game. But, after studying the data, they realized that the game was not the issue at all – it was the way it was promoted that kept their audience from playing.

Let me give you a little information so you can follow:

The data collection starts as soon as a game is launched. If their original observation was correct (that people opened the game, thought it was too gamey, and immediately closed it), then we would see a higher number of clicks or opens of the game, but a much shorter time in game play (much less than 5:14 minutes). Since we know that the majority of people who clicked on the game, played it all the way through, we know we had a different issue. It became obvious, to the client, that the issue was rooted in perception.

Why? We believe that the game was presented to this group in a way that marginalized the educational impact of the game. They actually doomed the game before people even got to it, by describing the game as a “fun holiday trivia game.” In fact, the game (although it had a holiday theme) contained no holiday content. It featured questions, based on educational articles from their website, that would not only teach them something, but encourage them to dig in and learn more.

This goes back to something I have mentioned many times, “be careful how you describe your game.” Be aware that the word “game,” connotes many things to different people. Games provide a powerful vehicle for delivering instructional content, but may be perceived as a frivolous exercise. If you want your game to be taken seriously (and reap the benefits that games provide – engagement, motivation, interaction), make sure you let your audience know that they might just learn something while “playing”.

Training Game Tips

People agree games are a great way to review a topic, but what about your core educational principals? Absolutely! Here are some tips to accomplish this.

• Define your objective. Make a list of the key teaching points you want to cover.

• Create questions based on your key points.

• Be creative. Questions do not specifically have to cover a topic, they can be used simply as a stepping stone to what you want to teach or review.

• Remember, your key objective is to teach a topic, you are using “fun” to help you achieve your primary objective which is educational.

• Use a game that allows the use of summary points that will allow you to review content after each question.

• Slow down the game. Your objective is different than a TV game show. Theirs is to entertain, yours is to educate. On a TV game show in a 30 minute period they may play 3-4 rounds. In the classroom it may take 45 minutes of longer for one game.

• Read each question prior to answering.

• Your main concern should be more on the content delivery than who wins or loses. The game simply is a different medium to deliver your material.

• Games do not always have to be long. A short game of 4-6 questions, can be a great way to review the key points of a talk or use as a warm up for a presentation.