Prompting Learning When Our Learners Play Games

 

Another research brief. Answer the question and only then read what the research says:


 

In a recent study with teenagers playing a game to learn history, adding the learning instructions hurt learning outcomes for questions that assessed transfer, but NOT recall. The first choice hurt transfer but not recall. Give yourself some credit if you chose the second or third choices.

Caveats:

  • This is only one study.
  • It was done using only one type of learner.
  • It was done using only one type of learning method.
  • It was done with teenagers.

Important Point:

  • Don’t assume that adding instructions to encourage learning will facilitate learning.

Research:

Hawlitschek, A., & Joeckel, S. (2017). Increasing the effectiveness of digital educational games: The effects of a learning instruction on students’ learning, motivation and cognitive load. Computers in Human Behavior, 72, 79-86.

Doing Research On Our Learning Products

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The learning profession has been blessed in recent years with a steady stream of scientific research that points to practical recommendations for designers of learning. If you or your organization are NOT hooked into the learning research, find yourself a research translator to help you! Call me, for example!

That’s the good news, but I have bad news for you too. In the old days, it wasn’t hard to create a competitive advantage for your company by staying abreast of the research and using it to design your learning products and services. Pretty soon, that won’t be enough. As the research becomes more widely known, you’ll have to do more to get a competitive advantage. Vendors especially will have to differentiate their products — NOT just by basing them on the research — but also by conducting research (A-B testing at a minimum) on your own products.

I know of at least a few companies right now who are conducting research on their own products. They aren’t advertising their research, because they want to get a jumpstart on the competition. But eventually, they’ll begin sharing what they’ve done.

Do you need an example of a company who’s had their product tested? Check out this page. Scroll down to the bottom and look at the 20 or so research studies that have been done using the product. Looks pretty impressive right?

To summarize, there are at least five benefits to doing research on your own products:

  1. Gain a competitive advantage by learning to make your product better.
  2. Gain a competitive advantage by supporting a high-quality brand image.
  3. Gain a competitive advantage by enabling the creation of unique and potent content marketing.
  4. Gain a competitive advantage by supporting creativity and innovation within your team.
  5. Gain a competitive advantage by creating an engaging and learning-oriented team environment.