Study: It's not the teacher, but the method that matters.

AP: University of Columbia

One of our customers sent us this news story:

Study: It's not teacher, but method that matters.

While you can read the entire article at the link above, the gist of the story is that it doesn't matter whether a teacher is new and inexperienced, or a seasoned lecturer--the delivery method is what matters.

Using interactive methods, such as "...in-class 'clicker' quizzes, demonstrations and question-answer sessions..." produced a better and more effective learning experience.

Students being taught with the interactive method scored 74% on a test, versus lecture-method students scoring 41%. The highest scores in the lecture class were below average for the interactive class. Not only that, but interactive-method classes were better attended.

That's in-class "clicker" quizzes like Gameshow Pro (including AllPlay functionality) using audience response pads. We've seen these results anecdotally--trainers and teachers often report the tremendous difference in effectiveness between using an interactive game show and using traditional lecture methods. What's exciting to us is that these results are being validated by Nobel-prize-winning scientists.

Carl Wieman of the University of British Columbia states:
"This is clearly more effective learning. Everybody should be doing this. ... You're practicing bad teaching if you are not doing this."

Wieman also said that "the need for a more hands-on teaching approach isn't an indictment of a generation raised on video games. It has more to do with the way the brain learns."

Game shows, quizzes, interactive tests, response pads...anything that actively engages a student in an interactive way is going to be a more effective method of teaching information than straight lecture. We're happy that these results are spreading the word and validating instructors already using interactive training and instructional methods.

You can read the whole article here.

Hershey Uses Gameshow Pro in Their Orientations

In the July issue of IAAPA's (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) Funworld Magazine (how great is that name!), LearningWare received a featured mention.

The article, by Jeremy Schoolfield, detailed how Hershey has altered its orientation program to reflect the nature of the company---and this includes using Gameshow Pro!

From the article:

Orientation Should Be Fun, Too
Making orientation fun doesn’t fall solely on the ambassadors—Hershey goes to great lengths to ensure the entire process is set for success, right down to how the new employees are seated.
The training room is called a “Legacy Zone,” and it’s designed to feel like anything but a stodgy classroom. Current and historic Hershey jingles play over speakers while company trivia flashes on the walls. Rather than rows upon rows of desks, employees sit in table clusters that Buffington says are more conducive to a social atmosphere.

“We immerse them in the culture right away and get them excited,” she says. “This company sells experiences, and we’re trying to model what we expect.”

The orientation program thus minimizes lectures and maximizes interaction. Hershey uses Gameshow Pro software from Minnesota-based LearningWare (www.LearningWare. com) to set up its own “Jeopardy!”-style trivia game about the brand and its legacy. “We’re educating them on who we are in a fun way,” Buffington says.

Orientation also includes a “Bingo”-type get-to-know-one- another mixer game (as opposed to just the boring ol’ “My name is …” introductions) and employs videos and other multimedia programming wherever possible—anything to keep it from being one person standing in front of the group talking for too long.

“We’re an entertainment and hospitality company—so the first step is being entertaining and hospitable,” says Public Relations Manager Kathy Burrows.

You can read the entire article here.
[Photo from article, credit: Giniwoy]

6 Multiple Choice Question Writing Mistakes

We found this article on Making Change: Ideas for lively elearning. It demonstrates some pretty clear (and humorous) fallacies when designing multiple choice questions. We think that any of these can apply to writing questions for your game show as well.

[Italics are from the article, commentary is ours]

Can you answer these 6 questions about multiple-choice questions?

1. I opened a course on a topic I know nothing about, clicked through without reading anything, and took the assessment. I passed! What does that suggest?

1. I am a genius!
2. The assessment was too easy.
3. Maybe the course was too easy, too.
4. Maybe the course didn’t even need to be written.
5. b, c, and d

2. In a multiple-choice question, when is the longest answer the correct answer?

1. Rarely
2. Sometimes
3. It’s almost always the correct answer, and it’s often stuffed with new information that should have gone in the main part of the course but we forgot so now we’re putting it in the quiz because we can’t possibly leave out the tiniest detail
4. Occasionally

3. When is “All of the above” the correct answer?

1. With alarming regularity
2. When we try to cover too much in one question
3. When we use a question to teach instead of assess
4. All of the above

4. When is it NOT a good idea to avoid negative questions?

1. Never
2. Sometimes
3. Always
4. What?

5. How often is the correct answer a?

1. Usually
2. Frequently
3. Often
4. Almost never, because if a is the right answer, then the learner doesn’t have to read all the other options we spent so much time writing and revising, and where’s the ROI in that?

6. We can confuse learners when we:

1. fail to actually complete the sentence we started in the question.
2. inconsistent grammar in the options.
3. sometimes we veer off into another idea entirely.
4. wombats.

How did you do?

When writing your game show questions, it's incredibly important to write good questions. When questions are too easy or difficult, unclear or otherwise, it can stall out game play.

Business Solutions: Better Training Through Gaming

An article including LearningWare and Gameshow Pro from the Wall Street Journal:

THE JOURNAL REPORT: TECHNOLOGY

Business Solutions:

Better Training Through Gaming

By MICHAEL TOTTY

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

April 25, 2005; Page R6

Note to managers: It's OK to let your employees play games at work.

We're not talking about all those hours fooling around at computer solitaire. Where games have their place -- and significant benefits -- is in livening up boring corporate training sessions.

Companies in the U.S. spend about $60 billion a year on training their employees, but there's a good chance much of that is wasted. The reason: Most training sessions are just too dull. (Web-based e-learning classes were supposed to fix that, but in reality they just allow employees to get bored at their own pace.) As a result, employees aren't coming away from the training with the knowledge or skills their employers are paying for.

"Forget learning," says Marcia Sitcoske, director of Cisco Systems Inc.'s Creative Learning Studio, whose mission is to make the company's online training tools more effective and appealing. "People aren't even completing these things, they're so boring."

Training experts insist it doesn't have to be this way. They argue that companies could make their employee-education programs more compelling, and more effective, if they made them more fun -- specifically, more like computer games.

Evidence suggests adults learn more and retain more in courses that incorporate such game elements as competitive scoring, increasingly difficult player levels and fantasy role-playing. But many managers remain skeptical. It's a rare boss who thrills at seeing workers playing games on the job, and adding games to a learning package tacks on extra expense.

War Games

The U.S. military is a lot further along in adopting game elements in training than are most businesses. In part, that's because learning on a computer is much cheaper and safer than in the field, and recruits come from a generation comfortable in the fast-paced gaming world. The best of the military's training games rival the complexity and richness of some of the best videogames. In fact, a version of Full Spectrum Warrior, a training game developed for the U.S. Army by the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California, has recently been released for the public game market.

Outside of a few custom-designed applications, such games remain a rarity in the corporate training world; don't look for Full Spectrum CEO anytime soon. Instead, a growing number of companies are turning to more modest courses that mix work and play.

In some cases, the lack of good commercial alternatives has prompted companies to take a do-it-yourself approach. Cisco Systems' Creative Learning Studio, formed in 2001, uses technology, high-quality video -- and entertainment -- to enliven its vast library of online training tools. It now has about 4,500 e-learning courses of varying lengths. One such course, for employees and outsiders seeking certification as authorized Cisco "networking professionals," uses a game to help teach fundamentals of building a high- speed network of shared storage devices. Called SAN Rover (for storage area network), the game requires students to race the clock to gather the pieces -- hard drives, switches and other components -- and correctly put together such a network while dodging crashing asteroids.

The game, which reinforces the skills students learn in classes and from their reading, has been played about 2,000 times since it was introduced last June. "More and more people are learning that gaming can be useful in training in the corporate environment," Cisco's Ms. Sitcoske says.

It's All About Competition

Companies also can turn to simple, off-the-shelf games for reviewing and testing. The games don't even have to be that sophisticated as long as they include an essential element: competition.

Borland Software Corp. wanted to give its sales staff an incentive to master details of its product line before an annual world-wide sales meeting earlier this year, and was looking for better results than with its previous PowerPoint-laden e- learning program. So it turned to QB International, a San Rafael, Calif., e-learning company, to develop online study guides that incorporated a series of games for testing students' knowledge of the material. The simple games, based on such diversions as tic-tac-toe and hangman, featured a series of timed questions. Each member of the sales staff had to get at least 80% of the answers correct on a series of nine tests interspersed with the lessons, and those who received perfect scores were entered into a drawing for five Apple iPods. Everyone also had to take a final comprehensive exam of 100 questions, and the one with the highest score and fastest time received a $3,000 prize.

Though the games weren't very sophisticated, they were enough to motivate the highly competitive salespeople. Scores in the preliminary exams were posted for all to see.

"All of sudden, people are instant messaging each other, 'You're on top today, but you're going down,' " says Wynn Johnson, director of field readiness for Borland, based in Scott City, Calif. "The competition is a motivator."

ERC Properties Inc., a Fort Smith, Ark., builder and manager of multifamily developments faced a crucial training challenge: teaching 355 property managers how to comply with Revenue Service regulations for affordable housing tax credits. Managers need to determine the eligibility of qualified tenants, and penalties for not following the law are huge.

Candace Armstrong, ERC's corporate training director, chose software from Minneapolis-based LearningWare Inc. The software, called Gameshow Pro, provides a series of game templates based on popular television shows. Using questions and answers based on her training materials, Armstrong divides each training class into two teams that compete in a tic-tac-toe variation of "Hollywood Squares."

To test the effectiveness of the games, she compared results from a group of employees who played the game with those of a different group that received the same questions in oral review. Managers need to score 80% on a subsequent certification exam; Ms. Armstrong revealed that 88% of the group that played the game passed the test on the first try, compared with 54% of the group that received the basic review.

"Most training is very boring, especially if it's government-required," Ms. Armstrong explained, "The difference was pretty obvious. People learn more when they laugh."

Write to Michael Totty at michael.totty@wsj.com

Article: How [LearningWare]* Makes Content Fun in Virtual Environments to Drive Engagement

From VirtualEdge.org:

How [LearningWare]* Makes Content Fun in Virtual Environments to Drive Engagement

By: Frank Spinelli

Content is king. That is the mantra throughout the event industry. Technology is all well and good, but at the end of the day, what keeps users engaged is not graphics but content. And too often, content is left up to the client who may know what to say, but not how to say it in an engaging way.

Studies have shown that virtual event attendees do not stay engaged for as long as physical attendees. Whatever the cause—politeness in a face-to-face context, the anonymity of the virtual experience which allows disengagement for periods of time—the need to create content that not only grabs attention, but holds it is vital to the success of the industry. Minneapolis-based [LearningWare] develops creative and unique solutions to content delivery. With its [product], All Play Web and sister company Live Spark, [LearningWare] has a foot in both the virtual and physical worlds and seeks to keep users engaged in both.

One of the keys to keeping users engaged is to give them a stake in the outcome, according to ... Creative VP Missy Covington. Using games and quizzes, for example, can bring out a competitive drive, one sure way to hold focus. Animated characters (AniMates), voiced by local Minneapolis acting talent, can be a strong complement to live event activities. Live Spark produces both physical and virtual events, and until recently, has produced them as separate entities. They are beginning to experiment with hybrid events, however, the roster of animated characters being one virtual element augmenting their physical events.

One of the topics at this year’s Virtual Edge Summit has been incorporating successful elements of online gaming into the production of virtual content. If gamers willingly spend hours online, the theory goes, perhaps the industry can find ways to recreate that experience in its presentation of content (without the blood and guts). [LearningWare] has taken a playful approach to this theory. By utilizing games and animation, they hope to deliver content in a way keeps users in their seats while maintaining the integrity of the information. When a potential client is advised, “Make sure your content is compelling,” the question of how is often left unanswered. [LearningWare] can provide those answers in a unique and fun way.

*Both Live Spark and LearningWare presented at the Virtual Edge Summit. AllPlay Web, referenced here, is a LearningWare product, though the article references the offerings of both companies

Using Game Shows as an Instructional Tool

Using Game Shows as an Instructional Tool

By Dan Yaman, CEO, and Missy Covington, Communications, LearningWare, Inc.

Republished from eLearn: Best Practices

As more and more corporate and K-12 instructors gravitate towards interactive and attention-grabbing instructional techniques, many are starting to see the intrinsic benefits of using game shows. Our experiences, and those of hundreds of instructors, have shown that when learners play game shows their energy levels surge, they pay attention, and they remember more of the instructional content.

Game shows are an appealing medium—they provide healthy competition, have entertainment value, and are a cultural staple both in the U.S. and internationally. However, many instructors are unable to come up with a practical and justifiable way to use them. They are sometimes met with resistance from skeptical supervisors and financiers. What follows are a few of the most frequently voiced objections and our time-tested responses.

"Game shows aren't serious enough-they're just for fun." Training and teaching is a serious business. It's critical that learners absorb and retain content. Game shows are fun, but they're not just fun for fun's sake—they can engage learners so instructors can get serious messages across.

Using game shows can be a way to convey sensitive or serious material in a way that doesn't intimidate learners. This informal training tool opens up discussion around a topic and can "break the ice," making learners feel at ease in the training session and with the material at hand.

"Our employees or students would never buy into, or get excited about playing a game show." Game shows appeal to learners of all ages. We've personally conducted game shows that were "expected" to fail because the audience "just won't get into it." We've never had an experience (with any audience, ever) where the game show didn't appeal to a majority of the audience. There are a few reasons behind this:

• Everyone loves to compete; people love to show what they know and see if they can answer given questions.
• Game shows are a medium that people of all ages can relate to—nearly everyone has seen a game show in some format. They're easy to understand and pick up without complex instruction.
• Game shows appeal to all learning styles—they allow visual learners to see the question and surrounding information; auditory learners to hear the question and discuss answers; and kinesthetic learners to ring in, cheer, and participate.

"Our content is too complex to fit into a game show format." Information is more readily absorbed when broken into smaller chunks and information groups—as is required in a game show format. We've seen game shows used successfully in every type of training situation—from learning about the American Revolution, to rocket science, to OSHA standards, to general corporate policies and procedures.

"We just don't have time to do this with all the other information we have to teach and assessments we have to give." Any type of training and instruction requires a method of review. Learners need to hear information multiple times in order to retain that information. Game shows can be used in place of an "ordinary" review, or can supplement an already existing review process. Game shows can incorporate pre-existing review exercises like role-plays, quick question-and-answer sessions, and learner demonstrations.

Game shows can also take the place of a formal assessment—many game show software programs allow instructors to record results by individual learners. This method of assessment can be less stressful and more accessible than traditional paper-and-pencil methods.

How to Use Game Shows
Game shows are used most frequently in three basic ways: previewing information, reviewing information, and as an energizing event. How an instructor uses a game show depends on the type of content they're presenting and the structure of their information session.

Using game shows as a preview mechanism in a training session can make trainees aware of their gaps, generate curiosity for an upcoming topic, and let instructors know what they need to cover in depth (and what they can skip over). "Family Feud"-style game shows work well for previewing information since you can ask questions that have multiple answers. For instance, you could build interest in a topic like customer-service policy by asking: "What are our customers' top-five complaints?" When previewing information with game shows, be "forgiving" about right or wrong answers, and consider eliminating (or minimizing) penalties for wrong answers.

Game shows are among the most powerful content-review tools around. They're great for assessment and test preparation, or for just a quick recap. Use game shows as a quick review immediately before an exam to alleviate test anxiety and refresh learners' minds. Review after a long training session to "cement" the content in trainees' brains and to provide an emotionally compelling final event.

Almost any game show can be used to review information, but for a quick-fire review session we like to use a Jeopardy!-style game show. This rapid question-answer format allows instructors to cover a lot of information in a short period of time, and as point-levels increase, they can increase the difficulty level of their questions. "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire", Tic-Tac-Toe, College Bowl, and "Wheel of Fortune"-style game shows also work well for reviewing information-and most can accommodate both short-answer and multiple-choice questions.

There's nothing wrong with using a game show to simply raise the energy level in a classroom or training session. Play a quick, fast-paced game show (like "Jeopardy!") with content that may be one level easier than you would usually use. The purpose is to "warm up" your audience and give them a positive, successful experience—not to stump them. We've also played ice breaker game shows that have nothing to do with the content at hand-using current-event or pop-culture trivia.

A Unique Experience
However an instructor chooses to use them, game shows provide learners with an experience unlike anything else. They motivate learners to pay attention during a training session, they engage and captivate the audience like no other training method, and—most importantly—they are a tool with which instructors can deliver and elaborate on their content. Most instructors know that teaching isn't just about standing up and lecturing anymore—today's learners crave interaction and excitement. As a result, game shows are a practical addition to an instructor's toolkit.

About the Authors
Dan Yaman, CEO, and Missy Covington, Communications, of LearningWare, Inc. have created and consulted on thousands of game shows in hundreds of training scenarios over the years. They are also authors of the book, I'll Take Learning for 500: Using Game Shows to Engage, Motivate and Train.

Brighten Boring Webinars: AllPlay Web Write-Up

AllPlay Web is getting nice buzz around the industry already--and we couldn't be more excited.

Recently it was featured at smallbiztechnology.com. The complete text is below as well:

August 6, 2009

Brighten Boring Webinars: Add Game Shows to the Q&A!

I've attended and/or participated in many webinars - as I'm sure you have as well. Most, compared to an exciting, live and face to face event are quite boring.

The speaker speaks, some questions are asked, a poll might even be given, the speaker continues, there's time for audience question and answers, and the webinar is over.

If you like to do things "out of the box" and make a splash and a bang AND you do webinars you've got to take a look at LearningWare's Allplayweb.com web site. LearningWare sells software for the creation of customized game shows for classrooms and other uses, Allplayweb.com showcases its new services to liven up webinars with a game show experience.

We all love to learn, but we also love to have fun (or be entertained) while we learn. It's exciting.

Furthermore, we retain information better when the education (be it a sales pitch, product demonstration or staff meeting) challenges us to respond to what we've learned.

LearningWare also has software, QuizPoint, which lets you create online quizzes and games to test content retention, review material and engage every learner. You can create, post and host a complete suite of quizzes and games. You can then invite users to play your online game!

All the time, companies need to innovate and be a step ahead of the competition. With tools like this, your webinars and educational or sales presentations will definitely be different and beyond your competition. I hate to sound like a cliche, but especially in this recession, it's even more important to INVEST in technology that can directly affect your bottom line. Boosting sales in a webinar or increasing employee attentiveness in a weekly webinar will definitely boost the "bottom line".

Online Training's Got Game

Dan Hannan, a safety trainer and consultant, who uses Gameshow Pro for his clients recently wrote an article on using games in safety training.

The article, which highlights both Gameshow Pro and other virtual or manual gaming devices for safety training, is available here: Online Training's Got Game.

The text is also mostly intact here:

Online Training's Got Game

Constructed and used properly, gaming activities are highly effective tools for educating on virtually any topic. We can all probably remember having fun with family or friends playing board games, card games or something else on a rainy day or late at night. For me, I got caught-up in the Trivial Pursuit craze of the mid and late 1980’s. In fact, I can still remember several of the questions that I answered incorrectly en-route to loosing—and that was over 25 years ago. That is the power of a game—engaging, entertaining, extremely memorable—and and all the while they’re educating. Take these principles and apply them to some aspect of the working world, say health and safety, and you have a formula for creating “knowledge with staying power”.
The potential power of gaming activities for learning purposes, or game-based learning (GBL), became was realized about 10 years ago. Since that time, many white papers have been written touting increased retention rates of training material where gaming activities were used. The use of custom custom-developed, interactive video games for workplace training has earned the term “serious games”. Video game simulation training is now being utilized on everything from retail sales to flying drone airplanes on a battlefield. Virtual environments enable employees to interact and engage in situations in advance of “going live”. This allows an employee to learn about them self—; their ability to make decisions, be confronted (by other characters), it tests their knowledge in a very engaging way, and they can ultimately learn from a variety of different simulated interactions.
Apart from training simulations, video gaming has become a multi-billion dollar industry. To better understand the entertainment and learning potential of this media, Microsoft Research and a consortium of university partners have formed the Games for Learning Institute (G4LI). G4LI is, a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional gaming research alliance seeking evidence to support games as learning tools for math and science subjects among middle-school students. With its research, G4LI hopes to identify which qualities elements of within video games engage students and then develop relevant, personalized teaching strategies that can be applied to the learning process. The consortium partners include Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), Dartmouth College, Parsons, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Teachers College.
“Technology has the potential to help reinvent the education process, and excite and inspire young learners to embrace science, math and technology,” said Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer at Microsoft. “The Games for Learning Institute is a great example of how technology can change how students learn, making it far more natural and intuitive.”

What Makes a Good Training Game?
The author Sivasailam Thiagarajan has identified what he considers to be two critical laws that support the use of gaming activities for effective learning. They are:
1. The law of emotional learning states that events that elicit emotions result in long-lasting learning. This law suggests that people learn best when they are happy or sad or angry and they do not learn well when they are in a state of boredom or apathy. The playful elements of gaming activities add powerful emotional elements.
2. The law of practice and feedback states that learners cannot master concepts and skills without repeated practice and relevant feedback. This law emphasizes that passive understanding of content does not guarantee recall and application.
Based on the laws stated above, the desired recipe for a successful game should result in something that evokes emotion (preferably fun or happiness) and can be completed with some repetition (without getting old) to reinforce learning objectives. In the realm of video gaming, the game is working if physiological changes are taking place—heart rate increases, breathing increases, sweating, etc.
Unlike game shows on TV where information seems very “trivial”, games used to support training offer the ability to bend the rules and encourage discussion. Whether your application or need is a team-based classroom style game or a one-on-one activity, there are several elements to be mindful of when choosing and building a game to get the most out of it. These include:

• Teams or every person for them self: —Team participation offers the opportunity for a collaboration of knowledge and the gathering of “skill sets” to solve a problem. This fosters teamwork and does not alienate or single-out someone for a lack of knowledge. Teams do, however, limit someone from “hiding-out in the back of the room” as all parties are accountable to their team. One-on-one “quiz” review or video simulation allows for individual performance to be tracked.
• Easy, Hard or Impossible—: The quality and level of difficulty of the content being covered should be selected carefully. If the questions are too easy or too difficult, participants check-out. It is a good practice to make sure you know a bit about those attending a training session and prepare the game accordingly. Are the participant’s novices in their knowledge or veterans in their vocation? A game that allows the a progression of content from simple to difficult usually works well and offers a “little something for everyone”. Having the flexibility to customize game content and other aspects of game-play is beneficial.
• Game-play dynamics and you, the Host—: The host is responsible for preparing and managing game play activities. This aspect is often overlooked and can make or break the game show experience. A host lacking in energy and not willing to foster participation will result in a less less-than than-entertaining time. The host is responsible for the pace of game play, being the “judge” in the event of a dispute and for ensuring that learning principles are reinforced (i.e. extended discussion on topics and reflection back on training completed).

Low-tech Alternatives
Although computer based game programs add extra visual and entertainment sizzle, not all games need to be high-tech. Low-tech alternatives exist and can be just as effective as a computer aid. Lego’s©, for instance, offer a great use of multi-colored and multi-shaped blocks to teach the art of communication between two people. With a common barrier between two participants, one describes the “structure” that is built to the other that cannot see it. The objective—to create the mirror image identical in shape, color and space. Not so easy unless you are listening and communicating properly. Want to sharpen your eye at hazard recognition—how about the age-old hazard hunt?. A photo is prepared (real or doctored) in which multiple hazards exist. The objective—identify all hazards. Twists on this activity include a team competition, timed for speed and extra points for those that can cite the regulatory standard that is being violated.

Conclusion
It appears that games, especially those that have a quick pace and are visually stimulating, speak well to the learning tendencies and needs of those younger persons entering the workforce today—no doubt groomed by Xbox, I-pods, the Internet, text messaging, etc. A properly constructed and used implemented game activity is an effective learning tool that results in increased retention of training content. Gaming activities add fun and entertainment to the training experience—something that everyone (from all generations) appreciates.
After all, Plato said “You can learn more about a man in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”.

About the author
Dan Hannan, CSP, CHMM—has been an EH&S professional for 18 years and has been providing training for nearly that long. Mr. Hannan is Vice President of Hilmerson Safety Learning Systems (HSLS). HSLS develops computer game-based learning tools to enhance safety training for the general and construction industries. More information about HSLS training tools can be found by going to www.hilmersonsls.com or by contacting Mr. Hannan at danhannan@yahoo.com.