Learning and Development — Blog — Level Up Your Learning

‘Unleash your inner superhero!’ is a slogan I hear throughout the online learning sphere. I get it, Marvel has dominated the box office for the past decade and with all those Supers, Mutants, Avengers, and Guardians running around it makes us want to join them on their Quest to protect the galaxy, and rid the world of evildoers.

But the average Jo does not (unfortunately) have a giant S under his/her business shirt. However, what they do have, and I would argue is just as powerful, is the desire for Epic Meaning in their life.

Chocolate covered Cognitive Load.....Yum?

With Valentine’s Day approaching, I’ve been scrambling to get the perfect gift for that special someone. My husband and I have this little tradition where we buy a big box of chocolates from the specialty chocolate store down the street. These chocolates are DELICIOUS! Like worth everything calorie kind of good. We take turns choosing one, trying it, discussing why or why we don’t like it. However, every year the same thing happens. About 3 or 4 chocolates in my tongue goes into sugar overload. These delicately crafted gems of goodness all start tasting very similar and we stop enjoying the activity. At this point we will bust out the wine, take a break and come back later for round 2 when our taste buds have rallied the troops and all systems are go.

Get In the Zone!

Super Bowl LII is nearly upon us. This can mean only one thing...I’m going to Costco this weekend for epic game-day samples! But seriously, have you ever been to Costco on Super Bowl weekend? It is a mad-house! So while the Eagles and Patriots dream of the end zone, I’m getting into my zone to take on the crowds, but first I want to talk to you about the most important zone of them all: The Zone of Proximal Development.

Killers, Achievers, Socializers, and Explorers, Oh My! A a closer look at Bartle's Taxonomy of Player Types

I’m a Killer at heart. That is I enjoy winning. I enjoy competition that pits me directly against others. I find it thrilling. Am I actually a killer? No, unless you count the spiders (deceased) that I find in my house. But as far as a player type, I’m a Killer.

What?

Let’s talk about Bartle’s Taxonomy of 4 player types. When designing game-based learning it’s important to think about your audience and what type of players you may have. Also, what type of players will your game appeal to?

New Year, New Solutions, New Game

The holidays are over, budgets and plans for 2018 are rolling out. Initiatives are underway to implement systems for improving team collaboration and stronger project progress. Some of these goals will be answered with the implementation of a software that promises to make processes and structures run leaner and meaner.

It’s perfect, software solves all the problems!

That is until it’s time to deploy the programs, build out the back end, train the admins, teach all the users what in the world is going on, get the company buy-in, the list goes on. And by the way, this all needs to be done by the end of Q2, what?!

Gamification 101

Gamification is a popular buzzword. But what is it really? Is it making your way through a maze of levels on a gaming console? Or maybe it's candy crush on your phone. Perhaps it's collecting points to save up for a cup of coffee at your favorite coffee house. Or it could be a game of Jeopardy to review the content in your your final day of on-boarding.