eLearning Games

Matching, drag-and-drop, scenario-based, word games, mad libs, and memory tiles are all fair game. If you can imagine it, we'll try to build it in the next 30 minutes. 

Adult Learners & Gamification

Adults are not difficult to engage, but they won't waste time collecting coal to power the steamboat up the Mississippi.

• Adults are self-directed learners with lived experience they can bring to bear 

• They are problem-centered, not subject-centered, and intrinsically motivated

• However, they must know the purpose before engaging with an activity

• Adults learn best when content is immediately relevant

Adult learners know why learning matters, so don't waste their time. You don't need leaderboards or layers on top of content. Instead, use a game mechanic to drive the learning process.

Results at GCC

GCC has a strong online orientation, but it's voluntary. Four tracks teach students about the institution, good learning habits, student resources, and technology.

To encourage participation, we built in game mechanics in small activities that introduce or reinforce concepts.

Add in Microlearning

Microlearning allows students to complete one thing at a time in just a few minutes. Adults respect that deal; they can finish an activity and learn something of value while waiting in line at elementary school to pick up their kids.

Comment of note: Fs went up while Ws went down, and that's GOOD. They didn't stop out. They persisted.

Overview of the Process

Let's talk ADDIE...

• Analyze: What's the learning goal? What mechanic fits? Who's completing this activity?

• Design: The clarifying questions. You, as the expert, tell Claude what you need, precisely, and in detail. Nail down the details.

• Develop: ADDIE inception

  • • Claude builds.

    • You test, iterate, send it back.

    • This is it's own mini loop ... continue until the activity holds up. 

• Implement: Upload the file to Brightspace, grab the URL, generate embed code, place it.

• Evaluate: Test hard, break it on purpose, iterate until it holds up.

It's not really all that different.

Troubleshooting

It will break. That's part of the process. 

• Test the edge cases: empty inputs, wrong order, clicking faster than any reasonable person would.

• "It doesn't work" tells Claude nothing. "When I click submit after selecting only 2 answers, nothing appears to happen on screen" is much better.

• Explain it like you're talking to a very smart and argumentative five-year-old: exactly what happened, exactly when, exactly what you expected instead. No assumptions. Computers are not stupid, but they are literal.

• You will go back and forth multiple times. It will fail until it succeeds.

Claude, Meet WCAG

The good news: Claude knows what WCAG 2.1 Level AA means. And, it does a pretty good job of checking it:

• Keyboard navigation: every interaction reachable without a mouse

• Color contrast: readable for low vision users, not just people on nice monitors

• ARIA labels: screen readers need to know what they're looking at

• Screen reader compatibility: may even be duplicated in Brightspace

• Multiple device format: if you use the magic keyword, responsive

Uploading to Brightspace

You'd think you could just upload a file into Brightspace and link it into the course. You can't. But you can embed it - and to do that, you need the raw URL. Getting that raw URL is not obvious. 

The LOR trick:

1. Upload Claude's HTML file via Course Admin > Manage Files

2. Click the chevron next to your file and choose Publish to LOR; we're not actually publishing it, this is a magic trick to get the raw URL

3. Right-click the file name, copy the link address ... that's your URL

We Need Embed Code

One More Claude Prompt. You have the URL; now you need the embed so Brightspace can display it.

1. Feed the URL to Claude: "Create an embed code for this URL"

2. Back in Brightspace, edit your destination page

3. Find your spot, place your cursor, switch to code view, paste