“Game-based learning is a fascinating way to make rigor feel like discovery, when the game’s rules carry the learning, and the story carries the student” (Shelton & Wiley, 2005).
This thought captures what I have noticed in my own classes: when students are drawn into a story, they stop counting points and start chasing meaning. It reminds me of the way a good historical-fiction novel keeps me turning pages, not because someone announces a plot twist on page two hundred, but because challenge and suspense pull me forward.
Shelton and Wiley (2005) describe this pull in terms of challenge, proclivity (that spark of personal interest), and uncertainty. They caution that the familiar habit of setting out objectives or ending each lesson with a quick quiz is like announcing the punchline before telling the joke; it snaps learners out of the world we are trying to build. Their suggestion, of embedding the objectives inside a dramatic scenario, feels like theatrics. As a new professor, I can see how a well-chosen “backstory” might do more to focus a class than any bulleted slide of goals.
McDaniel and Telep (2009) extend this idea into online teaching, reminding us that games are not mere decoration. Mechanics and learning outcomes need to align the way a recipe’s ingredients work together, too much of one and the dish falls flat. They emphasize orienting students quickly, giving immediate feedback, and creating moments for reflection. It is a bit like hosting a dinner: set the table so guests know how to join in, keep the conversation engaging, and give everyone a chance to savor what just happened before moving on.
Hirumi, Appelman, Rieber, and Van Eck (2010) push the field further, urging a move beyond traditional “instructional design” toward Designing Instructional Environments. Appelman calls for fluency in storytelling, drama, interaction design, even a touch of programming, to create the kinds of experiences today’s learners expect. Rieber adds that designing an educational game is less like assembling flat-pack furniture and more like drafting a good short story: you draft, you play, you revise, and only then does the magic of play and learning merge. As early as it is in my doctoral work, I find this both exciting and challenging, an invitation to think like a designer without having to become a software engineer.
These ideas inspire me to experiment. I want to integrate assessment inside the very moves my students make, tune each challenge so it invites determination, and create moments of reflection that feel as natural as pausing in an animated conversation. Serious learning, it turns out, can be seriously fun, and that is a journey I am excited to explore further.
References
Hirumi, A., Appelman, R. L., Rieber, L. P., & Van Eck, R. (2010). Preparing instructional designers for game-based learning: Part 2. TechTrends, 54(4), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-010-0416-1
McDaniel, R., & Telep, P. (2009). Best practices for integrating game-based learning into online teaching. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 5(2), 424–438. https://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no2/mcdaniel_0609.pdf
Shelton, B. E., & Wiley, D. (2005). Instructional designers take all the fun out of games: Rethinking elements of engagement for designing instructional games. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.
VICTOR SCAVO, AIS Professor 