Digitec President Jack McGrath recently co-presented a session on effective and engaging learning games with University of Central Florida (UCF) professor Ron Weaver at the eLearning Guild Online Forum and the eLearning Guild Gathering. The session discussed how to leverage gameplay strategies used by commercial game development companies like Electronic Arts to increase engagement in online learning.

So, how do you create effective and engaging learning games? The strategies include:

· Focusing on gameplay first, then the course content

· Embedding lessons into the gameplay

· Using simulation to focus only on what needs to be taught

For those who couldn't attend, we'll be discussing each of these strategies over the next few months. These will also be included on Digitec's eLearning Blog.

Ron Weaver teaches at the Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy (FIEA), a graduate videogame design school at the University of Central Florida that offers an accredited Master's degree in interactive entertainment. Ron has also been involved in commercial game development with EA, Disney, and other commercial game development companies. Digitec has produced numerous award-winning learning games for organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Yum! Brands, FINRA, Cisco Systems, and others. The Digitec staff includes game developers, instructional designers and Flash developers. Using Flash-based game engines, Digitec produces learning experiences that meet every level of the play-to-teach continuum.

If you'd like more information on how to create an engaging and effective learning game for your next course, contact Digitec for a free consultation. Stay tuned to find out how you can create more effective and engaging learning experiences.