The inclusion of game elements in an instructional design provides students with opportunities to “make use of a number of cognitive strategies that enable the learner to elaborate on their own existing knowledge structures (schema), in other words, to construct new knowledge and understanding” (Campbell 1998, Problems ¶3). Game designer Greg Costikyan (1994) specifies five elements that distinguish games from toys or puzzles, all of which can be used to foster learning:

• Games require players to make decisions.
• Games have goals or require players to establish personal goals.
• Games include increasing levels of challenge in the form of other players or programmed obstacles.
• Games make players' decisions meaningful by requiring them to manage limited resources.
• Games must provide, in the process of play, the information players need to accomplish their goals.

Integrated into an instructional design, games that adhere to these principles can help students engage fully in the learning process and facilitate the development of their social-connectedness and cognitive-connectedness schemata.

References

Campbell, K. 1998. The Web: Design for active learning. http://www.atl.ualberta.ca/documents/articles/activeLearning001.htm (accessed April 30, 2005). Archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5bNf9LkdW.

Costikyan, G. 1994. I have no words & I must design. Interactive Fantasy 2. http://www.costik.com/nowords.html (accessed March 31, 2008). Archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5WkRvH3pm.