Ideas

eLearning/Online Games

Evaluation of Information

Ask students to evaluate resources and create outcomes based on their choices. Using a game for this means it can be fun and silly but still informative and eye opening.

  • e.g. Choose to use Web MD for a self-diagnosis, you end up in the hospital.
  • e.g. Choose a DIY law advice website, you end up in court.

Plagiarism Wizard

Ask students to make decisions about academic honesty and create outcomes based on their choices.

  • e.g. choose to use a source and not cite it, you get a zero
  • e.g. choose to submit an essay you found online and it’s your third offence, you get kicked out of school

Simulations

Create a story that takes students through an authentic situation. Show them how their decisions can have a positive or negative impact.

  • Works great for professional programs like health, business, law, and more
  • Topics could include: clinical procedures, ethical decision making, health and safety, selling and customer service, digital citizenship
  • E.g. Dealing with Difficult Patients, Insider Trading, The Sales Interview

Solving a Mystery/Scavenger Hunt

Students become the detective in a problem solving story.

  • Encourages critical thinking because they must solve a mystery based on clues.
  • Topics could include: political science, research, environmental studies, law, orientation/scavenger hunts
  • E.g. Orientation to the library

Library Resources and Services

Decision-Making Wizards

Twine works great if you have users who need to work through a series of decisions to get a final answer.

  • works great for complicated information, such as copyright, or citation

Resource Picker

We have a ton of resources in our libraries. Sometimes our websites are as difficult to navigate as the PATH system in Toronto. So why not provide a resource picker for your patrons?

  • develop a series of questions that will guide a user through various resources – are you looking for popular or scholarly? are you looking for newspaper or magazine or books? are you looking for print or electronic?

Human Resources

Training

Instead of asking your employees to read through a manual, gamify it!

  • Employees can work through customer service examples or troubleshooting scenarios
  • A game can reinforce principles they may have learned during a lecture or video

Directory or Contact List

I work in a big institution. Sometimes it’s difficult to know who to ask for what. Why not create a wizard that guides people through the directory?

  • e.g. Do you have a question about your payroll? -> Is your question about salary, benefits, other?