LDT Expo Showcases New Ways To Improve Learning

On July 26th, Chris helped to review Masters projects for the Learning, Design and Technology (LDT) program at GSE. After having some LDT students work on their projects during EDUC/ENG 391 this spring, it was amazing to see the progress they made in a short period of time to get ready for the Expo!

In the afternoon, Margarita joined Chris at the LDT Expo, where staff and visitors got a hands-on experience of these projects in action.

A number of these projects used important elements of Game Design Thinking, such as the Core Engagement Loop, MDAO and the behavior design frameworks we study and use in the research group.

Using the MDAO framework for design moves us away from choosing interesting sounding mechanics, and towards mechanics that can actually reach the outcomes we are driving for.

We were particularly taken by Luyi Zhang’s take on fostering empathy in her interactive fiction and graphical game ‘Nails on Ninth‘, and Tianxing Ma’s platform to help people view their own constellation of support in ‘Octans‘.

You can read about the 13 student projects and hear some of their stories here.