A Learning Experience that's "Addicting"

What do Zombies have to do with social media and learning? Nothing. Until the eLearning Guild DevLearn 2009 conference.

In 2009, we at Tandem Learning started playing with our food.

That is, we um, engaged the curious minds and creativity of our fellow learning industry enthusiasts through an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) that was run during the conference and in the weeks leading up to the live event. Together with our industry peers, we fought off invading zombies, and provided practice in using social media for collaboration in the process.

What is an Alternate Reality Game? It is a game that originated in the entertainment industry as a marketing/PR strategy. Television series, video games, and movies have capitalized on the excitement and buzz generated by ARGs to increase program viewership or herald the coming of a new video game release. Game play involves a series of activities that are elicited through an engaging and evolving storyline. Interactions with the storyline and game characters may incorporate tools like email, voicemail, web sites, and social media. The game experience typically spans several days, weeks or months, depending on the overall goal and scope of content.

Why is this relevant as a learning strategy? That excitement, buzz, energy and momentum that are generated from the game are EXACTLY the kinds of reactions we want to achieve in our learners! That alone can make this an interesting strategy to achieve learning goals, but the opportunity to create a storyline and incorporate many different types of content, interactions, and activities also makes it a flexible, scalable option as well.

Since DevLearn 2009, we have gone on to design, develop, and run several more successful ARGs for our clients. Through those implementations, we have not only found that it is an effective learning experience, but it was also an exciting, energizing way to learn. Some comments we’ve heard from learners so far:

“It felt real! The game was very realistic and I definitely picked up some new ideas that I’ll use in the field”
“It’s completely addicting! I want more!”

Want to find out firsthand what this "addictive" learning experience is all about? We have more tricks up our sleeves for this year’s DevLearn conference. Follow the game hashtag on Twitter (#DL10ARG) as well as Dr. Strangelearn, and join the experience!