Tag Archives: Foreign language

At Last! A Drinking Game I Can Win

At Last! A Drinking Game I Can Win

For this week’s Articulate E-Learning Heroes Challenge, David Anderson dared us to create a simple game. (Oh, it’s on.) I created an Oktoberfest Quest game, wherein our hero drinks his way across Germany in order to reach the hallowed beer tents of Oktoberfest in Munich. Somebody had to do it.

A Triumvirate of Inspiration

MaßkrugTiming: David put out the challenge only hours after I’d participated in the weekly #lrnchat discussion on Twitter. Everyone was terribly serious as they discussed how to work collaboratively in groups – until someone brought up beer as a motivational tool. Well, THAT got them dancing in the Twittery aisles, and the whole evening changed. I don’t drink much, but I made a large mental note of what got them engaged: The mere mention of beer.

Topic: As they say, go with what you know. After collecting entirely too many degrees in German, teaching German, and studying, working, and living in Germany – I thought to myself: “maaaaaybe something German…?”

Potential Game Features: I wanted to focus on designing a game board and some sort of progress meter. Since a map of Germany seemed like a natural game board, and a giant Maßkrug slowly filling with beer seemed like an outstanding progress meter, I decided to try those.

Design

Since my primary elements, the map of Germany and the Maßkrug, were better suited to a portrait orientation, I flipped the standard Storyline layout so they could inhabit the full screen.

Once I decided to use the game to teach German dining customs, I put a wooden background underneath the map to evoke the feel of a restaurant table, and the checkered tablecloth behind the Maßkrug for the same reason.

I also knew that sound effects would be critical, especially for filling the Maßkrug. I got lucky and found some evocative ones.

 

Oktoberfest Quest Game Board

Game Progress

There are two measures of progress: linear progress on the map, and liquidy beer progress in the Maßkrug.

Linear Progress: I thought a little Krug at each completed stop on the map would be a good tracker, and moving by train would make it feel like you’re making game progress, and also evoke the sense of traveling through Germany.

At each stop I used a zoom region to zoom in tightly on the city, and then an immediate “Box Out” transition on the following question slide so that, together, it would feel a bit like you’re zooming from the macro map to the micro restaurant where our protagonist needs some help. 

Krug-O-MeterBeer Progress: Every time you answer a question correctly, the Maßkrug fills up a little more. By also using it to briefly recap the teaching point, it doubles as a bit of learning reinforcement.

And speaking of learning stuff, I chose to make it an all-or-nothing game. You’re required to answer each question correctly in order to go forward. One wrong answer and you’re back in Dresden waiting for the train.

I credit Michael Allen with this torture. I saw a banking example of his where you decide whether or not to approve a series of checks for payment. One wrong decision, and you’re back to check one. It ticks you off just enough that you get determined to beat the stupid thing, and while you’re at it, you learn the principles being taught.

The Big Finish

I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s kind of awesome.

Play It!

My Oktoberfest Quest game is here, but you should also check out the other creative, amazing, and beautiful game ideas posted by others in the comments section of David’s original post here.

Does Nepal like Submit buttons?

Woman and ChildI’m redesigning an e-learning course I did for an international nonprofit’s US audience so it can be deployed to their offices in Asia and Africa, and I’m excited about it. I love this stuff!

Here are some of the adaptations I’ll make:

Simplifying Language
As someone who’s worked and studied in countries where I was a non-native speaker, I know it’s tough to get things done if you’re distracted by words and phrases you don’t know or can’t quite catch.

This adaptation isn’t too hard. The audience speaks English, but they are non-native speakers. Language simplification will involve cutting out slang, simplifying sentence structure, and using simpler words when possible – and keeping voiceovers crystal clear, of course.

Amplifying Context
Since a huge part of language comprehension relies on context, I’ll make sure there’s little doubt about what’s going on at any given time. My designs are already driven by characters and situations that I present in a clear visual style.

I’ll present scenarios as I usually do and add additional visual and language cues to quickly and easily convey meaning. The bottom line is that I expect to add more slides (and/or layers or states, for you Articulate Storyline fans) so that less is left to the imagination.

Staying Culturally Aware
I’m double checking with my client about all kinds of choices I don’t normally need to ask about: Character names, hand gestures, clothing choices, etc., and my guess is that after testing it in the field they’ll come up with other tweaks we haven’t thought of yet. (I’m excited to learn what they’ll be!)