As designers of all kinds know, "experience" is the new black: user experience, buyer experience, patient experience, player experience... So why not cohort learning experience?
Not so surprisingly, I'm serious. The particular value of cohort learning, of course, is the experience that derives from working and learning as a team. Within a game environment, that experience cannot develop completely organically, since game mechanics constrain player capabilities. Experience is as much a function of design as learning is. In fact, learning design and cohort experience design must go hand-in-hand for successful cohort learning to occur.
Serious games designed for learning cohorts favor social constructivism as their educational theoretical foundation. In Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives, and Practice, C.T. Fosnot describes this viewpoint of learning as "an interpretive, recursive, building process by active learners interacting with the physical and social world," fully implying that learning is a social process. In other words, a design that focuses the learners' attention and activities on PRACTICE-PRACTICE-PRACTICE, or even PRACTICE-REFLECT-PRACTICE, ignores the benefits of communications for information-sharing, relationship-building - and learning. One might reasonably argue, even, that a cohort-learning design without communications tools is instead a parallel-play design.
For a cohort learning experience to be satisfying and successful for learners, serious game designers - in ways casual game designers needn't - must be mindful of the larger learning experience that surrounds the game in question. What brings learners to the game? Is the cohort already intact, or does it come together for the purposes of the game? What happens to learners after the game? What happens to the cohort?
When designing a serious game for cohort learning, consider the following design components for your overall design:
- Bring the cohort together (physically or virtually) prior to starting the game. This will enable learners to meet cohort members they don't know, and to establish a baseline understanding of the game's purpose and the reason for the cohort. Cohort should review rules of interaction, if necessary.
- During gameplay, cohort members should have communications tools that enable group organization and collaboration. Depending upon your design, those tools might also extend beyond the cohort, even beyond the game.
- Convene the cohort (physically or virtually) after the game is completed in order to discuss and cement key learnings, and plan for learning transference. Strategies for maintaining the learning cohort beyond the game may be appropriate.
By focusing on the critical experience components of the learning cohort, you will promote your learners' engagement with the game and the other cohort members. You will also enhance the effectiveness of your overall serious game design.
I'm serious,
Anne