Useful Design Principles to Create Interesting Learning Experiences

About Ana
Ana is a scientific academic working in the field of learning games. She is also currently working on her PhD at the University of Minho where she is looking at the impact on motivation and learning of having students design educational games.

She has previously worked on developing a serious game for medical education at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Portugal, has been the primary author on a number of papers on learning games in STEM, and has presented at several international conferences. Ana has also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Technology, Education and Development Conference.

She holds a BSc in Biology, a MSc in Environmental Biology, and a post-graduate qualification in Science Communication. She served as an International Business Learning Games Judge in 2016 and is serving again in 2017.

2.   Let’s play: From hide-and-seek to click

About Natasha
Natasha manages the Educational Technology Support team in the University of British Columbia and lectures for their Faculty of Education. Her work focuses on online collaboration and communication strategies, student engagement, delivery models and culturally-responsive instruction. She has won several awards and has authored and presented numerous papers including; “Gamification in higher education” (Norway, 2015), “Changing Landscape of learning environments” (India, 2013) and “Play to become a leader and a citizen of the world” (Greece, 2011).

She holds BA in English (University of Novi Sad), a Master’s in Distance Education (Athabasca University) and PhD in Language and Literacy Education (University of British Columbia) as well as postgraduate certificates in Technology-Based Distributed Learning and Intercultural Studies. Her interests include technology-enhanced learning, instructional design, and professional development. She was an judge in the 2016 International Business Learning Games Competition, and is serving again in 2017.

3.   Being Memories: Playing how-to-learn

Illustrated using Gillian’s Learning Game about Neuroscience & How People Learn

About Gillian
Gillian serves as Board Chair for the Australian Network of Art and Technology and is an award winning Producer with experience working with commercial digital media companies, government agencies and not-for-profit organisations.

Her interests include neuroscience, learning behaviours, educational games and experience design. She has published papers on Educational Games and lectured on Digital Media Production and has a passion for developing creative, effective communications solutions. Gillian has won the Australian Teachers of Media Award  for best Primary Educational Resource (2003), best Tertiary Education Resource (2000), and best Entertaining Multimedia Production (1999) as well as a Special Jury Prize for “Innovation and pushing the boundaries of Interactive Multimedia” from RMIT (1995).

She holds a BSc in Genetics (Australian National University), a Master’s degree in Creative Media (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) and will soon finish her PhD in Serious Games (Swinburne University). She was an judge in the 2016 International Business Learning Games Competition, and is serving again in 2017.

4.   Knowledge Assessment in educational games without the use
              of tests or quizzes

About Fausto

Fausto is a Game Developer at the award winning Space Ape Games, a UK company which creates mobile games. His background is in the development of casual casino games, corporate engineering and software development but his passion has pushed him to spend time working on other projects in the casual games, digital art, and educational games space.

He has participated in several games events including hackathons, game jams, and conferences as well as any kind of social event where he can meet like-minded people doing interesting work. He won the 2nd prize in the 2016 Intel IoT Roadshow Hackathon with his project “The Adventure Cube”, a physical electronic game that connects with all the smartphones in an audience or crowd – a device which can be thrown around for engaging social gameplay with educational, social and debating purposes. Fausto has also collaborated on the creation of science educational activities for the company Kids With Brains in London and has occasionally worked with them as a science entertainer for parties and workshops. He’s currently working on his own educational games for children with the objective of teaching basic programming skills.

Fausto holds a BSc in Computer Science and Engineering (Técnico Institute, Lisbon) as well as a Professional Qualification in Electronics and Telecommunications (EPPET, Lisbon). He is an International Business Learning Games Competition judge.

5.   The FLIGBY Simulation

Virtual Reality for Building Flow and Flow-based Leadership Competencies

About Michael

Michael is an Edupreneur and a thought leader in Game-Based Learning. A serious game innovator and architect, his current applied research focuses on designing and delivering gamification environments using serious games, immersive learning environments, and simulations which leverage increased learning and performance for:

• Employee engagement, creativity, and innovation
• Design thinking
• Leadership, teamship, followship, communityship, and intrepreneurship/ entrepreneurship

He holds BIS in Management Sciences and a PhD in Knowledge Management and is an International Business Learning Games Judge.

6.   Stories from the Frontline

Experiences using Learning Games in corporate environments in Japan, Germany, India, and the US

About John

John has been using games, exercises, and simulations to develop people at all levels in business for over a decade and was part of the team that developed APEX, the Business Excellence Institute’s board game to help people learn how to be strategic and make decisions in the face of uncertainty. He has been a community Teaching Assistant for MIT on their Edx courses on the Design and Development of Educational Technology and the Implementation and Evaluation of Educational Technology.

He holds a BSc in Applied Physics (NUI Galway) and an MBA (UCD Smurfit Graduate School of Business) and has also studied at INSEAD. He is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, a European Excellence Assessor, and President of the Business Excellence Institute.