Part of Evidence of Educational Game Design. Effect sizes are explained in How large is a learning game’s effect, really?
What happens after a learning game ends
A meaningful share of the learning happens in the conversation immediately after the game, and that conversation can be designed with the same care as the game itself.
By Ilija Bojović, Founder / Lead game designer
Contents
Debriefing works
Tannenbaum and Cerasoli reviewed 46 studies and found that having a debrief at all, compared with none, improved performance by roughly 20 to 25 per cent. That figure comes from one meta-analysis, and this article rests on it.
The same review found that a structured, facilitated debrief increased the effect further. In practice that means a debrief with a plan: what to review, in what order, with specific questions ready in advance. An open “how did that go” depends entirely on whoever happens to be facilitating.
The game supplies the debrief
A debrief needs material. The requirement this places on design is to make decisions visible, make mistakes recoverable and reviewable, and leave a record of what happened during that specific session. This is the same feedback loop described in four design decisions that make a game teach. Here, it runs once more, at the scale of the whole session rather than a single action.
Performance rises when play is followed by a debrief.
Tannenbaum & Cerasoli 2013 · 46 studiesWhat two familiar sources add
Fanning and Gaba’s work on debriefing is a narrative review, and this article uses it for what it gives: the vocabulary and shape of a good debrief.
Cheng and colleagues studied simulation-based education as a whole, debrief included, so their work informs the design of the whole session.
References
- Cheng, A., Eppich, W., Grant, V., Sherbino, J., Zendejas, B., & Cook, D. A. (2014). Debriefing for technology-enhanced simulation: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Medical Education, 48(7), 657–666.
- Fanning, R. M., & Gaba, D. M. (2007). The role of debriefing in simulation-based learning. Simulation in Healthcare, 2(2), 115–125.
- Tannenbaum, S. I., & Cerasoli, C. P. (2013). Do team and individual debriefs enhance performance? A meta-analysis. Human Factors, 55(1), 231–245.