Can you believe that the Holiday season is upon us? It has been a fantastic year at Designing Digitally, Inc. and that is a result of all the wonderful people we work with and for. The team and I would like to take a moment to say thank you to our clients and vendors! It is you who encourages us to push ourselves to our limits and provide excelled service to each and every client. So we thank you all for being there with us in 2012! And I would like to give an even bigger thank you to our employees, who have worked tirelessly to meet not only our deadlines, but also the high quality expectations our clients know and love. Without them this year would not have been successful. So thank you all for your time, dedication, and friendship, and may our good fortune carry us into the New Year. On behalf of everyone at Designing Digitally, Inc. we look forward to 2013, and until we speak again stay creative my friends! Thanks, Andrew Hughes President Designing Digitally, Inc. http://www.designingdigitally.com

A really interesting recent article on the BBC written by Nic Fleming addresses the history and evolution of the idea and pursuit of gamification for businesses. Mr. Fleming seems undecided as to how he feels about gamification - otherwise known as serious games or game-based learning - but he does an excellent job at spelling-out just what gamification is and how it could work in an ideal world, as well as several problems with the model presently. Gamification, which we at Designing Digitally, Inc. have been championing for some time now and believe in completely, is the art or science of taking education and training for disparate industries and placing them within a games-based milieu where the game player competes against him or herself, others online, or the game itself to earn points for various outcome results. These points are earned by achieving victories over tasks that are actually training routines within that particular industry, or for scoring on knowledge within that industry. Gamification is based on making learning and training fun and enjoyable, and leverages the growing number of young workers who have been raised playing complicated video games and are quite comfortable using computers and monitors for assimilating information. Some of the interesting and sometimes contradictory information included in the BBC article includes: US-based analysts Gartner predicted in 2011 that by 2014, 70% of the world’s Top 2000 companies will be using some form of gamification. Gartner then released another report stating that by 2014, 80% of gamification applications will fail to deliver "because of poor design." We’re not worried about THAT prediction - we’ve got great designers and coders onboard at Designing Digitally, Inc. Gamification theory can actually be traced back to 1937 and behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner’s system called "operant conditioning." Rajat Paharia, considered the founding father of gamification, adopted the term in 2009 after hearing it used in a presentation. Margaret Robertson, managing director of UK game design company Hide&Seek, prefers the term "pointsification" for much of what is considered gamification today, since important elements of true games - such as the risk of failure or repercussions for actions taken - are often missing in training-based games. There’s a big philosophical discussion happening right now about whether rewards-based learning/training encourages students to continue learning on the same subject or to lose interest. As writer Alfie Kohn explains it, "It reflects an ignorance of what psychologists have known for decades - that intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation are two completely different things, and that the former is undermined by the latter." There’s actually concern that gamification can become addictive for some users. With such a young industry just stretching its wings, there’s definitely going to be critics and nay-sayers along with fans and acolytes. That said, gamers will only continue to increase in percentage across America, and as the older workforce retires and newer, computer-savvy employees replace older workers, having systems in-place to take advantage of the efficiencies that serious games and E-Learning offers (mobile learning, consistent monitoring and scoring, standardized training administration, safety for new hires in training processes) only makes sense….Big Sense! Read the entire BBC article on gamification here. 

It’s the end of Q1 and so it seems like just the right time for a bit of a promotional push from our house to your house. That is, from our offices to your offices. We’re talking about E-Learning development and some companies’ attempts to do it themselves to save money on their training initiatives. While we certainly understand the desire and even the need to "pinch pennies" in our oh-so-slowly recovering economy, the old adage - "penny-wise and pound foolish" - comes to mind. Why so? Because one gets what they pay for and when you want professional work done right, you hire professionals to do it. And we’d like to do professional work for your business in the new year, so here goes our appeal to you. Trying to do write, design, code, host and support an E-Learning program such as serious games yourself will save you money up front, but it's certainly not going to give you the ROI you’re looking for once your employees start to use the games - therefore saving you no money at all in the end. We also can’t fail to mention the learning curve that will cost you a bunch of money as you seek to understand E-Learning development while several new generations of workers slip through your HR hands without game-based training. Does your team really know the gaming engines? Can your team truly build complex AI technologies to be incorporated into the game? Do you honestly think you have what it takes to realize and develop a full-blown serious game? You can run a mile, but you probably wouldn’t call yourself a marathon runner. In other words, leave the expert development to the experts. Designing Digitally, Inc. does this type of project work on a daily basis - it's what we're focused on and what we live to do. Since you already have a 40+ hour job, why try to take on another development that won't turn out like you want it. Indeed, do you want to produce a development that might actually embarrass you when everything is said and done - something that you’ll look back upon and say to yourself, "why did I waste my time trying to do this myself?" Everyone says they can do serious games, but really, Jeopardy-style games just don't count. We build addictive learning experiences that do more than just incorporate a game into the learning experience; we build a game based around the learning experience. Don't adapt; build from the ground up instead - that's the Designing Digitally, Inc. way! Ask yourself (or your HR team) if you really have the in-house team to develop both an innovative learning experience and a high-end gaming experience? And when you do decide to work with another company for a project, ask who works there, and what their qualifications are. If your developers say they can do it, and yet are not willing to pitch concept ideas to you ahead of time, run away as fast as you can before you feel obligated to pay for something you don’t really want and certainly did not envision. At Designing Digitally, Inc. we're so confident in our abilities, we will pitch concepts to you to determine what concept is best for your organization. In this way you can see our creativity and choose which game-based learning experience is going to be ideal for your culture. Of course those concepts are still our intellectual property, but we figure you’ll like what you hear well enough to decide to work with us. Contact us if you want your first time to be a successful implementation of serious games. You’ll most likely only get one chance to introduce this amazing method of training and education into your culture, and if it turns out poorly then your corporate culture will most likely reject similar efforts in the future, stating that they already tried it once and was not impressed. Who wants THAT kind of reaction on their work record, right?

It only makes sense that as more and more consumers throw away their landlines and go wireless, there will be more and more applications developed for the handheld society of the 21st century. Shopping apps, direction & guidance apps, image capturing & manipulating apps... there are so many applications being developed for the expanding world of cellular technology that it’s almost mind-boggling. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the number of applications for the iPhone alone has reached 700,000 as of September 2012 - an astonishing number of possible utilizations! As a forward-thinking interactive development company, Designing Digitally, Inc. has been working on developing serious games, 3D training simulations, virtual worlds, and E-Learning programs for some time now - always with our ear to the ‘beat of the street’ when it comes to new trends and possibilities powered by the Internet and computer technology. Mobile learning solutions are our latest foray, since handheld devices offer so much freedom of movement and access and we are very much into the power of E-Learning for the new generation of workers, trainers, HR professionals and employees coming out of schools currently. As Andrew Hughes, President of Designing Digitally, Inc. puts it succinctly, "the benefit of mobile learning applications is that we can build fidelity and presentation experiences that you could normally only see on the computer, straight for your phone. This opportunity opens huge possibilities for time savings, training efficiencies, best practice consistencies, as well as overall convenience never before experienced in technology-based training. It’s quite fantastic." From providing workmen and maintenance people with near-instantaneous mobile applications on how to perform new repairs and conduct procedures to educating in-field sales people on new processes or products, custom mobile learning applications from Designing Digitally, Inc. can revolutionize the way new hires and seasoned pros learn on-the-job. With cellular phone use as well as tablet and laptop computer use growing exponentially each year, it’s just common sense to invest in this burgeoning technologic innovation to help keep your company or business on the cutting edge of training and education for a well-developed workforce. Designing Digitally, Inc. can help. Learn more about our mobile learning development service here. Then reach out and contact us to get started on your first mobile learning application for training and HR purposes. We’re waiting to hear from you.

Models of Mobile E-Learning for Training and Education With the advent of PCs, then the Internet, and then the near ubiquity of cellular phones in just a very few short years, it was not long until some bright person realized the cross- pollination potential of these disparate technologies. Thus mobile learning was born. With cellular technology powering hand-held access, users discovered they could do more than just talk on their phones and send text messages - they could access the Web and view websites, which soon were being designed to offer a variant design for cell phones and their smaller screens and more limited capabilities. In a feat that seemed oddly counter-intuitive, users were willing and even began to choose to access the Internet from a perspective of convenience rather than from sophistication and complexity. Much in the same way that vinyl records gave way to the more compact CD format despite surrendering visual artwork appeal, and in the same way that many if not most of today’s young people listen to music using the tiny speaker systems built into their laptops or via ear plugs instead of with large and loud, complex speaker systems, Internet users traded the larger visual displays and functionality of PCs for the convenient on-the-go access of the Web via their smart phones, etc. Like all good capitalistic ventures, once the need was identified then the marketplace adapted - soon smart phones and Androids, etc. began to feature applications that enabled their phones to do things only their computers could have done previously, and then some. Navigational apps, voice and image and sound recognition apps, even mobile-enabled websites that were specially designed to function on mobile phones began to be developed to accommodate this new market segment. The time was ripe for mobile learning in earnest. Today there are three main forms of mobile learning being practiced. The Web model of mobile learning requires "students" of all types to access blogs and websites via their hand-held device. Learning through the reading of website content, 3D simulations, the watching of videos…these are all examples of mobile learning using the Internet and websites as the main tools. In the App model of mobile learning, users download apps or applications - basically, software programs designed for mobile devices - that provide a very specific function such as a foreign language exercise, mathematics flashcards or a visual logic exercise for learning and development. The use of graphic QR codes to access apps for various exercises is another example of an evolving technology used to speed- up processes and procedures. The cellular model of mobile learning incorporates the use of the cell phone’s basic features for a learning exercise. "Telephony" functions such as listening to audio broadcast messages or engaging in text message-based testing procedures are examples of cellular mobile learning. With the proliferation of the Internet to all corners of the world and the relative lack of expense for cellular phones, expect mobile learning to continue to grow in popularity and use. Options for phone-based and tablet-based learning will continue to expand and be offered by more and more companies, with some businesses presenting all their educational resources via this milieu especially for younger, tech-enabled workers. Designing Digitally, Inc. offers E-Learning development and mobile learning development services for smart companies with their eyes upon the future. How can we help your business to become more agile and efficient in the 21 st century? Contact us and we’ll be glad to tell you more.

It’s always interesting to read what media pundits think of our industry from an outsider perspective, as their understanding about Serious Games, their purposes and value help us to develop more targeted communications about the TRUE purposes and value of Serious Games. We’re then able to help the wider world "get it" about the great educational and training possibilities inherent in fun and interactive gaming programs for people of all ages. A recent article from the BBC actually hits the nail on the head pretty well in terms of a big picture narrative about how Serious Games can be used and the diversity of subject matter they can address, citing such disparate topics as the ongoing Middle East conflict, the end of the Petroleum Age, and sexual coercion among teenagers. Talk about putting the SERIOUS in Serious Games, right? Addressing one of the biggest strong points of Serious Games - their ability to engage young people in contemplation and learning on subject matter in a way that holds their attention effectively and experientially - the BBC article cites a sex education program being tried in some schools in England. "’One of the things that's very striking when you spend time in a classroom of teenagers is just how easy it is for them to get bored or distracted,’ says Dr. Katherine Brown, leader of the Sash Research Group at Coventry University. ‘The more innovative you can be with what techniques you use, the more likely you are to be successful in delivering the education you are trying to get across. Having that technology does instantly engage the young people in the classroom. It's completely novel to them that their teacher would use this kind of technology to deliver a lesson on sex education.’" Considering the rather alarming rate at which American youth are diminishing as champions in academic achievement compared to youth in several other countries globally, the use of Serious Games may be an effective tool to get bored and disenfranchised teens and young adults back on-track interest-wise. We certainly hope that this is the case - that’s one of the reasons Designing Digitally, Inc. is here!

At Designing Digitally, Inc. we use gamification in our everyday business practices. Our goal is to create systems and processes within learning experiences that motivate and engage learners. That is, in essence, why gamification is being applied to learning content that might otherwise be dry and boring when approached in a traditional presentation style learning experience. Gamification is all about using game elements to engage the learner’s competitive nature, using extrinsic motivation to increase intrinsic motivation. If you can change the behavior of a learner by providing elements used in gaming to make something fun, you’ve immediately increased your chances of the content sticking with that learner. The team at Designing Digitally, Inc. loves gamification! Take a look at how Eric our Interactive Media Designer makes coming to work more fun:

Just as family members share similar DNA, gamification and serious games share similar traits. Both are born of game thinking, mechanics, and design. Both are used to solve problems. And both engage users. But just like family members, gamificaton and serious games have their differences. Let's take a closer look at each of these game-based techniques to see how they differ and how they can be used. The Game Called Life Gamification uses game thinking and mechanics in a non-game context to improve user engagement and solve problems. Probably the most common example of gamification is a frequent flyer or loyalty program. By offering rewards or incentives (a game element), these programs engage customers and influence their behavior to buy the company's product or service (a non-game context). While some frequent flyers may consider the accumulation of points to earn free flights a game, loyalty programs are not actually games. Other forms of gamification tap into people's competitive natures and sense of play to lend a game-like feel to everyday tasks and experiences. For instance, an application like Nike+ helps motivate users to exercise more with rewards and achievements, goal tracking, and social competitiveness. Or a 3-D virtual campus tour becomes a dynamic online recruitment tool with avatars, mini-games, and opportunities to connect with other recruits. Below is a great example of the team at Designing Digitally, Inc. using gamification to make coming to work fun! Why so serious? Serious games, on the other hand, are games. But they are games designed for a purpose other than entertainment. Serious games use game environments and techniques to train or educate users or to promote a product or service in an engaging and entertaining way. The "serious" aspect comes from the fact that they are used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion, and politics. Game-based learning is not a new concept. It dates back to at least the 1900s, and paper-based educational games were quite popular in the 1960s and 1970s. But advances in technology, motion tracking, 3-D gaming, and sophisticated graphic design have taken game-based learning to a new level. For example, a new airline employee can learn directional marshaling signals by playing a serious game that uses Microsoft Kinect. The trainee actually uses the signals to guide an airplane out of the hangar and down the runway, dodging obstacles and earning achievement points. In the simulated environment, the trainee has the opportunity to practice, fail, and improve while enjoying the experience, which leads to better retention of the concepts learned. Clearly, gamification and serious games share similar traits and even goals. What sets them apart is the context in which game elements are applied. Gamification is more than a serious game as it expands game thinking and mechanics into non-game environments, such as the classroom or everyday life. Serious games apply game thinking and mechanics to "serious" subjects. Ultimately, the more you make something compelling and fun with gaming elements, the better your chances are for getting the results you want. For more information on Gamification vs. Game Based Learning you view the PowerPoint created by our President of Designing Digitally, Inc. (Andrew Hughes) for the Society of Applied Learning Technologies Conference that was held August 15th 2013 below:  

Designing Digitally, Inc. in partnership with Barron Associates, Inc. won a coveted Brandon Hall Group Silver Award for Excellence in the Best Use of Games for Learning category. Barron Associates, Inc. and Designing Digitally, Inc. created a 3D motion tracking training game called Virtual Occupational Therapy Assistant (VOTA). The VOTA project win was announced on September 26th and the winners are listed at: http://go.brandonhall.com/Excellence_Awards_Home The President of Barron Associates, Inc., Dr. Eugene Parker commented, "We are extremely excited about this award and the success of our partnership with Designing Digitally, Inc. on the development of VOTA. The VOTA system represents an emerging nexus between computer-based games and health care applications -- one that we look forward to continuing to pursue in earnest with our partners."  The President of Designing Digitally, Inc., Andrew Hughes stated, "We are honored to be awarded a Silver Brandon Hall Award and will continue to improve our development approach in the years to come. We especially wish to acknowledge the partnership between Designing Digitally, Inc. and Barron Associates, Inc. for this effort. Both organizations worked hand in hand to ensure this project produced great results. The partnership was extremely successful, which is apparent when you see how innovative the VOTA project is." For more information on the VOTA project, please see the video here. The entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts and Executive Leadership based upon the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits. "We are extremely proud to honor our 2013 award-winning organizations for their remarkable achievements," said Mike Cooke, Chief Executive Officer of Brandon Hall Group, Inc. "This elite group of organizations excelled in developing measurable, sustainable programs that produced outstanding business results." About Barron Associates, Inc. Barron Associates, Inc., Charlottesville, VA, is a small research and development company dedicated to developing novel solutions to demanding aerospace and healthcare challenges. These solutions frequently employ intelligent and adaptive technologies to measure, model, predict and control complex systems, resulting in improved performance, safety, and efficiency. About Designing Digitally, Inc. Designing Digitally, Inc. is an award-winning full-service E-Learning development firm and serious game developer. Located in Franklin, Ohio, Designing Digitally, Inc. has developed a number of serious games and simulations, virtual worlds, and E-Learning solutions for companies around the country and the globe. Designing Digitally, Inc.'s overall goal is to add value to the clients that they serve by creating engaging, educational, and entertaining learning solutions.

Mobile learning is an innovative, accessible, and effective method for bringing education to people's fingertips. With a society centered around technology and multi-tasking, it's no wonder we didn't reach this point with education earlier. From iPhones to tablets, the majority of adults have some means to bring enrichment and knowledge to their lives without sitting in a classroom. While the traditionalists among you may be turning up your nose at the lack of personal interaction and communication this encourages, not so fast. With mobile learning, individuals worldwide are able to sit in on video lectures, take quizzes, and interact with their peers, regardless of the time zone. Additionally, mobile learning provides the opportunity for more innovative ways of learning. Through various types of software and multimedia enhancements as well as collaborating with social media outlets, students will be greeted with a whole new way of learning. Mobile learning allows for more interaction between students and teachers as well as the capability to learn on the go. HTML5 has made it so language and images transfer at a higher quality and level of understanding for people and computers alike while also helping the most popular mobile platforms (Apple, Android, and Microsoft Windows) read data more efficiently. HTML5 and Mobile Learning The development of the fifth revision of the HTML standard is huge to the eLearning world. With the capability to transfer existing content to HTML5, you will be able to have a more standardized format, which directly affects the ease and accessibility of mobile learning. Various features of HTML5 will allow readers to become more engaged; examples include connected mobile opportunities, animations that encourage reader participation, interactive quizzes, and enhanced social collaboration with others. HTML5 allows readers and students to be receiving the same lesson and experience, regardless of their operating system or device. This not only encourages participation, but it also helps promote a more streamlined experience. Benefits of Mobile Learning Whether we like it or not, technology is shaping the way we approach learning and knowledge. From smartphones to tablets, the way we access information and gain knowledge is now dictated by our mobile devices. Thankfully, this is a good thing when it comes to providing education to the masses. Mobile learning provides opportunities for education beyond the traditional classroom setting, encouraging more people to seek knowledge, as unconventional as it may seem. With mobile learning comes innovative learning and teaching practices, and many other benefits: Access - one of the top benefits to mobile learning is the amount of access it allows; to content, peers, experts, teachers, credible sources, etc. Collaboration - the cloud allows us all to have access to data sources, learning materials, and project outlines instantaneously. This allows the learner to obtain more information faster. The speed of knowledge being acquired promotes more collaboration, as learners are able to process more information and then continue the cycle. Learning by doing - mobile learning encourages progressive learning, or 'play learning', because it incorporates various interactive experiences. This is great, especially for hands-on learners. Engaged learning - mobile learning blends various learning methods, all of which require readers to be engaged, mostly through verbal and desktop communication. Improved learner confidence and communication - mobile learning requires readers to interact with others through various platforms. It also helps learner confidence, because most mobile learning methods are in shorter chunks, which allow the information to stick.   There are a number of benefits to mobile learning, especially in today's technology-centric society. Mobile learning practices allow individuals to seek knowledge whenever they like, instead of limiting the information intake to a certain time of the day. As knowledge is power, this move towards mobile learning in a more streamlined way will help bring information to the masses in a fun, innovative manner.