eLearning Guild Embraces Serious Games for Serious Learning
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008What a blessing to be a part of the eLearning Guild’s Conference this week! The Orlando, Florida, Disney setting was perfect for this exciting, dream-like adventure for thousands of professionals looking for new ways to provide dynamic training solutions to their organizations. Serious Games was without question the buzz at this conference. Professionals from around the globe buzzed the Serious Games booths in the exhibit hall. Our booth was so busy on the first day that even though we had five associates from our organization to demonstrate our Serious Games and answer questions, it wasn’t enough to handle all the interested professionals. By day two, we called in more troops from Sealund to support this flurry of questions about how our Serious Games Engines work and which one is best for their organization. The eLearning Guild Conference was by far one of the most invigorating experiences our teams have experienced; and probably the most invigorating experience this year!
Sealund and Ford Presenting Racetrack AssessAll™ Serious Game.
The highlight of the eLearning Guild Conference for me was to listen to my co-presenter, Bruce Ford, Creative Media Services Manager at PSCU Financial Services. Bruce and I presented a topic entitled “Preparing Corporate America for Serious Games”. The attendees enjoyed the Serious Games as we played several games in this setting by dividing the group into teams. The Serious Games for which PSCU Financial Services has deployed is the “Racetrack AssessAll™“. This Serious Game is a 3D Racetrack online learning game for which the user selects a race car and drives around a hazardous race track while answering questions about a specific topic. Sealund customized this Serious Game for PSCU so that critical IT Security concepts could be learned in a fun, game-like situation. Bruce Ford shared vital data with the session attendees about how PSCU saved thousands of dollars by investing in Sealund’s Serious Games rather than to build the Serious Game in-house with its programmers and designers. Bruce explained that upon completion of their analysis the decision to invest in Sealund’s “Racetrack AssessAll™ was easy due to the cost of Sealund’s Serious Game, the quality of the product, and the ability to customize the learning game with PSCU’s content. Bruce also discussed the ease of working with the Sealund Teams and the fact that between the Sealund Team and the PSCU Teams the Serious Game for IT Security was released in their organization within two weeks of signing the license agreement. Bruce shared how effective the Serious Game has been thus far. “As I walk around the building, I see the Racetrack IT Security Completion Certificates plastered on people’s office walls and they are actually using our pre-work materials because everyone is driving to get a 100%! Additionally, people are talking about the Serious Game in the cafeteria and at the water cooler. Our department is receiving a tremendously positive feedback on how engaged people feel as they rev up their engines and begin the race to IT Security. We expect a high retention rate on this exciting Serious Game and eagerly await the opportunity to bring the Racetrack AssessAll™ Serious Games Engine into our organization so that we can build numerous Serious Games for learning at PSCU”. The session ended with Bruce receiving accolades from the attendees, and the winning teams of the Serious Games each receiving a handheld Sealund Racecar!
Bruce Ford Shares Cost Savings Implementing Sealund’s Racetrack AssessAll™ Serious Game
The sessions on Serious Games were all well attended and highly interactive. The professionals who attended these sessions believed that Serious Games=Serious Learning™! We have a tremendous volume of follow up from this conference and will be offering a “Show Special” to those who visited our booth in the exhibit hall. In addition, we had a drawing for an IPOD Touch and a Nintendo DS along with a Brain Age game. The winners of these drawings are: Margaret Martinez with The Training Place for the IPOD Touch and Matt Lobel with Sparrow InterActive for the Nintendo DS. Congratulations to the lucky winners! Your prizes will be shipped to you as soon as we verify your mailing addresses.
Audience Plays Racetrack AssessAll™ Serious Game
We had the opportunity to meet a few other companies in the Serious Games business; many of which are interested in partnering with Sealund. We will keep you informed about the progress of these initiatives as well as other offerings we may provide to those of you who are serious about Serious Games.
Sealund Hosts Booth at eLearning Guild 2008
Finally, for those of you interested in a copy of our PowerPoint slides for the presentation “Preparing Corporate America for Serious Games”, click the link: Preparing Corporate America for Serious Games. I would also strongly suggest that if you are involved in eLearning and/or Serious Games that you become a member of the eLearning Guild …you will benefit greatly!
Serious Games = Serious Learning!™
For more information about Sealund’s Serious Games, please visit our website at www.sealund.com
