Karl Kapp’s Secrets to Creating Learner Engagement at LUC 2017

LUC 2017 Mission: Possible

This year at the 2017 Lectora® User Conference, Karl Kapp joined us in Cincinnati, Ohio, as the keynote speaker. Karl Kapp, Ed.D., is a researcher, author, speaker, professor, learning expert, and designer of instructional games.At LUC 2017, Karl kicked off the conference with a fantastic interactive presentation, “Mission Possible: Creating Learner Engagement.” He involved the audience in a search for the missing game designer—who held the clues to solve the mystery of the secret to engaging learning.

Karl Kapp LUC 2017 Keynote

Above: Karl’s keynote presentation at LUC 2017.By using an interactive presentation format, Karl demonstrated many of the learning techniques that he was talking about. For example, Karl divided the audience into two search parties, or teams. Then he asked the audience to choose the order of topics to investigate from an interactive map.In addition, Karl presented research to support the points he was teaching about game-based learning and strategies to increase learner engagement.

At #LUC2017 watching keynote, Karl Kapp. Love the validation that what we've been telling clients is on point. Activities make the learning!

— Jane Erwin (@JaneErwin2016) May 3, 2017

#luc2017 use games to teach higher level concepts leads to higher impact learning. Need interactivity. More engagement

— Heidi deCastro (@eChick_Heidi) May 3, 2017

Got to meet the amazing @kkapp at #LUC2017 This is the kind of learning we should all be teaching. https://t.co/2CcV7i07qY

— Andy Lockwood (@RandomGauge) May 4, 2017

Above: LUC 2017 attendees share enthusiasm for the keynote on Twitter.Here are a few takeaways from Karl’s “Mission Possible: Creating Learner Engagement” presentation:

  • Game-based learning has an 11% higher retention rate than declarative knowledge.
  • Karl says to “use games for higher level thinking and higher level processing.”
  • He also says, “We don’t need everything to be a game. What we need is a higher level of interactivity… and engagement in the learning process.”
  • Risk (or mock risk) gets learners emotionally involved. Karl explained, “No risk or danger equals no skin in the game.”
  • Failure is not only an acceptable way of learning, but it’s an important part of the process. We learn more from failure than we do from success.
  • Use a test as a tool for learning and to reinforce learning—not just for evaluation. Retrieval practice alone can provide improved recall performance by as much as 10-20%.

Great meeting all the cool folks at #LUC2017 great conference & wonderful conversations. pic.twitter.com/WL8Q2B8unM

— kkapp (@kkapp) May 3, 2017

Above, from left to right: Karl Kapp, Bloomsburg University, Zoa Bonofiglio and Andy Lockwood from Auto-Owners Insurance.Thanks for your engaging keynote presentation, Karl! If you’d like to check out the keynote resources, Karl shared them over on his blog, Kapp Notes.