Bringing games into the classroom can be a great way to get students excited about learning. When they’re designed to enable teacher guidance and to take advantage of things games do well—such as encouraging persistence and offering multiple paths to success—they can do a lot more than simply boost engagement.

Here are five questions to ask when considering educational software to ensure it offers meaningful learning experiences for your students.

1. Are there multiple ways for students to solve problems?

   If a teacher gives a student a math worksheet, there are limits to how they can find the solution. In a well-designed game, however, there are no restraints, and students can think their way through it by testing and discovering.

   Back when I was teaching in the classroom, the games we had were on floppy disks. They offered a problem, the student submitted a solution, the computer told them they were right or wrong, and that was the end of it. Fortunately, games are much more sophisticated these days.

   Look for games that not only offer multiple ways to arrive at a correct answer, but also provide useful feedback to inform future attempts.

Click here to read the full article.