Use open-ended questions targeted toward higher-order thinking skills.In successful discussion boards, all participants learn from and teach one another. In order to support a deep and meaningful conversation, your initial discussion questions need to be interesting – perhaps even controversial – and allow for multiple perspectives that your students can provide from their own experience.

Use workgroups.Consider dividing your students into small groups of 4-6. The small size makes it easier for all students to participate.

it’s important to realize that game development is more daunting than it may appear. The develop-ment team, at a minimum, should involve a content expert, instruc-tional designer, graphic designer, and programmer, all working together on a structured plan with benchmarks and multiple test-ing phases— hardly the lone person we might picture putting a game together in his or her spare time.4

setting up these small- stakes assignments with clear timetables, instructions, and rubrics can also be part of designing for maximum motivation