2025 Research Project - The Learning Game

Often, in schools of education, including our own, there are foundational courses that cover theories of teaching and learning. These can be difficult to understand, given their complexity and scope. So, we're trying to answer the question: How can we design a game that will help players to collaboratively build knowledge of learning theories and their practical application?

This project is still in development, but below are some prototypes and other snippets of information that we have so far. Check back for more updates soon!

Games for Inspiration

Teaching simulation

https://www.crazygames.com/game/teacher-simulator  

Other Inspirations

Sid Meier’s Civilization series (“god” games) - https://civilization.2k.com/   

Clue classic board game - https://arcadespot.com/game/clue/  

What’s That Meme, Apples to Apples, etc  - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apples_to_Apples  

Prototypes

The Learning Game v. 1.1

Here are the instructions for the current version of the game. If you're interested in trying it out or remixing, please contact us for printables and setup instructions.

Publications

Duvall, M., Cui, X., Lee, J. H., Lu, J., Lin, Q., Liu, X., and Xu, J. Designing a table-top roleplaying game for understanding learning theories [Conference presentation]. (2026, March 21.) 2026 Play, Interaction, and Learning Conference: Critical Play. Syracuse University School of Education.