Designing Games for Deeper Learning

I explore how board game design can make experiential learning in higher education with associate professor William Gatti. We discuss why he moved beyond business school teaching and chose games as a way to help students model complex systems. Designing a game requires students to choose meaningful variables, build rules, consider incentives, and see how decisions create consequences. Gatti explains that games unite systems thinking, design thinking, and interaction in a way static frameworks cannot.

Students begin with examples, prototype, playtest, receive feedback, and revise their ideas, moving beyond trivia toward simulations. Their projects can also surface ethical questions, inequality, and student identity, offering quieter learners ways to express themselves. Gatti encourages instructors to start small, explore modern board games, and use research and tools such as ChatGPT for inspiration. He will lead an ASAC workshop on the approach next May. The conversation reminds me that when students build a system, they can understand it and take ownership of learning.

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