LXDCON'24 Program

NOTE: LXDCON ran on Amsterdam time (CET/GMT +2).
You'll notice breaks in the program, we did this to cater to different time zones and sessions were available for rewatch during and after the conference.

Day 1

Tuesday June 11, 2024

Niels Floor picture

10:00am - 10:30am

Kick off LXDCON'24

Niels Floor | Shapers

Welcome to the ninth annual learning experience design conference LXDCON’24. Together with learning experiences designers from around the globe we will explore this year’s theme "Let's Play”. Join us for four days of learning experience design activities and the LXD Game Jam 24.

10.30AM - 11:00AM

Talk - Gamification against Discrimination

Beybin Elvin Tunc | LinkedIn profile

Can games change the world? In this session we'll delve into the question of how to design learning experiences that harness the power of gamification to drive positive change against discrimination.

11:00am - 12:30pm

Workshop - The power of drawing for learning

Harriët Robijn | LinkedIn profile

You want your learning experience to last. Drawing will help you do so. Drawing makes learning more fun, it makes it last and connects head, heart and hands. The great thing is, everyone can draw even if you're convinced you can't. Discover how drawing can enrich learning and experience how easy drawing actually is.

Break until 4:00PM

clark n quinn

4:00pm - 4:30pm

Talk - Lessons from (serious) games: aligning education and engagement

Clark N. Quinn | Quinnovation

Learning experience design can be construed as the elegant integration of learning science with engagement. Yet, too often, what we get is ‘chocolate-covered broccoli’ or ‘fiber-enriched candy’. However, there’s evidence that what makes games fun is, indeed, learning. How do we reconcile this? In this session, we’ll unpack the critical elements of meaningful practice, and the elements of engaging experiences, and expose the necessary alignment to making learning a true experience. Learning can, and should, be ‘hard fun’.

4:30pm - 6:00pm

Workshop - Let’s make a game in 90 minutes!

Maarten van Broekhoven | Shapers

Step into the world of game development using Construct 3. Within 90 minutes, you will create a digital game! No prior experience in design, art, or programming required. Just bring your enthusiasm, creativity, and some basic computer skills. After 'surviving' this fast-paced hands-on workshop, you will add an incredible power-up to your LXD toolkit.

6:00pm - 6:30pm

Meet Up - LXD Game Jam 24

Maarten van Broekhoven | Shapers

After the workshop on Construct 3, Maarten will dedicate some time to answer your questions about the LXD Game Jam 24 we're organizing during LXDCON.

Day 2

Wednesday June 12, 2024

10:00am - 10:30am

Talk - Gamify & Grow: 21st Century Skills Through Play

Alfie Hisham | LinkedIn profile

Teachers always struggle with engaging students in 21st century skills. We used design thinking & gamification to empathise, prototype and develop. Hear our story of struggle, clarity and triumph in making learning more relevant and authentic.

icon lxdcon24

10:30am - 12:00pm

Workshop - The impossibly short design workshop

Willem Jan Renger & Evert Hoogendoorn | Utrecht School of the Arts / Ludo Didactics

How to foster your Ernie and kill Bert with one stone.
As experts in playful learning design we are asked regularly to give a design workshop or training. We have come from teaching this in two semesters in a masters programm, to one semester, to one week for novice designers and we have developed a workshop for one day. We will take you through this in one hour.

Break until 4:00PM

4:00pm - 4:30pm

Talk - Colorful Insights: How LXD Cards Spark Fresh Approaches to Course Design

Jonathan M. Thomas, Qin Li & Holly K. Johnson | University of Utah

Come explore how our University's Learning Experience Design (LXD) Cards have provided fresh perspectives into the course design process! This playful approach to course design empowers educators to infuse joy and curiosity into their teaching practices. The three types of cards in the deck—Goal, Learning Type, and Activity Cards—offer practical insights, while color-coding aligns activities with specific learning types. Our results suggest that the LXD Cards inspire insight and encourage new approaches to teaching.

4:30pm - 6:00pm

Workshop - Playful Pathways: Cultivating Creativity in LXD

Romy Alexandra | LinkedIn profile

By developing our creativity as experience designers, we can breathe new life into our sessions and also increase engagement, attention, & impact. Learn how to unleash your creative spirit as an experience designer, all through the power of play.

Day 3

Thursday June 13, 2024

4:00pm - 4:30pm

Talk - Kickoff to Launch: Managing Your Gamified Learning Project

Gary Chinn | Gary Chinn Consulting

Gaining stakeholder buy-in, designing and developing content, and hitting key deadlines can be a challenge when creating an oftentimes complex and multidimensional gamified experience. In this session I'll go over the strategies and tactics I use to ensure our people, processes, and performance indicators are tracked and stay aligned as we kick off, build, and launch our gamified learning product.

pictures

4:30pm - 5:00pm

Talk - Augmented Teams: Multi Agent Conversations

Sean Snyder & Cristian Espinoza | Harvard Graduate School of Education - Teaching and Learning Lab

We are exploring the opportunities for going beyond the headlines to have multiple AI agents collaborating with each other for all sorts of playful and educational purposes.

5:00pm - 5:30pm

Meet Up

We're going to discuss the previous sessions in this meet up. Each year we welcome participants from all continents and bringing all of you together is one of the best parts of LXDCON. Meet fellow learning experience designers from around the world to network and chat.

Break until 7:00PM

yuenyen tsai portrait

7:00pm - 8:30pm

Workshop - Absurdity Unstucks

YuenYen Tsai | 蔡婉茵 | Make Me See / Future Skills Academy

Fellow Learning Experience Designers. Imagine yourselves as diligent seekers of knowledge, grappling with plans and goals, occasionally encountering two formidable foes: Seri, the stern guardian of seriousness, and Rati, the logical thinker with an iron grip. But fret not! Embrace Absurdity. Sprinkle it like confetti. I, your playful guide, a seasoned facilitator and LX designer, will lead the way. Ready to dance with absurdity? Let's play.

Final day

Friday June 14, 2024

10:00AM - 10:30AM

Talk - Chill your stress chicken - a serious game

Marloes Berkers | Thrivelop

In this session I will encounter the main challenge for developing this game: in order to reach the learning objectives, the game design must ensure a safe learning environment. It is not easy to reflect on and discuss stress, especially not in the work environment. I will show how I designed the game to face this challenge. The game creates a positive and fun experience for the learners, in which they feel safe to reflect on their own stress and have in depth conversations with their colleagues about stress in their own workplace. Not only within the game, but also afterwards.

10:30AM - 11.00AM

Talk - Adaptability at Play

Dara Simkin | Culture Hero

People think the opposite of play is work, it’s not, it’s conformity, apathy or even depression. A global pandemic currently being recognised by The World Health Organisation is not COVID-19, it’s BURNOUT. This playful talk is the vaccine. Today, at the rate humanity is going, we won't experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century -- it will be more like 20,000 years of progress. In the face of such rapid change, playful adaptation becomes a vital resource. By embracing creativity, exploration, and experimentation, you and your organisation can navigate the complexities of this accelerated pace. While adaptability is the number one competitive advantage, it's really just play in a fancy suit.

11:15am - 12:45pm

Workshop - QUEST! Slaying Dragons and Experiential Learning

Mitch Whitehead | SWUX LXD

QUEST is a role playing game that takes participants into a world of extraordinary and transformative learning. Together we'll look at how you can use simple role-playing tools and methods to bring your learning experiences alive.

Break until 4:00PM

eddy klappe profile

4:00pm - 4:30pm

Talk - A peak behind the curtain of the gamified wellbeing app ROOM

Eddy Klappe | IJsfontein

Student-life can be quite a challenging time. ROOM is a mental wellbeing app for students at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. It uses science-based exercises and habit forming techniques to teach essential stress regulation skills to students. Join me on this talk as I share our process of designing the app and how rapid validating can help measure impact faster.

4:30pm - 5:15pm

Talk - The Learning Museum: A collective playful exploration

Anamaria Dorgo | LinkedIn profile

How might we use a physical space + carefully crafted prompts and invitations to inspire playfulness, collective creativity and learning?
Enter: The Learning Museum!
Each exhibit is a dialogue, each performance a lesson, and each visit an opportunity to redefine what it means to learn and develop in the modern age.

5:15pm - 5:30pm

Wrap up LXDCON'24

Another virtual edition of LXDCON has finished. Our LX design pioneer Niels Floor will summarize the experience and the LXD Game Jam 24. What a ride!

5:30pm

Meet up & Afterparty!

Let's meet, do a little dance and have a drink all from our own location, but in the same space!

How to get the most out of LXDCON

These four days in June were packed with a variety of LX design activities for you to choose from.

We've decided to not just do 1 conference day, but up to 4 days filled with workshops, meet ups, inspirational sessions and talks.

This is a global event with participants from across the world in different time zones. That's why we arranged the program in a way that enables you to participate in a way that suits your schedule:

Quick and easy:
Cherry pick the activities that fit your schedule and watch them either live or the recording afterwards. Ideal if you're short on time and you know what you're looking for. 3 to 5 hours in total.

Get active:
Participate in (some of) the live events like virtual workshops and debates to dig deeper into what matters to you. 5 to 10 hours in total.

Go all in:
Join us from start to finish. Challenge yourself by actively participating in all live events and connect with the LX design community. We'll see you each day of the week! 10 to 20 hours in total.

Most live events will be recorded for you to watch later so don't worry about missing anything!

Follow LXDCON on social media

Organization

LXDCON is initiated by:

We, Shapers, are pioneers in the field of learning experience design. We believe in the power of well crafted experiences to elevate the quality of learning. That's why we apply, train and promote learning experience design around the globe.