SUMMARY Summary The instructional design process can provide invaluable information that will help turn your serious game into an effective instructional tool. The converse, however, is also true: ignoring or bypassing the process will result in a far less effective product, one that could very well fail. Here are some of the most effective instructional design techniques: The exercise model. Organizing a learning experience by demonstration, prac- tice and testing. Procedural instruction. Solving sequencing problems by focusing on the order in which tasks are performed. Backward chaining. Solving sequencing problems by simulating the last step, then the last two steps, and so forth. Competition. Solving discrimination problems by teaching things together when they are confusingly similar. Shaping. Moving from a simplified version of an activity to those that are more complex until the final version has all the noise of the real world. Fading. Providing support for performance and then gradually taking it away