Mechanics that rehearse

What this lesson covers

1. 01

   Mechanics are practice rules

   A mechanic is the rule that decides what the learner must do. Ordering rehearses a sequence. A hotspot check rehearses an inspection. A timed choice rehearses pressure, only when the job is timed. If a mechanic does not change what the learner must do, it is scenery. One primary mechanic per beat; adding confetti, a leaderboard and a quiz to the same beat adds load without practice.

2. 02

   Mechanic to job verb

   Job verb | Mechanic

   Sequence | Order steps, with penalties for skipped checks

   Inspect | Find the faults in a scene or document

   Prioritise | Allocate limited time or resources across requests

   Decide under pressure | Timed choice, with pause available for accessibility

   Diagnose | Gather clues, then commit to a cause

3. 03

   The debrief is part of the mechanic

   Ending on a score screen teaches learners to chase the number. Name the steps that matched policy and the step that did not. Then offer a retry on a new instance, same objective, different details, not a clone of the screen they just saw.

4. 04

   Score the decisions, not just the outcome

   Valerie Shute's work on stealth assessment shows how a game can measure competence from the learner's actions during play, not only at the end. You do not need a full psychometric model to use the idea: record which steps were taken, in which order, and which wrong options were chosen, and map each to the competency it shows. A learner who reaches the right outcome after skipping a safety check should not score the same as one who followed the procedure. With xAPI, these step decisions can be sent to an LRS and analysed across a cohort.

5. 05

   Choose the mechanic and the step log

   For your mission, choose one primary mechanic per beat from the table on slide 2, and list the step decisions you will record and the competency each shows.