Applying an Experiential Learning Model to the Teaching of Gateway Strategy Board Games

The board game hobby has rapidly grown and evolved in recent years, but most of the non-digital games lack tips and tutorials and remain difficult to learn and teach effectively. In this project, we integrated a popular hobbyist approach to teaching modern strategy games with classical experiential learning elements (i.e., demonstration, observation, reflection, discussion and repeated experiences). We tested our model by teaching two modern board games to Japanese high school and university students. Questionnaires, gameplay data, self-ratings and discussions showed improved understanding and enjoyment, more strategic play and more interest in modern board games over the course of the instructional sequence. The model's repetition (the participants played each game three times) was rated the most useful in terms of learning the games. Overall, the integrated model was largely successful in teaching strategy board games to new players, and we offer several recommendations for teachers, designers and researchers of board games.