5 Lessons Video Game Designers Can Teach Educators About Learning

• By Dr. George Philhower
• 09/15/26

When I was growing up, beating Super Mario Bros. felt like a real accomplishment. You started with three lives. Lose them all, and you go back to the beginning. Whatever progress you had made was gone, and if you wanted to finish the game, you had to earn your way through every level again.

At the time, that seemed normal. Looking back, though, the game wasn't designed that way because its creators believed starting over was the best way to learn. The technology available at the time couldn't save your progress.

Modern video games work differently. They are often far more complex than the games many of us grew up playing, but they rarely send players all the way back to the beginning. They use checkpoints. They provide feedback almost immediately. They allow players to practice the difficult part again without forcing them to repeat everything they have already mastered.

That change is not accidental. Video game designers spend an enormous amount of time studying what keeps people engaged when something becomes difficult. They observe where players get stuck and revise the experience based on what they learn. They have become very good at helping people persist.
Schools should pay attention.

1) Learning Should Be Challenging, But It Should Also Feel Possible

Game designers understand that a game that is too easy quickly becomes boring. A game that feels impossible gets abandoned. The best games place players just beyond what they can already do while giving them enough information to believe they can figure out what comes next.

The challenge remains real. The player simply understands the path forward.

That principle matters in classrooms, too. Students do not all arrive with the same knowledge, and they do not all need the same level of challenge at the same time. A strong classroom does not lower expectations. It makes the next step clear and provides the support a student needs to reach it.

At Eastern Hancock Schools, we are clarifying learning expectations through our Key Learning Outcomes. Rather than treating every assignment as equally important, teachers identify the essential knowledge and skills students must demonstrate. Students can see what they are working toward and what deeper understanding looks like.

That changes the conversation. Instead of being told to do better, a student can understand what has already been learned and what still needs attention. The work may still be difficult, but it no longer feels mysterious.

2) Feedback Matters Most When Students Can Use It

In a video game, players know almost immediately whether something worked. They do not have to wait several days to find out that they missed a jump or took the wrong route. They adjust while the experience is still fresh.

School feedback should work the same way. Too often, a student completes an assignment and receives a grade after the class has already moved on. By then, the score may feel more like a judgment than useful information.

In a classroom designed around learning, feedback becomes part of the process rather than something that happens at the end. A teacher might meet with a student after an assessment, help identify a misunderstanding, and provide a different kind of practice before the student demonstrates the learning again.

That last part matters. A second attempt without new learning accomplishes little. A second attempt after useful feedback can reveal real growth.

3) Failure Should Not Erase Progress

Modern games still include consequences. Without them, the challenge would not matter. But when the consequence is too severe, players spend most of their time repeating work they have already mastered instead of learning from the part that stopped them.

That is why checkpoints matter. They preserve what the player has already accomplished while creating another opportunity to work through the difficult part.

Schools often make the opposite choice — hiding progress inside averages. A student may have grown significantly over several months, but the gradebook compresses that growth into a single number. A student sees a B-minus or a 72%. The teacher may see a much richer picture, but the system does not always communicate it.

A checkpoint approach works differently. If a student struggles with fractions in September but demonstrates a clear understanding in October, the latter evidence should matter more. The goal is not to pretend the struggle never happened. The goal is to report what the student ultimately learned.

4) Students Need to See Their Growth

Video games constantly show players where they are. A map opens. A new skill becomes available. A level is completed. Even when the game is not finished, the player can see evidence that the effort is leading somewhere.

Key Learning Outcomes make progress visible, helping students see more than a score. They can understand what they know, where they are still developing, and what stronger evidence would look like.

This is part of the work we are developing at Eastern Hancock and across the Indiana Microschool Collaborative to make progress more visible. At Nature's Gift, our district's first microschool, students are increasingly asked to demonstrate proficiency in clearly defined competencies through portfolios built around projects and authentic work. 

For instance, a student may demonstrate communication through a public presentation or show mathematical understanding through a real-world project. The evidence may look different from one student to another, but the learning expectation remains clear. 

5) Ownership Creates Motivation

Players usually have meaningful choices about how they approach a game. They may choose a route or decide which skill to develop. The designer still creates the world and establishes the rules, but the player is not simply following directions at every moment.

Students need some of that same ownership. This does not mean allowing every student to avoid difficult work or choose only what feels comfortable. It means creating meaningful choices within clear expectations.

EH Connect, our school-within-a-school model at Eastern Hancock, is being designed around that idea. Students will learn required academic content through interdisciplinary learning connected to real industries and community needs. As they pursue work-based learning or develop projects connected to their interests, they'll still need to demonstrate proficiency in English, mathematics, and science. 

The standards do not disappear. Students simply have more ownership over how they reach them and how they demonstrate what they know through work that feels relevant.

Designing Learning Like a Video Game

When I was a kid, Super Mario Bros. made me start over because the technology couldn't save my progress.

Forty years later, game designers have learned that people remain engaged when the challenge feels possible and when feedback arrives in time to help. They have also learned that failure can inspire another attempt without erasing everything already accomplished.

It's time for districts to redesign our approach in the same way. 

We need classrooms where students are willing to take risks, recognize their progress, and feel that same rush of excitement when they reach the next level of learning. We can use grading practices that recognize growth, allowing students to learn from mistakes. And we can help them understand how their work connects to something meaningful.

It shouldn't matter whether a kid is holding a game controller or a pencil — the thrill of overcoming a challenge and achieving what they thought was impossible is what gives them the motivation to keep going.