04/12/21 A new study out of MIT's Sloan School of Management explores the use of ideas and tools from the gaming community to improve online teaching and student learning outcomes. Among the techniques highlighted: using strong narratives throughout lectures; providing students with constant streams of input via a variety of media; and giving students opportunities to communicate and join in the action. "Teachers around the country, thrown online by surprise because of COVID-19, discovered that using many traditional, in-class teaching techniques didn't translate as well to an online environment," said Andrew W. Lo, professor of finance at MIT Sloan, principal investigator at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and leader of the study, in a statement. "Thanks to evolution, our attention and focus are greatly enhanced when another living creature is physically close by, purely for survival purposes. And it turns out the gaming industry has figured out how to replicate this engagement in an online setting. My co-authors and I realized that this has incredibly powerful implications for online learning."