Hello, I’m Eric. Welcome to my site!
I’m an instructional designer who loves building interactive instructional experiences including educational video games and virtual reality training. Although I have a background in “traditional” instructional design (ADDIE, ISD, Mager-style learning objectives, etc.), I also have a background in socio-cultural learning theory as well as broader learning science. I believe in a hybrid approach to instructional design that is informed by all of these traditions.
I have over a decade of experience in educational (serious) video game design and development. I was on the original team and the back-end (game engine/logic) developer for PeaceMaker, a turn-based strategy game about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was also involved with the early design of Our Courts (now iCivics), Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s game-centric curriculum for teaching civics to middle school students.
My background is eclectic including music, mathematics, computer science / programming, video games, and instructional design / education. I was a music major at Yale. During my undergraduate study, I co-directed a chamber orchestra and spent a semester at the University of Tübingen in Germany. I have a Master of Entertainment Technology degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where I worked on PeaceMaker. I also have a PhD in Educational Technology from Arizona State University. For my dissertation, I made two casual games (small-scale, single-player games) to introduce Newtonian mechanics to high school and adult students. Dr. James Paul Gee was my adviser. I’m a big fan of modeling instruction, a student-centric approach to physics pedagogy, that has a lot of potential for educational game design as well as subjects other than the natural sciences.
On this site, you’ll find a portfolio and a summary of my old academic stuff (dissertation research, courses and projects, CV) as well as some current interests. Feel free to contact me or comment on blog posts. Thank you for visiting!