Monday’s podcast featured gamification expert Karl Kapp sharing some insights on what “Easter Eggs” (in a learning context) are and how they can be used most effectively. In the transcript of Monday’s podcast, I challenged readers to find four Easter Eggs that I had embedded into the post. If you were wondering what those four Easter Eggs were, I’ll reveal them at the bottom of this post (so keep reading!).
Before I get to those Easter Eggs, however, I wanted to share several examples of Easter Eggs that blog readers shared, which were creative ways to hide information (or just reveal a few fun things for those lucky enough to stumble upon them).
Examples of Easter Eggs
Matty Hogarth said that he finds the use of Easter Eggs particularly helpful in systems training, sending learners on a search for them as they find their way around and learn a system. He’s hidden brand logos and invidious letters or clues that spell out a secret password or phrase.
Rebecca Schwartz uses hidden Easter Eggs to help in the elearning review process, where clients need to use hidden buttons that enable them to skip tutorials and the registration screen in order to proceed more quickly to parts they would like to have a closer look at. On a fun note, she’s also hidden a blooper reel of all of her audio gaffes on the title page of the last lesson.
Kellie Tinnin likes to put her stamp on some of the projects she creates by sneaking a picture of a bulldog into a program in honor of her own beloved pet.
In an exchange with one blog reader who asked how Easter Eggs may be incorporated into a Zoom training session, we brainstormed a few virtual ways to do this:
- Embed something subtle into a virtual background,
- Forego the virtual background and just place something subtle into your real-life background,
- Have the first letter of each poll choice spell out a message,
- Sneak something into the background of your PowerPoint slides.
If you have other examples of ways you’ve used Easter Eggs to boost engagement, help facilitate learning or just bring some fun into your learning program, please drop your ideas into the comment section!
The Four Easter Eggs I Hid on Monday
I received a number of responses from people who attempted to find the Easter Eggs that were embedded in Monday’s post. Most people found at least two, many found three and several were able to find all four. If you were curious, here are the four Easter Eggs:
- The first letter of each word in my 6-word biography spelled something pretty cool: becoming really interested about new worlds,
- Karl also got in on the act with his 6-word biography: exploring, engaging game & gamification systems,
- Clicking on this link was a bit of an old-school prank: “And so if you want to find those Easter Eggs you try different things: you go in different directions, you walk backwards instead of forwards, although it would make more sense to walk forward.”
- Finally, if you scanned the images scattered throughout the post, you’d have seen that this little Easter Egg hunter found the most amazing Easter gift in the history of Easter gifts!
There you have it, four hidden Easter Eggs from our Easter Monday podcast/blog post.
Happy Training!
