Jan L. Plass

Dr. Jan L. Plass, Paulette Goddard Chair in Digital Media and Learning Sciences and Professor at New York University, is the founding director of the CREATE Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technology in Education and co-director of the Games for Learning Institute. Dr. Plass’ draws from a broad range of fields, including cognitive science, learning sciences, computer science, and design, to conceptualize, implement, and study new and more effective ways of learning with digital technologies, especially for underserved communities. His research group is investigating cognitive, social, and emotional design patterns for the design of effective simulations, games, augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality tools for learning a wide range of topics for learners of all ages. This work has been funded by over 30 research and development grants from national and international federal agencies and private foundations. For one of his projects, Project Hope, he led a team to design, implement, and evaluate a digital curriculum for Syrian refugee children in Turkey and in Jordan. He is the author of over 120 journal articles, chapters, and conference proceedings, has given more than 200 presentations, and is the lead editor of Cognitive Load Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and of the Handbook of Game-based Learning (MIT Press, 2020). Dr. Plass is a frequent national and international keynote speaker and advisor, helping companies enhance the impact of their products by applying cognitive science and learning sciences principles. Dr. Plass received his MA in Mathematics and Physics Education and his Ph.D. in Educational Technologies from Erfurt University (PH Erfurt, Germany).

NYU Institute for Games for Learning

Dr. Plass is Co-Director of the Games for Learning Institute (G4LI), a multi-university collaboration established in 2008 with support from Microsoft Research and the Motorola Foundation. G4LI is dedicated to advancing the design, use, and evaluation of digital games in formal and informal educational settings. The Institute works to provide fundamental scientific evidence of "what works" in games for learning - what makes certain games compelling and playable, and what design elements make games effective for learning. The results provide critically important information to researchers, game developers, and educators, and point the way to a new era of playful learning.

Center for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education

Dr. Plass is the founding director of CREATE, the Center for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in Education, which is engaged in research on the design and evaluation of advanced media for learning. CREATE's mission is to advance the cognitive science and learning sciences foundations of the use of digital media for learning, develop methods and approaches for the design of digital materials based on principles derived from sound theoretical foundations, implement models, frameworks, and examples of learning applications based on these methods and principles, and develop and apply methods and criteria for the evaluation of such environments.