I believe the most efficient approach to learning comes from having freedom to try doing things the way we think will work, safety to make mistakes to learn from firsthand, and minimal guardrails to keep beginners from falling over the ledges that lead most to quit. I've been organizing communities of practice this way for over 20 years, resulting in more than 600 released freeware games made by teams with 2-6 month schedules. I also adapted this approach to two classes I taught at Northeastern in 2024. In this talk I'll be sharing the principles that enable this approach to teaching without lectures, exams, or grades.

As an overview of what I'll be discussing, the 15 principles are -
1. Self-directed
2. Fixed release date
3. Authentic audience
4. Ungraded / "result is the grade"
5. Safety to make mistakes (psychosocial moratorium)
6. Aligned to interests
7. What's best for the person, not the game
8. Project requires growth to finish it
9. 3 ways to stretch (learning, demonstrating, positioning)
10. Learning materials used to overcome obstacles
11. Ability scaling to skip gatekeeping
12. Teammates to raise our standards
13. Seeking help as a best practice
14. People keep ownership
15. Avoiding wasted work
(Particular phrasing and order are subject to change)