These techniques foster independence and show students how to help themselves—and their peers—understand and complete tasks.
While this article is positioned more for learnings in K-12, finding ways for learners of all ages to have autonomy is a powerfully motivating. I love the idea of giving learners a limited number of hints, whether that happens through cards, chips, or as I experienced last month in the Escape Room activity at GamiCon, beer coaster.
By giving each team in the Escape Room activity two coasters that could be traded in for hints, I can tell you that something really interesting happened. We spent a lot of time formulating our questions. There was much deeper thought than likely would have taken place if we could have asked as many questions as we wanted. The scarcity of available hints got us really digging into what we needed to know to move forward.