As a game designer and programmer, one of my goals for any of my games is to make them fun. For commercial games, obviously fun is one of the most important ingredients; after all, if your game is not fun, it won’t make money, and that’s bad business. While fun is also an essential component of educational games (in my humble opinion, but more on that at another time), we also need to consider how the games will support learning strategies. How do people learn, and how can we use games to most effectively teach?
I am going to do a series of shorter posts specifically about adult learning theories. Specifically, I will be discussing the field of andragogy, which adult education pioneer Malcolm Knowles developed as a set of strategies and principles for teaching adults.
Andragogy generally works from five basics assumptions or characteristics about adult learners: self-concept, experience, changing societal roles, application of knowledge, and internal motivation. In this first post, I am going to discuss self-concept, and will elaborate on each of the other characteristics in subsequent posts.
Self-concept basically means that adults are independent and can self-direct their own learning. Instructors act more as facilitators for adult learners, allowing the learners to assume larger responsibility choosing topics and projects that interest them, deciding on how work should be divided, what their goals are, and other important facets of the educational experience. In contrast, the model for childhood education generally begins with the teacher providing a much more structured and controlled learning environment for students. The children usually follow a more static curriculum, and the teacher often assigns tasks with little input from the students. (Of course, there are some schools that take alternative approaches, especially as the students become older and more mature, but for our discussion I am focusing on the more traditional approach to childhood education).
Games and virtual worlds seem to be custom-made for self-directed learning. While some games do follow a more linear approach in which each player has roughly the same experience, open-ended games and worlds can provide a sandbox for adult learners. In story-driven games, there are often a set of missions or built-in objectives, and the player can choose to pursue a number of sidequests (missions that are optional, and generally not a part of the main objective) at their leisure. These optional quests are for the player who wants to explore aspects of the game world in more detail than the main objectives would allow. We can follow a similar strategy for educational games. We don’t even have to limit our design to structured quests, because in many cases just exploring the game world itself and discovering new interactions, new places, new facets is satisfying within itself. One of the best parts about games and virtual worlds, is that in some cases, we can explore different ideas and actions that would not be safe, possible or economical in a real-life setting, so in some ways, we can have more independence in our learning.
Of course, while exploration and self-directed experience is an important component of adult education, you first have to know how to get navigate in and interact with the game or virtual world, or else the experience could be frustrating rather than educational and beneficial. There are several ways that an adult learner can become acclimated to the game world before self-directed exploration begins; see the poll question for a few different approaches.
In the next post, I will be discussing adult experience and learning. In the meantime, please feel free to leave comments or participate in the poll question.
A few years ago Richard Carey wrote an article focusing on a comparative analysis of technology for serious game development. Since that time a plethora of new open source and proprietary engines have been created. It’s definitely time for a new study, but for now we thought we’d poll our LEEF community to get your feedback on the tools and services being utilized in the field. My hope is that this will spark some conversations on must have features and tips for evaluating engines based on project requirements. Which could potentially become a great session at next year’s event.
The poll will continue to grow with your input. Feel free to add your tools as a comment and we’ll add it to the list. See you at LEEF 2011.
As we plan for LEEF, one of the questions that we ask ourselves is, are games and simulations a form of communication, or are they merely a technique, a tool? Having been an avid gamer for over twenty years, and a game developer for the last few, I would argue that games are a form of art, which is itself a form of communication.
Games and simulations combine sound, visual art, and elements of literature to convey an experience to the player. As with more traditional art forms, games and sims have the power to elicit emotional and moral responses from players. We’ve come a long way from “bloops and bleeps and pixels” in an arcade; modern games routinely use art, music, sound effects, and narratives to convey motifs and themes, not unlike in cinematography. One of my favorite examples of such complexity was in Final Fantasy 6 for Super Nintendo. The game’s final conflict combined an epic four-part musical masterpiece, reminiscent of Bach, with eerie reverb and imagery greatly influenced by Dante’s Inferno, to create an allegorical culminating encounter. Even over ten years later, I am still stunned by how complex and even subtle a tapestry this boss battle (and the game itself) wove. For an excellent critical analysis of this final battle, I recommend this article: http://www.destructoid.com/final-fantasy-vi-s-dancing-mad-a-critical-analysis-157570.phtml.
In addition to examining the artistic and literary aspects of a game, we can also consider that interacting with the game world is a form of communication within itself. Each action you take as a player is met with a corresponding outcome; you communicate to the world via your input, and the result is the world’s interpretation of and response to your action. The most immediate of these interactions is usually related to the game/simulation mechanics and how the world physically works. As the player travels through the game and learns the world, the player will have to make decisions regarding how to achieve goals. The success or failure of the player’s actions is the world’s feedback and communication to the player. By proxy, the world designer is teaching and correcting the player about the game world.
Games and can also communicate ethical values. These interactions are often more ambiguous and over-arching than actions related to game mechanics. In the commercial game industry, games such as the Elder Scrollsseries allow the players to build reputations and interact with non-playable characters differently depending on the players’ ethical decisions. If you decide to steal and get caught, or to assault or murder non-aggressive characters, expect the game’s citizens to regard you with disdain or alert the nearest authorities, but also don’t be surprised if certain suspicious characters approach you with lucrative offers to join them in their sinister undertakings. Either way, the player is forced to make some sort of decision about where he or she stands in world’s ethics, and punishment and reward will be dealt accordingly.
Compare this type of ethical system to other games that allow players to roam freely into non-playable characters’ houses, steal all the treasure and items from the drawers and treasure chests (in the NPCs’ plain sight), and STILL have a friendly chat with the burgled homeowners, even learning news and important information. Clearly, either stealing is not an important part of the ethical structure in such games (generally in such games it’s not an important part of the story the game is trying to tell), or the more valuable trait in the game is to be thorough in investigating the environment, in order to achieve greater success in the game.
The way that games communicate ethics has been a controversy for some games. The outrage that games such as Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto, and other graphic/mature titles have engendered stands as a testament to just how effective a means of communication games can be, or at least, are perceived to be. “What are these games teaching our children? What values are they instilling in our kids?” Most of us have heard these familiar questions. The problem then becomes, that the game mechanics (press a certain button combination to have Subzero beat his opponent with that vicious-looking Fatality!) and morals (steal and beat up innocent people to win the game) are no longer restricted to the game world. My purpose here is not to vilify or engage in a debate about the ethics of these games, but to show how powerful games can be in communicating perceived values.
As usual, though, this communication has powerful and positive implications as well. Just as some misguided kid might try to apply the “messages” from Mortal Kombat on an unfortunate playmate or sibling, other gamers may find themselves applying more introspective or useful lessons. To return to a game I mentioned previously, Final Fantasy 6tackles questions that may seem pretty significant for a 16-bit Super Nintendo game: What makes life worth living? What am I doing everyday to add value? Is it something bigger than myself, or is it the daily personal victories that keep me going? We can also see practical examples in serious gaming. The military regularly uses language and cultural games and simulations to teach ethical, topical, and decision-making skills. Lockheed Martin replaced instructor-led ethics seminars with a customizable ethics game based on the popular Dilbert comic strip. These games are replacing and/or supplementing traditional forms of communication with a more scaleable and interactive form of communication.
As the gaming and simulation technology becomes more accessible, we’re seeing that now instructors aren’t the only agents who are communicating information. Gamemodding tools allow students to add their own content and communicate their stories as well. Soldiers coming back from deployment can collaborate and create content to share their experiences with war fighters who are preparing for their own deployments, and with commanders and instructors who need to stay aware of changing situations on the battlefield. Rather than just reading about the experiences in a brief, soldiers and commanders can interactively share the experience.
Hopefully, in this post I’ve demonstrated that games are a form of communication that can be practical and provocative. They convey meaning and a basis for understanding and knowledge, even if only at the game world level. By allowing the player to interact with the game world (and with other players), games provide not only meaning and a message, but also a form of dialogue. As we move forward with LEEF, I look forward to further discussing this issue…so please feel free to share your opinions and comments!
A new study from a University of Colorado Denver Business School examined 65 studies and data from 6,476 trainees. Indications are that employees learn best from video games, including:
an 11 percent higher factual knowledge level
a 14 percent higher skill-based knowledge level
a 9 percent higher retention rate than trainees in comparison groups.
The study suggests that the keys to successful game and simulation use include:
Active versus passive learning
Repetitive practice with regular access
Support for the game/sim with a blend of “traditional” instruction
And, Attend LEEF 2011 on June 16 & 17 to learn more about why games and simulations can be effective learning tools. LEEF will also provide an opportunity to see cutting-edge games in action.
The next step in the evolution of serious games development will be the creation of standards and guidelines to validate the effectiveness of games for various training tasks. This past March, at the 2010 Second International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications, researchers from the University of Southampton presented their conceptual model for the design of serious games. Their investigation has lead to identifying attributes and combinations of attributes that predict learner acceptance and usage.
Amri Yusoff, Richard Crowder, and Lester Gilbert use a revised version of the Technology Acceptance Model pioneered by Viswanath Venkatesh and Fred D. Davis (called TAM2). The TAM2 has been used to predict user acceptance of new technologies by focusing on: transfer of learnt skills, learner control, situated learning, reward, usefulness, ease of use and behavioral intention to use.
Join us at the Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum on June 16-17 to explore the changing nature of games, simulations and virtual worlds. LEEF is an interactive professional development event that explores the use of games, simulations and virtual worlds for learning. Go to www.LEEF2010.net to learn more about the program!
Andy Petroski is a co-coordinator of LEEF and Director and Assistant Professor of Learning Technologies at Harrisburg University.
As we start to plan for LEEF 2011 (June 16-17), it’s amazing to think how much games, simulations and virtual worlds for learning have matured over the past two years. And yet, there is so much more untapped potential. Looking out across the landscape, it appears that the mention of games and simulations for learning no longer defaults to conversations of jeopardy-like activities or electronic crossword puzzles. Don’t get me wrong, those types of add-on activities do serve a purpose in some instances. But, the conversation has matured to games and simulations AS the learning experience. Today’s game and simulation discussions include topics like character development, narrative, user interface, game play, game balancing, level design, feedback mechanisms and flow. Today’s game and simulation solutions are focused on impacting the level of performance and engagement “in the work”, not the tutorial.
The first Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum (LEEF) in June 2009 provided a snap-shot of this evolution by highlighting some of the best game, simulation and virtual worlds AS the learning solution. LEEF 2011 will follow that same pioneering spirit by exploring how games, simulations and virtual worlds are evolving AS “the work solution.” The opening of the Quest2Learn school in fall 2009, Jane McGonigal’s TED talk in February about how gaming can make a better world and the release of IBM’s City One this week, indicate the changing nature of games, simulations and virtual worlds as not only conduits of individual performance improvement, but also organizational, systemic and societal improvement.
In actuality, just as games for learning is not a new idea (we’ve been playing games to learn since the beginning of man), games for “organizational” improvement is not an entirely new concept. Evacuation drills and fire drills provide a glimpse of the concept. Those “simulations” provide opportunities for individual performance enhancement, but they also consider the systemic improvements that need to be made to make the operation more efficient and effective (less dangerous).
Are games and simulations being used in your education or business environment AS the learning solution? What impact do they have? Can you see a time when games and simulations are used AS “the work (or education) solution?” Do you think you’ll be doing “Sales Call Drills” in the near future?
I look forward to reading your responses to this post and talking with you about the changing nature of games, simulations and virtual worlds at LEEF 2011, June 16-17 at Harrisburg University.
Join us at the Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum on June 16-17 to explore the changing nature of games, simulations and virtual worlds. LEEF is an interactive professional development event that explores the use of games, simulations and virtual worlds for learning. Go to www.LEEF2010.net to learn more about the program!
Thanks to Jennifer Kerwin for this guest post. Jennifer is presenting at LEEF on creating health education games for children. She is an Instructional Designer in the Learning Solutions department at JPL.
When I first started as a Management Development Trainer, a colleague and I had an ongoing debate about the need to be a performer when facilitating. We agreed that proper facilitation requires charisma and the best facilitators we knew had a personality that lent to their presentation. However, we disagreed about who was the star of the show. He held that to some extent the session was about the facilitator, while I argued that the session was about the content and the learner’s connection with it. He wanted the presentation to be memorable. I wanted to ensure learning for everyone in the room.
Ten years later as an Instructional Designer, I strive to create memorable characters that will balance these two opinions. I’ve learned to use characters as facilitators in eLearning modules, simulations and videos. My biggest challenge is quickly developing a character the audience will relate to and remember, without detracting from the content. The goal is that each learning event that I create grabs the learner’s attention while communicating the content and ultimately transferring the knowledge to the learner.
Watch Jane McGonigal’s video. She’s a game designer, games researcher, and, in her own words, a “future forecaster”. She is the Director of Games Research and Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. Jane researchers how the games people play today shape the real-world future. Her mission is to design games that will solve real-world problems and ultimately change human behavior to save the world and ensure a better future! A difficult task by any means, but after listening to her 2010 TED presentation, her seemingly impossible ideas become not only possible, but absolutely practical as well.
Watch her 2010 TED presentation: “Gaming can change the world” on Jane’s blog. Find undoubtable inspiration in the power of serious games to change the real world and attend LEEF 2010 to learn more about the technology, resources and research associated with serious games.
According to mashable.com, USA Today reported that the Obama administration’s Bowles-Simpson fiscal commission has been working with Microsoft to make a computer game about managing the US federal budget and deficit. The game is only one small aspect of the commission’s broader objectives and ideas for dealing with the nation’s rising deficit and other fiscal challenges. The game will be available to anyone with access to a computer, where the user will be tasked with balancing the federal budget. While the game will not be a completely realistic simulation of the task, as it would be too complex and no one would want to play, it will embody the true and difficult nature of the task. The commission hopes the players will become more sympathetic to the difficult and controversial decisions the commission will have to make as the game demonstrates that there are no ideal options in balancing the budget.
This is an excellent example of how serious games may be used to increase public involvement in and their understanding of government tactics dealing with national problems. It is easy to point fingers and blame the government for their inability to solve problems like health care reform, jobs loss, and education when totally unaware of the complexities and obstacles of the task. By creating serious games, the federal government is not only encouraging individuals to help “solve” the problems, but to also support public involvement in and knowledge of the challenges the government is tasked with overcoming. Serious games may also create a greater level of support, sympathy and interest in the government’s efforts to solve these problems, decreasing the gap between the people and their government.
The LEEF 2010 conference will discuss the current uses and possibilities of serious games in education and training, as well as the future of serious games. LEEF will also offer the opportunity to learn about emerging technologies in the gaming industry and demo some of these technologies. Register for LEEF 2010 now!
