Operation ARA: A computerized learning game that teaches critical thinking and scientific reasoning

Operation ARA (Acquiring Research Acumen) is a computerized learning game that teaches critical thinking and scientific reasoning. It is a valuable learning tool that utilizes principles from the science of learning and serious computer games. Students learn the skills of scientific reasoning by engaging in interactive dialogs with avatars. They are tutored by avatars with tutoring sessions that vary depending on how well students have responded to questions about the material they are learning. Students also play a jeopardy-like game against a feisty avatar to identify flaws in research and then generate their own questions to determine the quality of different types of research. The research examples are taken from psychology, biology, and chemistry to help students transfer the thinking skills across domains of knowledge. Early results show encouraging learning gains.     

Video Game–Based Learning: An Emerging Paradigm for Instruction

Interactive digital media, or video games, are a powerful new medium. They offer immersive experiences in which players solve problems. Players learn more than just facts—ways of seeing and understanding problems so that they “become” different kinds of people. “Serious games” coming from business strategy, advergaming, and entertainment gaming embody these features and point to a future paradigm for eLearning. Building on interviews with leading designers of serious games, this article presents case studies of three organizations building serious games, coming from different perspectives but arriving at similar conclusions. This article argues that such games challenge us to rethink the role of information, tools, and aesthetics in a digital age.     

Video game–based learning: An emerging paradigm for instruction

Interactive digital media, or video games, are a powerful new medium. They offer immersive experiences in which players solve problems. Players learn more than just facts—ways of seeing and understanding problems so that they “become” different kinds of people. “Serious games” coming from business strategy, advergaming, and entertainment gaming embody these features and point to a future paradigm for eLearning. Building on interviews with leading designers of serious games, this article presents case studies of three organizations building serious games, coming from different perspectives but arriving at similar conclusions. This article argues that such games challenge us to rethink the role of information, tools, and aesthetics in a digital age.     

The influence of a game-making project on male and female learners’ attitudes to computing

There is a pressing need for gender inclusive approaches to engage young people in computer science. A recent popular approach has been to harness learners’ enthusiasm for computer games to motivate them to learn computer science concepts through game authoring. This article describes a study in which 992 learners across 13 schools took part in a game-making project. It provides evidence from 225 pre-test and post-test questionnaires on how learners’ attitudes to computing changed during the project, as well as qualitative reflections from the class teachers on how the project affected their learners. Results indicate that girls did not enjoy the experience as much as boys, and that in fact, the project may make pupils less inclined to study computing in the future. This has important implications for future efforts to engage young people in computing.     

Difficulty and self-efficacy: An exploratory study

Serious games are becoming increasingly popular due to their association with increased learning outcomes when compared to traditional self-regulated learning activities. However, the majority of research examining the outcomes of serious games has focused almost exclusively on learning outcomes. This has resulted in a lack of research examining why these types of games result in increased positive outcomes, such as engagement or performance. This study seeks to address this gap in existing research by examining the relationship between game difficulty and participants’ engagement, performance and self-efficacy in a Pacman style maze navigation game. This required the use of hidden difficulty variations which participants were randomly assigned. Participants engaged with the game over a 5-days practice period. Results from this study suggest that difficulty plays a considerable role in influencing participants’ self-efficacy for the task. Self-efficacy has been consistently linked to positive outcomes such as increased engagement and performance. This highlights the importance of difficulty as a game design factor as well as providing an insight into the manner in which serious games could be further refined in order to increase user’s self-efficacy and associated positive outcomes. Implications for future serious games and self-efficacy research are discussed.     

Code Red: Triage Or COgnition‐based DEsign Rules Enhancing Decisionmaking TRaining In A Game Environment

Serious games have a great potential for training and educating people in novel and engaging ways. However, little empirical research has been done on the effectiveness of serious games, and although early findings do point to a moderately positive direction, even less is known about why some games succeed in effectively educating while others do not. We therefore propose a serious game, COgnition‐based DEsign Rules Enhancing Decisionmaking TRaining In A Game Environment (Code Red: Triage), which is designed to empirically test a number of cognition‐based design guidelines in the context of crisis management training that ameliorate mental model construction. Our purpose is to come to a set of design guidelines through empirical experiments that enhance the instructional design of serious games and can be used in the development of future games. Furthermore a method is discussed to extract the mental structure players have built during gameplay.     

Using Tutors to Improve Educational Games: A Cognitive Game for Policy Argument

How might we balance assistance and penalties to intelligent tutors and educational games that increase learning and interest? We created two versions of an educational game for learning policy argumentation called Policy World. The game (only) version provided minimal feedback and penalized students for errors whereas the game+tutor version provided additional step-level teaching feedback and immediate error correction. A total of 105 university students played either the game or game+tutor version of Policy World in a randomized, controlled, two-group, between-subjects experiment, during which we measured students’ problem-solving abilities, interest in the game, self-reported competence, and pre- and posttest performance. The game+tutor version increased learning of policy analysis skills and self-reported competence. A path analysis supported the claim that greater assistance helped students to learn analysis better, which increased their feelings of competence, which increased their interest in the game. Log data of student behavior showed that debate performance improved only for students who had sufficiently mastered analysis. This study shows that we can design interesting and effective games to teach policy argumentation and how increasing tutoring and reducing penalties in educational games can increase learning without sacrificing interest.     

Homemade PowerPoint Games: Game Design Pedagogy Aligned to the TPACK Framework

While researchers are examining the role of playing games to learn, others are looking at using game design as an instructional tool. However, game-design software may require additional time to train both teachers and students. In this article, the authors discuss the use of Microsoft PowerPoint as a tool for game-design instruction and the philosophical justifications for its use. They examine the research that has been conducted using homemade PowerPoint games in the classroom and detail how the implementation of the games has evolved in a manner that reflects the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework.     

Introducing serious games with Wikis: empowering the teacher with simple technologies

Despite the continuous and abundant growth of the game market the uptake of games in education has been hampered by the general impression that games require complex technologies and that games are difficult to organise and to embed in education curriculums. This article explores to what extent a simple serious game scenario that can be easily adopted and adapted by individual teachers and that only uses a common, relatively simple technology can leverage the adoption of serious games. It discusses the design of such a game, Argument, based on a Wiki and its use in a six weeks trial by students of a Master of Learning Sciences Programme. The results indicate that, even though a Wiki has clear limitations, it is a useful instrument to build game alike educational activities, to gain experience with and as a first step to use (more) complex serious games.     

Serious game‐based and nongame‐based online courses: Learning experiences and outcomes

When combining the increasing use of online educational environments, the push to use serious video games and the lack of research on the effectiveness of online learning environments and video games, there is a clear need for further investigation into the use of serious video games in an online format. A mix methods model was used to triangulate statistical and qualitative findings on student performance, completion time, student intrinsic motivation, as well as desirable, undesirable, helpful and hindering aspects of serious game‐based and nongame‐based courses. Students in the game‐based course were found to have performed significantly better and to have taken significantly longer. Students and teachers in the game‐based course provided more reasons for student motivation along with more desirable, more helpful and less hindering aspects compared to students and teachers in the non‐game‐based course. In addition, students and teachers in both courses provided an equal number of undesirable aspects. The results from this study inform instructional designers, teachers, education stakeholders and educational game designers by providing research‐based evidence related to the learning experiences and outcomes of the serious game‐based online course.     

学习品质视域下的学龄前儿童教育游戏设计与开发研究

实现"游戏性"与"教育性"的有效融合是学龄前儿童教育游戏设计开发的难点。学习品质作为学龄前儿童发展的重要领域,将儿童发展的关注点从"学什么"转变为"如何学",强调要从"完整学习者"和"主动学习者"的角度看待儿童的学习过程和学习行为,为教育游戏的设计研究提供了新的视角。基于学习品质的相关成果,该研究构建了基于儿童学习品质的教育游戏设计框架,从情感/动机和行动/行为两个维度呈现了学习品质各个要素在儿童游戏过程和学习过程中的交互关系和发展过程。根据该框架设计了针对3-6岁儿童的"唐诗咏流传"教育游戏并进行了实践。初步应用表明,该游戏对儿童的兴趣、快乐、动机等要素有明显影响,对坚持性、灵活性和自我调节的促进还需要进一步研究和完善。     

小班幼儿游戏活动初探

幼儿园教育应以游戏为基本活动,让幼儿在游戏中快乐地学习和发展。游戏活动不同于教学活动,不可在游戏中掺入过多知识教育的成分。小班幼儿游戏活动具有丰富的价值。教师在指导小班幼儿游戏时遵循的原则有:游戏主题源于幼儿已有经验;游戏简单易操作;游戏材料数量多、品种少;游戏指导语言生动、富有童趣;游戏宜重复、少变化;对游戏中表现出色的幼儿及时强化。     

Content validity of game-based assessment: case study of a serious game for ICT managers in training

Serious games foster the acquisition of complex problem-solving skills. Assessment of such skills should be in line with instruction, and within a serious game environment its content validity should equal face-to-face assessment. Research on assessment in serious gaming has remained rather scarce. This article shows how assessment can be implemented in serious gaming in a way that assures content validity. The core of the authors’ validation method entails mapping learning activities (as contained in the game scenario) on performance indicators and outputs (as derived from formal attainment levels). They present how they have elaborated and applied the method for an assessment game for ICT managers in secondary vocational education. They describe the procedure and extent to which this assessment is content-valid compared to face-to-face assessment.     

Casual Games and Casual Learning About Human Biological Systems

Casual games are everywhere. People play them throughout life to pass the time, to engage in social interactions, and to learn. However, their simplicity and use in distraction-heavy environments can attenuate their potential for learning. This experimental study explored the effects playing an online, casual game has on awareness of human biological systems. Two hundred and forty-two children were given pretests at a Museum and posttests at home after playing either a treatment or control game. Also, 41 children were interviewed to explore deeper meanings behind the test results. Results show modest improvement in scientific attitudes, ability to identify human biological systems and in the children’s ability to describe how those systems work together in real-world scenarios. Interviews reveal that children drew upon their prior school learning as they played the game. Also, on the surface they perceived the game as mainly entertainment but were easily able to discern learning outcomes when prompted. Implications for the design of casual games and how they can be used to enhance transfer of knowledge from the classroom to everyday life are discussed.     

Children’s narrative development through computer game authoring

Conclusions The strong motivational influence of computer games on children can be used positively within education. This paper looks beyond the educational benefits which children can gain asconsumers of computer games to explore the additional benefits which could be gleaned from enabling children toproduce their own computer games. In the domain of literacy and narrative development, creating an interactive audio-visual computer game to tell a story has many potential benefits. The Game Maker workshop described in the paper confirms that creating stories within computer games is a task which young people find highly enjoyable, engaging and rewarding. Additionally, the workshop experience suggests that sophisticated game design is well within reach of 12–15 year olds. These motivational advantages indicate that it is well worth exploring how computer game authoring can be used in the classroom to raise both literacy standards and children’s enjoyment of story making activities     

网络游戏式活动课程——游戏与教育结合的平衡点探微

游戏在个体成长过程中具有重要意义,然而,网络游戏却导致了严重的社会问题。本文通过比较反思,发现教育软件中存在着游戏开发注重的激发动机的游戏性的极度缺失,是其无法与商业游戏争夺青少年的关键,并阐释了造成此缺失的原因。通过对人们探索游戏与教育结合的途径与游戏和活动课程的本质特征、组织形式和目标的分析,提出了开发寓教于乐的网络游戏式活动课程是游戏与教育结合的最佳平衡点的观点。最后讨论了网络游戏式活动课程的基本设计思想。     

Learning by Teaching Human Pupils and Teachable Agents: The Importance of Recursive Feedback

Feedback is important for learning. However, there are different types of feedback, and not all feedback is effective. Here we introduce recursive feedback (RF), which occurs when tutors observe their pupils use what they have been taught. Two experiments examined the value of RF during learning by teaching. In the first study adults taught another adult face to face about human biology. Those participants who observed their pupil interact with an examiner exhibited superior learning relative to individuals in several control conditions that included elements of learning by teaching but not RF. The second study examined whether RF benefits extend to teaching computerized teachable agents in regular classrooms. High school students played games in which they induced logical rules. Students taught their agent the governing rules. They received RF when they observed their teachable agent play a prediction game against a second competitor agent. On a posttest, these students exhibited greater abilities to use logic to solve novel problems compared to students in control conditions who received direct feedback by playing against the competitor agent themselves. RF may further generalize to nonteaching situations that also involve a production–appropriation cycle, such as do-it-yourself projects in which people have a chance to learn from how other people take up their handiwork.     

伽达默尔游戏理论对教育游戏的启示——兼论游戏与教育如何实现有效融合

游戏与教育如何融合一直是教育游戏研究的重要命题。教育游戏研究不仅应该根据教育理论,而且需要参考游戏理论。传统游戏理论过于强调游戏者的主体性,具有哲学上的主客二分的问题。而伽达默尔游戏理论突破了近代认识论模式的束缚,侧重于游戏与游戏者的统一,对教育游戏研究具有重要启示。根据伽达默尔的游戏理论,教育游戏的真实主体是游戏自身,存在方式为自我表现,意义产生需要观者在场参与。因此,教育游戏应该将娱乐性与严肃性紧密结合,引导学习者融入游戏;使游戏规则与自由保持张力,优化学习者的游戏过程;注重观看与参与相互渗透,促使学习者获得意义。     

Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of Using Video Games to Enhance Science Instruction

Science education video game research points toward promising, but inconclusive results in both student learning outcomes and attitudes. However, student-level variables other than gender have been largely absent from this research. This study examined how students’ reading ability level and disability status are related to their video game-playing behaviors outside of school and their perceptions about the use of science video games during school. Thirty-four teachers and 876 sixth- through ninth-grade students from 14 states participated in the study. All student groups reported that they would prefer to learn science from a video game rather than from traditional text, laboratory-based, or Internet environments. Chi-square analyses indicated a significant association between reading ability level, disability status, and key areas of interest including students’ use of video games outside of school, their perceptions of their scientific abilities, and whether they would pursue a career in the sciences. Implications of these findings and areas for future research are identified.     

Learning in a game-based virtual environment: a comparative evaluation in higher education

The authors define the requirements and a conceptual model for comparative evaluation research of simulation games and serious games (SGs) in a learning context. A first operationalisation of the model was used to comparatively evaluate a suite of 14 SGs on varying topics played between 2004 and 2009 in 13 institutes of higher education in the Netherlands. The questions in this research were: what is the perceived learning effectiveness of the games and what factors explain it? How can we comparatively evaluate games for learning? Data were gathered through pre- and post-game questionnaires among 1000 students, leading to 500 useful datasets and 230 complete datasets for analysis (factor analysis, scaling, t-test and correlation analysis) to give an explorative, structural model. The findings are discussed and a number of propositions for further research are formulated. The conclusion of the analysis is that the students’ motivation and attitudes towards game-based learning before the game, their actual enjoyment, their efforts during the game and the quality of the facilitator/teacher are most strongly correlated with their learning satisfaction. The degree to which the experiences during the game were translated back into the underlying theories significantly determines the students’ learning satisfaction. The quality of the virtual game environment did not matter so much. The authors reflect upon the general methodology used and offer suggestions for further research and development.