Casual Social Games as Serious Games: The Psychology of Gamification in Undergraduate Education and Employee Training (original) (raw)

Game based learning -a different perspective

Video game use in education has focused on the application of games within the existing education system and on their inherent potential for producing learning (Gee 2003). However, research has revealed a fundamental mismatch between the goals of games and the object of school-based learning . As a result, efforts to integrate games into the curriculum have frequently fallen flat despite the best intentions of teachers and the gaming industry. Such efforts have failed either because games designed to educate do not engage their intended audience, or because truly engaging games do not provide enough educational value.

Games and Simulations in Training

Theoretical and Practical Perspectives

The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of the research literature on the use of gaming and simulation in adult and professional education. The chapter will describe the difference between games and simulation; provide a review of the history of games in adult education; investigate important audience characteristics, including generational differences; examine how games affect motivation; and discuss the application of learning theories and instructional models to game design. The impact of games on learning, especially for those born after 1980, is profound. Games and simulations delivered using a variety of technologies may be an integral part of the educational mix offered by corporate trainers in the near future.

Reflections on Game-Based Learning

Graduate Skills and Game-Based Learning, 2019

The previous chapter presented interviews with participants in a study designed to explore whether playing selected video games might help develop in students a range of useful skills and competencies, also known as graduate attributes. In this chapter, the implications of the interview data are considered. Each attribute is examined in turn and the chapter concludes with a brief overview of the skills and experience that students suggest they developed in addition to the stated graduate attributes. Ancillary benefits such as stress relief are also discussed. These empirical observations support ideas presented by scholars such as James Paul Gee and suggest further connections between game-based learning and established theory. It is important to note, however, that these interview data refer to the circumstances under which specific games were played: the participants make multiple references to the effects of being asked to play games with people other than their existing friends. Several of the attributes discussed here appear to be influenced by the fact that students played with strangers from differing cultural backgrounds and with varying gaming experience. Regardless, these interviews reveal the factors that may be at play in a game-based intervention intended to develop graduate attributes.

A Graduate Course as a Game to Learn About Digital Game Based Learning

2014

Recognizing the motivating aspects of games (e.g., points, levels), it is becoming more and more widespread to incorporate game-like elements into everyday practices (e.g., exercising). In education, experimental schools are set up to engage students in "quests" for their learning. Some higher education instructors, especially those who teach courses related to games, are attempting to incorporate game principles into the course activities and assessments. This paper discusses how the author designed and conducted a master's level course on Digital Game-Based Learning to immerse participants into its concepts and practices, and what lessons were learned from its first implementation. "Welcome to the first class of the semester. Everyone in this class is going to receive an F." (Sheldon, 2011, p. 3) Lee Sheldon opens up the first chapter of his book, "The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game," with the above statement, describing how he introduced his course as a multiplayer game. Such an opening aroused some of the positive emotions that game players often experience, such as surprise and curiosity (Bateman, 2009), which would focus students' attention on what Sheldon was about to say. In the NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition, games 2014. In P. Preciado Babb (Ed.

Why Games Work - The Science of Learning

2011

In 2010, the Navy formally added the Damage Control Trainer (DCT) to the recruit training program at Great Lakes, Illinois. Despite the incredibly dense training schedule at the Navy's boot camp, the instructors were willing to set aside two hours of time for recruits to play a game. Why? Because it worked. Even with just one hour of play, research showed that recruits gained a 50-80% improvement in performance that transferred to Battle Stations 21 (BS21), the Navy's capstone training event. This paper explores why games makes these kinds of results possible. It argues that the things that are known to improve learning are almost exactly the same reasons why games work: the time-honored laws of learning. It concludes that the traditional gulf between instructional design and game design is really an issue of perspective, rather than fundamentals.

Serious Games for education and training

International Journal of Serious Games, 2014

Serious Games (SGs) are gaining an ever increasing interest for education and traning. Exploiting the latest simulation and visualization technologies, SGs are able to contextualize the player’s experience in challenging, realistic environments, supporting situated cognition. However, we still miss methods and tools for effectively and deeply infusing pedagogy and instruction inside digital games. After presenting an overview of the state of the art of the SG taxonomies, the paper introduces the pedagogical theories and models most relevant to SGs and their implications on SG design. We also present a schema for a proper integration of games in education, supporting different goals in different steps of a formal education process. By analyzing a set of well-established SGs and formats, the paper presents the main mechanics and models that are being used in SG designs, with a particular focus on assessment, feedback and learning analytics. An overview of tools and models for SG desi...

Utilizing Games for Learning: Applications of Game-Based Training and Gamification

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting

Games are now beginning to receive growing attention in domains outside of entertainment. Applied settings are increasingly utilizing games in the development and implementation of various training programs. Two prevalent methods for the utilization of games in training include game-based learning and gamification. The utilization of games in training can improve participant motivation and engagement, but best practices for the use of games in training are not well defined. This panel will discuss various projects that have applied game-based learning and gamification in training efforts across a variety of industries.