The active instructor: Benefits and barriers to instructor-led serious gaming (original) (raw)
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Facilitation matters : A framework for instructor-led serious gaming
2014
This thesis explores the use of serious games from an instructor perspective. More specifically, it aims to study the roles of instructors and how they can be facilitated within an instructor-led game-based training environment. Research within the field of serious games has mostly focused on the learners' perspective, but little attention has been paid to what the instructors do and what challenges that entails. In this thesis, I argue that serious games, as artefacts used for learning and training, cannot fully replace the instructors' tasks, but must rather be designed to facilitate the various activities of the instructors. Thus, instructors form an important target audience in serious game development – not just as subject matter experts, but also as users and players of the game – with a different set of needs than the learners. Moreover, serious gaming (the actualisation of a serious game) involves more than in-game activities, it also involves actions and events that occur off-game. These activities must also be considered when designing and utilising games for learning and training. Using a qualitative approach, instructor-led serious gaming has been explored from a range of contexts, from rehabilitation to incident commander training and military training. Several different instructor roles have been identified and characterised, including in-game facilitator, puckster, debriefer, technical support and subject matter expert. Based on empirical and theoretical material, a framework for instructor-led serious gaming has been developed. It involves best practices in different phases of game-based training, such as scenario authoring, coaching-by-gaming, assessing in-game and off-game performance, giving feedback, and conducting a debriefing or after-action review. Furthermore, specific needs and challenges for instructors have been identified and reformulated into guidelines for instructor-led serious gaming. The guidelines highlight the importance of usability and visualisation, as well as the need for carefully designed support tools for instructors' situation awareness, assessment and debriefing. Lastly, a number of success factors pertaining to both the development and actualisation of serious games are presented. Since serious games aim to be both productive and engaging, it is advantageous to work with interdisciplinary teams when developing serious games. This includes subject matter experts well versed in serious gaming practices. Furthermore, a successful serious game should adhere to sound pedagogical theories, be easy to use and maintain, and include system support for instructors' tasks. Successful serious gaming practices also involve having an organisational culture that fosters knowledge sharing among practitioners.
Serious Games: A New Paradigm for Education?
2011
This chapter explores the context for the new paradigm of learning emerging in education, in relation to key critical concepts that centre around gamification, immersion, interface and social interactivity. The chapter provides an extensive literature review as part of the context for the paradigm shift, including considering serious games and gamification, and social learning as key constructs for considering the changes to educational practices and infrastructure faced by educationalists and instructors over the coming years. The chapter also provides an historical background section and highlights some of the conceptual work that has been done already to frame the changes, firstly in relation to the notion of ‘gamification’ through the lens of an historical overview of serious games and secondly in a section exploring the need for an overall model for serious game design based upon four models and frameworks developed in past research work including the four dimensional framework, exploratory learning model, multimodal interface architecture model and the game-based learning framework. The chapter aims to set out the key conceptual territory for serious game design and bring together the main theoretical areas under consideration for future development of effective serious game content.
Teaching Teachers about Serious Games
2007
The author designed and taught the first course on digital game based learning at the author’s institution which was also one of the first of its kind in North America. The course has been taught twice: once in the spring of 2005 and again in the summer of 2006. The design of the course is outlined and participant reaction is profiled. Topics discussed in the class included violence in games, up-to-date research on gaming and gamers, and how games might be used effectively in classroom settings. Also included in the paper are comments on some of the games that were examined, as well as the nature of the projects completed by the participants. Key elements crucial for teacher preparation are discussed.
Conceptual Approach to the Pedagogy of Serious Games
Information
The transformation of educational processes, derived from the technological disruption that has taken place in the educational field, has allowed for the development of certain methodologies and techniques that place emphasis on the students as an active element in their own learning. Among these methodologies is learning based on video games. Serious games are video games with an explicit educational objective, that facilitate the generation of motivating contexts, promoting relevant experiences, and with the possibility of creating challenges of a systemic nature. With a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology, this study analysed the pedagogical models and/or approaches that are implemented in the teaching–learning processes brought about by the use of serious games, with the aim of evidencing the potentialities derived from the conception of the video game as an educational resource. The results show a clear conceptual network in relation to the analysed subject, with lit...
Serious Games in Formal Education: Discussing Some Critical Aspects
2011
Innovation in technology together with evolution in pedagogical approaches is encouraging increased integration of technology-supported interventions in mainstream teaching practices. One area attracting particularly close attention in this respect is Serious Games (SGs), which offer considerable potential for facilitating both formal and informal learning experiences in supported and standalone contexts. Advances in technology and in technology enhanced learning are raising learners' expectations for immersive and engaging game-based experiences. This trend is underpinned by the emergence of young learners adept at using digital technologies and the internet; there is an attendant risk that, as students, they may be alienated by traditional education and its failure to engage them fully in a lifelong learning process and prepare them adequately for the challenges of the 21st Century. SGs would appear to offer an attractive solution in this regard. However, there are a number of inhibitors preventing their wider take-up in mainstream education, with the result that the considerable potential on offer has yet to be fully exploited. This situation is the background for the joint efforts of partners in the Games and Learning Alliance (GALA), an EC-funded Network of Excellence on SGs, especially the subgroup dedicated to the pedagogical dimension of SGs. In its discussions on the key challenges for more wide-scale and effective SG use, the group has focused in particular on aspects related to the central role played by the educator in formal education settings. Specifically, discussion has focused on the challenges posed when educators are called on to modify their practice, adopting the new roles and approaches demanded for effective SG deployment. This paper presents the outcome of the group's exploration. It frames the question of the educator's central role by drawing on research work that, in the view of the different authors, embodies the major references for shedding light on this multi-faceted aspect. As well as the new role that the educator assumes in games-based learning environments, particular attention is also dedicated to the innovative pedagogical approaches that can be applied to SG deployment, especially those inspired by peer collaboration.
Serious Games in Formal Education: Discussing Some
2011
Innovation in technology together with evolution in pedagogical approaches is encouraging increased integration of technology-supported interventions in mainstream teaching practices. One area attracting particularly close attention in this respect is Serious Games (SGs), which offer considerable potential for facilitating both formal and informal learning experiences in supported and standalone contexts. Advances in technology and in technology enhanced learning are raising learners' expectations for immersive and engaging game-based experiences. This trend is underpinned by the emergence of young learners adept at using digital technologies and the internet; there is an attendant risk that, as students, they may be alienated by traditional education and its failure to engage them fully in a lifelong learning process and prepare them adequately for the challenges of the 21st Century. SGs would appear to offer an attractive solution in this regard. However, there are a number of inhibitors preventing their wider take-up in mainstream education, with the result that the considerable potential on offer has yet to be fully exploited. This situation is the background for the joint efforts of partners in the Games and Learning Alliance (GALA), an EC-funded Network of Excellence on SGs, especially the subgroup dedicated to the pedagogical dimension of SGs. In its discussions on the key challenges for more wide-scale and effective SG use, the group has focused in particular on aspects related to the central role played by the educator in formal education settings. Specifically, discussion has focused on the challenges posed when educators are called on to modify their practice, adopting the new roles and approaches demanded for effective SG deployment. This paper presents the outcome of the group's exploration. It frames the question of the educator's central role by drawing on research work that, in the view of the different authors, embodies the major references for shedding light on this multi-faceted aspect. As well as the new role that the educator assumes in games-based learning environments, particular attention is also dedicated to the innovative pedagogical approaches that can be applied to SG deployment, especially those inspired by peer collaboration.
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...
Exploring the Educational Power of Serious Games
In this chapter, the authors present a review of the state of the art of research carried out over the last few years aimed at a deeper analysis of the educational uses of serious games. In this endeavour, they examined a sample of the scientific work generated between 2008 and 2010 from three sources: Biblioteca do Conhecimento Online, Google Scholar, and the database Edit Lib belonging to the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (ACCE). As a result of this process of analysis and synthesis, the authors present the main lines of research carried out in this field of work and propose a research agenda in order to improve the educational power of edutainment.
Informing design and evaluation methodologies for serious games for learning
2007
It is widely believed that virtual and gaming environments for learning, otherwise known as serious games, have vast potential at all educational levels. Their immediacy, accessibility and portability could complement existing teaching tools, methods and resources, and do so economically, reaching students in all communities, including the underrepresented and underprivileged. While there has been considerable interest from researchers, teachers and academics as to whether serious games can be developed to support the curriculum, until recently there has been only moderate research literature describing human-computer interaction (HCI) design and evaluation methodologies to inform the development of serious games and to demonstrate their learning and educational value. Although research addressing this is now beginning to appear, there remains a lack of widely accepted serious approaches and methodologies for serious games. This paper will describe concerns and problematic findings from our serious game research, empirical evaluations and development work, some of the challenges facing us, and will make recommendations towards creating HCI design and evaluation methodologies for serious games-based learning.
Serious Games for Learning – a Review of the Literature
2013
The rise of digital games over recent years has been exponential. While many are used for entertainment, digital games have also begun to permeate education — which has lead to the coining of the term ―serious games‖ [1]. Proponents of serious games argue that they hold enormous potential for learning [2], by embodying a range of pedagogical strategies. While some have adopted commercial games for use in the classroom, others have designed games specifically for educational purposes. However, designing complex and realistic serious games with limited budgets and resources is difficult. In addition, achieving a successful balance between the competing goals of teaching and entertaining is extremely challenging. This paper describes a project undertaken at the Dublin Institute of Technology, which involved designing a serious game to teach food safety principles to undergraduates. The design strategy and process will be outlined, paying particular attention to the theoretical underpin...