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CSCI 5530: Serious Games Development (Simulations and Serious Games)
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Winter 2012
Bill Kapralos
CSCI 5530, Winter 2012 Bill Kapralos
Winter 2012
Game-Based Learning and Training (cont.)
Friday, February 3 2012
Bill Kapralos
Overview (1):Before We Begin
Administrative details
Brief review from last week
Why Game-Based Learning Works
Overview
Something to consider
What Players Learning by Playing Video
Games
Overview
Five levels of learning in games
Administrative Details (1):No Lecture Next Week (Feb 10)
I will be at the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality
Conference → the following week I will provide an
overview of the MMVR conference
I will probably assign some papers from MMVR for
those doing presentations
“Mid-Term” Projects
Some notes/comments
CSCI 5530: Serious Games Development (Simulations and Serious Games)
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As an Aside
Why Game-Based Learning Works
Overview (1):Today’s Education
The process of learning is rarely the motivating or
engaging factor
There are situations where millennials are
interested and are eager to remain engaged in the
learning process → not the “norm”
Their motivation to put in the effort needed to learn
typically comes from punishment and reward
In contrast, game playing → main reason people
play games is because they are engaging →
computer and video games are possibly the most
engaging pastime in history of mankind!
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Overview (2):Today’s Education (cont.)
Video games bring together motivating elements not
found together in any other medium
They are a form of fun → provide enjoyment and
pleasure
They are a form of play → provide intense and
passionate involvement
They have rules → provide structure
They have goals → provide motivation
They are interactive → provide the “doing”
They are adaptive → give us flow
Overview (3):Today’s Education (cont.)
Video games bring together motivating elements not
found together in any other medium (cont.)
They have outcomes and feedback → provides us
with learning
They have win states → provides ego gratification
They have conflict, competition, challenge, and
opposition → provide us with adrenaline
They have problem solving → sparks our creativity
They have interaction → give us social groups
The have characters and story → gives us emotion
Overview (4):Today’s Education (cont.)
Given these factors, combining games and learning
can potentially add enormously to the motivation of
students to learn what they may not be otherwise
motivated to learn → increases their engagement in
the learning process
Strong engagement has been associated with
academic achievement
Fun in learning process creates relaxation →
enables learner to put effort without resentment
Play → we already saw the biological importance
of play in all species!
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Overview (5):Today’s Education (cont.)
Games engage and motivate us through their goals
and our struggle to achieve them through the
decisions we make and feedback we get from them
Through the opponents and challenges we have to
overcome, and through the emotions and
connections with others we feel when playing
This is what keeps gamers glued to their
computers and consoles for countless hours
Consciously combining the engaging power of video
games with a set of interactive learning processes
creates digital game based learning (serious games)
Overview (6):Today’s Education (cont.)
So basically, serious games and digital game based
learning are the solution and its just a matter of putting
everything in a game ? Not so easy!
Key is to manage how the game and the instruction
are put together into a whole package → this is not
easy and has been done poorly in the past
Even if a “perfect” serious game was developed →
how is the game incorporated into the learning
process/curriculum ?
Typically, the game itself is designed to be part of
the curriculum, not the entire curriculum!
Overview (7):Today’s Education (cont.)
Even if a “perfect” serious game was developed →
how is the game incorporated into the learning
process/curriculum ? (cont.)
Of course, the content within the game must be
well matched to the learner → if this is not the
case, little, if any, learning will take place
regardless the learning method
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Overview (8):Today’s Education (cont.)
Although there may be some debate as to how
effective they actually are, there is plenty of evidence
indicating that games can be effective learning tools
How effective really does depend on the design of
the game → it is very easy to put together a game
that is “educational” but putting together an
effective educational game is not easy
The design process is often down-played and
typically shortcuts are taken!
Something to Consider (1):Should Learning be Fun ?
Not everyone agrees!
“People must not do things for fun. We are not here
for fun. There is no reference to fun in any act of
Parliament” → A. P. Herbert
“I may be old-fashioned but learning is hard work”
→ Clifford Stoll “High Tech Heretic” (1999)
“Education is the hardest work most of us will ever
do” → Yale Professor David Gelertner
Something to Consider (2):Should Learning be Fun ? (cont.)
Game based learning does not dispute this
What is does take issue with in “hard work” is not
the “hard” part → no one disputes the effort and
energy involved in learning and all of the good
games are hard to master
Change is in the “work” part → learning does not
feel like work when you are having fun (“hard fun”
according MIT Media Lab or “stealth learning” from
Doug Crockford of LucasArts)
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in
what they are doing” → Dale Carnegie (“motivator”)
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Something to Consider (3):Not Everyone “Gets it”
Despite its growing popularity and presence in a wide
variety of educational/training settings, many
managers and leaders in the education world still do
not fully accept its premise and utility
Many of these people are strong believers in
“traditional” education/learning → essentially, 19th
century method of rote learning, telling, testing, etc.
Because digital technology is such a discontinuity
→ much of the data collected and the theories
formulated in the past about how people think and
learn no longer apply
Something to Consider (4):Not Everyone “Gets it” (cont.)
Because of this discontinuity, our entire learning
system which worked well for hundreds of years, is
breaking down
The “stuff” to be learned can no longer be just
“told” to today’s learners → “stuff” must be learned
by them, through questions, discovery,
construction, interaction, and fun
Does the above sound familiar?
Something to Consider (5):Effectiveness
So all this “buzz” about gaming etc. but how effective
is game-based learning ?
Many criticize today’s learning games → and there
is much to criticize!
But if some of the existing games don’t produce
learning it is not because they are games or
because the concept of game-based learning is
faulty → due only to poor design of these games
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Something to Consider (6):Effectiveness (cont.)
Measuring “true learning” is very difficult
The real measure of learning is behaviour change
→ would this individual, when faced with identical
or similar problem in the future, do something
different (mentally or physically) than before
But we can never know this until it happens hence
the “test” → a series of questions, problems, and
hypotheticals that let learner demonstrate what
they have learned
What we want to know is → are test scores the
same as other methods of learning ?
Something to Consider (7):Effectiveness (cont.)
There have only been a few “head to head”
comparisons between game-based learning and
alternatives conducted in this way
So far, these studies indicate that “learning games”
that are designed properly do produce learning,
and lots of it while engaging players (Prensky)
Something to Consider (8):Effectiveness – An Example
Plato Learning
Measured that a typical 9am – 3pm elementary
school day includes only about 3 hours of
instruction time (recess, lunch ,etc.)
Developed Playstation games for curriculum
reinforcement in K-8 school → if they could get
kids to play their games for 6 hours over the
weekend, and games are 50% educational, they
would effectively add 1 day to their school week
and this would lead to higher test scores…
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Something to Consider (9):Effectiveness – An Example (cont.)
Plato Learning (cont.)
Conducted studies with over 400 individual school
districts and performed a meta analysis
Found increases in vocabulary and language arts
of 24% and 25% respectively over control groups
Found increases of 51% and 30% in math
procedures and algorithms scores respectively
Something to Consider (10):Effectiveness – Another Example
Click Health
Developed games for kids to self-manage their
health issues (diabetes, etc.)
Conducted clinical trials → funded by the National
institutes of Health
Found that in case of diabetes, the kids that played
their games (in contrast to a control group that
played a pinball game), showed measurable gains in
self-efficacy, communication with parents, and
diabetes self-care
Urgent doctor visits dropped 77% in treatment group
Something to Consider (11):Effectiveness – Another Example (cont.)
Click Health (cont.)
Packy and Marlon → video game for the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1995.
Designed to improve self-care behavior in children
with juvenile diabetes
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Something to Consider (12):James Paul Gee
Video
What Players Learnby Playing Video Games
Overview (1):Video Game Learning
Many opinions have been expressed
Video games are mindless → kids don’t learn
anything beyond hand-eye coordination from the
thousands of hours spent playing games
Kids learn about the game only → but nothing
about real life from these games
Violent video games “teach kids how to kill”
Above opinions are not correct
Whenever one plays a game (video game or
otherwise), and whatever game one plays, learning
happens constantly whether player is aware of it
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Overview (2):Video Game Learning (cont.)
Not just learning about the game
Also learning about life → one of the positive
consequences of all game playing
Learning takes place every time one plays, in every
game, continuously and simultaneously on several
levels → players do not have to be paying
conscious attention to the learning either
Five levels of learning
“How”, “What”, “Why”, “Where”, “When”
Five Levels of Learning in Games (1):Level 1: Learning How
Learning how to do something → as one plays the
game, one learns gradually or quickly, the moves of
the game (move the avatar, defeat the enemy, etc.)
Additional non-conscious message that one also
learns → one has control of what goes on within the
screen unlike TV/movies
What implications does this have for the real-world ?
Pure fantasy games → the explicit “how to do it”
may be useless in the school yard or workplace →
but learning how to “flip” Tetris pieces may enhance
their mental spatial processing abilities…
Five Levels of Learning in Games (2):Level 1: Learning How (cont.)
The more a game simulates anything in real-world, the
more one learns about how to do things in that world
Of course, one cannot learn to do everything →
there are kinesthetic cues, for example, that you
need to learn in a real airplane simulator or on a
real horse but what you can learn is huge and is an
area still very under-explored
Also important to note that gamers choose their games
because they are interested in learning various things
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (3):Level 1: Learning How (cont.)
Not only do players learn how to do things but they are
constantly practising these things over and over
Learning is internalized & becomes “second nature”
Of course, keep in mind that just because someone
learns to do something, doesn’t mean one has learned
when or whether one should do it
The “How” level extends deeper to more transferable
learning by enhancing non-game-specific skills
“Heavy” game players learn how to parallel process
and multi-task → have to in order to succeed
Five Levels of Learning in Games (4):Level 1: Learning How (cont.)
The “How” level extends deeper (cont.)
Through practise in games they get better at
integrating these perspectives simultaneously into a
single world view
Learn hot to incorporate peripheral information → a
skill shown to be enhanced by video game playing
How do we know the learning at the “How” level
actually takes place ?
We can observe it → people who practise
something over and over, learn it and get it better
and this is common knowledge
Five Levels of Learning in Games (5):Level 1: Learning How (cont.)
Something to consider
Designers of serious games/simulations pride
themselves on how these games are becoming
more and more realistic and “lifelike”
One may not be able to learn to do anything → e.g.,
kinesthetic cues you need to learn in a real airplane
simulator but what you can learn how to do is large
and still vastly under-explored
Can you learn to monitor and use the control and
gauges of a real-life plane or train? Learn your way
around a real-world oil platform? YES!
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (6):Level 1: Learning How (cont.)
Something to consider → what, at the “How” level
does a kid learn about real life from playing Pokeman?
They learn how to use/manage a large database of
information → this is learned subconsciously and
without them thinking of it at all in those terms
A socially useful type of learning that could easily
be applied to other large bodies of information e.g.,
real plants and animals, and geographic data if the
context were as compelling
Five Levels of Learning in Games (7):Level 2: Learning What
Players learn about “what” to do in any particular game
and “what not to do” → they learn the rules
The rules of any game teach you what is possible
and/or doable in the game
The process of game playing can be viewed as
learning to understand the “rules code”
In non-video games, players learn the rules before
they start playing → not the case in video games
where rules are built into the programming and
players learn the rules as they play by trial and error
Five Levels of Learning in Games (8):Level 2: Learning What (cont.)
What do video game rules teach kids about real life ?
They make a player, regardless of their age, reflect,
at least subconsciously, and compare the game to
what they already know about life
Players are constantly comparing the rules of
whatever game they are playing to what they have
learned elsewhere about life
When there is a conflict → players ask themselves
“is this a dumb rule?”
Players constantly ask themselves → “are game
rules fair, accurate, etc. in terms of what I know?”
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (9):Level 2: Learning What (cont.)
The more the rules do reflect the real world that
players know → the more they believe the game
reflects reality and vice versa
How do we know that these comparisons do occur ?
Games with wildly unfair or inaccurate rules get
quickly identified by players as “bogus” and don’t
get played much
Game designers spend much time adjusting rules
of the game to make them seem reasonable →
balancing the game
Five Levels of Learning in Games (10):Level 2: Learning What (cont.)
Direct examination of game rules is a component of
“metagaming” → thinking outside the game
Includes thinking about what rule changes will
make the game better and then implementing those
changes → video game designers and players are
always trying to tweak rules to improve the game
Also learn about breaking the rules
Even from a very young game players → learn to
shout “you can’t do that!”, “that’s not fair!”…
Five Levels of Learning in Games (11):Level 3: Learning Why
Players learn why they do something → they learn the
strategy of a game as they play it
Successful players learn that in some games and
situations to succeed they need to attack openly but
in others they do so stealthily, in some they need to
horde and be selfish yet in others they need to
cooperate, etc. etc. → many real-life lessons!
Game strategy and tactics are loaded with such
learning about real life → like the rules, strategy in
games must be life-like for game to make sense even
if game is fantasy-based
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (12):Level 3: Learning Why (cont.)
Recall military and their embrace of games
For millennia, militaries have been aware that
strategy can be learned by playing games → they
have adopted video games (serious games) to their
own learning needs far ahead of the curve
All branches of the (US) military use video games
for learning at all levels from recruit to commander
→ use a combination of off-the shelf games,
specially modified games, games specifically
commissioned for their purposes
Five Levels of Learning in Games (13):Level 3: Learning Why (cont.)
Many other deeper lessons learned from video games
than that previously described
Cause and effect
Long-term winning versus short-term gains
Order form seeming chaos
Second-order consequences
Complex system behaviors
Counterintuitive results
The value of persistence
Five Levels of Learning in Games (14):Level 4: Learning Where
The “context” level, as in learning about where you are
Encompasses a huge amount of cultural learning
that goes on in video games → psychologists tell us
that games are one means through which kids learn
to understand their world
Player learns about the game world and the values
it represents → acquire cultural metaphors and
images to use in describing the real world
It is on this level that players learn ideas → both
consciously and unconsciously as they play their
game
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (15):Level 4: Learning Where (cont.)
Video games reflect the big cultural ideas or myths
Right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, victory vs. defeat etc.
Players learn to handle myth, lore, danger, betrayal,
the fact there is always someone bigger and more
powerful than you are, and the existential
inevitability that eventually you will die even if you
“kill the bad guys and rescue the girl”
Players learn to handle cultural relativity and deal
with different people and roles
Players learn to identify with the game characters
and with the cultures they inhabit
Five Levels of Learning in Games (16):Level 4: Learning Where (cont.)
Do kids really learn these things ?
Players (kids) use video games as a filter through
which to understand their lives → not different from
past where hero and filter for interpreting life may
have come from a story (e.g., comic book heroes)
but the big difference between games and stories is
that kids learn that they have control over this life
Five Levels of Learning in Games (17):Level 4: Learning Where (cont.)
Immersion → one of the most effective game
techniques for transmitting the “Where”
The more one feels they are “in” a culture, the
more one learns from it → especially non-
consciously
Video games are becoming more and more
immersive, in part thanks to technological
advancements (e.g., think of the Microsoft Kinect)
→ think of the learning opportunities this provides
us with!
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (18):Level 4: Learning Where (cont.)
Immersion → some interesting questions/issues
To what degree does immersion affect learning → it
does affect learning but can we quantify this ?
Immersion is not only related to the fidelity of the
graphics, audio cues etc. → a big part of immersion
relates to game-play and engagement
Immersion and its effect on learning → plenty to be
investigated here…
Five Levels of Learning in Games (19):Level 5: Learning When and Whether
The “ultimate” level of learning → deepest, most
interesting learning that occurs in video games
Involves the non-conscious emotional messages →
the “subtext”
Players learn to make value-based and moral
decisions → decisions about whether something is
right or wrong
Most problematic and controversial learning level
Five Levels of Learning in Games (20):Level 5: Learning When and Whether (cont.)
Mechanisms for creating the learning at this level
range from extremely simple to the most complex
Simplest level → learning comes through game’s
amplification of certain factors (through repetition
and other means) and reduction of others
More complex levels → comes through the use of
allegory and symbols, and through the manipulation
of images, situations, sounds, music, and other
emotion-producing effects and combination of
effects (like in movies/films)
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (21):Level 5: Learning When and Whether (cont.)
But can’t this cause problems ?
Hard to argue that combination of “amplification”
and “emotional” cues in certain games doesn’t lead
players to learn that the answer to “is it ok to kill the
character in the game context is “yes”
Are they also learning about this in real life and do
they generalize these messages to the actual world
they live in? → According to Prensky, No!
As with rules, players are constantly cross-checking
automatically and non-consciously with whatever
else they know or have heard for consistency
Five Levels of Learning in Games (22):Level 5: Learning When and Whether (cont.)
Messages that are consistent get accepted and
messages in conflict get further examination
A game that encourages killing could encourage a
player to kill in real life → but the message “do not
kill” is a large part of our cultural context causing us
to “think twice” before killing in real life
Comparison of “when/whether” learning in the
game with “when/whether” learning in the rest of
life is why shooting games can help kids learn how
to aim without their learning how to kill
Five Levels of Learning in Games (23):Is “Video Game Learning” Positive or
Negative ?
The major concerns of those who think the learning is
negative are as follows:
How level → teaching players to do inappropriate
things
What level → rules of game are too restrictive and
games don’t leave enough room for imagination
Why level → strategies for winning many of the
games contain too much violence, too many
“cheats”, and other undesirable elements
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Five Levels of Learning in Games (24):Is “Video Game Learning” Positive or
Negative ? (cont.)
The major concerns of those who think the learning is
negative are as follows: (cont.)
Where level → players are being socialized to be
loners, misogynists, and social deviants
Whether level → players are learning to be amoral
killers
Are these concerns valid ?
What do you think ?
How about games being “defusers” ?
Five Levels of Learning in Games (25):Is “Video Game Learning” Positive or
Negative ? (cont.)
Video games are becoming less restrictive
More open to players’ imaginations and
personalities and other open-ended toy-like
elements that lets players to exercise their own
imaginations and tell their own stories
Newer games have multiple winning strategies
Proliferation of internet is bringing social orientation
that games always had, back again
Video game players are changing → female, elderly
Critics keep focusing on negative (ignore positive)
As an Aside (1):Aside from the Learning…
Video games have been used to boost interest in
science careers
US National Science Foundation has a number of
programs that use games and game design to
increase student interest in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects in
traditionally underserved communities
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As an Aside (3):Aside from the Learning… (cont.)
Video games have been used to boost interest in
science careers (cont.)
According to ITIF → US federal government,
foundations and/or corporations should sponsor
creation of national science videogames, (similar to
“America’s Army” for recruiting purposes)
“High scorers” in these videogames and those who
comment intelligently on associated forums could
be added to the “America’s High School STEM
Talent” database → a national teaching tool and a
recruiting tool
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