Abstract

During a 2010 Ted conference, Ali Carr-Chellman offered this criticism of our industry: “Most of the educational games that are out there today are really flash-cards. They are glorified drill-and-practice. They don’t have the depth and rich narrative that really engaging video games have” (Carr-Chellman, 2010). She concluded with this challenge: “We need to design better games.” This chapter addresses her challenge.

Introduction

We already know that games can be used to teach many things. Sailors in the U.S. Navy play the Damage Control Trainer as part of their boot camp training. Marines use games and virtual environments to train convoy operations (Hussain et al., 2009). In health care, you see games used to improve physical fitness, aid diabetics, and improve the lives of asthmatics (Baranowski et al., 2008). But what makes these games work?

In this chapter, we will explore l ow, motivation, and fun. We will dissect how the entertainment industry creates really engaging videogames. We will unravel the science of why people become engaged and learn guidelines that promote flow. We will explore how motivation works and what fun really means. Throughout this chapter, we will highlight some of the best examples and most effective techniques. By the end, you will know how to use l ow, motivation, and fun to design better games.

Abstract

The Procurement Fraud Indicators game is a Web-delivered, Flash®-based 2-D environment for training Department of Defense acquisition professionals on researching and identifying fraud in realistic scenarios. It is intended to provide the practical exercise for application of concepts and knowledge learned during a preceding two-hour online learning module. This practical exercise requires the player to gather information, develop a theory of potential fraud, select appropriate questions for suspected perpetrators, and classify any fraud found. The game employs relatively low technology and highly accessible methods but is effective in meeting its objectives.

Introduction

High-bandwidth, highly realistic 3-D immersive environments are not absolutely necessary for creating effective serious games. What is necessary are purposefully designed learning experiences with clearly dei ned learning objectives.

Even though it is decidedly low technology, Procurement Fraud Indicators (PFI) is a well-designed serious game that includes assigned problems and employs basic feedback for performance. The game is focused within a framework of purposeful design and assessment (Serious Games Showcase and Challenge, 2011).

Abstract

Quest Atlantis (QA) is an educational virtual world environment that provides a rich capability for students to undertake quests to solve challenging and interesting real-world problems. QA provides a toolkit for teachers to manage the experiences of their students. We describe our efforts to develop, deploy, and maintain in-class, after school, and summer camp programs based on Quest Atlantis. We introduce the methods we used to train teachers to use QA and discuss some of the issues we encountered when starting out and the solutions we developed. We describe how students have used QA to learn while also performing socially aware activities, and discuss some of our impressions on how students who normally do not perform well in class respond well to learning within Quest Atlantis. Virtual worlds for learning offer many benefits for augmenting our school education programs, and we summarize some of our recommendations for how to make use of this valuable technology.

The design and development of learning games is a field of endeavor that crosses the boundaries of several disciplines. A successful computer game for learning (a.k.a. training game, educational game, serious game, instructional game) must weave together the skills and decision making of instructional system designers, game designers, software developers, story developers, assessment professionals, educational scientists, graphic artists, subject matter experts, instructors, and more. While prior publications have addressed theoretical issues from the perspective of one or two of these fields, and some publications have explored practical design and development issues, none has addressed the central methodological issues of how to produce an effective game with an explicit multidisciplinary approach. This book draws on the expertise and experience of a number of active participants in the field of learning games to provide practical guidelines and recommendations from a multidisciplinary perspective to assist you in your efforts to create effective learning games.

Definition of Learning Games

Before we dive into the issues surrounding the design of learning games, we must clarify what we mean by learning game. The literature reveals no consistent, widely accepted definition of learning games, although they are often classified as a subset of serious games for nonentertainment purposes (Sawyer & Smith, 2008). We prefer to distinguish learning games as having certain characteristics. In this book, we define learning games as games intentionally designed to help the player meet instructional goals while actively interacting with and being engaged and immersed in the experience. The learning game provides an environment in which the player must demonstrate a level of understanding of a body of knowledge or skills (expressed as learning objectives) to achieve game goals by solving challenges posed in the environment (e.g., identifying or resolving problems, completing tasks). The type of learning games we refer to require a significant design effort to achieve the learning goals.

Abstract

As you get started on your project to create a serious game for learning, it is important for you to recognize that you and your team will likely need the skills of several different disciplines to achieve success. Usually, this means that you will be working with colleagues who have been trained in a different field from yours. By better understanding what the key concerns and methods of their disciplines are, you will better understand where your teammates are coming from and the processes they are used to. We introduce the standard methods used in the supporting fields of instructional system design, software development, game design, assessment development, and story creation and discuss some of the main strengths of each area as well as some of the typical challenges that practitioners in each area face.

Introduction

So, you’re thinking of developing a game to help teach some valuable knowledge and/or skills. How do you go about designing and developing your learning game efi ciently? What steps are involved? Who needs to be involved? What are the gotchas to be aware of and how do you address those issues effectively? How do you ensure that your learning game successfully engages your learners while effectively teaching them?

Abstract

While the field of serious games has made good progress in identifying some of the design methods that lead to success, there aren’t many specific guidelines to help bridge the gap between the design and implementation of a serious game for learning. Issues can arise because of a variety of factors, such as conceptual confusion or competing perspectives among team members, incomplete or conflicting design of gaming and instructional elements, arbitrary software implementations of the design, and conflicting gameplay experiences for the player. We present several recommendations for how to approach your design and implementation efforts in your team to minimize these issues and align the instructional elements and gaming elements. We discuss the value of working toward a common dialog on instructional and gaming elements, particularly those for goals, control, actions, guidance, and feedback. We discuss the benefits of adopting design patterns for learning game elements to make your game easier to create, understand, test, and maintain. In particular, we discuss the use of patterns for designing the gaming experience in terms of instructional situations that teach particular learning objectives using particular instructional methods and in terms of instructional mechanics that provide specific instructional content and learning opportunities using specific gameplay interaction methods. We introduce a number of design patterns for incorporating goals, control, actions, guidance, and feedback into your game. Finally, we discuss how to address some practical issues that arise when using design patterns during design and development to help make your gameplay experience both instructionally effective and cohesive for the player.

Abstract

This chapter shares details about the design and development of the Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) learning game created for the Medical College of Georgia. The design and development team introduces the program by sharing the instructional goals of the learning game, basic design concepts, and development constraints. The chapter then highlights successes and discusses issues the team encountered during the design and development of the VDIT learning game. The emphasis is on sharing our experiences to help future organizations interested in creating or procuring learning game products learn from our example. Despite the issues, the team was able to minimize their impact and happily report that the game has been successfully created, tested, and delivered to the Medical College of Georgia for use in the affiliated dental school programs. The chapter closes with actionable recommendations for learning game design teams to help ensure delivery of successful game products.

Introduction

The purpose of the Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) project was to create a game-based simulation training tool to allow students to practice dental implant decision making during their free time. Nobel Biocare, a globally recognized maker of dental implant tools and hardware, through its partnership with the Medical College of Georgia (MCG), commissioned our team to design VDIT as a downloadable or CD-driven software package that could be distributed to medical students through its network of accredited schools and businesses.

Abstract

The Procurement Fraud Indicators game was designed to serve as an experiential learning game for acquisition professionals. The game immediately follows a two-hour online learning module about procurement fraud indicators made available by the Defense Acquisition University. The procurement fraud indicators course was selected to be enhanced by a game because it represented a content area filled with ethical and shades of grey types of decision making. The game was designed to provide learners an opportunity to practice the skills they learned during the preceding module by presenting them with varied situations and scenarios in which they are tasked with identifying and categorizing procurement fraud indicators.

Introduction

In 2007, the Defense Acquisition University (DAU), a U.S. Department of Defense Corporate University, launched three distinct games initiatives as it moved toward a performance-based learning framework. The first initiative involved DAU’s two hundred formal resident and online courses. Each of DAU’s courses is part of a certification requirement that the entire Acquisition Technology & Logistics (AT&L) workforce must complete to remain certified. DAU quickly realized that games within this initiative would be very specific to the context and content and would require custom development with a focus on ensuring a learner could perform the tasks related to the content presented with each course. DAU’s second games initiative was on the opposite end of the spectrum. It involved core competencies related to acquisition, but so generic that context might be less important. Games within this second initiative would be casual games – small, easy to play games that anyone in any AT&L career field could be successful playing.

Abstract

Incorporating gaming into a learning environment requires first learning about the environment. Just as each learner is an individual, with his or her own motivators, learning style, and educational and experiential background, each learning environment has its own characteristics, which will in turn influence how gaming will be accepted, what kinds of games can be used, and what educational purposes those games will serve. In this chapter you will learn about the different parts of a learning system that must be considered when determining how to integrate gaming into a learning environment.

Introduction

Finally! After all the talking, the state Department of Education has at last agreed to fund a game to help students learn civics! Your team is cranked. You have only twelve months to build it, and the time crunch merely adds to the excitement. You and your team meet daily. It’s a creative i restorm, with ideas popping and crackling in an electric exchange of ideas. Using a game engine you’ve had good success with in the past, you craft the prototype and present it to the client. It has all the elements of a classic multiplayer game – a vivid and engaging story line, role playing, interaction, and real-life depth and complexity in both the problems presented and the strategies players use to resolve them.

Abstract

Ambush! is a “mod” of an existing commercial first-person shooter military combat game called Operation Flashpoint®. Multiple players operate in a 3-D environment that simulates convoy missions in Iraq. Ambush! is a complete training system that utilizes gameplay as the shared experience for the team. In this way, it is a virtual training exercise lane without the logistical time and expense of a “live” exercise. The real training occurs during the planning and after-action review phases of any one scenario. Unit leaders must plan the operation and present it to their team. The team plays Ambush! and typically something goes wrong: an improvised explosive device (IED) goes off, insurgents attack them, snipers shoot at them, and so forth. They must stay vigilant, identify suspicious situations, adapt to an unfolding situation, and reflect on their performance once the action is done. It is an excellent example of how context can turn a playing a game into a serious training endeavor.

Abstract

Quest Atlantis is a virtual world that has been developed for the express purpose of leveraging children’s familiarity with online videogame metaphors to provide flexible and high-quality educational curricula to students. The combination of compelling technology, a rich ecosystem of educational materials, and a class-centric focus contributes to a complete system that stands on its own as well as offers guidance to developers of similar systems.

Introduction

Quest Atlantis (QA) is a three-dimensional virtual world designed from the ground up to be an engaging educational environment for middle and early high school children (Barab et al., 2005) using the principle of transformational play: “In transformational play, students become immersed in activities that engage them intellectually and push back on their thinking and actions. Rather than working on problems in which they must imagine the implications of their decisions (as in most project-based work) students experience consequentiality” (Barab, Gresali, & Arici, 2009 , p. 77).

Abstract

What should we look for in a game? How well do existing games embody good instructional and gaming design principles? How do we put those design principles into practice? The following chapters will review several games of different genres and domains. For each game, there are two chapters. The first is an impartial review of the game and the second is a description of the methods and lessons learned from the game developer’s perspective. In this chapter, we introduce each game briefly, discuss the criteria used to review the games, and summarize some of the key points you should look for in these and other games.

Introduction

Now that we’ve introduced a number of key issues and approaches to consider when designing a learning game, let’s put it all in context. The following chapters review seven different games, each focused on a different approach to training or a different training use.

Abstract

The Computer-based Corpsman Training System (CBCTS) and its forebear the Tactical Combat Casualty Care Simulation (TC3sim) are serious games designed to train military combat medical personnel. The designs of the two games do not differ significantly. TC3sim was built for the U.S. Army and involves Iraq scenarios. CBCTS has some upgraded visuals and is skinned for the Marine Corps. Its scenarios are geared toward Afghanistan. Their designs share the same learning objectives, the same medical interactions, the same assessment model, and the same physiological simulations. In their development, the complexity of simulating synthetic casualties and the combinations of user interactions were significantly underestimated. However, success came from two factors. The development of a simple user interface allowed users to quickly learn how to play the game and manage the large number of medical interactions. The employment of iterative releases allowed for constant feedback to be collected and integrated back into the game design.

Introduction

The Computer-based Corpsman Training System (CBCTS) is a first-person serious game designed to train U.S. Navy combat medical personnel who are assigned to tthe U.S. Marines (called corpsmen) how to respond to casualties on the battlefield. It is based on the U.S. Army’s Tactical Combat Casualty Care Simulation (TC3sim). CBCTS and TC3sim are essentially the same game, but CBCTS’s visuals were customized for the U.S. Marines. Instead of Iraq, CBCTS uses scenarios set in Afghanistan. The wari ghters’ characters have also been reskinned to be appropriate for the Marines and Navy services.

Abstract

We introduce the motivations, history, technical approach, and design choices behind DARWARS Ambush!, a game-based, convoy operations trainer that was heavily used by the U.S. Army and Marines for five years. We discuss a number of the practical deployment concerns we addressed and discuss how we cultivated relationships to build a community of committed users. As one of the first large-scale, successful serious games for learning, DARWARS Ambush! broke new ground and led to many lessons learned on how to best design, develop, and deploy a serious game. We discuss some of our experiences, decisions, and lessons learned, and conclude with some recommendations that may help new efforts attain success as well.

Introduction

In late 2004, DARPA Program Manager Dr. Ralph Chatham asked BBN Technologies, who was already under contract on his DARWARS Training Superiority Program, whether we could quickly – within six months – deploy a training system to help soldiers better respond to convoy ambushes then prevalent in Iraq. At that time, convoy ambushes involving small arms, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), or improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were a leading cause of casualties. The U.S. military had recognized the need for increased training for convoy operations and aggressively pursued a variety of training solutions, including live-fire training exercises, marksmanship trainers, and driver training systems (see Steele, 2004; Tiron, 2004 for examples). Dr. Chatham recognized the need for a squad-level team trainer that would focus on situational awareness, communication, and coordination.

Abstract

The Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) is a 3-D simulation environment for dental students to practice dental implant surgery procedures. It provides a highly authentic surgery experience for trainees looking to practice techniques learned elsewhere, or for experienced dentists looking to refresh their skills. Because of its focus on being a practice environment, VDIT does not contain many of the instructional design techniques often found in many other training simulations. Furthermore, there is limited use of game elements found in many other serious games. However, given the tasks and emphasis on practice, this is acceptable. With additional effort VDIT could be transitioned into a more effective and engaging instructional environment.

Introduction

The Virtual Dental Implant Trainer (VDIT) is a highly accurate procedural training simulation environment for dentists. VDIT is not intended to be a stand-alone learning experience for those i rst learning how to perform dental implant surgery. Rather, it was specii cally designed to be used in conjunction with other training, or for those seeking a practice environment. These decisions on use greatly affected the game’s design. The remaining sections of this chapter look at the effectiveness of these decisions on VDIT.