Search

The deployment rate of serious games (SGs) in higher education (HE) and their proper insertion in meaningful curricula isstill quite low. There is a lack of papers in literature describing deployment of SGs for HE in detail, critically showing educational benefits, and providing guidelines and best practices on their use. With the present work, we intend to make a first step in this direction, by reporting our experience in using state of the art managerial SGs in MSc Engineering/business courses in four different European universities. In order to describe and analyse the educational characteristics and effectiveness of each game, we propose to use two models that we have straightforwardly extracted from two major pedagogical paradigms: the Bloom’s revised cognitive learning goals taxonomy and the Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. Based on our experience in developing the SG‐based courses, we also propose a set of lessons and practices that we believe could be of interest to incentivize and better support deployment of SGs in HE courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that games need debriefing to cater for learning, although the research is rather inconclusive towards characteristics of effective debriefing. Teacher-debriefing is relatively costly and due to time constraints reasonably limited for individual debriefs. Self-debriefing is cheap and can be done independently. This study examined with a pre-test post-test design whether self-debriefing can induce similar learning as teacher-debriefing. This study investigated students' communication performance in four in-classroom usage-scenarios of a single-user game SMI (Space Modules Incorporated) for IT service-desk communication skills (n = 172). Three usage-scenarios used identical debriefing structure after the first game-session, but differed in debriefing format (Teacher-debriefing Learner-specific, Teacher-debriefing Classspecific, Self-debriefing Structured Note-taking). The fourth usage-scenario contained a generic assignment for self-reflection after the first game-session with note-taking (Self-debriefing Unstructured Note-taking). All usage-scenarios requested similar time investment for students in vocational education and the same debriefing-duration. Each usage-scenario contained the same two game-sessions with specific debriefing in-between. All usage-scenarios embedded easy to use debriefing formats, although both self-debriefing formats are cheaper to use than the teacher-debriefing formats. SMI supported in-game measurement of learning progress data, being used for debriefing and for measuring communication performance in both game-sessions (i.e., pre- & post-measurement). A mixed between-within subjects ANOVA showed a significant learning effect for all usage-scenarios, but no significant differences between the debriefing-formats. Less labourintensive and more flexible exploitation of games via self-debriefing seem plausible as no differences between self-debriefing and teacher-debriefing were found. These findings align with previous research that also did not show any differences between self-debriefing and expert-debriefing. Self-reports revealed moderate motivation within all usage-scenario's and moderate studyability of all usage-scenarios. This hints at opportunities for improving the usage-scenario's (game and debriefing). Suggestions for further debriefing-research are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main problems with the current course Introduction to Psychology in our university is that students consider the content as too theoretical and insufficient in providing professional practice. Potential solutions are expected to come from mini-games that have proven to enable more active and contextualized learning. In the context of course revision, the developmental research project that feeds this paper entails the design, development and evaluation of such mini-games. In this short paper on work in progress we argue why and describe how these mini-games provide students with practical, rich and safe learning environments as well as active engagement with study specialisations and career profiles (section 1). Of core importance to our design approach is to develop an overarching pedagogical scenario that connects authentic cases from practice to learning activities in education which can be represented through mini-games. At the basis of our game play lies a multi-facetted problem family that is to be analysed and treated from the four main psychological perspectives that are offered as specialisations in our Master program Psychology. Competences practiced through practical assignments within the game (planned are about 16 mini-games that will each take 1-2 hours) are how to communicate with patients, how to conduct tests and therapies in actual practice, how to build and analyse client files, how to deal with practical dilemmas, useless information and unexpected events, amongst others. Besides describing the game design (section 2), this paper presents the experimental research design (section 3). For both effectiveness and cost-efficiency reasons, we intend to answer two research questions that appear to be relevant for advancing our knowledge about serious gaming in education by comparing experimental variants of mini-games on their learning effect: Does the inclusion of more active learning foster improved professional awareness?; and Does the inclusion of more situated knowledge foster improved professional awareness? At the time of the ECGBL2016 conference first prototypes of the mini-games will be available for demonstration and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deployment rate of serious games (SGs) in higher education (HE) and their proper insertion in meaningful  curricula isstill quite low. There is a lack of papers in literature describing deployment of SGs for HE in detail, critically  showing educational benefits, and providing guidelines and best practices on their use. With the present work, we intend  to make a first step in this direction, by reporting our experience in using state of the art managerial SGs in MSc  Engineering/business courses in four different European universities. In order to describe and analyse the educational  characteristics and effectiveness of each game, we propose to use two models that we have straightforwardly extracted  from two major pedagogical paradigms: the Bloom’s revised cognitive learning goals taxonomy and the Kolb’s experiential  learning cycle. Based on our experience in developing the SG‐based courses, we also propose a set of lessons and practices  that we believe could be of interest to incentivize and better support deployment of SGs in HE courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overarching framework embracing conceptual and technical frameworks for improving the online communication skills of lifelong learners. This overarching framework is called FILTWAM (Framework for Improving Learning Through Webcams And Microphones). We propose a novel web-based communication training approach, one which incorporates relevant and timely feedback based upon learner's facial expressions and verbalizations. This data is collected using webcams with their incorporated image and microphones with their sound waves, which can continuously and unobtrusively monitor and interpret learners' emotional behaviour into emotional states. The feedback generated from the webcams is expected to enhance learner's awareness of their own behaviour as well as to improve the alignment between their expressed behaviour and intended behaviour. Our approach emphasizes communication behaviour rather than communication content, as people mostly do not have problems with the "what" but with the 'how" in expressing their message. For our design of online game-based communication skills trainings, we use insights from face-toface training, game-based learning, lifelong learning, and affective computing. These areas constitute starting points for moving ahead the not yet well-established area of using emotional states for improved learning. Our framework and research is situated within this latter area. A self-contained game-based training enhances flexibility and scalability, in contrast with face-to-face trainings. Furthermore, game-based training better serve the interests of lifelong learners who prefer to study at their own pace, place and time. In the future we may possibly integrate the generated feedback with EMERGO, which is a game-based toolkit for delivery of multimedia cases. Finally, we will report on a small-scale proof of concept study that on the one hand exemplifies the practical application of our framework and on the other hand provides first evaluation results on that. This study will guide further development of software and training materials and inform future research. Moreover, it will validate the use of webcam data for a real-time and adequate interpretation of facial expressions into emotional states (like sadness, anger, disgust, fear, happiness, and surprise). For this purpose, participants' behaviour is also recorded on videos so that videos will be replayed, rated, annotated and evaluated by expert observers and contrasted with participants' own opinions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]