Serious Games and Edutainment Applications

Designing computer games or adopting commercial off-the-shelf games to support learning and teaching has become a promising frontier of education, since games technology is inexpensive, widely available, fun and entertaining for people of all ages, especially for the generation that grow up in constant contact with digital media. As a subset of serious games, computer-based edutainment can be dated back to early 1960s and begins to flourish around 2002. In this chapter, we provide the reader an overview of the book with a perspective of future trends of serious games.

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.

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the historical origins of Serious Games to try to understand where the current wave of “Serious Games” comes from. We first review the origins of the “Serious Games” oxymoron. We will then analyse digital games designed for serious purposes before the 2000s. Such games can be traced back to the beginning of the history of video games. We will use all these elements to discuss how the current wave of “Serious Games” began; and to highlight the differences between “Serious Games” and their ancestors.

Serious Games are promising tools for fostering learning and for transforming players’ behavior and perspectives on particular topics. But can serious games satisfy these high expectations on an educational, learning theoretical, and empirical level? This chapter investigates different learning levels in serious games and follows the question, how serious learning in serious games proceeds. Based on Gregory Bateson’s concept of learning, three essential learning processes in games are compared and examples of serious games are analyzed critically. The main focus hereby lies on transformative, deep and meaningful learning processes that have a serious impact on players’ perspectives. Furthermore the educational concept of transformative learning is applied to the field of serious games, and their potential and limits for game design and education are discussed.

Flow theory has had a major influence on game scholars’ and designers’ understanding of the psychology of enjoyment of digital games and how that enjoyment might contribute to learning. However, a fuller understanding of how flow is experienced in social play is needed because digital games are increasingly played in groups, because theories of game-based education increasingly prioritize cooperative learning methods and goals, and because there has been surprisingly little study of whether flow contributes to learning. This chapter synthesizes the relevant literature to conceptualize how games might foster flow and cooperative learning through social play. It also proposes a theoretical model and lays out a research agenda that can help guide future studies of social gameflow and learning, and inform the design of educational games and learning contexts.

The chapter provides introductory background information on all relevant fields (Games-based learning, Mobile devices, Mobile entertainment, Mobile education, Behavioural psychology) and showcases a small number of mobile devices based serious games and applications to support the claim that such games can be implemented for this device type. It then introduces formal propositional logic and suggests the use of a formal language to express statements about games and events in games. The next section is referencing to established guidelines from the field of behavioural psychology and provides an formalism (based on the content of the previous section) that allows the unambiguous definition and evaluation of behaviour in the context of a game. The chapter is targeting the large stretch of vagueness (definition of the behaviour under investigation, design of a game to evaluate such behaviour, collection of data/profiling and finally the interpretation of this data) that is found in almost all existing work concerned with human game playing behaviour. The contribution of the chapter is the introduction of a formalism which removes the vagueness and ambiguity from parts of this stretch. Ideally the only subjective part of the evaluation of human game playing behaviour is to be found in the final interpretation of the data, and the formalism allows for this reduction of vagueness (given that it is well constructed and tailored to the investigation at hand).

EUROSTAT figures show that 5720 people die in the European Union every year as a consequence of work-related accidents. Training in Health and Safety is indeed a key aspect to reduce this figure, and serious games constitute an effective method to provide this training. However, the development of this type of computer applications is a complex issue, requiring cross discipline knowledge on different areas, including instructional design, psychology, sociology, law, and computer graphics. Beyond the challenges already present in the development of non-educational computer games, serious games for health and safety are instructional tools. Therefore, they require an instructional design to cover specific educational issues, and knowledge on the health and safety regulations which are applicable in each particular context. In addition, these games have as their ultimate goal to increase the worker’s awareness about safety regulations and reduce the number and seriousness of accidents. Thus, the evaluation of this type of applications must be rather different from the evaluation of other games with a focus on entertainment. In this chapter we provide a description of existing serious games in the health and safety area, and describe major instructional and technological aspects related to the development of this type of training tools. Although technological developments will indeed increase the advantages of serious games as a means to deliver instruction in health and safety, we believe that the most challenging issues remain at the instructional side, and further research is still needed to maximize the effectiveness of this kind of training.

Experiential Education is an educational approach not primarily concerned with knowledge acquisition but focusing on the training of behavioural skills in order to increase social and personal competencies in its participants. While the roots of this approach can be traced back as far as the philosophers of ancient Greece, it is currently experiencing a wave of mainstream popularity, due to its proven success. Adventure initiative games are a form of intervention frequently applied in experiential education settings in order to promote and refine social and personal skills. Some key elements of this game category are presented along with explanations on how they integrate virtual worlds to enhance creativity and engagement in the players. It is argued that for educational as well as evaluation purposes, it appears valuable to augment initiative games through mobile digital devices. A suggestion for a game design including specific details as well as an evaluation procedure is presented. Thus, the chapter aims to merge a theoretical contribution from the field of computing with practical considerations of a trained pedagogue and educational field researcher.

As technology evolves to support an increasingly diverse range of pedagogic approaches, various kinds of technology-driven interventions have already been integrated into conventional teaching methods, which include web-based tools and mobile devices, social networking environments and computer games. Such integration is capable of providing platforms to support formal and informal learning experiences, in both blended and standalone contexts. Innovations in teaching and learning, promoting a knowledge society, and supporting tremendous growth in demand for highly educated and skilled individuals, are influenced by the advances in technology as well as the emergence of a new generation for whom technology is an integral part of the learning process. This generation is able to migrate between existing and new technologies, building socially driven communities, and has high expectations of fidelity and dynamics from virtual learning environments.

However, as well as providing support for this fidelity, it is important to consider the pedagogic models that underpin innovative, technology-enhanced learning techniques. In order to increase and sustain engagement and receptiveness of the learner and to ensure effective learning outcomes, immersive learning facilitates the complete involvement of learners in their learning environment, harnessing techniques of exploration to enhance understanding of particular subjects. Whereas an encyclopaedic approach for understanding the characteristics of an ancient artefact requires a degree of intrinsic motivation on the part of the learner, examining and exploring the artefact first-hand via visual, social or tactile interaction can prove a more compelling and engaging experience, reaching wider student audiences more effectively.

Supporting experiential and exploratory models of learning, this chapter describes a method to combine different sensory elements of an immersive experience, to create an engaging and immersive multimodal approach to learning. By introducing tactile interfaces with visual and social, it is envisaged that learner perceptions will be more immersed and the gap between virtual and real spaces will be bridged by deeper involvement of the learner. By stimulating visual and tactile perceptions, real learning experiences may be more accurately replicated in a virtual world.

Operation ARIES! is a serious game that teaches critical thinking about scientific inquiry. The player must help to identify aliens on Earth who are intentionally publishing bad research. The game combines aspects of video games and intelligent tutors in which the player holds conversations with animated agents using natural language. The player first takes a training course with a virtual trainee, followed by a module in which the player identifies flaws in research cases. In the third and final module, the player interviews suspected alien scientists on their research. Operation ARIES! is designed for high school seniors and adults.

Designing, developing and testing a game for a specific learning context and then achieving positive results, encourages one to deploy it in other environments. We know however that it is not always possible to successfully transfer artifacts from one learning context to the next. In this chapter we explore the principles to be considered when re-contextualizing a game. We base our analysis on the transfer of a Hypercontextualized Game SciMyst (which was designed and developed for the Joensuu Science Festival) into its re-contextualized version TekMyst (for the Helsinki Museum of Technology). Employing a qualitative approach we review the requirements and design decisions at the hand of four guiding principles: (1) immerse oneself in the new learning context, (2) collaborate with locals to balance the efforts towards a common aim, (3) reconsider the design solutions to achieve the common aim and (4) be constructive and critical in your contribution.

Assessment in education is the process of gathering, interpreting, recording, and using information about pupils’ responses to an educational tasNk (Gibbs, 2007, pp. 215–230). There are many common methods of assessment in use today; essay examination, multiple choice testing, written assignments, oral assessments, presentations, group projects, portfolios to name but a few. How do we know if one method would return a higher standard of assessment over another? How should we decide which method suits our assessment needs best? The main reason and function of assessment is to provide a balanced picture of the user’s strengths and weaknesses.

This chapter describes the development of four versions of a game for learning and comparative study carried out in a Singapore high school to shed light on the effectiveness of puzzle and narrative-based games in engaging students, their learning experience and understanding of the physics concepts of displacement and velocity. In particular, it describes the introduction of an off-screen character to help reach a synergy of fun and learning, through an optimal blend of design and development dimensions. The off-screen character achieves this through narration of an extended narrative/story intertwined with aspects of the learning topics. In this way the character’s purpose is twofold; firstly, as part of the narrative/story and secondly, as learning partner or assistant. Results from the study demonstrate that while some aspects of learning were comparable from both the puzzle and narrative versions of the game, the narrative versions provided a flexible and powerful approach to introduce technical/scientific terms and language associated with the topics of learning. In addition, players consistently rated the narrative versions as being more fun, more exciting, and more engaging. While relatively simple, it is argued that this approach is cost-effective and accessible in informing academics and teachers in schools in customizing their own virtual environments, simulations, games for learning, serious games, and commercially available off-the-shelf titles (COTS) with topics from the curriculum.

Educators eager to integrate serious games into the curriculum, but who are not trained or funded for game development, must choose an off-the-shelf or online game. These educators face a special set of questions. Current instructional design models do not address how a educator should conduct formative evaluation prior to the integration of online serious games or off the shelf games that are not specifically designed for their course. A team comprised of educators developed and tested an approach on evaluation and implementation of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) video games. The RCIPR model consists of five components for initial adoption of a game. This adoption model for evaluating COTS harnesses the power of player and instructor evaluation to achieve a comprehensive grasp of the deep learning made possible by playing a well-chosen video game. Additionally it emphasizes researching the game, working with IT personnel, piloting the game and documentation.

This chapter presents, from an ethnographic perspective, how the use of multiple media platforms promotes the learning of new literacies in school as proactive participants in virtual and transmedia universes. The main goal has been to design scenarios that develop children’s narrative thinking while they learn to tell stories with a video games adventure, particularly “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”. Data collection started on school year 2008/2009 and is currently ongoing. Twelve to thirteen year-old pupils of a public secondary school created a newspaper in their Spanish language class in which they told their adventures in the game. The students analysed the narratives of the game and generated new stories based on their own experiences. A teacher and the researchers have explored how pupils recognise that “there are many ways of telling stories” and that these are quite different depending on the “language” used to tell them.

In recent development of educational technology, Games-based learning (GBL) or Serious Games (SG) has shown its potential to support learning. Compared to eLearning, SG is considered more fun to use because of its interactivity. However, this advantage does not come without a cost that needs to be considered. It is considerably more complex to design an SG application than it is to design an eLearning tool. It involves not only the resources required to design an enjoyable game but also a pedagogical design which can be implemented through the game and is suitable for the efficient delivery of a given subject matter. In eLearning, learning materials constitute the required resources which are then managed and presented by web scripts. However, in SG, the resources include graphical and non-graphical assets of the game as well as the learning materials. The assets can include text, diagram and 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) objects. These resources are usually designed according to the story and environment design of the game. The learning content must fit the game story and the environment so the learning content falls within the context of the game. The game also requires an interactive system that allows the player to input, interact and manipulate objects within the game environment. This system usually involves scripting and programming. It is not an easy task to combine all these elements and consequently the development of an SG application requires more time and effort than does one for eLearning. Commercial games are usually developed using complex game engines and tools. Some of the game developer companies have released game engines and tools that allow modification of the original game. The variant of the original game is called a ‘mod’. The ‘mod’ is usually subject to commercial restrictions. However, modding is one of the potential solutions for the SG developers to create an SG application which looks like commercial games in considerably faster way. Since this facility was first introduced, there has been a growing interest in modifying or ‘modding’ commercial games and there are now numerous online communities dedicated to various types of ‘mods’. One of the best-known ‘mods’ tools is NeverWinter Nights 2 (NWN2). The tool has pre-defined graphical assets and basic functions which allow the developer to create a satisfactory 3D RPG game for educational purposes. The NWN2 engine and tool also allow scripting which makes it a flexible resource for the developer to create new functions when required. As an example, a SG application which is used to teach Structured Query Language (SQL) has been developed by the author. SQL is the standard database programming language and it is one of the essential skills required in information technology. In this chapter, the development life cycle of SG and commercial games ‘mod’ tools currently available will be discussed. The chapter will then examine the design and development of an SG application to teach SQL.

Until recently, the use of graphically rich virtual environments was limited to enthusiasts who could afford suitable hardware. However, personal computers are increasingly equipped with powerful graphics hardware as standard, allowing game-like technologies such as Second Life to be adopted by a broad range of users. This has enabled a widespread interest in the use of virtual worlds in education. The research presented in this chapter advances the work which has already been done by the SLOODLE project to provide a general support framework for formal education in virtual worlds. The area of attention is on providing an integration with web-based VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments), which are already in use by many education institutions. The methodology used focuses on issues of software usability, with a view to providing a groundwork for further pedagogical research.

Gameification (or, gamification) is becoming an increasingly popular technique to motivate learners, yet little theory or empirical evidence is available to support its use. In the present chapter, instructional design in relation to games and gameification is explored, including discussion of the psychological determinants of learning. The extant research literatures surrounding online social media, learning-by-testing, and goal-setting theory are then integrated in order to provide a scientific rationale for gameification. The resulting integrative theory of gameification in learning suggests that students may learn more by completing tests than they do when studying, that students can be motivated to complete such tests by offering them social rewards in the form of carefully designed virtual badges, and that these badges should be offered in an online social context which students find meaningful in order to motivate them to action. To examine this integrative theory, an online social network with gameification elements was created and deployed in a Psychology department at a major east coast university in order to motivate students to complete optional online multiple choice quizzes. The system was highly successful; 29% of participants opted to complete gameified optional multiple choice quizzes and on average reported those quizzes as fun, enjoyable, and rewarding. This proof-of-concept study is discussed in terms of its implications for both undergraduate education and employee training, including a list of current “best practices” regarding social game implementation.

We have been using a game-enhanced learning approach to teaching programming to first-year undergraduates since 2007–2008. This has been a very positive experience, both in terms of improved student engagement in class and better student performance, as measured through examinations and coursework. The purpose of this chapter is to summarize that experience for those who may be interested in taking a similar approach in their own teaching. The approach is captured in a game-enhanced learning framework (GEL) that has been developed in a form suitable for use in most teaching situations. The rationale for the framework is described, together with an outline of its structure, an explanation of how it can be used, and a summary of the results obtained in experimental case studies. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the lessons learned overall.

Most serious games are developed for student use by professional programmers and educational researchers. However, when the target student population are computing science students, then further exploitation of serious games to support learning can be gained through asking the students to develop the serious games themselves. Much work has been undertaken in recent years in the fields of problem-based and other enquiry-based approaches to structure and drive more independent student learning. Generally such approaches involve organising students into teams, and requiring the student teams to solve ‘problems’ over a period of time. Students gain many important ‘soft skills’ such as communication, working with others, and time management. Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) drives student learning by having them design and develop solutions to complex, non-trivial, real-world problems, that require them to bring together many different aspects of their chosen domain of learning, to solve a task. In recent years such EBL approaches have begun to be used in technical subjects such as engineering and computing science. A computer game is a very appealing deliverable to ask a team of computing students to develop, since they already have a clear idea of what the software system does, and the importance of the user interface. This chapter first reviews several fields of educational and computing research, before describing several case studies in which computing undergraduates were asked (or volunteered) to develop serious games as part of their studies. The chapter aims to form an argument for the benefits to computing students of becoming serious games developers, and attempts to frame that argument with reference to existing research and informal analysis of the case studies described.

The way people have been learning and living is constantly evolving. Whereas, a couple of decades ago, society required a workforce dominated primarily by the ‘production-line’ paradigm, nowadays the balance has tipped towards the necessity of a work-force which is dynamic, innovative, creative, and able to deal with problems in the most efficient manner. These characteristics are most often inherent of ‘Gamers’ or that section of the work-force which society is harbouring. This chapter will explore some of the characteristics, which games are capable of extracting and extrapolate them to a learning continuum shifting from the individual to the more collaborative framework. Ultimately this chapter aims to show why a shift in the mentality needs to occur when it comes to education and learning, as we move forward in the same steps which games have successfully undertaken.