The Impact Of Digital Games On Learning Outcomes – Gartner’s hype cycle is best thought of as a way of thinking about new technologies rather than an actual representation of their development. For example, serious games tend to record slowly. Expectations of their possible impact on education have never been too high; indeed, for a long time they were written off as too expensive or unsuitable for serious education. However, this view has changed in recent years.
There are several different definitions of serious gaming. I have included two definitions that cover educational and corporate settings.
The Impact Of Digital Games On Learning Outcomes
A serious game in an educational environment is considered a purposeful learning environment that targets key areas of the curriculum for explicit learning. Serious games are games or interactive game-like systems developed using game technologies and design principles for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment.
The Negative Effects Of Video Games
Serious games are referred to as entertainment tools with an educational purpose, where players improve their knowledge and practice skills by overcoming numerous obstacles during the game.
It is important to distinguish between serious games, game-based learning and gamification due to differences in their purpose, approach and impact on learning.
Note that serious games are not necessarily digital. However, whether digital or not, they are guided by similar design principles such as mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics (Hunicke et al., 2004).
However, a large literature review by Dichev and Dicheva in 2017 found that research remains inconclusive about these assumptions. They also found that:
How Technology In Education Improves Student Engagement
Other studies tend to be more positive. Khamari et al. (2016) and Clark et al. (2016) found ample evidence that, when properly designed and under appropriate conditions, serious games significantly improve student learning compared to non-game settings.
A large number of findings in serious game-based learning, most … support, combined with a few negative results
However, the main benefits were in the affective domain (student ‘happiness’ and improved social learning and communication) rather than immediate improvements in cognitive learning outcomes, with the exception of natural sciences (improved retention and holistic understanding), architecture and medicine/health. In the latter, games helped children with autism to learn. Zhonggen reports:
Overall, … medical science has recently seen clearly more research on serious learning through games compared to other fields, and the majority of research in medical science supports the use of serious games
Evaluating The Evidence For Educational Technology
The Digital Education Strategies (DES) team at Metropolitan University of Toronto (formerly Ryerson University) has been involved in the development of several virtual game simulations, including:
Gam-based learning: Metropolitan University of Toronto’s Office of Academic Integrity, in collaboration with DES, developed a digital learning game called “Academic Integrity in Space” to motivate students to engage in self-study and learn the academic integrity, values and behaviors expected of students. . The goals of the game development team were to create a well-designed digital game that would meet the learning objectives of making choices, learning by doing, and experiencing situations first-hand through role-play.
Video game simulation: The Home Visit game promotes the application of knowledge and skills related to establishing a therapeutic relationship between a nurse and a client and completing a mental health assessment. Students assume the role of a community nurse assigned to complete a home visit. Video is used to create an authentic experience, and students must respond to particularly challenging situations based on procedures learned elsewhere in the course. Depending on the student’s response, further video segments are used to provide feedback and to continue the scripts to test the next appropriate procedure.
Faculty from Centennial College, Toronto Metropolitan University, and George Brown College have developed a series of open-access video game simulations through a virtual healthcare portal.
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Gamification: Kyle Geske, a lecturer at Red River College, Winnipeg, has developed a gamified approach to teaching web design. In his elective course, Complete Web Development, students are required to design a project according to guidelines provided by the instructor. At each stage of the design process within the project, students receive grades and compete throughout the course with other students who can see the grades at each stage for all other students. A student can “raise” their score by going back and improving each of the design steps. This approach resulted in higher grade point averages at the end of the course compared to more traditional classroom learning methods. Note that this course contains game elements such as competitions and “leveling up” without using the games themselves.
Building on previous research and led by Naza Jafarova, the Digital Education Strategies (DES) team at the H. Raymond Chang School of Continuing Education at Metropolitan University of Toronto has developed a practical guide for developing serious game-based learning based on the game research process. This guide is an open educational resource and is designed for three purposes:
The game development methodology is an adaptation of the Design, Play, and Experience (DPE) Framework developed by Winn (2009). The game development process consists of three stages:
The Digital Education Strategies team used the Design, Play and Experience model to identify the four main elements of an educational game:
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Figure 9.2.5 provides a more detailed representation of the various components of Ryerson’s serious game design methodology.
The Digital Education Strategies report suggests a workshop-based approach to developing serious games that involves all key stakeholders (content experts, instructional designers, media producers, etc.). Brainstorming in the early stages of design is considered important. The design also includes testing and user feedback before the game is released.
There are likely other effective design approaches, but the above approach highlights the essential interdisciplinary approach to serious game development.
These have yet to be clearly identified and confirmed, but two quite different claims are being made for serious games:
Student Centred Digital Game–based Learning: A Conceptual Framework And Survey Of The State Of The Art
In terms of the hype cycle, serious games are somewhere along the slope of enlightenment. Currently, there is no research to bring them to the plateau of performance, but in practice there is enough evidence that they are gaining popularity in education.
However, there are a number of reasons why serious games have not become more common in education. The first is philosophical. There is resistance to the idea of games because some see serious games as an oxymoron. How can a game be serious? Many teachers fear that learning can easily be trivialized through games, or that games can cover only a very limited part of what learning is supposed to be about – it can’t be fun; that is not the purpose of education. Similarly, many professional game designers are not interested in developing serious games because they fear that if the main goal is learning rather than fun, the focus on education risks killing the main element of the game: the fun of playing.
A more pragmatic reason is cost and quality. The perceived high cost of video games has thus far acted as a deterrent in education. There is no obvious business plan to justify the investment. For example, top-selling entertainment video games cost millions of dollars to produce on a scale similar to major motion pictures. If games are produced cheaply, won’t the quality — in terms of production standards, narrative/plot, visuals, and student engagement — suffer and thus become unappealing to students?
However, perhaps the main reason why serious games are not more common in education is that most educators simply do not know enough about serious games: what they are, how they can be used, and how to develop them. Experience shows that there are many possible and realistic applications for serious games in education. There is some evidence (see, for example, Arnab, 2014) that effective serious games can be developed at very low cost.
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However, there is always a high degree of risk involved in serious game development. There is no sure way to predict in advance that a new game will be successful. Some inexpensive simple games can work well; some expensive games can fail easily. This means thorough testing and feedback during development. Therefore, serious games should be considered more seriously for learning in the digital age, but their use should be careful and professional.
Thus, serious games are relatively high-risk, high-reward for learning in the digital age. Success in serious gaming means leveraging best practices in game development both within and outside of education, sharing costs and expertise, and collaborating across institutions and game development teams. However, as teaching in the digital age moves more and more towards the development of high-level skills, experiential learning and problem-solving in real-world contexts, serious games are bound to play an increasingly important role.
Dichev, C. and Dicheva Computers in Human D. (2017) Gamification education: what is known, what is believed and what remains uncertain: a critical review
Dzafarova N. and others. (2018) The Art of Serious Game Design Toronto ON: Chang School of Continuing Studies, Ryerson University
Game Based Learning: Preparing Students For The Future
Hamari J. and others. (2016) Challenging Games Help Students Learn: An Empirical Study of Engagement, Flow, and Immersion in Game-Based Learning
Hunicke, R., LeBlanc, M., and Zubek, R. (2004). MDA: A Formal Approach to Game Development and Game Research, in
Winn, B. (2009) ‘The design, play and experience framework’, in R. Ferdig (ed.), Handbook of research on effective electronic games in education. Hershey, PA: IGI Global (pp. 388–401).
Teaching in Digital