Learning goals in games - Tallinn University & SEGAN summer school

Learning Goals
in Serious Game Specification
Jože Rugelj
University of Ljubljana
Faculty of Education
Chair of Didactics of Computer Science
Tallinn Univeristy Summer school
2013
1

Introduction
 Characteristics of efficient approaches to education:
 student centered
 problem based
 motivational
 active
 directed to higher ordered educational goals
 supported by ICT
 Serious games can integrate most of the
characterstics mentioned above.
 Take the simplest and most efficient technology!
Tallinn Univeristy Summer school 2013
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Games and learning
 Children’s play is important activity where they develop
skills for life regardless of age or level of development:
 quick adoption to new circumstances
 handling change with ease.
 When child plays, she discovers concepts from real world
and fundamental relationships between them are made.
 Games provide motivation for learning, thus increasing
the chance that the desired learning outcomes will be
achieved.
 But motivation is just prerequisite for learning.
It is not enough!
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Serious Games
 Serious games must
 have well defined learning goals and
 promote development of important strategies and
skills to increase cognitive and intellectual abilities of
learners.
 Important elements contributing to educational values of
games are sensual stimuli, fantasy, challenge and
curiosity (desire to know or learn).
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 In well designed serious games instructional content is
blurred within game characteristics.
 Students play the game and have fun, forgetting about
the “learning” part of the experience.
(Eventhough they are constantly presented with new
concepts which they have to adapt in order to be
successful in game.)
 Important role of pedagogs and cognitive psychologists in
definition of learning goals and didactical approaches in
serious learning games design.
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 The first step in development process is to determine
what you want the learning outcomes to be!
(e.g. affective change, behavioural change, productivity
improvement, what will be result of game intervention, ...)
 Learning goals are exprresed in terms of learning
outcomes.
 What people learn? (i.e. different types of knowledge:)
 facts
 concepts
 rules
 procedures
 soft skills
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 Different types of game design techniques to effectively
convey knowledge.
 Knowledge to be taught dictates the design techniques
and game mechanics.
 ! Mistake: Using same techniques to teach different types
of knowledge
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 Classification schemes == hierarchies for defining
knowledge (Bloom's taxonomy):
 lower levels prerequisite for upper
 identification of type of content and the domains
 Meno’s paradox:
“How can you learn something you know nothing of?”
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Game design process - SADDIE
Phases in production process
 Specification of “didactical problem”
 Analysis
curricullum, time, resources, technology, …
 Design
content, “story”, graphical, feedback, …
 Development
 Implementation
 Testing and Evaluation
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Specification phase
 It is mainly didactical task
 Done by teacher or other expert for teaching/learning
 Identifiaction of weak points in learning process that need
special support
 Identification of learning goals and outcomes
 Some general ideas about the solution of the identified
problem.
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Specification and analysis
 Analysis phase should bring more info and the framework
for the final product (i.e. didactic game)
 Analysis of learning outcomes:
 type of knowledge required
 didactical methods (instructional strategies) needed
 game techniques
 Types of knowledge to be learned (Kapp, 2012):
 declarative
 conceptual
 rule-based
 procedural
 soft skills
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Web portal for serious games at FE UL
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 hrast.pef.uni-lj.si/igre
 hrast.pef.uni-lj.si/games

Declarative knowledge
 = factual knowledge = verbal knowlege
 Any piece of info that can be learned through
memorization
 Consists of
 facts
 terminology
 jargon, acronyms
 Needed for higher levels, facts need to be learned first
 Usually based on behaviourist learning theory
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Methods for teaching facts
 Elaboration
linking new info with previous info, showing relation of new facts
with previous knowledge (context)
 Organising
placing facts into logical groupings, "chunking”
 Association
linking term to its image, linking term to its definition
 Repetition
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Game techniques for declarative knowledge
Stories
 Brain has natural affinity to narrative construction.
 Facts can be better remembered when told in a story than
presented as a list.
 Legal arguments are more convincing in a narrative tale than in
a legal precedent.
 Elaboration techniques for embedding facts in known
context.
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Sorting and matching
 Learner needs to place content into appropriate location
or connect two objects/facts (on factual level or above)
 Example: Johnny’s World of Hardware
Replayability
 Playing games more times, with some changing elements,
suports memorization.
 Keeping content fresh, but still conected to facts that need
to be memorized.
 Examples: Calculus drill games
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“Johnny’s World of Hardware”
 The goal of the game is to help Johnny to repair
computer.
 Learning goal:
 getting familiar with PC components
 Mini games for collecting points
(repetition, matching)
 Points needed to buy damaged
components (story)
 Target audience: primary school
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Conceptual knowledge
 Grouping of similar or related ideas, events or objects
 They have common attribute or set of attributes
(ex: concepts of: free market, math proofs, virus, Trojan horse ...)
 Instructional strategies
 Methaphoric devices
 Examples and non-examples
 Attribute classification
 Game techniques
 Matching and sorting items or contents based on the attributes
of that items, not based on memorisation
 Experiencing the concept players are learning about
 Experiencing examples and non-examples of the concept
Tallinn Univeristy Summer
school 2013
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“Planets of Variables” game
 The goal of the game is to organize the logistics for delivery
of goods to some planets in the universe.
 Learning goals:
 variables (types, declarations,…)
 assignments
 Target audience: primary school
 Semantic model, independent
of syntax
 Understanding of concepts
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2013

Learning goals
 Pupil after playing a game
 understands the idea of variable,
 knows variable has a name,
 is aquainted with with types of variables,
 is aware of the fact that different types are not compatible,
 knows that different types require different amount of memory,
 is familiar with assignement statements,
 is aware of meaning of both “sides” of assignment,
 knows what is the value of variable after assignment,
 can predict the values of variables after executing part of a
program (with several assignements).
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Game 1: Cleaning up the mess in the lab
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Game 2: Carriers
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“Sick computers” game
 Student project in the Use of ICT in Education course
 The learning goal of the game is to explain how viruses,
worms and Trojan horses affect computers.
 Target audience:
secondary school
 Understanding of concepts
 Game technique:
Doctor (player) talks with the
patients and tries to diagnose
their “disease”.
Then he can prescribe
appropriate medicine.
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26
2013

Didactic game about functions/procedures
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TIME MESH game
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 Serious learning game for learning history
topics of common interest, important for European history
 EU LLP Comenius 2 years project, 7 partners from 6 EU
countries (PT, ES, BE, UK, EE, SI)

TIME MESH
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 Adventure game, player moves back to history, using time
machine (stories).
 The game helps to imagine life in certain history periods
and to get familiar with certain concepts (e.g. Enigma machine)
 Player is active participant in historical events.
 Option for collaborative playing
 Can be used in a classroom as introductory activity or for
revision, or as a homework
 http://www.timemesh.eu
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Rule-based knowlege
 Rule is a statement that express relationship between concepts.
 Rules provide parameters dictating a preferred behaviour with
predicatble results (e.g. etiquete).
 Providing examples
 Role playing
 Game techniques:
 experience consequences of not following the rule,
 simulate work tasks,
 playing board games that outlines and provides the rules that
must be learned,
 sorting or matching items according to rules to be learned.
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“Nick and Social Networks” game
With the help of applications will make students familiar about the pros
and cons of social networks. The player helps the main character Niko
to increase its popularity
so that the correct
decisions relating to the
use of social networks
to collect points and
consequentlly friends.
Every correct decision
increases the number
of friends who want to
attend his birthday
party.
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The objectives of the game are that the student learns get
familiar with social network, its strengths and weaknesses. It
can also provide information and develop the right attitude
toward the protection of property rights and privacy.
The game is aimed
at primary school
children, who learn
about internet
safety and social
networking.
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Procedural knowledge
 A series of steps that need to bo followed in particular
order to reach a specific outcome
 Step by step instructions for performing a task
 Start with a “big picture”
 Teach “how” and “why”
 Game techniques
 Practice following the procedure in difficult situation (simulator)
 Presenting challenge to overcome following the procedure
 Experiencing procedure in various modes
(demo, tutorial, play mode/test, free play, ...)
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“Forced landing” game
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Fiona and Computer Network
 Student project in the Use of ICT in Education course
 The goal of the game is to help Fiona to connect to the
Internet and to set up local area network
 Learning goals:
 to set up networking components
 Target audience: secondary school
 Learning procedures needed to set
up a local area network
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Learning goals and goals of the game
 Learning goals are usually not identical to goals of the
game
 Computer games motivate via fun, instant visual feedback,
challenge, curiosity and fantasy, active participation,
intrinsic and prompt feedback, challenging (achievable)
goals and mix of uncertainty and open-endedness.
 Achivements usually represent goals in the game.
 Achivements affect:
 performance,
 motivation,
 attitude.
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Measurement vs. Completion Achievements
 Measurement Achievements (MA)
 MA given to player for completing task to certain degree.
 Performace measured against other players, own performance
or standard set by game designers.
 MA are evalutive in nature => can be linked to feedback
=>reflection increases perception of competence =>intrinsic
motivation
 Completion Acheivements (CA)
 offered as an award for completening task
 no assessment of player’s performance of task
 performance contingent vs. non-performace contingent achiv.;
(latter requires no skills or efforts to complete)
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 rewards can decrease players sense of authonomy
=> less intrinsic motivation
 getting a reward also decrease willingness for replay
 players less likely take risks (to get a reward earlier)
 Boring tasks need to be “paired” with extrinsic motivations
(e.g. achievements)
 intrinsic motivation not affected by rewards
 Interesting tasks do not need achivements, learners just
need feedback.
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Achievement Difficulty
 Actual difficulty needs to be on a level, that is attainable
but challenging for players. (i.e. ZPD)
=> best performance and enjoyment
 Player’s efficacy must be high enough for them to feel
confident in attempting it.
 Four factors affecting self efficacy:
1. level of expertise on the subject matter
2. vicarious* experience (e.g. using leaderboard)
*experienced in the imagination through the feelings/actions of another person
3. social persuasion: givng s.o. verbal boost (e.g. “well done”)
4. how a person feels: stress level, emotional condition, percieved
physical state.
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Goal Orientation
 Two types of goal orientation:
 performance orientation
 mastery orientation
 Performance orientation:
 player concerned with others’ performance
 typical for games
 less in-game risks
 less exploration
 player typically perform better only with simple, non-complex tasks
 For complex tasks (creativity, strategies) instill mastery
orientation.
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 Permanence and visibilty of achievements
 Negative achievements
 do not punish player for failures
 rather provide feedback within the system
 Achivements as currency
 currency for completening tasks
 use currency to enhance game
 it shoud not be the main reason for playing
 Competitive vs. non-competitive (cooperative) achievements
 advanced players can help less experienced
 keep groups small
 metrics should assess individual performance within group
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Use of games in classroom
 Limited time for use of alternative teaching/learning
resources in formal education
 Hints how to overcome this problem
 Each of the presented methods has some positive effects
on teaching/learning
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Suggested methodologies
 Game as a motivation before the lecture
 Teacher playing game during the lecture
 Game as a group activity in the classroom
 Game as a home activity / independent learning
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Motivation before the lecture
 The importance of motivation
 The game environment can be used to focus the student’s
attention on what needs to be learned
 Motivational elements
 Illustration of the era (time and space)
 Identification with the main character
 Activities:
 Teacher showing scenes as an illustration before the lesson
 Teacher showing parts of the game before the lesson
 Recommendation: the activity should be followed by gameplay
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Teacher playing game during the lecture
 Still traditional approach, but with the attractive/multimedia
elements
 Illustration of the teacher’s explanation of the theme
 Motivational elements:
 Illustration of the era (time and space)
 Identification with the main character
 Activities:
 Teacher playing parts of a game during the lesson
 Teacher playing minigames during the lesson
 Recommendation: the activity should be followed by gameplay
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Game as a group activity in the classroom
 In collaboration with pupils from other locations
 Constructivistic approach – not classical lectures
 Flow experience
 Challenge of the game that should fit the ability of the player
 Feeling of control of the situation
 Clear, appropriate and immediate feedback
 Peer interaction
 Collaboration: responsibility for the learning outcomes of the group and
others
 Activities: Playing the game in groups during the lesson
 Recommendation: time consuming – plan enough time (min. 2
hours)
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Game as a home activity
 As a continuation of the first two methods
 As a independent activity, but followed by analysis and
reflection in classroom
 Flow experience
 Challenge of the game that should fit the ability of the player
 Feeling of control of the situation
 Clear, appropriate and immediate feedback
 Activities:
 Home activity followed by discussion/group work in classroom based on
the game, making joint conclusion, detecting and correcting
misunderstandings
 Recomendation: some initial background is needed
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Project SEGAN (LLP)
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SEGAN - Community of Practice about Serious Games
 It produces reports on the design, development, and
evaluation of Serious Games and their use in specific
contexts.
 Network supported by virtual tools and face to face events.
 SEGAN results also include:
 development of a repository with products and projects related to
Serious Games
 setting up of small-scale, local events on the design and
development of Serious Games
 setting up of a series of annual European conferences and
Summer Schools
http://seriousgamesnet.eu
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Conclusions
 Game can be very “powerful” instructional technology.
 Its use can be justified by all relevant learning theories.
 But it can only be efficient when it is properly designed
and properly integrated into learning / teaching!
 Knowledge to be taught (i.e. learning goals) dictates
the design techniques and game mechanics.
 Very challenging topic in computer science teacher
education!
2013
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Learning goals in games - Tallinn University & SEGAN summer school

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