| Don't Panic: Enhancing Soft Skills for Civil Protection Workers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-12 | |
| Ines Di Loreto; Simone Mora; Monica Divitini | |||
| Don't Panic is a serious game created to enhance soft skills in the crisis
management field. The game is conceived to (i) add the fun element to training
about stressful situations linked to panic management and (ii) teach skills
such as communication styles, team management and coordination, time
management, stress management and coping strategies. In this paper we present
the first paper-based version of the game and its evaluation. The paper
discusses the game design motivations, the methodological reasons behind its
conception, and presents a pilot study. Results show that, even in its paper
version, the game is a promising tool if linked with adequate and realistic
procedures. This opens methodological questions about the role of computer
based serious games. Keywords: Serious Games; Crisis Management; Civil Protection; Board Games; Evaluation;
Soft Skills | |||
| Health Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 13-30 | |
| Alex Gekker | |||
| This paper presents an exploratory research of health games in EU, focusing
on the role of multiplayer in the health-games experience, utilizing the
health-game taxonomy suggested by Sawyer and Smith [1], combined with a
preliminary survey of fity existing European health games in order to point out
existing trends and suggest currently untapped venues of exploration. First, a
theoretical review is presented, utilizing framework from the humanities and
cultural studies in order to address what seen as a design issue with
contemporary serious health games. Then, the results of a quantitative study of
existing health games are presented, and analyzed through an existing taxonomy.
Last, based on the lacunas found in the taxonomy, a thorough theoretical
analysis is undertaken on their possible reasons, and suggestions on design
methodologies are introduced through a comparison with existing commercial
multiplayer games. Keywords: serious games; health games; game taxonomy; multiplayer; procedural
rhetoric; asynchronous multiplay | |||
| A Serious Game for Training Balance Control over Different Types of Soil | | BIBA | Full-Text | 31-42 | |
| Bob-Antoine J. Menelas; Martin J. D. Otis | |||
| It is known that the type of the soil can affect balance. Here we report a serious game designed for training users at maintaining balance over five types of soil (broken stone, stone dust, sand, concrete and wood). By using an augmented shoe and proposed navigation metaphor, in this game, the user is invited to browse a maze while standing balance over the physical grounds. During the exploration, exercises targeting assessment of balance control are suggested. To insure the effectiveness of this training program, four exercises based on the Berg Balance Scale and the Tinetti Balance Assessment Tool are incorporated in the game. | |||
| Constructionist Learning in Anatomy Education | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 43-58 | |
| Minhua Ma; Kim Bale; Paul Rea | |||
| In this paper we describe the use of 3D games technology in human anatomy
education based on our MSc in Medical Visualisation and Human Anatomy teaching
practice, i.e. students design and develop serious games for anatomy education
using the Unity 3D game engine. Students are engaged in this process not only
as consumers of serious games, but as authors and creators. The benefits of
this constructionist learning approach are discussed. Five domains of learning
are identified, in terms of what anatomy students, tutors, and final users
(players) can learn through serious games and their development process. We
also justify the 3D engine selected for serious game development and discuss
main obstacles and challenges to the use of this constructionist approach to
teach non-computing students. Finally, we recommend that the serious game
construction approach can be adopted in other academic disciplines in higher
education. Keywords: Serious games; game engines; game development; medical education; human
anatomy; anatomy education; constructionist learning | |||
| Interdisciplinary and International Adaption and Personalization of the MetaVals Serious Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 59-73 | |
| Margarida Romero; Mireia Usart; Maria Popescu; Elizabeth Boyle | |||
| Serious Games (SG) in Higher Education should be able to be adapted to
particular learning needs and different university contexts in a sustainable
way. In this respect, this study aims to describe the adaptation and
personalization mechanism through the analysis of a case study developed in
three countries and learning contexts. The adaptation is analyzed through the
perspective of the perceived usability, utility and ease of use of the game in
Spain, the UK and Romania. First results point to a positive evaluation by
users of adaptable games, in the particular field of SGs for adult formal
education. Future releases of the MetaVals game will be addressed towards the
implementation of a complete and multi-language management interface, together
with an improvement of the present static design. Keywords: Serious Games; Adaption; Personalization; Higher Education | |||
| Serious Games Adoption in Corporate Training | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 74-85 | |
| Aida Azadegan; Johann C. K. H. Riedel; Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge | |||
| Corporate managers are constantly looking for more effective and efficient
ways to deliver training to their employees. Traditional classroom methods have
been used for a long time. However, in the last decade electronic learning
technology has gained in significance. Serious Games are games that educate,
train and inform using entertainment principles, creativity, and technology.
Serious Games are proven as a learning method for conveying skills on complex
tasks by incorporating sound learning and pedagogical principles into their
design and structure. Therefore, it is believed that Serious Games have got the
potential to be used to meet government or corporate training objectives.
However, the awareness and adoption level of serious games by industry is not
known.
In this research we designed and conducted a pilot survey among UK-based companies. We used the survey in order to assess the level of awareness and adoption of Serious Games in companies for corporate training. We aim to understand what kinds of skills development Serious Games-based trainings are desired by companies and to know what they perceive the benefits and barriers of using Serious Games are in companies. This paper describes the stages of the design of the survey questionnaire, presents and analyses the results and ends with conclusions and a discussion about the future research work. Keywords: Serious Games; Innovation Adoption; Awareness; Corporate Training | |||
| Towards Participative and Knowledge-Intensive Serious Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 86-97 | |
| Nour El Mawas; Jean-Pierre Cahier | |||
| We propose the "Architecture for Representations, Games, Interactions, and
Learning among Experts" (ARGILE) for participatory and knowledge-intensive
serious games. Faced with the problem of training on professional practices in
areas of advanced expertise, reference knowledge are neither stabilized nor
unanimous, but rather dynamic and continuously evolving. Moreover, the
practitioner does not make decisions based on pre-established recipes, but it
is brought to trial and error, to discuss with peers and to discover solutions
in complex situations that are proposed. That's why the rules and the game
objects must be easily annotated, discussed and modified by trainers and
players themselves. We present in this paper a methodology, tools and technical
architecture to design, use and evaluate such serious games. ARGILE allows
ensuring the participatory design of rules of the game and involving debate
among designers. We illustrate concretely the ideas presented on an example
related to "Aidcrisis" an ongoing project which uses this architecture for
training in action in a crisis situation (Aidcrisis project). Keywords: participation architecture; e-training; serious games; Knowledge
Engineering; cooperation; discussion forum | |||
| Towards Designing for Competence and Engagement in Serious Games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 98-109 | |
| Erik D. van der Spek | |||
| Through a series of game design experiments evidence was found signifying
the importance of feeling competence as a driver for engagement during
gameplay. Engagement during gameplay is important both as a motivation to play
games, as well as for serious games to improve cognitive interest and thereby
the learning efficacy of the game. Consequently, a number of design guidelines
are proposed, both on the local and global level of the game, to enhance the
feeling of competence and thereby engagement of the game. Keywords: game design; designing for competence; engagement; serious games;
experiential learning; self-determination theory | |||
| Blended In-Game and Off-Game Learning: Assimilating Serious Games in the Classroom and Curriculum | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 110-122 | |
| Tim Marsh; Li Zhiqiang Nickole; Eric Klopfer; Jason Haas | |||
| This paper describes a comparative study to investigate the efficacy of
interactive games, non-interactive media and traditional instructional teaching
on mathematics and science learning with high school students (aged 13-14).
Utilizing a blended in-game (narrative and puzzle games) and off-game
(machinima/animation and teacher) learning approach to assess the efficacy,
together with survey of teachers' opinions on the introduction of serious games
and blended learning approaches, the results shed some light on the integration
/ assimilate of serious games into the classroom and curriculum. Keywords: Narrative; Puzzle; Games; Learning; Machinima; Analysis | |||
| A Computer Game Based Motivation System for Human Physiology Studies | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 123-134 | |
| Tintu Mathew; Jochen Zange; Joern Rittweger; Rainer Herpers | |||
| Maximal strength testing of different muscle groups is a standard procedure
in human physiology experiments. Test subjects have to exert maximum force
voluntarily and are verbally encouraged by the investigator. The performance of
the subjects is influenced by the verbal encouragement, but the encouragement
procedure is not standardized or reproducible. To counter this problem a
game-based motivation system prototype is developed to provide instant feedback
to the subjects and also incentives to motivate them. The prototype was
developed for the Biodex System 3 Isokinetic Dynamometer to improve the peak
torque performance in an isometric knee extensor strength examination. Data
analysis is performed on torque data from an existing study to understand
torque response characteristics of different subjects. The parameters
identified in the data analysis are used to design a shark-fish predator-prey
game. The game depends on data obtained from the dynamometer in real time. A
first evaluation shows that the game rewards and motivates the subject
continuously over a repetition to reach the peak torque value. It also shows
that the game rewards the user more if he overcomes a baseline torque value
within the first second and then gradually increases the torque to reach the
peak value. Keywords: serious game; human physiology study; game based motivation system; visual
encouragement | |||
| Lessons Learnt from Contextualized Interactive Story Driven Development Methodology | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 135-149 | |
| Manuel Fradinho Oliveira; Heiko Duin | |||
| The advances in innovative responsive educational and training delivery
platforms has not cease, with serious games taking centre stage in new crop of
solutions promising to deliver reduced time-to-competence of employees at
anytime and anywhere. Irrespective of the technical and pedagogical merit of
such solutions, the challenge remains the same, how to develop the required
content that is grounded in the relevant learning domains (eg: project
management) and provide effective learning experiences at good value. This
paper presents the Contextualized Interactive Story Driven Development (CISD2)
methodology to develop content for serious games aimed at providing situated
contexts for the development of competences, relying on the contributions of a
multidisciplinary team. The framework has two distinct strands, one focuses on
the contextualization of situated contexts, whilst the other focuses on the
desired competences to acquire and their model, leading to the observed
behaviours that may be measured and calculated as performance of the desired
competences. Both strands have four distinct layers, starting at conceptual
level and finishing with the actual story implementation that provides the
effective transformation of learners according to the intended learning
outcomes and that such transformation can be measured. When progressing through
the layers, CISD2 recognizes the need of making decisions to reduce the scope
and avoid feature creep. Keywords: Game design; competence development; serious game | |||
| Value Propositions for Serious Games in Health and Well-Being | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 150-157 | |
| Rosa García Sánchez; Alasdair G. Thin; Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge; Giusy Fiucci; Thierry Nabeth; Michel Rudnianski; Angelo Marco Luccini; Kam Star | |||
| There are many different potential applications for Serious Games (SGs) in
the field of Health and Well-being. While a significant number of SGs have
already been produced, there is often a lack of consideration of the business
aspects of the development including the market realities for a particular SG
application. The development of a value dimensions framework and the analysis
of a representative sample of SGs across a range of different Health and
Well-being functional (market) sectors revealed significant diversity between
functional sectors. Furthermore, an additional level of complexity may be added
when the end-users of a SG are separate and distinct entities from the
stakeholder(s) commissioning (and paying) for the development of a SG and as a
result may differ in their perceptions of value. It is recommended that value
propositions need to be carefully considered when planning the development of
SGs in the field of Health and Well-being. Keywords: Serious Games; Value Dimension; Value Proposition; Health; Well-being | |||
| Dealing with Threshold Concepts in Serious Games for Competence Development | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 158-169 | |
| Stefano Bocconi; Yulia Bachvarova; Martin Ruskov; Manuel Fradinho Oliveira | |||
| This paper presents an approach to integrate Threshold Concepts into a
Serious Game based learning platform aimed at learning soft skills such as
leadership, stakeholder involvement and negotiation. Threshold Concepts are
concepts that once grasped, transform the way a learner sees a discipline,
marking the difference between a novice and an expert. However, learners have
difficulties when dealing with Threshold Concepts as they are counter
intuitive. Therefore the design of a Serious Game needs to take into account
the existence of Threshold Concept that may affect the overall learning
experience of the learner, and subsequently design recovery actions when the
hoped learning effect does not take place. In this paper we describe what
Threshold Concepts are and how they were taken into consideration in the scope
of the TARGET project when doing the design of the Game-Based learning
platform. Keywords: Threshold Concepts; Serious Games; Game-Based; Learning; Competence
Development | |||
| Betaville -- A Massively Participatory Mirror World Game | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 170-173 | |
| Martin Koplin; Carl Skelton | |||
| Changes to the urban fabric share some of the same characteristics as new
software applications, whether at the relatively small scale of a new public
sculpture or the very large scale of new buildings, parks, roads, or entirely
new districts. In particular, they present overlapping issues with special
regard to the question of participation. This paper addresses some of those
issues by discussing the Betaville project in particular. Keywords: Participatory design; 3D-modelling; real-world games; urban development;
user-generated culture | |||
| Logical Thinking by Play Using the Example of the Game "Space Goats" | | BIBA | Full-Text | 174-182 | |
| Thorsten Wahner; Moritz Kartheuser; Stefan Sigl; Jördis Nolte; Axel Hoppe | |||
| The idea of "Serious Games" mainly describes games that generate overvalue.
According to James P. Gee's learning theories, game worlds are some of the best learning environments imaginable as they encourage the utilization of the actively learned skills in other domains. The game "Space Goats" is designed according to these principles. The graphical scripting interface it uses encourages logical thinking, while the "game characteristic" is retained. Thus, the player does not realize he is being taught. | |||
| Squaring and Scripting the ESP Game: Trimming a GWAP to Deep Semantics | | BIBA | Full-Text | 183-192 | |
| François Bry; Christoph Wieser | |||
| The ESP Game, like other Games With A Purpose (GWAP), tends to generate "surface semantics" tags. This article first discusses why this is the case, then proposes two approaches called "squaring" and "scripting" to collecting "deep semantics" tags that both consist in deploying the ESP Game in unconventional manners. It also reports on a very positive first experimental evaluation of the two approaches. It finally briefly discusses the relevance of squaring and scripting for other GWAPs than the ESP Game. | |||
| The Application of the CISD2 Methodology for the Definition of a Serious Game Competence-Based Learning Scenario in the Domain of Sustainable Manufacturing | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 193-207 | |
| Gregor Cerinsek; Heiko Duin; Fiorella Colombo; Borzoo Pourabdollahian; Stanislaw Plebanek | |||
| The main aim of this paper is to follow the Contextualized Interactive Story
Driven Development (CISD2) Methodology to support the definition of a serious
game competence-based learning scenario in the domain of sustainable
manufacturing. The core competence to be addressed by the scenario is the
"Ability to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)" in a globally acting
manufacturing enterprise. The resulting content can be used as input by the
serious game developers in specifying the stories to be implemented. Finally,
some first evaluation results on learning outcomes are provided. Keywords: serious game; sustainable manufacturing; life cycle assessment; content
development; competence-based learning | |||
| Evaluating the Validity of a Non-invasive Assessment Procedure | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 208-218 | |
| Paul C. Seitlinger; Michael A. Bedek; Simone Kopeinik; Dietrich Albert | |||
| Recent developments in serious games allow for in-game adaptations to
enhance the learner's current cognitive, motivational or emotional state.
Providing suitable adaptations requires a valid assessment of the
psycho-pedagogical constructs the game should adapt to. An explicit assessment,
e.g. by questionnaires occurring repeatedly on the screen, would impair the
learner's game flow. Therefore, a non-invasive and implicit assessment
procedure is required. In the course of the European research project TARGET,
we established an assessment procedure which is based on the interpretation of
the learner's actions in the virtual environment, called Behavioural Indicators
(BIs). A set of 16 BIs has been formulated to assess the learner's current
emotional, motivational and clearness state. In this present work, we describe
how these BIs can be validated and focus on the innovative elements of the
methodological procedure, the material, experiential considerations and the
statistical analysis to be applied in an empirical study. Keywords: Evaluation; Validation; Non-invasive Assessment; Motivation; Emotion;
Problem Solving | |||
| Challenges and Opportunities in Evaluating Learning in Serious Games: A Look at Behavioural Aspects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 219-230 | |
| Sobah A. Petersen; Michael A. Bedek | |||
| In this paper, we describe an approach to modelling competences as learning
resources in a serious game environment, where competences are described in
detail to identify observable behavioural indicators. This enables the
evaluation and assessment of learning, where specific behaviours indicate if a
player does or does not have a competence. We have used the OKEI Competence
Modelling Framework to describe the competences, where the application of a
competence in a specific situation or within a context can be modelled. The
main focus of this paper is to analyse and discuss the opportunities and
challenges that we have experienced during this work. While the approach is
resources intensive to describe the competences in sufficient level of detail,
it provides a reusable set of Behavioural Indicators that can be used both in
designing and evaluating other Technology Enhanced Learning applications. Most
importantly, the work provided important input for the design of the game
scenarios in describing situations and relevant contextual information as well
as input for improving the believability of the avatars in the game. Keywords: Evaluation; Serious Games; Behaviour; Competence Assessment; Game Design;
Character Design | |||
| AmbiLearn: Enhancing the Learning Environment for Primary School Education | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 231-242 | |
| Jennifer Hyndman; Tom Lunney; Paul Mc Kevitt | |||
| Technology is at a stage where it has infiltrated the education system with
the potential to enhance teaching and learning. In Northern Ireland a Virtual
Learning Environment (VLE) infrastructure is in place. However, statistics and
government reports suggest that VLE use amongst the primary school sector is
quite limited. In an attempt to redress the limited use of VLEs in the primary
school sector this research investigates the potential of serious games and how
they may compliment the National Curriculum with the development of AmbiLearn,
an enhanced learning environment with a content neutral game-based approach and
content creation and reporting modules. This paper presents the design and
implementation of AmbiLearn. Preliminary analysis of data from evaluation of
AmbiLearn shows promising results and directions for future work are discussed. Keywords: Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs); Educational Games; Assessment for
Learning; AmbiLearn; Content neutral; Game-based approach | |||
| Developing Serious Games Specifically Adapted to People Suffering from Alzheimer | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 243-254 | |
| Bruno Bouchard; Frédérick Imbeault; Abdenour Bouzouane; Bob-Antoine J. Menelas | |||
| To face new challenges caused by society aging, several researchers have
initiated the experimentation of serious games as a re-education platform to
help slowing down the decline of people suffering from Alzheimer. In the last
few years, academic studies have been conducted and some commercial products
(Nintendo's Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, etc.) have emerged. Nevertheless,
these initiatives suffer from multiple important limitations since they do not
really suit perceptual and interaction needs of silver-aged gamers, more
specifically people suffering from Alzheimer disease. In an effort to address
this important issue, we present in this paper a set of specific guidelines for
designing and implementing effective serious games targeting silver-aged and
Alzheimer's patients. Our guidelines cover the following aspects: (i) choosing
right in-game challenges, (ii) designing appropriate interaction mechanisms for
cognitively impaired people, (iii) implementing artificial intelligence for
providing adequate assistive prompting and dynamic difficulty adjustments, (iv)
producing effective visual and auditory assets to maximize cognitive training.
Also, as a case study, we present the prototype of our new serious game for
Alzheimer's patients. Keywords: Serious games; Cognitive training; Alzheimer disease; Adaptation;
personalization | |||
| Experience in Serious Games: Between Positive and Serious Experience | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 255-267 | |
| Tim Marsh; Brigid Costello | |||
| This paper discusses the conceptual, practical and ethical considerations
towards the development of a framework of experience to inform design and
assessment of serious games. Towards this, we review the literature on
experience in interaction design, HCI, and games, and identify that the
dominant focus for design has been, and still remains, on positive and fun
experience. In contrast, anything other than positive experience is often
loosely and sometimes inappropriately lumped together under the broad label
"negative experience" which can imply bad experience and something to be
avoided, while at the same time suggesting it's not useful to design. While
work in HCI and the games literature begins to address experience beyond
positive, it just scratches the surface. By turning to drama, performance,
literature, music, art and film that has shaped experiences and emotion beyond
the positive and fun for many years, we describe what experience beyond
positive looks like, show how it is not always "uncomfortable" and how it can
be classed as entertainment, and argue for the more appropriate term "serious
experience". We propose that the focus for design of interaction and serious
games should be an appropriate rhythm between positive and serious experience.
Finally, we discuss the importance of the take-away message and positive and
serious experience in serious games to linger or resonate post-encounter for
players in order to encourage reflection and fulfill purpose, and describe
associated ethical concerns and make recommendations for designers, evaluators
and practitioners in order to safeguard players/users. Keywords: Positive Experience; Negative Experience; Serious Experience; Framework;
Design; Assessment; Linger; Resonate; Reflection | |||