Interactivity, Process, and Algorithm

The most serious impediment to the progress of serious games is the difficulty of grasping the abstract concept of interactivity. Our brains are prejudiced in favor of thinking in terms of objects rather than processes. A firm grasp of interactivity requires a process-oriented way of thinking that does not come easily.

Citizen Science

In order to adapt to the educational demands of an increasingly digitized and globalized society, reformers have pointed toward games and their communities as potential models for what 21st-century educational systems might look like. As educational game research develops as a field, the need for design frameworks that leverage contemporary perspectives on education, learning, and established commercial game design techniques grows. In this chapter, the authors briefly describe current educational demands that highlight a shift away from content-focused curriculum and outline the design process used to make the game Citizen Science, a game to teach civic science literacy. By providing insight into the process of design, the authors hope to illuminate the relationship between theory and its enactment.

Serious Games for the Classroom

The University of Oklahoma’s K20 Center shares the process of developing a massive multiplayer online game. This chapter identifies the process used to meet the challenge for the design, prototype, development, and beta test of a digital game-based learning environment. The project’s goal was to develop a self-regulated constructivist learning environment where students work in groups to solve a series of complex, ill-structured problems. The multiuser game provides an interactive learning experience which allows students to experience authentic intellectual work in a virtual representation of a real-world context. Students are challenged through their participation in an interdisciplinary environment that leverages a real-world problem to utilize the different perspectives of the four major disciplines. The authors provide a description of the project’s efforts to develop a shared learning space that creates scaffolding of social support of other students and a gaming environment that emulates successful elements of commercial video games to ensure an engaging learning experience for all students.

eGaming and Girls

Schools and libraries are considering the incorporation of egaming because of its attraction to youth and its potential benefit for instruction, developing information literacy skills and facilitating academic success. Although egames are played by most youth, egaming has gender-linked properties: extent of play, choice of games, social interaction in gaming (such as role-playing games), and novice gaming practice. School libraries are uniquely positioned to provide resources and services to insure gender-equitable gaming experiences: gaming periodicals, opportunities to select and review games, collaboration with classroom teachers, and single-sex activities. The emerging trends of casual gaming, mobile egaming, and gaming design offer opportunities that can attract girls, which teacher librarians can leverage in their services. Their efforts can also contribute to the larger arena of serious games.

Aligning Problem Solving and Gameplay

Problem solving is often discussed as one of the benefits of games and game-based learning (e.g., Gee, 2007a, Van Eck 2006a), yet little empirical research exists to support this assertion. It will be critical to establish and validate models of problem solving in games (Van Eck, 2007), but this will be difficult if not impossible without a better understanding of problem solving than currently exists in the field of serious games. While games can be used to teach a variety of content across multiple domains (Van Eck, 2006b, 2008), the ability of games to promote problem solving may be more important to the field of serious games because problem solving skills cross all domains and are among the most difficult learning outcomes to achieve. This may be particularly important in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), which is why serious game researchers are building games to promote problem solving in science (e.g., Gaydos & Squire, this volume; Van Eck, Hung, Bowman, & Love, 2009). This is perhaps why serious game researchers are building games to promote problem solving in science Current research and design theory in serious games are insufficient to explain the relationship between problem solving and games, nor do they support the design of educational games intended to promote problem solving. Problem solving and problem-based learning (PBL) have been studied intensely in both Europe and the United States for more than 75 years, and while the focus of that study and conceptualization of problem solving have evolved during that time, there is a tremendous body of knowledge to draw from. Most recently, researchers (e.g., Jonassen, 1997, 2000, & 2002; Hung, 2006a; Jonassen & Hung, 2008) have made advances in both the delineation and definition of problem types and models for designing effective problems and PBL. Any models and research on the relation of games and problem solving must build on the existing research base in problem solving and PBL rather than unwittingly covering old ground in these areas. In this chapter, the authors present an overview of the dimensions upon which different problems vary, including domain knowledge, structuredness, and their associated learning outcomes. We then propose a classification of gameplay (as opposed to game genre) that accounts for the cognitive skills encountered during gameplay, relying in part on previous classifications systems (e.g., Apperley, 2006), Mark Wolf’s (2006) concept of grids of interactivity (which we call iGrids), and our own cognitive analysis of gameplay. We then use this classification system, the iGrids, and example games to describe eleven different types of problems, the ways in which they differ, and the gameplay types most likely to support them. We conclude with a description of the ability of problems and games themselves to address specific learning outcomes independent of problem solving, including domain-specific learning, higher-order thinking, psychomotor skills, and attitude change. Implications for future research are also described. We believe that this approach can guide the design of games intended to promote problem solving and points the way toward future research in problem solving and games.

Sacred Geographies

In this paper, the author suggests that designers create serious games by turning to an interesting class of stories called sacred scenarios. Such sacred stories are found in many, if not all, cultures. These are richly promising sources for game narratives: They are serious yet entertaining; they combine fantasy with deeply held and emotionally charged visions of life; they offer situations that express basic human experiences; and they bring together the basic elements of story—plot, action, and spatial setting—in rich and surprising ways. They are also easy to program and can be used to create complex narrative experiences from simple elements. The author describes different modes of these sacred scenarios and sketch some possible games to be drawn from this source.

Examining Motivational Factors in Serious Educational Games

One of the assumptions in promoting serious educational games is that such engagements are playable and enjoyable. The social cognitive research has already generated and tested a number of motivational theories and models. To advance both theoretical developments and empirical research into serious educational games, it is beneficial to examine the relevant motivational factors from existing social cognitive perspectives. Although there have been some studies in the field of simulations and games reporting elevated self-efficacy and reduced learner anxiety under certain circumstances, it is important to conduct systematic research to examine learner motivation in the context of educational games and select appropriate tools for checking motivational elements in instructional design.

Methodological Considerations in Educational Research Using Serious Games

The literature on using serious games for learning has been growing exponentially during the last decade. It is time to examine some methodological issues associated with this line of research. There is evidence that research on serious games, if designed with methodological rigor and executed properly, such as the serial studies of prisoners’ dilemma, modality effect in individual interactive learning, and changes in attitude toward mathematics in a computer-based simulation game, can be fruitful and have a profound, positive impact on learning and training. Since adopting serious games as an educational technology tool is by no means cheap, we should ensure that methodological issues are carefully considered before conducting a study on educational games. Whereas there are excellent studies in the existing literature of simulations and games, it is not uncommon for some studies to adopt convenience samples or own-control designs. Studies on serious games tend to be conclusive if they have used true experimentation, well-controlled quasi-experimental design, surveys with representative samples and validated instruments, comprehensive design research, or training programs having a pretest–posttest design with group comparisons. The potential values and informative contributions of using different methodologies for serious game research should be recognized because of the ecological relevance. Future research should pay more attention to randomized sampling, controlled but feasible research design, validity of instruments, appropriate analytical methods, and interdisciplinary or cross-disciplinary research to enhance the internal/external validity of various approaches. In regard to analytical methods, both quantitative approaches and qualitative evaluations, if applied appropriately, are considered as valuable, indispensable, and complementary to each other. It is hoped that this chapter can be helpful not only for future researchers in this field to design and execute rigorous projects but also for wider readership to understand and evaluate research outcomes in the discipline of serious games.

Persuasive Play

Little research has examined the underlying psychological mechanisms of persuasive play. The purpose of the current study is to examine the explanatory potential of information processing approaches in a game-based learning context. Starting from the elaboration likelihood model, the authors theoretically develop a three-step model to explain how individual player characteristics (e.g., game preference) influence cognitive learning and attitude change through mediating variables like player motivations (e.g., personal involvement) and player evaluations (e.g., perceived realism). This model is empirically tested through a secondary analysis of survey data collected from Flemish adolescents (N = 538) in the 5th and 6th grade of secondary education. On the whole, the authors’ results emphasize the importance of information processing variables as predictors of cognitive and attitudinal learning outcomes.

Evaluating Video Game Design and Interactivity

An emergent, bottom-up construction of video game interaction is presented, drawing from influences in ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1967), grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), and activity theory (Cole & Engeström, 1993; Kaptelinin & Nardi, 2006; Vygotsky, 1978). Following, a qualitative case study highlights the use of affordances, or potentials for action, during video game player interaction among peers and the game interface. Relationships among affordances and levels of activity are presented, which broaden the concept of affordances to include motivations. Additionally, activity theory will complement analysis by introducing the mediational triangle (Cole & Engeström, 1993), providing a guide with which to analyze game player interactions and motives. The mediational triangle sheds light on the motivated activity itself, the tools available to complete the activity, and peer relationships (such as role specialization and rules of interaction) to evaluate game designs and their ability to fulfill serious purposes with meaningful outcomes.