Design and Develop a Cybersecurity Education Framework Using Capture the Flag (CTF)

The rise of cyber threats is projecting the growth of cybersecurity education. Malaysian students who are interested in studying computing and information technologies suffer from knowledge and skill gaps because the earliest exposure of formal computer knowledge happens only at tertiary level education. In addition, the ever-evolving cyber landscape complicated the gaps and exposure. This chapter reveals the learner's motivation factor through an exploratory study in a national level cybersecurity competition. By simulating a real-world cyber landscape, a customized cybersecurity game, Capture the Flag was designed, developed, and validated as an experiment to study the relationship between learners' motivation and achievement level.

Linking the Elements of Learning, Assessment, and Play Experience in a Validation Framework

Educational games are often described as a balancing act between the entertainment aspects of video games—be it the engagement, motivational, or immersive advantages of it—and the serious subject matter of teaching, learning, and assessment. Thus the key challenge of game-based learning is how the merging of these two aspects could assist in the knowledge retention and application of the subject matters within the real-world environment, especially in the realm of education. The chapter proposes a validation framework that can link elements of learning and assessment in a subject matter to play experience in educational games before those games are developed. The framework will allow game designers and developers to understand the cognitive processes of learning, not only in designing effective educational games, but also to comprehend the intricacies and connections between learning and principles of game design. This in turn enables game researchers to develop effective educational games which are pedagogically and ludologically sound.

Exploring the Use of Prediction Markets as Digital Games to Support Learning in a Project Management Context

A growing area of study is the management of complex projects involving stakeholders dispersed across organizations. Key to the success of complex projects is encouraging stakeholders to learn and communicate useful information about work progress and potential risks. Increasingly, companies are using a gaming approach to encourage workers to learn and communication useful information. This chapter looks at one such gaming vehicle, namely prediction markets. Prediction markets are games in the form of marketplaces that adapt many of the same structures found in stock markets to aggregate information about the probability of future events. This chapter traces the developmental history and application of prediction markets, discusses issues in marketplace design, and explores how game-based learning principles can support the use of prediction markets in this context. The concluding section discusses the application of a prediction market to support the management of an IT project.

A Framework of Childhood Obesity Prevention Through Game-Based Learning

Childhood obesity is a global health issue that should be resolved in order to prevent obesity prolonged into adulthood. This chapter presents a framework of childhood obesity prevention through game-based learning among preschool children. A provisional framework was developed by adopting to the obesity treatment algorithm set by the National Institutes of Health. A mobile game titled Fight Obesity 2.0 was created to examine the validity of this provisional framework. The technical validity of the framework was checked through the International Age Rating Coalition, while the ecological validity was endorsed through interview conducted with pediatricians. The framework was revised based on the input of the validation processes. A set of guiding principles was prepared for medical professionals, game designers, preschool teachers, and parents who intend to use the revised framework of game-based childhood obesity prevention.

Sustain City

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in interactive narrative-based serious games for education and training. A key challenge posed by educational serious games is the balance of fun and learning, so that players are motivated enough to unfold the narrative stories on their own pace while getting sufficient learning materials across. In this chapter, various design strategies that aim to tackle this challenge are presented through the development of Sustain City, an educational serious game system that engages students, particularly prospective and beginning science and engineering students, in a series of engineering design. Besides narrative-learning synthesis, supplementing the player's actions with feedback, and the development of a sufficient guidance system, the chapter also discusses the integration of rigorous assessment and personalized scaffolding. The evaluation of Sustain City deployment confirms the values of the serious games in promoting students' interests and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Accessible Mobile Rehabilitation Games for Special User Groups

This chapter presents viewpoints of 104 users upon trials on four mobile games which combine cognitive stimulation and physical exercise in rehabilitation. The first game requires users to control by tilting a mobile phone embedded in a balance board; the second game can be controlled by tilting the tablet computer; the third game is a modified version of Trail Making Test A—a memory test that can be played by tapping figures on the screen of tablet computer; and the fourth game is an activation game with a special controller, dedicated for people with severe physical limitations. Users welcomed the use of games as self-rehabilitation tools that can be adjusted according to personal skills and limitations. The games not only gave them meaningful activities, but also saved time and efforts of professional care takers who might be unable to socialize frequently with clients.

A Coaching Framework for Meta-Games

Since mid-2000s, online coaching games emerged as meta-games which support players who need professional training for knowledge and skills in playing specific games. This chapter presents a case study of a coaching game for first-person shooters (FPS) involving a collaboration between a game-based learning researcher, a professional FPS coach, and a team of game developers. The focus of this study is how the collaborative team balanced the seriousness of a coaching needs and the fun of game playing systematically. The object of this study was to propose a coaching framework for designing and developing meta-games for use in mastering various genres. To achieve this objective, the researcher discussed with professors in sport science, interviewed with professional gamers, conducted multiple brainstorming sessions with game developers, and analyzed design documents of published FPS titles. The proposed coaching game framework—when used appropriately—can be a guide for coaching in different game genres.

A Systematic Design Model for Gamified Learning Environments

This formative research study is an attempt to develop a design model for gamified learning experiences situated in real-life educational contexts. This chapter reports on the overall gamification model with the emphasis on the contexts and their interactions. With this focus, this chapter aims to posit an alternative perspective to existing gamification design praxis in education which mainly focuses on separate game elements, by arguing that designing a gamified learning experience needs a systematic approach with considerations of the interrelated dimensions and their interplays. The study was conducted throughout the 2014-15 academic year, and the data were collected from two separate groups of pre-service teachers through observations and document collections (n=118) and four sets of interviews (n=42). The results showed that gamification design has intertwined components that form a fuzzy design model: GELD. The findings also support the complex and the dynamic nature of gamified learning design, and the need for a more systematic approach to design and development of such experiences.

How Game-Based Learning Works and What It Means for Pupils, Teachers, and Classroom Learning

This chapter discusses the results of a systematic literature review, a needs analysis through a pupil survey, and a case study of classroom observations in the context of primary education. The results of the overall findings, limitations, underlying issues, and emerging concepts are associated to how game-based learning (GBL) works and what it means for pupils, teachers, and classroom learning. This chapter presents the main contributions to the body of knowledge in GBL study, while offering best practice recommendations for designing engagement in GBL. This in turn outlines a framework of how GBL may work in the classroom. The framework identifies elements, features, and factors that shape how engagement occurs and how learning progresses in gameplay within GBL environments.