1. Serious computer games
as instructional technology
Jože Rugelj
University of Ljubljana
Faculty of Education
Chair of Didactics of Computer Science
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2. Introduction
 Information society and a need for knowledge
 Explosion of info sources and accessibility
 Data ≠ info ≠ knowledge
 Need for more efficient approaches to education
 student centered
 problem based
 motivational
 active
 directed to higher ordered educational goals
 supported by ICT
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3. Games
 Game is a structured or semi-structured context where
players have goals that they try to achieve by overcoming
challenges.
 Players must respect a set of rules that exist in reference
to that restricted context.
 Failure to follow those rules constitutes mistake and implies
a penalty.
 Games can involve one player acting alone, two or more
players acting cooperatively, and, more frequently, players
or teams of players competing between themselves.
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4. When an activity is a game?
 Lots of different opinions from various researches about
characteristics that make certain activity a game.
 Johnston suggests that such features:
 dynamic visuals,
 well defined goals,
 applied rules, and
 constant interaction.
 Thorton claims the most important aspect of the game is interactivity.
 Malone points out four elements of computer games:
 fantasy,
 curiosity,
 challenge, and
 control.
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5.  For Garris the most important elements of every game are:
 competition,
 challenge,
 social interactions,
 conversion, and
 fantasy.
 Prensky states that game can be characterised by six key elements:
 rules,
 goals and objectives,
 outcomes and feedback,
 conflict/competition/challenge/opposition,
 interaction,
 representation or story.
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6.  Authors of the book “Serious games” define game as
voluntary activity (a form of freedom) separated from
real life (imaginary world that may have or not have
relation to real life), absorbs the player’s full attention
and is played according to established rules that all
players have to follow.
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7. Involvement and engagement
 An important aspect of playing a game is intensity of
involvement and engagement that games can invoke.
 Positive experience of being fully engaged in an activity is
described as a state of “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi).
 Flow represents an optimal state of performance at a
task, a sense of enjoyment and control, where an
individual’s skills are matched to the challenges faced,
with clear goals, feedback, high degree of control and
where users are absorbed to the extent that they lose a
sense of time and self.

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8.  Prensky summarizes this as: “In the flow state, the
challenges presented and your ability to solve them are
almost perfectly matched, and you often accomplish things
that you didn’t think you could, along with a great deal of
pleasure. There can be flow in work, sports, and even
learning, such as when concepts become clear and how to
solve problems obvious.”
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9. Conditions for inducing “flow”
 Malone characterised conditions that induce state of flow:
 activity should be structured so that player can increase or
decrease the level of challenges faced in order to match exactly
personal skills with the requirements for action,
 it should be easy to isolate the activity from other stimuli, external
or internal, which might interfere with involvement in it,
 there should be clear criteria for performance; a player should be
able to evaluate how well or how poorly (s)he is doing at any time,
 the activity should provide concrete feedback to the player, so that
she can tell how well she is meeting the criteria of performance,
 the activity ought to have a broad range of challenges, so that the
player may obtain increasingly complex information about different
aspects of her/himself.
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10. Games and learning
 Importance of child’s play on development of emotional,
social, physical and cognitive skills has been
emphasized by the leading psychologist of the last
century.
 Children’s play is one of the most important activities
where they develop important skills for life regardless of
age or level of development:
 quick adoption to new circumstances
 handling change with ease.
 When child plays, she discovers basic concepts from real
world and first fundamental relationships between them
are made.
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11.  Jerome Bruner, educational and cognitive psychologist:
“Play provides a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere in which
children can learn to solve variety of problems, making him able to
efficiently cope with complex problems of real world”.
 Jean Piaget, the author of the most influential theory of
children’s intellectual development:
“The primary functions of all organisms is adapting to an
environment.”
“Play is incorporation of new intellectual material into the already
existing cognitive structures, without a corresponding alteration of
the structures themselves”.
“Play is consolidation of newly learned behaviour. Repetition of
learned concepts makes them an established part mental
repertoire.”
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12.  Vygotsky stated:
Play contain in a concentrated form all developmental tendencies -
the most significant psychological achivements of the early childhood
occur while children engage in play.
 Zone of proximal development is term for the difference
between the range of tasks that a child can complete
independently and those completed with the guidance and
assistance.
 Play creates a broad zone of proximal development in
cognitive and also socio-emotional development. Children
perform above their cognitive abilities when they are
engaged in play.
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13.  A lot of educational computer games designed according to
behavioristic theory of learning: tutorials, which are
basically forms of programmed instruction.
 one correct answer, immediate response
 positive response (happy sound, positive character reaction that
stimulate positive emotions), instance of action-reaction pair
enforced.
 with wrong answer the connection has to be weaken and reaction
is provided in a form of negative stimuli.
 Trivia games, quizzes, point and click games…all of them
have drill and practice concept build in a very core of the
game design and are broadly used in game based learning.
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14. Cognitivism
 Cognitive learning theory emphasizes learner cognitive
activity and formation of appropriate mental models.
 The truth is “out there” and we are learning fundamental
concepts and then using logical deduction to gain new
knowledge.
 The most advanced forms of cognitive theory based games
are intelligent tutoring systems:
 use machine learning algorithms to model student’s current
knowledge, his learning style and emotional responses.
 ITS compare that to the model of expert knowledge in order to
provide personalized materials enhancing the learning process.
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15. Constructivism
 Constructivism is an alternative view suggesting that learners
construct their own knowledge  a number of individually
constructed knowledge representation, all equally valid.
 Learning is active process of constructing rather the acquiring
knowledge, built recursively on knowledge that user already has.
 In a process of construction, sensory data is combined with existing
knowledge to create new viable mental models, which are in turn the
basis for further construction.
 Constructivist learning emphasizes discovery and inquiry learning
arguing that students should be placed in an environment (which can
be modeled with computer game) where they construct their own
knowledge.
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16.  3 fundamental principles defining the constructivist view of
learning:
1. Each person forms their own representation of knowledge
2. Learning occurs when the learners exploration uncovers an
inconsistency between their current knowledge representation and
their experience
3. Learning occurs within a social context and interaction between
learners and their peers is a necessary part of the learning process.
 Learning materials provide instruction that consists of
supporting the knowledge construction rather than declaring
the knowledge in behavioristic fashion.
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17.  Computer game simulations replicate various real-life
scenarios in computer game format. They present model of
abstracted reality in which learner inhabit a certain role.
 The role of teacher is to provide guidance and feedback
when student is learning – constructing viable mental
models.
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18. Reasons for using games in education
 In formal education we experience a shift from traditional
didactic model, focused on instruction, to learner-centred
model which emphasizes the active learner’s role.
 We changed the view of learning goals from lower taxonomic
levels (just recalling information), to higher levels, such as
finding and using of information in a new settings.
 Games can provide motivation for learning, thus increasing
the chance that desired learning outcomes will be achieved.
 Gross claims that games must have well defined learning
goals and must promote development of strategies and skills
to increase cognitive and intellectual abilities of learners.
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19.  According to Malone and Garris the elements contributing to
educational values of digital games are
 sensual stimuli (visual and audio representations of learning
material),
 fantasy (context presented in imaginary setting),
 challenge (demanding or stimulating situation) and
 curiosity (desire to know or learn).
 These elements must be incorporated on an integrated
platform, to structure objectives and rules, a context of
meaningful learning, an appealing story, immediate
feedback, a high level of interactivity, challenge and
competition, random elements of surprise and rich
environments for learning.
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20. Elements of games
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21. Motivation
 Games have positive impact on student motivation.
 Motivated learner is enthusiastic, focused, engaged,
interested, tries hard, persists over time, is self-determined
and driven by its own volition which results in enhanced
learning and in accomplishing instructional objectives.
 Self-determined learner behaviour can stem from both
intrinsic motivation (i.e., the learner engages in an activity
because it is interesting or enjoyable) and from extrinsic
motivation they termed identified regulation (i.e., the learner
engages in the activity because he or she desires the
outcome and values it as important).
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22.  Computer games motivate via fun, instant visual feedback,
challenge, curiosity and fantasy, active participation,
intrinsic and prompt feedback, challenging but achievable
goals and mix of uncertainty and open-endedness.
 What makes computer game educational?
 They must have well defined learning goals and have to
promote development of important strategies and skills
to increase cognitive and intellectual abilities of learners.
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23. Serious computer games
 We also need good learning materials so learners will
actually gain new knowledge from materials presented in a
computer game form.
 The main characteristic of educational game is that
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.)
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24.  We should foster motivation with game design that
promotes repeating the cycles within game context.
 Player is expected to elicit desirable behaviours based on
emotional and cognitive reactions that result from
interaction with and feedback from gameplay.
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25. 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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26. 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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27. 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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28. 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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29. Game as a group activity in the classroom
 In collaboration with pupils from other locations
 Constructivistic approach – not classical lectures
 Motivational elements:
 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.
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30. 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
 Motivational elements:
 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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31. SELEAG
 EU LLP Comenius 2 years project
 7 partners from 6 EU countries
(PT, ES, BE, UK, EE, SI)
 Serious learning game for learning history
 topics of common interest, important for European history
 Game development and evaluation of its use
for learning
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32. Project SEGAN (LLP)

33. 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 relatedto
SeriousGames
 setting up of small-scale, local events on the design and
development of SeriousGames
 setting up of a series of annual European conferences and
SummerSchools
http://www.facebook.com/groups/segan

34. TIME MESH – serious learning game
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35. TIME MESH
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36. Local episode from WW II in Ljubljana
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37. Testing with history teachers
• Motivational
• Helps imagine life in certain history period
• Can be used in a classroom or as a homework
• For introductory activity or for revision
• Various activities
• Interesting storyline
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38. Serious games projects
 Design of serious games is suitable for teacher education.
 Students at the Faculty of Education, UL, design and
implement serious games as a part of their study activities.
 The profile of graduates from “CS in education”
 Different learning goals for students:
 analysis of all crucial elements,
 identification of learning goals by teachers / curriculum,
 definition of a didactical approach,
 specification of technical requirements,
 implementation,
 testing and evaluation,
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39.  Serious games were designed and implemented by:
 graduates as diploma work
 by groups of four undergraduate students
in the 4th year of CS teachers study program
 Games selected for presentation:
 World of Variables
 Logical Operators
 Bitty and Routers
 Fiona and Computer Network
 Johnny’s World of Hardware
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40. Web portal for serious games at FE UL
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41. Design process
 Specification of “didactical problem”
 Analysis phase
curricullum, time, resources, technology, …
 Design
content, “story”, graphical, feedback,
 Implementation
 Testing and evaluation
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42. World of Variables
 Diploma thesis
 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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43. Logical operators
• Diploma thesis
• The goal of the game to save
the trapped princess
• Learning goals:
 logical operators
 first-order predicate calculus
• Target audience: primary school
• Initial testing, determines starting point in the game
• Explanation of basic concepts, exercising and
“collecting points”
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44. Bitty and Routers
 Student project in the Use of ICT in Education course
 The goal of the game is to send a mail massage via
computer network.
 Learning goals:
 getting familiar with routing
 understanding IP addressing
 Target audience: primary school
 Player travels in IP packet and
decides in each router where to go
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45. 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
 Understanding of concepts
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46. Johnny’s World of Hardware
 Diploma thesis
 The goal of the game is to help Johnny to repair computer.
 Learning goals:
 getting familiar with PC components
 Target audience: primary school
 Mini games for collecting points
 Points needed to buy damaged
components
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47. Conclusions
 Game is very powerful instructional technology.
 Its use can be justified by all relevant learning
theories.
 But it can only be efficient when it is properly
integrated into learning / teaching
 Very challenging topic in computer science teacher
education!
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