Practical, Appropriate, Empirically-Validated Guidelines for Designing Educational Games
1. Practical, Appropriate, Empirically-Validated Guidelines for Designing Educational Games Conor Linehan1, Ben Kirman1, Shaun Lawson1, Gail G Chan2 1Lincoln Social Computing Research Centre (LiSC), University of Lincoln 2 School of Health & Social Care, Oxford Brookes University
2. Structure Using games for education Integrating education & games design Building an educational game based on ABA Why? 1. Measure 2. Analyse 3. Feedback 4. Adapt
3. Why use games in education? Good question! Generally Grabbing attention Maintaining attention over long periods of time Time-on-task predicts learning Games engender time-on-task Also….
20. It goes on!! Lots of literature exists on why games should be good tools for education Very little on how to ensure that they are Hence, very little evidence for success O’Neill et al, (2005) review article Thousands of articles on educational games Only 19 had any sort of analysis of outcomes
23. We should should be able to make a case in advance that they will work.
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25. Games are funLearning is hardForcing people to learn in games can ruin the fun “Chocolate Covered Broccoli”
26. Integrating games design and education Can it be done? It has already been done! By Entertainment Games Designers! But games only teach how to jump over chasms, hack zombies, murder prostitutes, rescue princesses etc. We must understand the structure of games & use this in teaching
27. Integrating games design and education Game Structure: Short, medium and long-term goals Players must act to reach those goals Immediate, specific feedback Complex system of rewards Long complex tasks broken into short, simple tasks These are trained individually then chained together Mastery criterions
28. Structure Using games for education Integrating education & games design Building an educational game based on ABA Why? 1. Measure 2. Analyse 3. Feedback 4. Adapt
29. ABA ABA teaching Typically one-to-one Teacher as coach High performance targets Repetition Quantitative Specific timely feedback ~90% passing criterion Sound familiar? It’s very appropriate
30. The methods through which games designers motivate & engage players are very similar to the methods through which ABA teaches.
31. ABA Also have: Short, medium and long-term goals Must act to reach those goals Immediate, specific feedback Complex system of rewards Long complex tasks broken into short, simple tasks These are trained individually then chained together Mastery criterions
32. ABA Empirically validated: Successful wherever used University, secondary, primary, driver training, special populations. Early intervention for children with autistic spectrum disorders. Practical: ideal for machine implementation Quantitative; algorithmic
33. Structure Using games for education Integrating education & games design Building an educational game based on ABA Why? 1. Measure 2. Analyse 3. Feedback 4. Adapt
34. ABA Defining and measuring behaviour Recording and analysingbehaviour change Presenting corrective feedback Dynamically adapting to student performance
35. 1. Defining & Measuring Define: clear, observable learning outcomes Intrinsic learning (Habgood, 2007) Hierarchy Measuring: Behaviour must be quantifiable Those numbers should be meaningful
36. 2. Recording & Analysing Recording: Everything is recorded! meaningfully big benefit of games to ABA Analyse: change in behaviour Accuracy is dependent on how well behaviour has been defined, measured and recorded
37. 3. Corrective feedback Operant Conditioning Importance of consequences Reinforcement and punishment as appropriate Scheduling rewards and punishment Huge amount of evidence on how this should be done
38. 4. Dynamically adapting Challenges should be appropriate to the learner / player Balance / pacing ABA has developed algorithms that deal with this Evaluating effectiveness of feedback All ‘rewards’ are not reinforcing There are mathematical ways of evaluating the effect that rewards are having on player behaviour
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40. Conclusion To advance educational games we need a proven, appropriate scientific framework ABA teaches in a similar way to games, so it’s appropriate…. ….and very successful …..and Practical If not ABA, we need something very like it Read the paper!
41. Conor Linehan Lincoln Social Computing (LiSC) research centre clinehan@lincoln.ac.uk http://lisc.lincoln.ac.uk This work was carried out as part of the "Leonardo" project "Learn to Lead” funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Program (http://www.learn2lead.unina.it).
Notas del editor
45 - The paper is a review paper – 57 references. Very difficult to distil that into 15 minutes. I’ll try to say something interesting to make you go and read the paper.this talk will concentrate on what we CAN do, in practical terms. Frustration Funded by EC
1.10 - I’m proposing some guidelines here. In reality I’m proposing nothing new – just bringing together stuff that’s already out thereFirst explaining why these guidelines are appropriate and practical..Steps 1-4 all based on empirical research. If we adopt this approach to designing ed games we will be making choices based on empirical evidence, rather than a whim. This is the big advantage.
End of 19 – 2.00
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2.45 - Evidence for success – more has been done since, but there is still no coherence to the way this stuff is explained and interpreted. It’s difficult to know what to learn from a successful game without a theoretical framework through which to interpret
3.45 - Added to the lack of guidance in the literature……Games should be not only fun (still must be fun though)This is a very practical problemWe need an evidence base upon which to base our design choices
4.00 (15)An appropriate educational method will combine processes of education & game designBut its not straightforward
4.30 (45) But its not straightforward.This is a real problemMost games are neither fun nor educationally beneficial. The worst of both worldsHow do we get over this?
Games designers have already developed a very successful, incredibly engaging way of teaching.We need to identify those structural features of games that teach us.
Summary of the literature. There are obviously exceptions ……. The way we teach via games should also use these.Otherwise we’re missing the point.
7.10 (30) Need some empirical evidence on which to base our design choicesRemember we must be sure they will workQuantitative, evidence based form of teaching called ABA
8.00 (1.30) The methods through which games designers motivate & engage players are very similar to the methods through which ABA teaches.
8.15 (1.45)
8.45 (2.15) Just say - all of these things that we described games as having a few slides backThese are ridiculously similarIt makes sense to take what we’ve already learned in one field (ABA) and apply it to another in which we have little guidance (ed games)
9.45 (3.15) Title of paper – appropriate, empirically validate, practical.We’ve described how its appropriate – its also empirically validatedIf we’re going to teach via games, we should base those games on a form of teaching that is quantitative.The machine does the teaching!
7.10 (30) Need some empirical evidence on which to base our design choicesRemember we must be sure they will workQuantitative, evidence based form of teaching called ABA
In making an educational game, what guidelines can the ABA literature give? Whats the process?If we adopt this approach to designing ed games we will be making choices based on empirical evidence, rather than a whim. This is the big advantage.
Need to be able to tell when they have and have not learnedRemember there is literature on how to do all of these steps and why and how they work.
Recording and visualising data is one of the ways computer games can improve ABA programmesEverything they do is of interest to you. Must figure out beforehand how to make it effect future consequences/choices
Its in the literatureEnsuring that the game appeals to as many people as possibleThey’ve done the maths, tey use it in their teaching programmes – you just copy & paste it in
Might seem like a big problem, but this research has been done already
Have a look at this book if you’re interested in the nuts & bolts. Read my paper for an overview!Presents summaries and interpretations on decades of empirical research into just the kinds of things we’re interested in when making educational games
A lot of the science that we need in ed games has already been done by psychologists interested in learning