Presentation for University of Latvia, Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art, March 2012

1. Serious computer games
as instructional technology
prof.dr. Jože Rugelj
University of Ljubljana
Faculty of Education
Chair of Didactics of Computer Science

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
Ø student centered
Ø problem based
Ø motivational
Ø active
Ø directed to higher ordered educational goals
Ø supported by ICT

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.

4. 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:
Ø quick adoption to new circumstances
Ø handling change with ease.
§ When child plays, she discovers basic
concepts from real world and first fundamental
relationships between them are made.

5. § 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.”

6. § 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.

7. Elements of games

8. § Games can provide motivation for learning, thus
increasing the chance that the desired learning outcomes
will be achieved.
§ Motivation is needed by students to focus attention, but this
is not enough. 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.
§ Important elements contributing to educational values of
games are sensual stimuli, fantasy, challenge and curiosity
(desire to know or learn).

9. § A lot of educational computer games designed according to
behavioristic theory of learning: tutorials, which are
basically forms of programmed instruction.
Ø one correct answer, immediate response
Ø positive response (happy sound, positive character reaction that
stimulate positive emotions), instance of action-reaction pair
enforced.
Ø 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.

10. 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:
Ø use machine learning algorithms to model student’s current
knowledge, his learning style and emotional responses.
Ø ITS compare that to the model of expert knowledge in order to
provide personalized materials enhancing the learning process.

11. Constructivism
§ Constructivism is an alternative view suggesting that learners
construct their own knowledge è 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.

12. § 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.
§ The role of teacher is to provide guidance and feedback when
student is learning – constructing viable mental models.
§ 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.

13. 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.)

14. § 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.

15. Use of games in education
§ 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

16. 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

17. 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
Ø Illustration of the era (time and space)
Ø Identification with the main character
§ Activities:
Ø Teacher showing scenes as an illustration before the lesson
Ø Teacher showing parts of the game before the lesson
§ Recommendation: the activity should be followed by
gameplay

18. 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:
Ø Illustration of the era (time and space)
Ø Identification with the main character
§ Activities:
Ø Teacher playing parts of a game during the lesson
Ø Teacher playing minigames during the lesson
§ Recommendation: the activity should be followed by
gameplay

19. Game as a group activity in the classroom
§ In collaboration with pupils from other locations
§ Constructivistic approach – not classical lectures
§ Motivational elements:
Ø Flow experience
Ø Challenge of the game that should fit the ability of the player
Ø Feeling of control of the situation
Ø Clear, appropriate and immediate feedback
Ø Peer interaction
Ø 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.
2 hours)

20. 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:
Ø Flow experience
Ø Challenge of the game that should fit the ability of the player
Ø Feeling of control of the situation
Ø Clear, appropriate and immediate feedback
§ Activities:
Ø 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

21. SELEAG
§ EU LLP Comenius 2 years project
Ø 7 partners from 6 EU countries
(PT, ES, BE, UK, EE, SI)
§ Serious learning game for learning history
Ø topics of common interest, important for European history
§ Game development and evaluation of its use
for learning

22. TIME MESH – serious learning game

23. TIME MESH

24. Local episode from WW II in Ljubljana

25. 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

26. Project SEGAN (LLP)

27. 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:
Ø development of a repository with products and projects relatedto
SeriousGames
Ø setting up of small-scale, local events on the design and
development of SeriousGames
Ø setting up of a series of annual European conferences and
SummerSchools
http://www.facebook.com/groups/segan

28. 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:
Ø analysis of all crucial elements,
Ø identification of learning goals by teachers / curriculum,
Ø definition of a didactical approach,
Ø specification technical requirements,
Ø implementation,
Ø testing and evaluation,
28SEGAN project

29. § Serious games were designed and implemented by:
Ø graduates as diploma work
Ø by groups of four undergraduate students
in the 4th year of CS teachers study program
§ Games selected for presentation:
Ø World of Variables
Ø Logical Operators
Ø Bitty and Routers
Ø Fiona and Computer Network
Ø Johnny’s World of Hardware
SEGAN project 29

30. Web portal for serious games at FE UL
SEGAN project 30

31. Design process
§ Specification of “didactical problem”
§ Analysis phase
curricullum, time, resources, technology, …
§ Design
content, “story”, graphical, feedback,
§ Implementation
§ Testing and evaluation
SEGAN project 31

32. 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:
Ø variables (types, declarations,…)
Ø assignments
§ Target audience: primary school
§ Semantic model, independent
of syntax
§ Understanding of concepts
32SEGAN project

33. Logical operators
• Diploma thesis
• The goal of the game to save
the trapped princess
• Learning goals:
Ø logical operators
Ø first-order predicate calculus
• Target audience: primary school
• Initial testing, determines starting point in the game
• Explanation of basic concepts, exercising and
“collecting points”
33SEGAN project

34. 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:
Ø getting familiar with routing
Ø understanding IP addressing
§ Target audience: primary school
§ Player travels in IP packet and
decides in each router where to go
SEGAN project 34

35. 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:
Ø to set up networking components
§ Target audience: secondary school
§ Understanding of concepts
SEGAN project 35

36. Johnny’s World of Hardware
§ Diploma thesis
§ The goal of the game is to help Johnny to repair computer.
§ Learning goals:
Ø getting familiar with PC components
§ Target audience: primary school
§ Mini games for collecting points
§ Points needed to buy damaged
components
SEGAN project 36

37. 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!