The author presents the methodological backgrounds and underlying research design of an on-going scientific research project concerned with the scientific evaluation of serious games and/or computer-based simulation-games (SG) for advanced learning. The main questions of this research project are: 1. what are the requirements and design principles for a comprehensive social-scientific methodology for the evaluation of SG? 2. To what extend does SG contribute to advanced learning? 3. What factors contribute to, or determine this learning? 4. To what extend and under what conditions can SGbased learning be transferred to the real world (RW)? Between 2004 and 2012, several hundreds of SG-sessions in the Netherlands with twelve different SG were evaluated systematically, uniformly and quantitatively to give a data-set of 2100 respondents in higher education and in work-organizations. The author presents the research model, the quasi-experimental design and evaluation instruments. This focus in this article is on methodology and data-set to establish a proper foundation for forthcoming publications on empirical results.
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The authors analyze the policy discourse on the utility of games for society at the level of the European Union, and for five EU countries, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Norway. The ongoing study is part of a Research Roadmap developed within the GALA Network of Excellence on Serious Games (2010-2014, EU FP7). The authors identify four policy discourses on the utility of serious games that they label as Technology Enhanced Learning; Creative Innovation; Social Inclusion and Empowerment and Complex Systems. The polcies applicable to SGs in the five European countries are briely described and compared. It was seen that some countries have explicit policies for SGs (the Netherlands, Germany); whereas most of the countries only have implicit policies not directly addressing SGs but which can be used to support SGs development and use.
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© Springer International Publishing AG 2016. A serious game needs to combine a number of different aspects to help the end user in reaching the desired effects. This requires incorporating a broad range of different aspects in the design, stemming from a broad range of different fields of expertise. For designers, developers, researchers, and other stakeholders it is not straightforward how to organize the design and development process, to make sure that these aspects are properly addressed. In this chapter we will discuss a number of ways of organizing the design and development process and various models that support specific design decisions during this process, concluding with a discussion of design patterns for serious games.
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Enhancing the offer for entrepreneurship education is an important challenge for the nowadays knowledge societies. The eSG project is addressing this issue by analysing the added value that could be contributed by employing serious games (SGs) as a tool for allowing students in particular technology students - To become familiar, mainly through practice, with basic concepts of entrepreneurship and company management. This paper presents the main requirements for the course and SGs obtained by surveying literature, entrepreneurs, students and teachers. We represented the requirements in a table template keeping into account usability, pedagogy, the entrepreneurship skills expressed by state of the art models and three major axes for entrepreneurship education at universities. These table descriptors were then used to assess validity of SGs and choose an appropriate mix for the courses. We have also defined a set of metrics to evaluate the advancement of students during the course. Based on these tools and knowledge, the next steps of the project will involve extensive user testing in the actual courses that are being performed in Genoa, Delft and Barcelona.
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The authors present the methodological background to and underlying research design of an ongoing research project on the scientific evaluation of serious games and/or computer-based simulation games (SGs) for advanced learning. The main research questions are: (1) what are the requirements and design principles for a comprehensive social scientific methodology for the evaluation of SGs?; (2) to what extent do SGs contribute to advanced learning?; (3) what factors contribute to or determine this learning?; and (4) to what extent and under what conditions can SG-based learning be transferred to the real world? In the Netherlands between 2005 and 2012, several hundred SG sessions with 12 SGs were evaluated systematically, uniformly and quantitatively to create a dataset, which comprises data on 2488 respondents in higher education or work organizations. The authors present the research model, the quasi-experimental design and the evaluation instruments. This focus in this paper is on the methodology and dataset, which form a sound foundation for forthcoming publications on the empirical results.
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The paper draws a comprehensive overview of relevant.•The paper critically analyzes the state of the art, indicating directions for future research. The paper discusses adoption of Serious Games (SGs) for supporting development of an entrepreneurial mindset in university students of technical and scientific universities. The paper relies on the authors experience in the eSG project, which aims at introducing students, mainly through practice, to basic concepts of entrepreneurship and company management. In the framework of the project, courses have been designed and carried out in three different countries: Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.The paper discusses the main requirements for the courses and presents a table template, based on state of the art models for entrepreneurship education, that we have used for the scouting of the most suited SGs and defining the most appropriate mix for their use in the courses, keeping into account targeted competences and skills, usability and pedagogical effectiveness.Using the template, the paper draws a comprehensive overview of relevant SGs available on the market and identifies, through an expert analysis, key benefits and issues concerning their adoption in teaching entrepreneurship for the target students. Finally, the paper critically analyzes the state of the art, indicating directions for future research that should lead to development of more effective SGs for entrepreneurship education.
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The authors present the study design and main findings of a quasi-experimental evaluation of the learning efficacy of the Serious Game (SG) 'Hazard Recognition' (HR). The SG-HR is a playable, two-level demonstration version for training supervisors who work at oil and gas drilling sites. The game has been developed with a view to developing a full-blown, game-based training environment for operational safety in the oil and gas industry. One of the many barriers to upscaling and implementing a game for training is the questioned learning efficacy of the game. The authors therefore conducted a study into the game's learning efficacy and the factors that contribute to it. The authors used a Framework for Comparative Evaluation (FCE) of SG, and combined it with the Kowalski model for Hazard Detection and the Noel Burch competence model. Four experimental game sessions were held, two involving 60 professionals working in the oil and gas industry, and two with engineering students and consultants. Relevant constructs were operationalized and data were gathered using pre and post-game questionnaires. The authors conclude that the SG-HR improves players' skills and knowledge on hazard detection and assessment, and it facilitates significant learning efficacy in this topic. The FCE proved very helpful for setting up the evaluation and selecting the constructs.
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The authors explore how framing theory and the method of frame-reflective discourse analysis provide foundations for the emerging discipline of serious games (SGs) research. Starting with Wittgenstein's language game and Berger and Luckmann's social constructivist view on science, the authors demonstrate why a definitional or taxonomic approach to SGs is problematic and unfruitful. Using Goffman's frame analysis as an alternative, they construct four frames, with sample illustrations, demonstrating the different ways in which the utility of games for society, business and politics is considered. These are SGs as: (1) tool (therapy, drug), (2) innovation (economic utility), (3) persuasion (idea, belief) and (4) self-organization (complexity). The frames are based upon different values and perceive different impacts of games in society, business and politics. The authors discuss the implications of their approach.
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Worldwide, including Indonesia and the EU, current (agricultural) use in peatlands is based on massive water drainage. Because drainage leads to environmental problems, many scholars, policy makers and (agricultural) entrepreneurs are rethinking peatland use, aiming for more sustainable peatland management, based on rewetting. However, policymakers and governments often hesitate to implement measures in practice, because rewetting peatlands could have massive socio-economic impacts. Serious Gaming (SG) can facilitate the transition to more sustainable use of peat areas because it provides a safe environment in which social and physical impact of choices can be simulated and evaluated. The SG website http://peatland.eu/ aims to contribute to transition processes for sustainable futures by exploring processes of communication, participation, and social-ecological learning in peatland initiatives. Envisioning a similar impact of this virtual Living Lab it is the ambition to design http://peatland.asia/ and thereby provide a learning strategy for Higher Education Institutes and other interested parties. Achieving such strategy requires a transdisciplinary approach to meet user experience and interface requirements, scientific validity, and contemporary relevance. This paper explores both websites in a context of a collaborative initiative to engage a diversity of peatland colleagues in the further development of interactive relevance of the website.
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The authors present the background and results of an explorative en'aluation of the use Serious Games (SG) in a Master’s level course in entrepreneurship at TU Delft in the Netherlands. The wain questions concern the extent to which the use of SGs contributes to entrepreneurship (or learning related to entrepreneurship), as well as the factors that determine its contributions. In 2012, three different SGs were played, involving 28 international MSc students who registered for a one-year specialisation track in ‘Entrepreneurship ’. This article presents the research model, the quasi-experimental design of the evaluation, the evaluation instruments and the results. The authors conclude that personality traits, motivation and previous gaming experience might significantly influence the perceived effects on entrepreneurship after the training, although the actual game-play does not. These results contribute to the discussion regarding the use of serious games for entrepreneurship, given the possibility that SGs have a pedagogical bias towards game-savvy, motivated, high-achieving males.
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