Serious Games for Human
Capital Management
Panelists:
Randy Brown, Chief Technology Officer for Virtual
Heroes.
Steve Mahaley, Director of Learning Technology at
Duke Corporate Education
Karen Sopko, President and CEO of Creative
Bandwidth Games

Agenda
Introduction
What’s a game? What is a serious game?
Why games?
Where do serious games fit within human capital
management?
Examples of serious games
Where to start? What types of games/immersive
activities for what type of requirements?
Outlook for serious gaming
Integrating games
Discussion

What’s a game?
“An artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a
quantifiable outcome.\" Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman,
Game Design Fundamentals
“A structured experience with rules and goals that is fun.”
Amy Jo Kim
Serious games have an “explicit and carefully thought-
out educational purpose and are not intended to be
played primarily for amusement,” Clark Abt
Serious games use “entertainment to further government
or corporate training, education, health, public policy,
and strategic communication objectives,” Mike Zyda

HCM Functional Stack
UI / Portal / Networking / Collaboration
Reporting / Analytics / Bus. Intelligence
Learning Management
Succession Planning
Workforce Management
Career Development
Compensation Mgnt.
Business Process Management
Performance Mgnt.
Talent Acquisition
Competency Management
Integration Services
Data Sources: ERP / HRMS / External Data

Why games?
Games are a way to train people to handle
consequential and high-stakes situations safely
Games provide a powerful way to promote
retention and transfer of knowledge and skills
Neurological studies show there is a physiological
basis linking the encoding in memory of knowledge
and experience and “game play experience”
Psychology tells us that games reinforce behavior by
providing the right “reward schedules” and by
adjusting challenges with player’s changing mastery
The benefits of active learning (learning by doing) are
well known: “I hear, I know. I see, I remember. I do, I
understand,” Confucius.

Where does gaming fit in?
Pre-hire assessment
Giving applicants and prospective
employees insight into culture and work
environment (“employer branding”)
Learning/Training/Career Development
Succession Planning
Team-Building / Strategy Development
Performance Management
Competency Model Alignment

New tools for assessment
Can serious games be a reliable/valid means of
assessment? Yes. A surprisingly long history of this use.
“Psychometrics”:
A means of evaluating the reliability and validity of assessments
conceptually and mathematically
Important in development of conventional HCM assessments
The same or improved use of psychometrics in
design/validation of games and simulations:
Conventional assessments: Subjects self-report behaviors and
motivations or reveal them indirectly in their answers to carefully
designed questionnaires
Games/Simulations: Subjects demonstrate behaviors and
motivations directly and freely

Serious Game Examples
Hilton Garden Inn® Sony PSP®-based training for front-
line employees.
“Zero Hour” developed by GWU and Virtual Heroes
under a U.S. DHS grant trains EMS workers in disaster-
response skills.
Cisco's \"Mind Share Game\" covers most of the
curriculum for Cisco CCENT (Certified Entry Networking
Technician) certification.
WakeMed in NC and many other hospitals use of
sophisticated anthropomorphic simulation equipment for
medical training.
Farmer’s Insurance using IBM’s Innov8 2.0 to train
11,500 employees on customer service/call center
operations.
Many, many more…

When to consider serious games?
What types of games match which
requirements?
How to get started?

When to consider gaming – decision filters
3. Apply second - Single-player or multiplayer?
(design) filter to - Synchronous or asynchronous?
understand format Filter 2 - Archetype? (metaphoric vs. simulation;
and integration Key design questions Alternate Reality Game vs. computer-only;
aspects narrative vs. open)
- Technical and programmatic integration
2. Apply decision
Filter 1 - Curriculum areas where practice in context
filter for GBL is required OR
method usage Nature of the problem
- Problem-based learning in scenarios that
elicit common errors OR
- Team challenges – difficult or expensive to
replicate in real life - that draw out desired
behaviors AND
1. Core curriculum -
- Sufficient population; 1000’s annually.
learning outcomes
and content topics
TOPICS
>11 © Duke CE 2009

Scenarios are listed. Brief descriptions are
provided. Instructor selects scenario.
An example: Multiplayer gaming for new
hires.
Players log in to the session. Instructor
assigns roles. Role descriptions are
provided. Text and voice enabled.
The issue: Time-to-proficiency in role was
taking too long.
Players can be anywhere on the client
network. Voice and/or text used for
communication.
The solution: Provide a live, online scenario
based on a real business situation.
>12 © Duke CE 2007

Observers (non-visible players) mark events,
and link comments to performance metrics.
The design: Multiple roles, repeatable
experience, with unexpected events
triggered at will by instructors.
Instructors cast votes for all observers –
votes on individual and team performance
based on corporate, role-specific
competencies.
Integration: Programmatic (part of a
learning sequence) as well as
technical (on client systems) .
Instructors lead debriefing, rewinding the
recorded performance, highlighting marked
events, drawing from observer commentary,
and reviewing individual and team scores.
>13 © Duke CE 2009

Outlook
Government and entertainment-sector investments trickle down to
advance the state of the art in serious games.
Last year’s entertainment best seller, becomes next year’s serious
game platform through licensing.
Game engine. A platform and tools supporting efficient games
creation – authoring tools minimize code development, feature
reusable design elements.
“Mod.” An extension to core game functionality made by third-
party developers.
While serious games are not new, many observers describe them
at an “inflection point” where their use will accelerate. Why? What
are the economic and technological forces that will shape this
space over the next 5 years?

LMS Integration

Integration Today
Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)
“Run-Time Environment” (RTE)
Browser-Based
Self-Paced
Learning Learning/
Performance
Sharable
Management
Content
System
Object
Runtime
RTE communication often handled on the basis Services
of standardized ECMAScript API. For example:
Basically has been used to:
• Monitor learner progress (where in a course at what time?)
• Communicate basic score information

Emerging Integration Requirements
Browser-Based
Self-Paced
Learning
Mobile
Device
Clients • Learning, Education, Training Systems
Interoperability (LETSI.org)
Computer/
• LETSI has begun “community
Console Learning/ source” project to develop/
Serious Games Performance
Management
maintain web service server and
System client components.
Runtime
• Available under business-friendly “BSD”
Services license.
Multiplayer
• Code contributions by BBN Technologies,
Games/ Booz Allen Hamilton, Rustici Software
Virtual Worlds
(scorm.com), etc.
• Become a contributor or financial sponsor.
Visit www.letsi.org.
Combinations
of the above
delivery/learning
modes

Discussion
Discuss the aforementioned and other examples
of serious games fulfilling HCM functions
(corporate recruiting, assessment, learning,
etc.).
Are serious games best for topics requiring “3-D
reasoning”? What are examples of serious
games for “soft-skill” development?
Where do you start? A serious game is
obviously a multi-disciplinary endeavor. Who
does a company need to involve in the creation
of a game and how are teams managed?

Resources
Panelist Web sites:
http://www.virtualheroes.com/
http://www.dukece.com/
http://www.cbandgames.com/
Many conferences! Next up:
Learning and Entertainment Evolution Forum:
http://www.leef2009.net/
Integration w/ Games
https://letsi.org
https://letsi.org/rte

Questions?
chucka@hrinterop.org