The document discusses the design of serious games and simulations in medical education, emphasizing the characteristics that make games effective, such as character roles and scoring, as well as the essentials of simulations that focus on sensory information and perceptual feedback. It highlights the importance of integrating educational content with gaming elements and exploring existing ludic features in subject matter. Key questions raised include the appropriateness of using games for educational purposes and how they can enhance engagement and learning through immersive experiences.

1. Designing Serious Games for Medical Education Mark Childs, Warwick Medical School

2. Outline Defining and distinguishing between games and simulations Designing these for education Some examples from medical education Issues important in design

3. What makes a game? Effective games have: Character role Scoring Emergent narrative Responsive environment Psychosocial moratorium Need an understanding of what makes a game playable Chris Brannigan, CEO, Caspian Learning: “The first academics want to do is to take all the fun out.”

4. Psycho what? The merging of action and awareness: Clear goals and feedback Concentration on the task at hand The paradox of control The loss of self-consciousness The transformation of time

5. What makes a simulation? Effective simulations: Do not require narrative, character role, scoring Do need: breadth of sensory information Depth of sensory information control of relation of sensors to environment ability to modify environment Perceptual feedback of changes And – can be game and simulation

6. Learning from games Four models of learning from games transmission model (behaviourist) conveying knowledge, drill-and-practice user-centred model (experiential) exploring, synthesising and constructing knowledge, participation model, consider the “wrapper” for the game, educational context Simon Egenfeldt-Nielson, CEO Serious Games Interactive, “a game is just an excuse for reflection” modding (de Freitas 2006; 20; Bungie 2007; 25)

7. Other game observations Meaningful play created by entering a “magic circle” (from Huizinga) where objects and events have a “second order reality” (Caillois) Engagement as well as immersion. Engagement is deliberate, reflective (from Carr) where text has a “second order reading”

8. Linking games and education Endogenous v. exogenous Is the educational content appropriately integrated with the gaming elements, or just bolted-on? Two most important questions What aspects of the subject matter in question already exhibit ludic features? And how can a game designer exploit and highlight these aspects?

9. Linking games and education Is learning content? Explicit within game Implicit but made explicit through reflection Completely avoidable

11. Simulations Common uses of simulations Medbiquitous virtual patient models Triage simulation Medical education in Immersive Virtual Worlds through transmission of information roleplay Should focus on interaction not information

12. Interactive Trauma Trainer ref Human Factors in Defence Medicine Ref Birmingham University

13. Virtual Healthcare ref Naval Research ref Birmingham University

15. Health care games Made more difficult by knowledge imparted through non-verbal, non-textual engagement embodied reality involves all the senses critical situations may contain all manner of background sensory noise scalable implementation across diverse learning environments

16. Health care games Embedding made easier by use of narrative within the paper-based scenarios already used with students Situations already have game-like qualities (identifiable goal, time-dependent, narrative context)

17. Successful health games Appropriateness of the technology. Endogenous not exogenous. Engagement and immersion. Realness and embodiment.

18. A solution looking for a problem Good elearning design starts with the pedagogical issue and decides what is the most appropriate technology Therefore not only need to answer what can we use a game for? But … What is there for which a game is the most appropriate technology?