IT7220 Session 2

1. Learning vs. Experience
Understanding Game Genres
IT 7220
May 27, 2010

2. Agenda
 Designing for Learning
 Leaner Experience and Genre
 Game Exercise
 A Look at some Example Games for
Learning
 Lab

3. Learning Basics
 Individual learning is about:

Engaging in activity

Encountering a problem

Reflection to create an abstract conception

Testing the conception

4. Instructional Cycle

Designing instruction means adding examples of
performance and feedback

5. Cognitivist Views

6. Cognitivist Views
• Cognitive apprenticeship
• Demonstrate behaviors
• Practice/Scaffolding (support is gradually
removed)
• Reflection and feedback on performance

7. Cognitivist Views
• Cognitive apprenticeship
• Demonstrate behaviors
• Practice/Scaffolding (support is gradually
removed)
• Reflection and feedback on performance
• Scenario-based learning
• Development of low-level knowledge skills
through discovery of resources internal and
external to learning situation--not by explicit
instruction

8. Constructivist Views

9. Constructivist Views
• Learners must develop their own understanding

10. Constructivist Views
• Learners must develop their own understanding
• Learners need to be active in engaging with
problems and developing hypotheses; require
feedback to refine models

11. Constructivist Views
• Learners must develop their own understanding
• Learners need to be active in engaging with
problems and developing hypotheses; require
feedback to refine models
• Emphasis on social nature of learning through
dialogue between learners; between learners and
mentors; between learners and environment

12. Constructivist Views
• Learners must develop their own understanding
• Learners need to be active in engaging with
problems and developing hypotheses; require
feedback to refine models
• Emphasis on social nature of learning through
dialogue between learners; between learners and
mentors; between learners and environment
• Zone of Proximal Development: space between
competency and tasks learner can accomplish with
help (scaffolding) is the zone where learning occurs

13. Basic ID Model
• Elements for developing a learning experience:
• Objective
• Introduction
• Concept
• Examples
• Practice
• Summary

14. Instructional Frameworks
 Bloom
 Taxonomy of knowledge we have and use
 Gagné
 Events of learning to achieve successful learning outcomes
 Mager
 Interventions couched in learning objectives
 Reigeluth
 Elaboration of complexity and comprehensiveness until
knowledge or skill is fully elaborated and exercised
 Keller
 ARCS Model (attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction
to address affective elements and knowledge components

15. Gagné’s Instructional Events
Bloom’s Taxonomy
Keller’s ARC’s with Gagné Events of Learning
Attention Relevance Confidence Satisfaction
Gain Attention Establish Objectives Provide Guidance Provide Feedback
Stimulate Prior Recall Elicit Performance Assess Performance
Present Content Enhance Retention

16. Elements for Successful
Learning
• Contextualized
• Clear goal
• Appropriate challenge
• Anchored
• Relevant
• Exploratory
• Active manipulation
• Appropriate feedback
• Attention getting

17. Enhanced ID Model
• Elements
• Objective
• Dramatic Introduction
• Multiply represented context
• Annotated examples
• Scaffolded practice
• Guided Reflection

18. Enhanced ID Model (Quinn)

19. Learner Experience and
Genre
• Influence of Content
• Game Genres
• Compelling Experience through Games
• Human Computer Interface (HCI) Design
• Designing Engaging Experiences

20. Influence of Content

21. Influence of Content
• Linear Content
• Movies, television shows and books are all linear
• Modern DVD’s represent the purist extension of linear content
today
• Linear content is the province of the creator, and thus the least
valuable of the three content types

22. Influence of Content
• Linear Content
• Movies, television shows and books are all linear
• Modern DVD’s represent the purist extension of linear content
today
• Linear content is the province of the creator, and thus the least
valuable of the three content types
• Cyclical (non-Linear) Content
• Interface: the DNA of most computer computer games
• Mapped to a real activity

23. Influence of Content
• Linear Content
• Movies, television shows and books are all linear
• Modern DVD’s represent the purist extension of linear content
today
• Linear content is the province of the creator, and thus the least
valuable of the three content types
• Cyclical (non-Linear) Content
• Interface: the DNA of most computer computer games
• Mapped to a real activity
• Open-ended Content
• Learners participate in the experience
• Focus on developing strategies, building environments, and taking
ownership
• Essential for transfer

24. Game Platforms
• Arcade games (e.g., Asteroids; PacMan)
• Home computers (i.e., Dungeons and Dragons)
• Consoles (including handheld e.g., GameBoy)
• PC
• MMOLRPG via the Web

25. Sims and Games

26. Games are a type of
Simulation
• Interactive Spreadsheet
• Virtual Labs/Virtual Products
• Branching Story
• Game-based models

27. Interactive Spreadsheet
An interactive spreadsheet is an educational
simulation in which students typically try to
impact 3-4 critical metrics (primary
variables) indirectly by allocating finite
resources (money, time, good will) among
competing categories over a series or turns
or intervals.

28. Virtual Lab/Virtual Product

29. Virtual Lab/Virtual Product
• Virtual products are an educational simulation
genre in which a collection of simulation elements
creates a high-fidelity virtual model of a real-world
item. Participants can play around with these
items or test hypotheses regarding their behavior.

30. Virtual Lab/Virtual Product
• Virtual products are an educational simulation
genre in which a collection of simulation elements
creates a high-fidelity virtual model of a real-world
item. Participants can play around with these
items or test hypotheses regarding their behavior.
• Virtual labs are the educational simulation genre
where participants engage a virtual product in an
experience structured by tasks and goals to learn
about some real-world item to solve problem or
complete products (rather than just explore what
it does).

31. Branching Story
Branching stories are an educational
simulation in which students make a series
of decisions through a series of multiple
choices to progress through an event (or
story) that develops in different ways
according to the choices each student makes.

32. Game-Based Models
Typically referred to as Frame games (i.e.,
exogenous games using external factors)
• Puzzle games
• Solitaire
• Memory games
• Word games
• Board games

33. Game Genres
• Action - original category; builds coordination and
reflexes
• Fighting - version of action game; characters in
martial arts or combat
• Driving or flying - often in competition; start out as
simulation and becomes a game because challenge
and fantasy are appealing (e.g., Microsoft Flight
Simulator)
• Sports - mimic popular individual or team sports;
develop mental skills involved in those sports

34. More Game Genres
• 3D Shooter - first-person viewpoint; requires
navigational capabilities
• Card or board - electronic versions of familiar games
like solitaire and chess; may include strategic
components
• Strategy - story line requires prioritizing and allocating
resources to grow and conquer; may require
negotiation and navigation skills, and planning
• Fantasy role playing - players control character or team
that combat and gain skills over time; can have
embedded puzzles

35. Still More Game Genres
• Adventure - character explores and must figure out
to overcome puzzles to advance
• Multiplayer - have developed capabilities to allow
players to play against one another
• Combinations - combine element of rpg’s with
adventure or that mix driving with 3D shooter
• Couple of thoughts about genres...
• Different genres work for different experiences;
aren’t necessarily interchangeable
• Mods are available; tend to be genre specific

36. Properties of Games

37. Properties of Games
• Game skills
• Physical dexterity
• Intellectual skills
• Role playing

38. Properties of Games
• Game skills
• Physical dexterity
• Intellectual skills
• Role playing
• Game elements
• Competition
• Implements
• Territory
• Inventory
• Rules

39. Experience: Flow
• Occurs when one is engaged in self-controlled,
goal-related, meaningful actions
• Management of challenge: above normal
requirements, but within capabilities
• Includes feedback tied to a goal
• Use of narrative; management of tension while
grounding action in a meaningful story

40. Experience: Fun
• Challenge
• Requires reasonable level of difficulty
• Fantasy
• Compelling setting for game action; temporary
suspension of reality
• Curiosity
• Random events so that play is not completely
deterministic
• Control
• Learners are confronted with choices

41. HCI Insights for Games
• Responsiveness - feedback from computer
• Benchmarks - indicators of outcomes and
progress
• Acceptable uncertainty - proceeding without
complete understanding is ok
• Safe conduct - ability to make errors without
affecting the real world (fail-safe zone)
• Learning by doing - exploration and discovery
• Control - learner as an agent of action

42. Designing Engaging
Experiences
• Thematic coherence
• Clear goal
• Balanced challenge
• Relevance: action to domain
• Relevance: problem to learner
• Choices of action
• Direct manipulation
• Action coupling
• Novel information or events

43. Exercise
• Play Games2train’s solitaire game
<http://www.games2train.com/site/html/products/
solitaire.html>
• Does it meet the criteria for the “enhanced ID
model”?
• Does it meet the criteria for a ‘fun’ experience?
(challenge, fantasy, curiosity, control)
• NOTE: These are criteria that may be applied
in the Game Critique Assignment Paper

44. Some Sample Games
• Algebra - Trivia
• Vocabulary - Words and Images
• Biology - Dangerous Animals
• Earth Science - Recycling
• Math - Matching
• Phys Ed - Running Quiz
• Social Studies/Geography - Branching Story

45. Lab
• Chap 1: Hello World!
• Flash environment overview (.fla, .as, .swf,
projects)
• AS 3.0 programming foundations
• Chap 2: Interactive Story Book
• Interactive objects
• Working with symbol library
• Flash drawing tools
• Creating buttons