This document discusses the use of games in higher education. It defines different types of games that can be used, including commercial games, educational games, simulations, and virtual worlds. Games provide benefits for higher education such as appealing to different learning styles and allowing trial and error. They can be used to facilitate understanding based on Bloom's Taxonomy and Wiggins' Facets of Understanding. However, integrating games does face challenges due to the culture of learning in higher education that does not always see a connection between fun and learning.

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Games in Higher
Education
Barbara Z. Johnson, Ed.D.
College of Letters and Sciences
UWW

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Who’s Here??

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What Do We Want To Know??

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“Game” = ?

Commercial Off-the-Shelf Game

Educational or Serious Game

Simulations

Virtual Worlds

Augmented Reality

Gamification

5. Free to
explore
and act
Sandbox
Few
choices
Few
paths
Open World
Wide Spectrum of Player Agency
Tightly Constrained
+
Nearly
anything
possible

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Characteristics

Rules

Roles

“Magic Circle”
Suspension of
reality

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Not Usually Casual Games

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Difficult Games

~ 2 – 60+ hours to complete

May never be finished

Require “grit” to master

Multiple failures before success

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Some Examples in Use

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COTS – Rich, Immersive Worlds
Oblivion

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Educational or Serious Games
ReDistricting Game (http://redistrictinggame.org/)

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Simulations
Forensics Practice (in Second Life)

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Virtual Worlds

Approximately 275 educational locations in Second Life
maintained by schools, colleges, and educational non-profits

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Augmented Reality
ARIS (aris.org)

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How Used?

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Part of a planned process
Feedback
Prepare
Consequential
Experience
Goals

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Practice Performance
Forensics Assignment in Second Life

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Perspective/Empathy
Civil War Role Play Debate – US History

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Abstract Via Concrete Experience
Financial Literacy in a Virtual World (Gaia Online)

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Similarities and Differences K-12 vs.
Higher Ed

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Benefits of Games in Higher Ed

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Advantages
Different learning styles
Game Mechanics

Spatial

2-D or 3-D “world”

Visual

Graphical

Mathematical/logical

Game play orderly

Kinesthetic

Procedural

Tinkering

Trial and error with frequent
feedback

Concrete thinking

On-screen representations

Goals/tasks/quests

Understanding facet performance

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Bloom’s Taxonomy
Games can be used to facilitate
and demonstrate

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Facets of Understanding (Wiggins)
Games can be used to facilitate
and demonstrate

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Challenges

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Culture of Learning in Higher Ed

Learning <> Fun

Games = Fun

Therefore: Games <> Learning

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References and Resources

ARIS - http://arisgames.org/

Bloomfield, R. (2009). World of Bizcraft. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(3), 3 - 34.

de Lucia, A., Francese, R., Passero, I., &Tortora, G. (2008). Development and evaluation of a
virtual campus on Second Life: The case of SecondDMI. Computers & Education, 52(1).

Foster, A. L. (2007). Professor Avatar. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(4). Retrieved from
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i04/04a02401.htm

Gee, J. P. (2013). The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students Through Digital Learning.
New York: New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Horton, K., Davenport, E., Hall, H., & Rosenbaum, H. (2002). Internet simulations for teaching,
learning and research: An investigation of e-commerce interactions and practice in the Virtual
Economy. Education for Information, 20(3/4).

Hudson, K., &Degast-Kennedy, K. (2009). Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College.
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(1), 3 - 11.
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Inman, C., Wright, V. H., & Hartman, J. A. (2010). Use of Second Life in K-12 and Higher
Education: A Review of Research. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9(1), 44 63.Kupperman, J., &Weisserman, G. (2005). Curriculum Games: An Online Character-Playing
Project as "Ironist Curriculum". Curriculum Games, 1 - 13.

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References and Resources

Liz Lawley

Lee, P. D. (2009). Using Second Life to Teach Operations
Management. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(1).
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Just Press Play - https://play.rit.edu/
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Andy Phelps - http://games.rit.edu/works-and-papers
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Redistricting Game - http://redistrictinggame.org/
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Savin-Baden, M., Gourlay, L., Tombs, C., Steils, N., Tombs, G.,
&Mawer, M. (2010). Situating Pedagogies, Positions and Practices
in Immersive Virtual Worlds. Educational Research 52(2), 123133.

Wiggins, G., &McTighe, J. (2006). Understanding by Design
(Second ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.