This presentation will cover some of the various ways that video games new and old teach users to play them. As the defining medium of digital interaction video games and their makers present a unique opportunity to study how users learn and how makers teach in a fully virtual environment.
Taking Gamification beyond Leaderboards and Quests to Examine How Games and Interactive Media Teach Users to Play
This presentation will cover some of the various ways that video games new and old teach users to play them. As the defining medium of digital interaction video games and their makers present a unique opportunity to study how users learn and how makers teach in a fully virtual environment. By examining the core structures of gaming: rules, objectives, inputs/outputs, and stimuli, attendees will be able to explore how games can transform the way that we think about teaching and learning.
Most of academia’s efforts toward gamification have focused on incorporating the trappings of games, or occasionally their scoring structures and outlines. Quest based learning for example adopts the basic core mission/side quest approach found in many role playing and open world games. While this can be an advantageous approach that yields many new ways of looking at learning, it is also limited in its exploration of how interactive media and video games themselves function as educational tools.
How does a user learn to play a game? This is major problem for video game developers because it must be assumed that the player could be alone, with no other live person to teach them. The various ways that developers have solved this issue, and the way that games have evolved their learning tools to accompany their increasing complexity provides those interested in online learning a phenomenal resource for teaching and learning in virtual environments.
Over the years in-game learning tools have shifted from bare bones to exhaustive and back more than once. This presentation will examine some of these trends and focus on how they are reflected in online learning trends and practices. Particular focus will be paid to how instructors, designers, and developers can incorporate best practices from the video game world to incorporate into their own digital learning.
GoalsBy the end of this session participants will be able to:
· Identify the core structures found in interactive media and video games
· Describe the learning strategies employed by games to instruct players
· Compare game learning strategies with those employed in academically oriented online instruction
· Describe methods for incorporating game learning principles into academic and training course materials.