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Exploitation of games and virtual environmentsfor e-learning

Olaf Hallan Graven and Prof. Lachlan MacKinnon

Abstract- There has been a significant body of work in recentyears in the development of e-learning tools and products. Themain focus has been on models that are developed from theconstructivist tradition, based on the notion that learners activelyconstruct their own understanding and knowledge from theirexperiences.

The topic of this paper is the possible future use of computergames technologies and games based narrative to support e-learning and as a tool for lifelong learning. Computer gamesmetaphors and underpinning models are inherentlyconstructivist, the gaming format is also chosen for its ability toengage.

The gaming format also lends itself to support the knownadvantages of narrative from oral traditions and fits with theyounger generation's interest in current trends in theentertainment industry. The decision to adopt a game-basedapproach to the development of e-learning follows on from asurvey of current state-of-the art support for lifelong learningthat was carried out by the authors, a key element of thatinvestigation being the different techniques to improve learningand retention through engagement of the student.

The increased availability of high bandwidth connections tosupport multi-user, graphics-rich environments such as gamingenvironments supports the use of these gaming technologies forvirtual learning environments.

The use of storytelling in education provides us with amechanism to establish a relationship between games and virtuallearning environments, there have been numerous trials of theuse of on-line games setups suitable for this purpose in the formof simulations, MUDs and adventure games. During the last fewyears multiple virtual worlds have been developed for generalcommunication between users from different parts of the world,and these can be used to support all the important social aspectsof learning.From the perspective of our research we are interested in

designing a model for an online games-based leaningenvironment using narrative models, witch will then bedeveloped as an exemplar of this particular approach.

Index Terms- computer games e-learning, simulation, virtualenvironment

Manuscript received March 7, 2006. This work was supported in part bythe Norwegian Goverment and Buskerud University College in providing PhDfunding to support this research

0. H. Graven is with Buskerud University College, Kongsberg, Norway(phone: +47 32869500; e-mail: Olaf.Hallan.Gravenghibu.no).

L.MacKinnon is with School of Computing and Creative Technology,University of Abertay Dundee, Uk, (e-mail: l.mackinnongabertay.ac.uk).

1-4244-0406-1/06/$20.00 ©2006 IEEE.

I. INTRODUCTION

Over the last decade the use of internet based learning hasseen a significant increase. As the technology is

becoming more commonplace and the average student has acomputer available to support them in the tasks of learning,the Universities and other educational institutions are usingthis as part of everyday activities. The traditional role ofprofessors in higher education is changing, with everybodybeing pressurised to get involved in the online "revolution".

At the same time as this technological change influenceseverybody's lives, there is also a shift in the theories used tounderpin the development of learning materials.

The basis for the design presented in this paper is takenfrom computer games technology. It must be noted thatcomputer games research is a resent direction, computergames research as an academic discipline started in earnestsometime around the year 2000. Research into computergames learning is an even more resent research discipline,most published material date from 2004 and onwards.

There have been several studies performed showing thesignificance of using computer games in education.Henderson[ 1] published a study showing that playing arecreation video game provided beneficial informal educativeexperiences, even when used only over a short period of time.Secondly, the study provides support for the cognitive worthof playing games. It also contradicts the popular opinion byconfirming that recreational video games are a significantcognitive artefact of youth culture, and lastly it showed theviability of stimulated recall as a methodological tool in gameresearch.

A. Shift in underpinning pedagogical modelsThere are a number of different pedagogical models

proposed to support e-learning, ranging across a spectrumfrom objectivist to constructivist models. The traditional focushas been on an objectivist, also referred to as instructivist,model. This is based on the belief that knowledge should betransferred/transmitted from an all knowing source (theinstructor) to a receptive target (the student). In this modelknowledge is something that exists independently of theinstructor and is not subject to contextual interpretation, andunderstanding is based on assimilating this pre-existingknowledge.

The constructivist model is founded in the work of Piagetand others, and is based on the notion that students actively

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construct their own meaning and knowledge from theirexperiences. In this model the instructor has the role ofguiding the students to create their own knowledge throughlearning activities. The notion of discovery learning is oftenused in this context.

Our view is that technology can be used to supportconstructivism, but technology as such is neither inherentlyconstructivist nor necessary to support it. We have personalexperience of educational institutions that develop web-basedcourse material that includes interactive quizzes, animation orvideo extracts, and hyperlinked concepts intended to engagethe student in ways superior to earlier technologies (not muchvideo and animations as the effort involved in developingthese is large). Many of these claim to be guided by aconstructivist viewpoint in their design. Yet when examples ofthe courseware are demonstrated it becomes clear thatconstructivist principles are little in evidence. Most interactivequizzes used behaviourist principles of drill and practice. Thevideo-based material was presented as a traditional lecture inmuch the same way as early instructional television. Lastly thehyperlinked concepts were organized as is customary intraditional instructional design, a reasonable and effectivestrategy, but not constructivist in nature. Such examplesreinforce the view that the use of the technology itself neitherimposes nor enforces constructivist development.

B. Constructivism, assessment and deep knowledgeExpectations and outcomes are different in a constructivist

learning environment than those found in the traditionalclassroom. Therefore, testing procedures must be redesignedto compensate for the expanded knowledge base that thestudents are developing. If we do not allow sufficient time topass and try to quickly assess the knowledge the students haveacquired, we will be left with unsatisfactory results anddissatisfied students. Findings by McKenna and Leycook[2]show that for short learning periods with tests performedimmediately after the learning period, instructivist models willprovide better results and make for more satisfied students.

"Students using the instructivist resource improved most inrelation to this previous class average mark. In terms ofattitude, students also preferred to use the instructivistenvironment, or the mixture of instructivist and constructivist,rather than relying solely on the constructivist."

They go on to note that:"the instructivist artefact offered clear structure and

instructions as well as familiarity, the constructivistenvironment almost certainly required the user to make moreeffort"

However, they also note:"those using the constructivist artefact coped with the more

complex material (such as signal to noise ratio) slightlybetter. "

These findings are similar to observations reported byothers and to observations that we have obtained from ourown students.

knowledge and long-lasting knowledge is more likely to arisefrom constructivist learning environments (and the use ofmultiple cognitive channels). The body of evidence for this isconvincing, but only where sufficient periods of time areallowed to permit learning and reflection, and appropriateassessment is carried out timeously to embed and reinforcelearning.

C. E-learning tools andproductsE-Learning authoring tools are software applications that

allow you present the course material, sometimes along withanimations, audio or video. These tools also include thecapability to provide interactive tests or exams and to save thegrades for the instructor

During the latter part of the 1990's tremendous effort wasput into the development of new tools for authoring bothlearning material and web material in general. The last fewyears have not seen as many new tools coming to the market,many of the smaller companies and tools have disappeared,and efforts have predominantly been centred on furtherdevelopment of existing tools.At the basic level, Microsoft PowerPoint[3], Macromedia

Dreamweaver[4], Breeze[5] and Flash[6] can be used toauthor e-Learning material. Macromedia Authorware,Director, and SumTotal Toolbook II offer a higher level offunctionality and are especially used in Computer-BasedTraining (CBT) applications. There are also numerous otherproprietary authoring tools available, many including coursemanagement capabilities.

Tools that include course management are referred to asLearning Management Systems (LMS). LMS is a broad termthat is used for a wide range of systems that organize andprovide access to online learning services for students,teachers, and administrators. These services usually includeaccess control, provision of learning content, communicationtools, and administration of user groups. Other terms that areoften used as synonyms for LMS are learning platform andvirtual learning environment (VLE). There are manycommercially available LMS, the biggest ones beingWebCT[7] and Blackboard. [8].

There are also a number of open source or free to use toolslike Moodle[9] and Sakai[10]. There has been a proliferationof these tools but they are now converging into a few largerones that are commercially supported.When it comes to LMS with inbuilt explicit support for

pedagogy, the number of available systems is much morelimited. Govindasamy[11] presents an e-learning tool that issupposed to contain inbuilt pedagogical models, unfortunatelythe system is not available for testing. However, requests foran LMS with an inbuilt support for pedagogy have beenvoiced by users all over the world.

The current trend in e-Learning focuses almost exclusivelyon learning objects, however the focus should be on thecreation of pedagogical tools to support the authoring oflearning objects for e-learning. Whilst it can be argued thatany LMS will have an implicit pedagogical model, the need is

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for the development of tools that support multiple modelsexplicitly in the creation of learning materials.

D. Current use ofgames based learningGames based learning is slowly gaining a foothold in

traditional education systems.Educational games come in two varieties. The simplest

types of games are where learning mechanisms are layered ontop of the educational content. Hangman is a game in thiscategory. Such games are often based on the principle ofavoiding mistakes, and can be applied to a variety of learninggoals. The effectiveness of this type of game tends to declineas the student/player's experience and sophisticationincreases. The other types of game involve the content beingwoven into the game. Currently many of this type of game usesimulation, and the educational potential of simulationdepends on what one wishes to teach.Many learning games from both the 'edutainment' era and

today offer only traditional didactic methods in disguise. Inthese cases, the content and teaching method are entirelyunchanged from their non-game origins. Usually the content isbasic linear material pushed into a game context. This issimilar to the production of shovelware. Shovelware is used asa term to describe the process of transferring document files,such as Word, and presentation files, such as PowerPoint,onto the Web without revision, and then to present this as e-learning material. The ease with which some Web coursewaretools today allow us to perform this process, encourages us totransfer material designed for one medium into another, andresearch carried out by. Khalifa[12] shows the dangers of suchan approach.

This is not to say that these sorts of learning games have noplace. They can often provide the motivation to learn in caseswhere the students have no other motivation to engage withthe materials. Wrapping "boring" content in a trivia or "shootthem up" game format might make material that just needs tomemorized a bit easier to "swallow". Likewise, repeatedengagement with interactive drill-and-practice environmentsprovides the repetition that may be needed for students tomemorize and retain certain types of content. Just asGalarneau [13] describes "the first step towards constructingone's knowledge is being open to the experience of learning.An unmotivated student is simply incapable of taking enoughinterest in something to engage in the process ofconstruction".

II. GAMES BASED LEARNING

There has been an overt shift to constructivism in educationin recent years, but as Herrington and Standen[14] observe theinfluence of behaviourism and drill-and-practice is stillapparent in most games developed for education as well as inother software for educationOne question in particular needs attention: "how does one

design a constructivist-based learning system?" Such softwareis sometimes assumed to mean simply the use of multimedia

and/or hypertext. The simple use of multimedia elements orhypertext does not guide the developer into any specific formof pedagogical model. The controlled presentation and customresponse built on top of these media are characteristic of basicinstructivism.

Research done by Becker[15] shows that even ordinarycommercial computer games created without education inmind can be used in an educational setting and that theyembody fundamental elements of educational theory.

A. Pedagogical models supported by games based learningNorman[ 16] identifies seven basic requirements of a learningenvironment:

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Provide a high intensity of interaction and feedback.Have specific goals and established procedures.Motivate.

* Provide a continual feeling of challenge that isneither so difficult as to create a sense ofhopelessness and frustration, nor so easy as toproduce boredom.

* Provide a sense of direct engagement, producing thefeeling of directly experiencing the environment,directly working on the task.

* Provide appropriate tools that fit the user and task sowell that they aid and do not distract.

* Avoid distractions and disruptions that intervene anddestroy the subjective experience.

These characteristics are a good match for computer gamesdesigned for learning. Paras and Bizzocchi[17] write that ifweaccept Norman's requirements for a learning environment,then we must acknowledge that learning is integrally related togames. "Games make learning look so much likefun that theymask the large amount of learning required to play themsuccessfully "Games and simulations can be incredibly effective when

employed in an exploration setting, thereby supportingconstructivist principles.

* Allowing students to practice skills in a safe, privateenvironment.

* Offering a unique opportunity to engage studentswho may have struggled in traditionaleducation/training environments.

* Allowing students to access and repeat learning ontheir own terms and at their own pace, as many timesas they need to. This is not a process ofmemorisation, however, so much as internalisingsystems, steps or processes.

* Facilitating social learning by fostering ongoingcollaboration and relationships between students.

* Providing a customisable environment that takes astudent's skills and context into account.

* Supporting active participation through group play,reinforcing important practical skills like groupcommunication, project management, conflictresolution, and group brainstorming.

* Accessing the higher order skills in Bloom's

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Taxonomy (evaluation, synthesis, analysis,application).

* Allowing students to access experiences that aredifficult or impossible in the real world. E.g. theburning factory

* Allowing formative assessment to be built-in to theexperience, benefiting both student and instructor.

B. What are the benefits ofconstructivism?The perceived benefits of a constructivist learning

environment include absorption and synthesis of individualfacts, building relationships between these facts and linkingthis knowledge with understanding of other knowledgedomains, the enhancement of collaborative/cooperative skillsand time.

Students learn more, and enjoy themselves more when theyare actively involved, rather than just passive listeners, oncethey get out of the passive state that is the unfortunate state ofsome education systems. Passive mode learning is the easyoption for the students in the short run. Given the choice,many students will first elect to go for the MTV option whenit comes to education, everything is prepared and you just sitback and let it wash over you. Students who are not broughtout of this passive state will usually learn little of the materialthus presented, and will then tend to blame the tutor. On of thepoints made in constructivism is to get the students involvedin the process, and give the tutor the role of facilitating andsupporting learning. Most students will, after some initialmisgivings, elect to follow the active learning route and getinvolved in the learning process. The rationale for this is thatit is simply more enjoyable. We would argue that aconstructivist model will be more successful because:

Education works best when it concentrates on thinking andunderstanding, rather than on rote memorization.Constructivism concentrates on learning how to think andunderstand.

Constructivist learning is transferable. In constructivistbased learning, students learn and understand principles thatthey can take with them to other learning settings.

Constructivism gives students ownership of what theylearn, since learning is based on students' explorations andactive participation.By grounding learning activities in an authentic, real-world

context, constructivism stimulates and engages students.Constructivism promotes social and communication skills

by creating a learning environment that emphasizescollaboration and exchange of ideas. (The challenge of doingthis in an e-learning setting is greater than in a face to facesetting, which is why the group quests and other socialisationparts of the designed learning environment are included. Thisis discussed later is this paper.)

Students must learn how to articulate their ideas clearly aswell as to collaborate on tasks effectively by sharing in groupprojects, students must therefore exchange ideas.

C. The engaging nature oftgamesCsikszentmihalyi introduced the concept of flow, through a

study of people involved in activities such as rock climbing,chess and dance in 1975[18]. He describes flow as a state ofcomplete absorption or engagement in an activity and refers tothe optimal experience. During optimal experience, a person isin a psychological state where he or she is so involved withthe goal driven activity that nothing else seems to matter.According to flow theory, flow can occur when an activitychallenges an individual enough to encourage playful,exploratory behaviours, without the activity being beyond theindividual's reach. For example, if the activity is toodemanding it may produce anxiety rather than flow. Or, if it isnot challenging enough, boredom, not flow, may be the result

Past research[19] has shown that the flow state has positiveimpact on learning. A more thorough explanation inconnection with computer games for learning has beenproduced by Kiili[20].

D. Use ofnarrative elementsThe games we propose to use as the foundation for our

games environment will be based on games that, to a greateror lesser extent, tell a story. This does not require a fullydeveloped story in the literary sense, with deeply developedplot and other story elements. The stories we envisage areprimarily used as a setting for the learning activities that willtake place, and require enough detail to be engaging andconvincing as scenarios for those learning activities.

Currently the on of the major discussion on games andnarrative are taking place within the game researchcommunity. A debate that it seems, opposed two groups:ludologists and narratologists. Ludologists are mainly focuson game mechanics and does not support the notion thatgames can be analysed as narrative, while narratologists arguethat games are closely connected to stories, and as should beanalysed as such. The most visible authors in this discussionon games and narrative are Aarset, Eskelinen, Frasca, Juul,Murray, Ryan and Carlquist.

1) Oral traditionFrom early times the storytellers in the oral traditions used

memory aids to recall long and complex stories. The memorystrategies they used followed an ancient technique firstdescribed by Simonides of Ceos (Greek poet 556 BC -

469BC) as building memory places. The storyteller wouldtravel through these memory places in his mind, therebyremembering the elements in the right order.

For instance, native peoples in North America's NorthwestTerritory have passed down detailed methods for hunting andstoring of reindeer and whale that include geographicinformation that still holds relevance today

The need for an oral tradition as a means of recordinghistory and facts has diminished in practical value with theadvent of the written text and the rapid growth of computersas a means of disseminating information, it does however stillhave its value in the process of learning.

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2) Storytelling in learningStorytelling is by many referred to as "the original form of

teaching". Storytelling is one of the most effective techniquesfor conveying information in a compelling and memorableway. Many cultures have long traditions for telling stories toensure people remembered a message. The trick is to providejust the right amount of suspense and excitement in the storyto motivate the audience to keep listening.

Bielenberg[2 1] describes an experiment where studentslearned with stories and clearly remembered the facts better.

* Stories can help provide a structure for theinformation

* Stories can communicate information at severallevels at the same time. "A story cansimultaneously provide a context for the learningtask, teach deeper cultural messages, give anemotional impression and ultimately help tielearning to personal experience. "

* A story can also be a powerful motivation to keepgoing, and find out what happens next, therebyhelping the students to complete a course.

Adventure and role-playing games use the concept ofstories to give the player a feel for the environment and todrive the game forward. The games use the stories in the sameway as outlined above, providing structure and keeping theplayers going.

E. Natural interestfrom the younger generationThere are lots of people that are already familiar with the

gaming format, which means that there is no requirement forthem to learn this as a new environment for learning.

The benefit of story telling in educational games is that itgives us, as creators of educational material, access to all thesame emotional factors enjoyed by ordinary game creators,such as emotional attachment. Once you've hooked theaudience emotionally, if you know how to manipulate them inthe right way, you can keep and grow that audience for a longtime, getting the students to spend more time and work harderat the learning material, which should result in improvedlearning and retention.

F. Learning by doingOffering the students the opportunity to explore a new

environment is giving them the potential to use one of themost potent inbuilt feelings in humans, curiosity. With thepower of hindsight most people will say that making mistakesis what they learned the most from. A popular phrase being:"People should be allowed to make their own mistakes". Onechallenge for us as educators is allowing our students to makethese mistakes in a safe environment.

Students in a simulation or any active environment are alsoactively encouraged to be creative. The simulations must givethe students enough freedom to allow them to explore andmake mistakes, as mentioned above. Giving the students theoption to explore their environment does give its ownchallenges, the simulation itself is more complex to create,

and requiring more effort in addition the students can get lostand frustrated. Techniques to help, guide and direct thestudents in the simulation or virtual environment are discussedlater under the headings of scaffolding and getting help(students helping students)

1) Different types ofsimulationSimulate the process of constructing a piece of lab work.

Simulate the connecting of this constructed entity to labequipment, then run an experiment and get simulated results.This last bit is not always possible. The MARVELproject[22] solves this problem by providing engineeringstudents and trainees with ubiquitous online access to physicalworkshops and laboratory facilities from remote places andlearning venues. The project was focused on how to usemechatronics equipment and machinery in virtual learningenvironments in order to support work-process-oriented anddistributed cooperative learning with real-life systems.

Simulations according to Frasca[23]: "Simulation authorsdo not represent a particular event, but a set of potentialevents. Because of this, they have to think about their objectsas systems and consider which are the laws that rule theirbehavior."

2) Hardfun"Hard fun" happens when people are involved in something

that is meaningful and satisfying to them. It's that "flow" thatoccurs when time flies because you are stimulated andengaged, even if you are working in less than ideal conditions,without all the resources you need and dealing with achallenging problem.Many people are advocating taking the hard work and

discipline out of learning. What we should be doing is findingtasks that will harness the passion of the student to the hardwork needed to master difficult material.

There is numerous examples of industry projects, that startout as unsupported underground projects, that later becomesmajor official projects. Workers will sneak into labs andcontinue to work on projects after hours, without any otherreward than the reward of making something work.

There are also many educators that argue for the role offrustration in the learning experience, or more precisely theresolution of the frustration. We as educators must be carefulwith the use of or inflicting frustration on students during thelearning process. The final resolution of the frustration is apowerful stimulator and source of great joy, the majorproblem with this approach is frustration can and will turnmany students off. There will often be some frustration whenmoving into a new area of learning, the use of scaffolding andincreased help to struggling students as described in thedesign for our system is targeted on reducing the frustrationand ensure that the students are not turned off by the wholeexperience. On the other hand the system must not make thechallenges to easy and turning the students off in that way.This topic is covered previously under the heading theengaging nature of games, flow and by Csikszentmihalyi[24].An interesting note on the self reward of learning is

reported by Gee [25]:

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"Harlow wondered what the monkeys would do if theywere confronted with the puzzles, but given no food rewards.He predicted they would stop at the first step if they receivedno rewards. But the monkeys did no such thing. They workedon the problems, and solved them, just as eagerly and readilyas when they had received food rewards. For the monkeys,learning was a reward in and of itself, a reward powerfulenough to keep them happily going at problem solving forlong stretches of time."From Jenkins [26] "One can imagine the game designer as

developing two kinds of narratives - one relativelyunstructured and controlled by the player as they explore thegame space and unlock its secrets. The other pre-structuredbut embedded within the mise-en-scene awaiting discovery.The game world becomes a kind of information space, amemory palace."

G. Social aspects oflearningA specific genre of computer games is called "massively

multiplayer online role-playing games" (MMORPG for short),which is the type of game we propose to base our developedgame model for learning on. MMORPG can be understood asa subset of all online games for more than two players, thisalso includes the purely text-based games, though we aredesigning the game for a graphical interface. MMORPGsprovide an environment that resembles the real world infunctionality and appearance, within the confines of themodelled allowed actions. The players control their onlinecharacters, which we will call avatars, via a variety of modesof the human-computer-interface, confined by technicalrestrictions and more, or less, formalised and sanctioned rules.This thereby creates a parallel space of social interactionsamong the characters in the game world.

Constructivism promotes social and communication skillsby creating a learning environment that emphasizescollaboration and exchange of ideas. The challenge of doingthis in an e-learning setting is greater than a face to facesetting, which is why the group quests and other socialisationactivities in the designed learning environment are included.The view is not that the only learning that can occur is face toface, but rather that social activities are an important andsignificant part of the process. As Mayes [27] puts it:"Lectures are occasions where the individual is confirmed asa member ofa learning community. " One of the challenges inonline learning is to create this feeling of belonging to acommunity.

Povai [28] presents a study that shows* online graduate students can feel connected to their

virtual classroom community,* students with stronger sense of community tend to

possess greater perceived levels of cognitivelearning,

This may be taken as an indication that it is possible toaccomplish the all important social interaction and sense ofbelonging in an online format.

1) Social Relations in the Virtual WorldIn order to stay in the game only a minimum level of social

interaction is necessary, yet most players seek more. Studiesby Kolo and Baur[29] have shown that many players not onlyconnect to a online game in order to play but also to stay incontact with the fellow players, many players also connect tofellow players via messaging systems during game play. Theyengage via their characters in various social interactions fromtrading or fighting to entertaining other characters.Additionally the large majority of players are usually membersof several social units or institutions like guilds inside anonline game.Many players regularly meet the same characters online and

address a relatively fixed group of playing partners. Kolo andBaur[29] have shown that in particular, "there is a significantcorrelation (at the one percent level) between the number ofsessions and the persistence of interaction partners." Thisshows that knowing and meeting people in an onlineenvironment or game triggers frequent playing and not theother way round.

2) Communications in online gamesManninen[30] has shown that the communicative aspect of

current multiplayer games is enabled by a relatively limited setof interaction forms. Still, the available features of the gamesthat contain a limited amount of language-basedcommunication would seem to be enough to enable a certainlevel of communicative action. This level, however, is usuallyachieved by overcoming the restrictions and limitations of thesystem.

Although contemporary multiplayer games would seem tohave an adequate level of communication support andengaging representational features to enhance the computer-mediated interaction, there are still huge gaps to be bridged.The interaction form model described by Manninen[30] canbe significant for game designers, as it illustrates a possiblerepresentation of, for example, non-verbal communication innetworked settings. As a result, it is possible to reduce thelimitations and restrictions of computer mediation by enablingmore flexible and natural interaction.

3) Group tasks within a gameMost online games from the early MUDs to the new

MMORPGs force players to work together in groups toperform tasks. These can be simple assignments like one halfof a group defends the home base and the other half goeslooking for the enemy base or just generally goes looking fortrouble, doing this in the certain knowledge that their home issafe and protected. In games like World of Warcraft somebeasts are impossible to kill on our own and you need the helpof up to a hundred of your fellow players. The formation ofthese groups, or guilds as they are known in some games,helps bring in the social aspect of games and get playerstalking to their fellow players, in initially planning strategyand dividing up the tasks. Over time players find that theycooperate more and more with the same players andcommunication tends to expand into non game topics as wellas game topics.

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The critical factor in getting a group of people to cooperateinside a game are similar to the real world, they must feelthere is a mutual benefit, and as noted by many online players:antisocial behaviour destroys the group more quickly than areal life group, in a online community it is easier to just moveon to new groups than in real life.

4) Communication outside the game, both electronic andperson to personPlayers that have communicated a fair amount inside a

game tend to expand their communication to also includecommunication channels outside the game. Game players areregularly meeting up both to play together as shown by Koloand Baur[29], but also meeting by other means, not only viainternet relay chat (IRC) or other electronic communication,but also face to face.

Students meeting face to face after a game session willcontinue to discuss the stories that have unfolded in the gameenvironment, and they will naturally continue to discuss othertopics that were discussed during game play.

H. AssessmentThe traditional focus on assessment has been on purely on

the final exam. Students will usually try to guess the examquestions and will make this the focus for the learning not thecourse description. If the assessments then have a "wrong"focus the students will underestimate requirements if theassessments tasks let them, so they get by with low-levellearning strategies. The first thing to get right is therationale for assessment.

Assessment in a learning system that is based on aconstructivist model is a challenge. The most important part isthat the assessment must be designed into the system so that itis an integral part of the learning process. The importance ofhaving the assessment as an integral part and not somethingadded at the end are well documented [31]. Additionally it isimportant that the assessment must be used to test that thedesired learning has taken place, and not check that thestudent has learned only the desired facts. The design of goodassessment in a gaming system for education is not enough,some educators need to change the way they think aboutassessment, as Gee [25] notes:

"Game-like learning cannot be incorporated into ourschools unless those schools make radical changes. As long asthey stay skill-and-drill testing centers preparing most kidswith "basic skills" for service jobs, while allowing afew richkids, with no real ability, to apply their knowledge to get A 'sfor passing fact-based tests, they will resist such learning.Worse, they will co-opt any attempts to use such learning intotheir own agenda. Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit will be thegames ofchoice in school. "

I. Features the environment must support1) Exploration

Exploration and the freedom to direct one's own learning isfundamental to constructivist methods. MMORPG areinherently games that allow just such exploration andfreedom. A MMORPG typically offers the player a number of

options like available paths and environments to explore anddifferent quests to attempt. One of the challenges for a gamedesigner is to help new players avoid getting lost andoverwhelmed by the number of options available. Alleducators agree that showing students the entrance to thelibrary and then letting them get on with their learning is notan efficient or even sensible strategy for education. Newstudents in the system will need to be guided and led, whilemaintaining enough freedom to allow them to explore anddirect their own learning.

2) ScaffoldingThe use of scaffolding to guide and direct students is one

way to strike a balance between control and freedom.Boyle[32] identifies three distinct scaffolding strategies.

The first strategy is to ground the learning experience in afamiliar setting. This can be done simply by using familiarterms, making the background a familiar picture or set afamiliar scene for the learning to occur in. The secondscaffolding strategy involves bridging the gap betweenfamiliar representations and new representation. The bridgingoccurs by exposing the student to familiar and newrepresentations simultaneously. This technique can forexample be used with a textual explanation and amathematical expression, thereby exposing the student to afamiliar and a new representation of the same formula. Thethird and last strategy for scaffolding is based on the familiartechnique of immediate feedback to the student. The feedbackwill allow the student to test hypotheses and/or change andrefine ideas to fit the situation, or system, they find themselvesin.

3) Clear goalsThe importance of setting a clear goal for students is

paramount. Once the goals are set, they help to keep studentsand content developers/lecturers focused on the items thatwere identified as important. One of the main difficultiesstudents have is being able to separate the information thatthey really need to know from all the other less importantinformation that is thrown at them, this is particularlyimportant in an environment where the students are exploring.The content developers and lecturers must be aware of thedangers and make the environment as free of extraneouscontent as possible for the students. Scaffolding incombination with giving the students a clear goal and a pictureof what the expectations are and where to focus their time andattention will help their learning. Goals also give studentssomething to strive for. This is important because it helps tomotivate the student and it also provides a sense ofaccomplishment when goals are reached.

4) PersonalisationThere is a continuing goal to support each and every learner

at an individual level. The desire to closely monitor and assistevery learner as he or she moves through a traditional learningprocess is not feasible from a resource perspective. Thechallenge of offering personally tailored learning material toevery student can only be solved by using computers. Thegeneral goals of computer based learning are that material

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should be:* adaptive to the individual,* generative rather than pre-composed* scalable to industrial production levels without

proportional increases in costThe suggested way of solving the personalisation of

learning material is to utilise learning objects (LO). As we

noted in a previous paper[33] "LO can be used as a step in thisdirection, if they are coupled with an automatic system thancan present different learning objects at different levels todifferent users in an automated fashion." We are now

suggesting that one of the ways to accomplish this would be tobase the automatic delivery system on computer games.

The practical solution to personalisation can be done on

multiple levels. The basic level is to adapt the starting pointand available tools for the students, games like Civilizationutilise such an asymmetrical structure, much as an educationgame can do. All players does not start with the same assets,in a regular game this is used to enhance the drama and makethe game more exciting, in an educational game this could beused to represent different starting points, or to force differentplayers to cooperate in the game.

Personalisation at a more advanced level can be performedby tracking students progress and adapting the materialpresented as the system gains more information about thestudent. This method is described in the next paragraph,reassessment.

5) ReassessmentThe problems surrounding how to deal with students that

fail the assessment are built into games from the very start.When faced with a new game nobody is expected to be able toplay through on the first try, if somebody would be able tocomplete the game first time, the game would not be any

success as it would be deemed too easy and players wouldquickly get bored.

The usual procedure for approaching any dangerous placesin a game is to save the game status and then if you die restoreand retry, this procedure can be repeated as many times as are

necessary to complete the task at hand. Any educationalsystem based on a game concept can use a similar method,with some small alterations. In an educational system therewould be no need for the student to save the game state beforeentering into a quest or any other are in the system, the questswould generally be non violent in nature and the scenario ofthe player dying would not be a helpful. The system musttrack all students' progress through any learning scenario andstore information on number of attempts and general progress

or lack thereof. In a regular game the quest would not becomeharder or easier in the game model, but the player wouldacquire knowledge of where the villains and problems are andact accordingly. In an educational system where the aim islearning, the system has the added option of making more helpavailable, this can be done in the form of hints, non playerscharacters (NOC) that are helpful, other players(lecturers/teaching assistants) that are alerted by the game thatsomebody is struggling or any other way the creator of the

learning material deems useful.

III. WHY GAMES BASED MODELS

As we know from school, young people are not alwayseager to do difficult things. When we as educators and tutorsare faced with the challenge of getting them to do so, twochoices are often available. The main solution schools use isto force them, or an alternative temptation when profit is atstake, which in increasingly the case in the education system,we can lower the requirements for a pass mark. From thegaming industry neither are an option, the industry can't forcepeople to play their game, and the games does not want theshort and easy option. For people interested in education, thisraises an interesting question: "How do game designersmanage to get new players to learn their games which areoften long, complex and difficult, and even pay for theprivilege?" Gee[25] answer to the above question is: "Theanswer, I believe, is this. the designers of many good gameshave hit on profoundly good methods of getting people tolearn and to enjoy learning." He goes on to claim that "Underthe right conditions, learning, like sex, is biologicallymotivating and pleasurable for humans". This is possiblypushing it a bit too far, but there is an observable fact that attimes this is true, learning is a pleasurable experience.

The idea that we get the student hooked on learning as apleasurable experience and not something they have to forcethemselves through must be every educator's dream, andshould get the reaction:" We have to learn how to do this."Computr games are engaging as we have showed earlier.

Aldrich[34] have shown that students involved in a simulationwith some game elements will spend around 50% longerlearning, than in a similar environment without the gameelement.

Computer game designers are working very hard to makepeople finish a game they have started on, and preferably buythe sequel or next game in the series. The main "trick" gamedevelopers use to get a player to stay with the game or, whenthey have to leave, make them have the urge to return andcontinue, is by establishing emotional connections with the onscreen characters, both the avatar used by the player and ingame characters and non players characters (NOC). Theemotional attachment between players is discussed earlier inthe section on socialisation in a game environment.Freeman[35] presents this topic in his book on how to createemotion in video games.

In games players make things happen, they do not just sitback and let impressions and events wash over them. Videogames are by definition interactive.Deep learning requires commitment, the gaming industry

have invested a large amount of effort into getting players tocommit time and effort into their player character, thechallenge for educationalists is to tap into the same feelings,getting students to devote the same time and energy intolearning.

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IV. THE DESIGN FOR THE GAMES BASED MODEL

Here we describe briefly the model for the game, with themodelling of the learning material assessment not influencedby learning material, and assessment feedback pointing backto learning material. Help with learning (focus is learning) isnot connected to assessment. The system will track progress,

increase help as time progress in same area and also use

hidden clues (found by the students that spend more time, i.e.need the clues to progress).

The system design is focused on the utilisation of a games

based model and its inherent support for constructivistlearning in a higher education environment. The gamingformat does also lend itself to support the known advantagesof narrative from oral traditions and fits with the younger

generation's interest in current trends in the entertainmentindustry. The decision to adopt a game based approach to thedevelopment of e-learning follows on from a survey of currentstate-of-the art support for lifelong learning that was carriedout by the authors[33], a key element of that investigationbeing the different techniques to improve learning andretention trough engagement of the learner.

The subject area is divided in topics and subtopics, whichare then modelled as levels in the game. The different levelswill contain multiple quests each representing some areas ofmaterial that the student should learn. The aim of the game isto complete the levels. This is done via the assessment part ofthe system. The quests are only there to aid in the process oflearning. It is possible to model access to higher levels in thegame without necessarily completing the current levels, this isleft up to the designers.

The learning material is to be modelled in a quest form. Thequest form is borrowed from computer games. See [36, 37].The quest format is built on the simple principle of settingsome task for the player and then rewarding them on thesuccessful completion of that task. If the player does notsucceed the option is to go back and try again. Moreinformation about quests and how they are designed into thelearning environment are described later.How can we construct the tools that can help in the process

of offering the correct amount of scaffolding to eachindividual student?

The game based format is inherently constructivist and doesoffer a way to get multiple attempts at solving one task andcan be constructed in such a way as to offer an increasingamount of help on each rerun. The student is offered theopportunity to retry the same tasks multiple times. Differentstudents will therefore be offered different support during thelearning phase, dependent on the student's actual needs, whenthe student arrives at the assessment phase of the learningperiod all scaffolding and support will be removed so that thestudent can demonstrate their understanding of the topic area.

A. Interface3d graphical virtual environment, support for both graphics

and the networking are built into the chosen games engine.

The support for audio and possibly video groupcommunication in real-time are other features that must besupported in a completed system, these features can be also besupported by an external system to the game itself. Theargument can be made for both solutions, both internal andexternal. An internal solution is easier to set up and maintain.Whereas an external solution will be more flexible and is thepreferred solution in online action games of today, mostly dueto the impact it may have on response time for the networkpackages updating players on the ongoing action in the game.

B. NavigationNavigating in a large 3D world inside a MMORPG game isoften a bit tricky. In regular computer games navigationfinding a route back to earlier places in the game is often usedto add to the challenge of playing. In regular games exploringand finding hidden secrets are part of the game play, in aneducational game we would generally not try to make learningmaterial difficult to find or relocate for the students. We maywant to hide some small surprises and entertaining featuresbut the general bulk of the material should be easily locatable.We want to make the content easily findable and relocatablefor the students, but the design of the navigation system mustnot remove the exploration factor.

The proposed design solution for this is an auto generated2D clickable map. This map will mark all places that thestudent has visited and can be used for auto move. The automove feature is added to save the player from moving throughlong stretches of game environment just to get to a area oflearning material that is wanted. The auto move feature willremove the hassle of navigating known areas, but keep theneed to explore new areas.

C. Gaming concepts1) ItemsThe student will be presented with items when they

complete tasks. Items will typically be similar to real worldobjects. Items can be: SMS tool, Mobile phone, Laptop, keys,cables, wireless access card and other upgrades for the laptop,radio link (multiple and unlimited mobile phone), video phoneand video link(multiple and unlimited video phone). Thelimits will only be set by the imagination. Some of the itemswill be required to perform some quest, most will only be forshow and items for showing off to other players.The useful items will typically be given in a number of

quests. Most of them will be given during the first few"learning the system" quests. These "learning the system"quests are the first few quests set for the user to familiarisethemselves with the system. This is a much used method inMMORPG's to teach new players about the system andcontrols.

2) QuestsFrom wikipedia: "A quest is a journey towards a goal with

great meaning and is used in mythology and literature as aplot device. In literature, the objects of quests are often alengthy distance from the hero ' starting position. Thisrequires much travel and allows the author to showcase the

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exotic locations and cultures oftheirfantasy world. "A typical quest will start with the heroes having to assemble

some artefacts, which unfortunately for them have beenstolen/hidden and/or broken into several pieces, each of whichis guarded by terrible threats which the heroes must overcome.A quest in a gaming context, especially in MMORPGs, is

generally a task or series of tasks, which a player or group ofplayers may complete in order to gain a reward. Rewards mayinclude experience points, loot, spells, in-game currency,faction hits, or any combination of the above. In a traditionalcomputer game setting the game play is performing the questand the reward is the aim and whole reason for completing thequest. For the quests in the education game proposed in thispaper, the aim is to learn during the quest, the reward is only asmall token to mark the completion of a quest. The result ofthis is that the focus is actually shifted from completing thequest to learning during the quest.

The main benefit for the player in the long run is thelearning that takes place as the quests are worked through. Inaddition to learning the student will be given some item insidethe virtual world at the completion of the quest.

The quests will initially typically be "learning the system"quests that will teach the student about the system and theitems given will be useful in the virtual world. These questswill give the student the most basic items required to performsome of the quests in the system. (Communication-tool, laptopand so on) The advantages of this approach are that thestudents are trained on the system that they will later use.

Group quests will require the students to cooperate to solvethe task at hand. One simple way to ensure that there aremultiple students in a group can be that when they embark onthe quest they will have to create a private network with theirlaptops, each student only able to carry one laptop at anygiven time. This will also require the students to set upcommunication and other collaboration tools they need duringthe group quest, before they start.

The completion of quests will not influence the progressionof an individual student, but results are recorded. The Questscan be a simple completed/not completed type or graded.Upon the completion of any quest the player completing thequest must have an opportunity to indicate if anybody helpedhim during the quest, or attempted to mislead him. The playersmay be awarded for helping others this is in the form ofmoney in the game.

The outcomes of quests are:* Learning takes place* Feedback on personal progress* Collaborative learning - The opportunity to guide

other through quests -> result in moneyThe quests do not influence the assessment outcome. The

assessment does not use any of the results or number ofattempts on quests as input, but it can recommend that thestudent revisits or attempt some quests as an outcome.

3) LevelsThe virtual world will consist of multiple levels. Most

levels will have an access limitation and only be accessible to

students with a high enough status, in other words they haveto progress far enough in the material, and prove they havelearned the material through assessment, to be allowed accessto more material.

The designers of the learning material will be free to controlaccess to levels and can make levels free access or dependenton the completion of certain tasks, score in assessment or anyother information that is logged by the system. The envisageddesign for the system is based on a central access control areathat allows the standard access to all levels, most will beblocked off initially but opened as the student passesassessments. In addition to this central access, designers of thelearning material may offer access to levels or parts of levelsthat are not accessible for the student.

Using a building as a model, the main lobby with elevatorswill offer the general main access point. Elevator buttons willbecome available as the student passes assessments. Thedesigner of different levels may offer additional means oftravel between levels. This can be via backstairs or small localelevators. Access to these stairs and local elevators are up tothe designers of the different levels to control.When designers of learning material offer access to new

levels for students they must be also allow the students to laterreturn to complete unfinished levels. This can be via the samelocal transport or via the main elevators.

4) MoneyThe concept of money in the game can be an interesting

one. We envisage that students helping other students will begiven a salary, paid by the system. After one particular studenthas finished a quest he can give credit to other students forhelping him. This credit can only be given to students thathave previously completed the same quest. The salary given tothe helper will be determined by to factors, the amount of helpgiven (rated by the student that was helped) and the result thisstudent achieved on the quest. This will be useful where theoutcome of the quest is graded and not simply pass/fail.

The earned money can later be spent in the social areas ofthe game. The money will not help in completing quests or inassessment. At least in the assessment part this would ruin thecredibility of the whole learning system.

The main reason to introduce money is the give an extraincentive for students to help each other.

5) Experience point-progression in the gameThe student will acquire status/experience points in the

game by completing assessments, experience points are whatcontrols student access to new levels and areas of the game.The only way to gain these points is to complete assessments,no amount of completed quests, items or money will givehigher access to new levels. The assessment procedure itselfand the work on assessment is described later in this paper.

6) Social areasThe designed game will have areas that are designed to be

purely for social interaction and recreation. The social areas inthe game are envisaged to have at least three functions:

* Meeting place and interaction opportunities fornon learning material. The social areas will be

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areas of the game environment where the playerswill not be supervised or closely monitored. Theareas will offer an opportunity for players to runaway to or communicate about topics outside thelearning situation. This communication is handledin an traditional learning environment by taking abreak, going outside for a coffee or smoke,chatting about last night's movie or if the studentsshould meet up later. This communication optionis not a necessity for the gaming environment butshould be fairly easy to implement and will offersomething extra for the students.

* Creative outlet for players, inside the non learningareas of the gaming environment players can beallowed to create their own areas. The creativespirit of game players/students is enormous. Mostof the large commercial virtual worlds that peoplecan log into offer the opportunity to create yourown virtual living space. Inside these commercialvirtual world people have been known to spendmonths and months creating unique areas insidethe virtual world, it is a shame to waste thiscreative spirit and not utilise it to create a moreinteresting virtual learning environment.

* The final social area is places to spend the virtualmoney students acquire helping others during thequests. The money spending areas can be placeslike shops, where players are allowed to customisetheir avatar, 100 Virtual coins for a green jacket,or 500 for a bright red one. Anyone seeing youravatar after the purchase of the red jacket willknow that you are a player who has lots of moneyand are a great help on the quests, getting theplayer with the red jacket even more money byattracting attention from people needing help.

7) Getting help (Student-instructor, Student - Student)Most people benefit from a social community setting when

they are involved in learning activities. Having others todiscuss their experiences and difficulties with or to try outideas is helpful. One of the aims of the designed learningenvironment is that in all the learning and social areas studentsshould be able to communicate with all other students andstaff that are present in the game. Some communication willbe limited to face to face, avatar style, you are only able tocommunicate with the other avatars that you presently see.Distance communication will be possible via items acquired,such as mobile phone, sms tool and video conferencingequipment.

D. MultilevelThe subject area is divided in topics and subtopics, which arethen modelled as levels in the game. The different levels willcontain multiple quests each representing some areas ofmaterial that the student should learn. The aim of the game isto complete the levels. This is done via the assessment part of

learning, the only way to progress is to demonstrateknowledge by passing assessments. There is also a possibilityto model in ways to gain access to higher levels in the gamewithout necessarily completing the current levels. Thedecision on what levels should be accessible at any one time isleft up to the designers of the levels

E. Modelling ofcontentThe ability to divide up the subject area in topics and

subtopics, which are then modelled as levels in the game, isone of the ideas that are to be tested. The different levels willcontain multiple quests each representing some areas ofmaterial that the student should learn. The aim of the game isto complete the levels. This is done via the assessment part ofthe system. The quests are only there to aid in the process oflearning. They do not in them selves mark the completion or

proof of attained knowledge. The only way to demonstrateknowledge and that learning have taken place is and therebyprogressing in the game is to pass the assessments. There mustbe a possibility to create ways to gain access to higher levelsin the game without necessarily completing the current levels.The decision on what levels should be accessible at any one

time must be left up to the designers of the levels. The virtuallearning environment must not limit this ability for thedesigners.

1) Modelling oflearning material - QuestsThe quests will be the major way to present material to the

students. The completion of quests will not influence theprogression of an individual student, but results are recorded.Upon the completion of any quest the player completing thequest has an opportunity to indicate if anybody helped himduring the quest, or attempted to mislead him. The playersindicated will then be rewarded according to rules built in.The players award for helping others are in the form of moneyin the game. This money is awarded to players regardless ofwhether they are online or not. The only requirements that can

be set are that they have completed the same quest, but this isleft up to the designer of the individual quests.The outcomes of quests are:

* Learning takes place* Feedback on personal progress

* The opportunity to guide other through quests -> can

result in moneyGroup quests will require the students to cooperate to solve

the task at hand. One simple way to ensure that there are

multiple students in a group can be that when they embark on

the quest they will have to create a private network with thelaptops, each student only able to carry one laptop at any

given time. This will also require the students to set up

communication and other collaboration tools they need duringthe group quest, before they start.As mentioned before, the quests do not influence the

assessment process. The assessment does not use any of theresults or attempts on quests as input, but it must have thepossibility to recommend completing quests as a possible

the system. The quests are only there to aid in the process of

I1I

outcome. The money given can not be used in completing

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quests or assessment. The money are used in social settingsand customising your avatar.

2) More traditional modelling oflearning material

a) Lecture theatresThese can be recorded or even live lecturers given by

members of staff. These rooms/areas can be modelled astraditional lecture theatres, meeting rooms or any other layoutthe designer of the level feels are appropriate to offer.

The other form of lecture can be the pre-recorded one.These lectures can naturally be individually controlled by thestudents and be started, stopped and jumped in at will.

LIVE: The virtual environment may contain areas wherelive lectures bare given. If there is a live lecture the studentswill have to behave in much the same way the do in real livelectures, avatars of all students present will be visible for theperson giving the lecture, and the audience will be able to seand listen to the avatar giving the lecture. Students can askquestions and interact with the lecturer, but their action will beviewed by all other people present at the lecture and disruptivebehaviour or "noise" might be a problem.

Compared to one-on-one guidance there is several clearadvantages: Live lectures will give an added feeling ofbelonging in a community in the same way a traditionallecture does. The lecturer is able to give multiple users that arecurrently logged into the system at that time the benefit ofwhat is happening, but as with traditional lectures the studentswill be treated as a group and not receive individual attention.RECORDED: The other lecture format can be pre-recorded

lectures made available to students. These can be in the formof a recorded lecture in the virtual world (A bot/robot avatarcopies the previous live lecture), or just a video that isrunning. The advantages here is that the students are able tocontrol the pace (start, pause, fast forward, rewind) but are notable to ask questions and get an immediate response.

b) LaboratoriesLabs will be areas where people can meet up and do

experiments and prepare for quests. The material in the labmay be similar to quests and but it may also contain some halfsolutions ready made, with easy to understand descriptions.The may also be a way to allow bigger freedom in what to dothan are allowed in the quests, the action in the lab does nothave to be evaluated, and the students can be free toexperiment. During a quest action has to be evaluated toprovide a feedback at the end, even though quests are notassessed for marks, the monitoring and assessment that takesplace may be a factor for some students.

The ability to train and perform experiments and give thechance to train for quests and assessment is an important partof the virtual world. The labs may also double up as a socialarea to allow students to meet.

3) LibraryThe library or similar facility may offer an opportunity to

add in much of the electronic learning material that isavailable today. This could be: electronic books, journals or

any other material in written form, it may be videos andanimation, it may be past exams that the designer of theenvironment wants to make available for the students, thesemay be all types of exams, both new and old. It may be allother types of traditional or non-traditional learning materialsavailable from the designers of the system that they feel wouldbe of benefit to the students.

F. AssessmentAssessment is designed into the system to be an integral

part of the learning process. The importance of having theassessment as an integral part and not something added just atthe end are well documented. [3 1 ]

The assessment is recommended to be built around essaystyle questions. Essay style question are good because theyallow the student to demonstrate understanding. The value ofessay style question and the students creating their ownnarrative are well documented. [38]

Student created narrative based assessmentThe student created narrative based assessment is based on

the student demonstrating their understanding of a topic bycreating a narrative. That narrative usually takes the form ofthe exposition of a series of facts and the relationship betweenthem, as a means of describing the overall conceptual view ofthe topic under consideration. The basis for this is how thestudent is constructing their learning. The use of studentcreated narrative based assessment is assessing how thestudent is obtaining learning and developing understating.

Each piece of learning that the student is undertaking is partof the overall picture. We present elements and concepts tothe students, as the outcomes of quests, and ask them tocombine these elements into a narrative, the result of this isthat the narrative is not used as a demonstration of theknowledge the student already processes, but the narrative isthe means by which they develop the understanding of howthose concepts interrelate. The creation of the narrativeactually builds the understanding, and it will also demonstratethat the learning has taken place.

Narrative in its structure is a good way of demonstratingunderstanding, any help to the students to create the narrativethemselves will aid in the learning process. This help increating the narrative is an important part of the learningprocess and will gradually be fading as the students arecreating their own understanding. The scaffolding put into thelearning material to help in the initial phases of narrativeconstruction should guide the students around any majorpitfalls they are likely to encounter in creating their narrativeand save them from making to many erroneous connections inthe early learning phase.We are not discussing the student understanding narrative

written by others, we want the student to genuinely constructtheir own narrative. The authors of the learning material mustbe aware of this when offering scaffolding to aid in thestudent's creation of narrative. Tracking a student's progressthrough a games based environment can be used to verify thatthe student presents their own narrative and not a narrative

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produced by somebody else.This area will probably include traditional assessment, as

well as assessment based upon student created narrative. Thepossibility of automated assessment and group assessmentshould be investigated. The techniques and methods for thecreation of narrative based assessment are the topic of a

further paper planned by the authors.1) Traditionalforms of assessmentThe designers of the assessment in the proposed virtual

learning environment may elect to stay with traditionalassessment methods. The challenges of traditional methodsand how to adapt them to the proposed learning style are laidout earlier in this paper. The learning system does not in itselfrequire any particular assessment style but the authors of thispaper have made their recommendations clear. Therequirement that must be met by any chosen assessmentmethod, is that the outcome of assessment must result instudents gaining experience points inside the learningenvironment, so that new levels/areas can be made available

V. CONCLUSION

The aim is to show the outline design for a system thatutilises games based technology to support virtual learningenvironments that are constructivist in nature and utilisenarrative for the learning process and student created narrativefor the assessment process.

The assessment approach differs from the traditionalnarrative based assessment based model, essay style questionsin that the goal is that when constructing the narrative thestudent develops their understanding and that the constructionof the narrative facilitates and encourages this process. So thatthe narrative is a natural outcome of the learning process

utilising narrative construction.We have here shown the design for this system and are now

moving on to implementing actual working prototypes.

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