INCORPORATING VIDEO GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM

CHIN-WEN HUANG

FINANCE DEPARTMENT

DECEMBER 1ST, 2011

OUTLINES

• Why use games to teach

• How to incorporate games into the classroom

• An application

• Challenges of digital game-based learning

• Sources for a suitable game

• Q & A

WHY USE GAMES TO TEACHWHERE WE ARE

• Most educators are neither game players nor developers.

• Old impressions about games

• Today’s games are categorized as

- Adventure games

- Role-play games

- Strategy games

- Sports/Military games

- Puzzle games

WHY USE GAMES TO TEACHBACKGROUNDS OF TODAY’S STUDENTS

• Today’s students, the so-called Net Generation, have grown up in an environment in which Internet communication and computer technology are an ordinary component of daily routines (Annetta et al., 2006).

• A recent survey shows that 65% of college students are regular or occasional game players and 30% of college students admit playing games in class (Oblinger, 2006).

• According to a 2008 Pew Survey, 97% of teens and 81% of young adults (18-29 years old) play computer games on a regular basis.

WHY USE GAMES TO TEACHWHAT TODAY’S STUDENTS DEMAND

Kirriemuir (2004) summarized the ten characteristics of “new vs. old” views toward learning.

• twitch speed vs. conventional speed

• parallel processing vs. linear processing

• graphics first vs. text first

• random access vs. step by step

• connected vs. standalone

• active vs. passive

• play vs. work

• payoff vs. work

• fantasy vs. patience

• technology as friend vs. technology as foe

WHY USE GAMES TO TEACH (CON’T)

THE BENEFITS OF DIGITAL GAMES-BASED LEARNING

• Games provide a comfortable learning format for the current generation.

• Games motivate people. Competitions and immediate rewards motivate students to stay focus on the subjects.

• Games offer the simulated environment that allows learners to experience the scenarios that would otherwise costly.

• Repeatability is the key that people master certain knowledge. Students learn from mistakes and experience.

WHY USE GAMES TO TEACH (CON’T)

THE BENEFITS OF DIGITAL GAMES-BASED LEARNING

• It’s important to know that games are effective in facilitating learning not because they are fun, but because they capture the essence of the human learning process.

- Social

- Research

- Problem solving

- Transfer

• The benefits of DGBL are supported by situated cognition and play theory.

INCORPORATING GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM: COURSE DESIGN

• A good lecture plan evolves defining the objectives, evaluating the delivery methods, and designing the assessments. DGBL is no different.

• Before introducing games into the classroom, you should ask the following questions:

- Motivations. What are your goals?

- Are suitable/ relevant games available? Can games deliver the appropriate learning outcomes?

- Are games costly to your students?

- Do students have necessary technology support?

- Do students have necessary skill sets to participate the games?

- How will you evaluate the process (design the rewards)?

INCORPORATING GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM: SOURCES OF GAMES• Let students build games from scratch

- Pros: Problem solving skills and programming languages

- Cons: Time-intensive and only works for certain courses

• Educators build educational games to teach students

- Pros: good balance between learning and entertainment

- Cons: Time-intensive and not cost effective

• Integrate commercial off-the-shelf games into learning

- Pros: Cost effective in terms of time and money;

applicable to most subjects

- Cons: Good matches are hard to find (Source: Eck, 2006)

INCORPORATING GAMES INTO THE CLASSROOM: TIMING AND FORMATS• Timing: Prior to the lecture, during the class,

and after the instruction

• Formats: outside the classroom, in the class

• Finding the balance between game play and other usual instructional activities is very important.

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

Motivations behind this implementation

• Financial illiteracy has become an ongoing concern.

- over half of 4-year college students lack the skills of comparing finance charges between various credit cards (American Institutes of Research in 2006)

- 73% of the college students studied engaged in at least one risky financial behavior within the six months prior to the survey (ASU 2007-2009 longitudinal study)

• Educators face significant challenges in motivating individuals to acquire financial knowledge (Hilgert, Hogarth, Beverly, 2003) .

• Online games provide students a safe, low-cost, fun, yet realistic interface by which to practice the knowledge gained in class.

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

What are your goals?Understanding the importance of savings and debt management

Understanding the time value of money

Understanding how the financial system works

Develop short and long-term financial goals.

Acquire proper knowledge to make educated decisions

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

Are suitable/ relevant games available?

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

Are games costly to your students?No, they are free online games offered by various not-for-profit organizations.

Do students have necessary technology support?Yes, the games provides have technology support.

Do students have necessary skill sets to participate the games?Yes, these games do not require any prior trainings.

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

How will you evaluate the process (design the rewards)?Written assignments (learning summary) will be used to assess the process. In the learning summary, students should

- relate the games to the concepts taught in class

- discuss the logic of the game design

- other findings

A COMPARISON OF DGBL & TRADITIONAL LEARNING

• Standard end-of-chapter problemWhat would be common savings goals for a person who buys a five-year CD paying 5.5% instead of an 18-month savings certificate paying 4.75%?

• DGBL Problem

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

Outcome assessments• A series of free online games offered by various not-

for-profit organizations are adopted.

• Two sessions of personal finance courses are accessed: one w/traditional problem-based homework assignments and one w/ online games homework assignments.

• Midterm and final exams were the method of accessing student learning outcomes.

• Comments from DGBL group were also collected.

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

• Learning outcomes

AN EXAMPLE (FIN100, PERSONAL FINANCE)

• Comments from students“This simulation was useful and a fun challenge.”

“Well first off this is an excellent game; it incorporates all aspects of budgeting and financial planning.”

“This game was very helpful in terms of financial planning and how to save money for unexpected occurrences.”

“Overall I found this game to be a very successful learning experience.”

“Having the chance to actually implement what you have learned shows the practical applications of the knowledge. “

“This was a very frustrating game in the beginning and I actually choose to restart because I didn’t make good choices in the beginning. So I started over and played phenomenally if I do say so myself.”

CHALLENGES OF GAME-BASED LEARNING (1)

• Games are a great vehicle for practicing knowledge gained, but bad at delivering a great deal of knowledge at the same time (Corti, 2006)

• Games should be designed as a supplement, rather than as the core instructional method

CHALLENGES OF GAME-BASED LEARNING (2)

• DGBL is not for every subject.

• Games work best for introductory courses. As the course moved on to more complex content, learning with or without multimedia became equally difficult, and students became less motivated in general (Ebner and Holzinger, 2007)

CHALLENGES OF GAME-BASED LEARNING (3)

• Suitable games are hard to find.

• Educational games are hard to design because they have to do many things at the same time.

• Course preparation could be time-consuming.

SOURCES FOR A SUITABLE GAME• Prensky’s list of 500 “serious games”.

www.socialimpactgames.com

• McDaniel and Telep (2009) summarized various games available to post-secondary instructors. Subjects include humanities and science courses. http://jolt.merlot.org/vol5no2/mcdaniel_0609.htm

• Health Games Research provides various games related to health education. http://www.healthgamesresearch.org/

• Starting point at Carleton College provides a list of Geoscience related games. http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/games/examples.html

• UC Boulder provides a list of science-related games. http://phet.colorado.edu/

• Goldsimulation provides various economics related games. http://www.goldsimulations.com/index.htm

THANK YOU