Synapsys Blog - Games/Simulations

Games in the workplace.

Games are probably frowned upon by many business owners as time wasters.
But they can have their place in a work place. For example, after a long, busy or stressful week, getting together after work on a Friday to shoot and kill your boss/subordinates/co-workers (or even clients) over and over again in a networked First Person Shooter game can have a very rewarding effect on all involved.

As long as there are clear rules regarding the use of games during business hours etc, they can be just as much a part of the work place as having a chat during a break or any other work place activity, after all, most business these days have LAN networks more than capable so why not use it for team building/fun as well as work - the worst that can happen is you will be killed, but you can always hit the spacebar and respawn to return the favour.

Multimedia development process models

The process of multimedia development is complex. Each organisation will develop its own process which reflects its own culture, as much as it does good process design principles. Here's an example of one process module developed by Stephen Lowe for use by Level 7 Multimedia Diploma students. Note that each step has rollovers, providing useful background.

The Use of Computer and Video Games for Learning

An amazingly comprehensive 93-page report from Ultralab UK and the Learning and Skills Development Agency UK covering many issues related to computer/video games and learning. The report is a comprehensive look at existing literature and practice, a great snapshot of where the field sits at the moment.

More here... (PDF)

Games Deserve a Place in the Class

There have been a number of articles recently that point to the usefulness of games in the classroom. This article refers to an initiative by the Institute of Education at the University of London to promote game literacy in young people.

More here...
Same topic, coverage from BBC News...

Simulations: Interactive Pretending

Marc Prensky has just released a new batch of writings, including a short paper called 'Interactive Pretending: an Overvew of Simulations' that reminds us in simple terms that simulations are really exercises in useful pretending. Simulations allow us to expose learners to situations that they might encounter in the real world some day, but cannot be easily trained in for reasons of safety or infrequency. This might range from how to fly an airplane, to how to deal with a difficult patient or how to effectively manage a natural disaster.

This paper is a good primer on the emerging area of training simulations, for those interested in learning more.

More here...

The Promise of Simulations

We found this to be a well-written article on the promise (and some pitfalls) of using simulations as a learning platform. Of particular note is the commentary about when simulations are appropriate and why some past efforts have failed: "Overenthusiastic e-learning vendors have touted simulations in many areas where they should not have been used. Many companies that first adopted them were disappointed with the results. All too often, unfortunately, learning objectives were ignored in order to provide clients with the 'wow' factor. Simulations looked good, but little learning occurred."

http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_feature.asp?articleid=382&zoneid=29

Interactive Technologies for eLearning

We gave the third in our series of eLeanring Solutions Seminars in conjunction with our partner, Hand Multimedia. We had a good turn-out and discussion...

We talked about theory related to interactivity, specific technologies and showed a number of examples of games, simulations and scenario-based learning.

Everyone really enjoyed seeing Hand's thermodynamics learning game, Fireman Frank. You can view it here, if you missed it.

We didn't discuss collaboration, lms/lcms's, or any of that as we'll be covering those topics in future seminars.

View the presentation...

More on Learning Games

From our Updater Newsletter:

In our last version of the Updater, we discussed how learning games are emerging as a promising platform for motivating learners, particularly younger learners who have grown up in a rich, multimedia world. In this issue, we will discuss some of the issues and challenges associated with creating learning games.

The typical response to a suggestion about creating a learning game is, "Oh, but games are so time-consuming and expensive to create!" After all, we all know that most video game projects cost millions of dollars (in the U.S., the video game industry makes more money than the movie industry!) and take years to complete. Large projects require animators, programmers, sound effects specialists, musicians, background artists and many other skills. But when we think about what a game really is, we find that there are other ways we can challenge and engage learners, without necessarily going to a lot of expense.

Some organisations have opted for very simple approaches, integrating training content with simple flashcard-type games, using Solitaire or a trivia format. The truth is that learners enjoy these games, particularly learners who grew up with card and trivia games. Admittedly, this sort of simple implementation may not hold the same allure for your typical 3D shooter player, but it's a start.

But money and time are really not the biggest challenges associated with creating learning games. In his book, Simulations and the Future of Learning, Clark Aldrich explains that one of the biggest issues with converting existing training content to a learning game is that most training is linear whereas games are, by definition, open-ended. The whole idea behind a game is that the player can control the way the game unfolds, as well as the outcome. So creating a learning game often means starting from scratch, developing the learning content with the games platform in mind.

As the title of his book suggests, Aldrich primarily writes about simulations, a category of the video game industry that is quickly emerging as an intriguing approach to e-learning. In fact, the best-selling game of all time is the Sims, a simulation game where the player gets to raise a sim family, from feeding them and getting them jobs to furnishing their house. It doesn?t take much imagination to think how such a game might be leveraged to teach all sorts of subjects, from sociology to architecture.

Blockbuster games aside, simulations can also be built on a shoestring. For instance, it is not too difficult to build web-based simulations that employ a branching scheme, whereby the learner is presented with a set of options, picks an option, sees the outcome of her decision and has the opportunity to try different approaches until she finds the right one. This is actually quite a powerful learning device, as it places the learning in a real-life context and provides opportunities for both success and failure. Teamed with audio, video and/or animations, these simple simulations can be very engaging learning experiences.

As we mention above, the team at Synapsys is working on a couple of these simulation projects. We?ll keep you up-to-date on our progress in a future Updater.

What We Can Learn From the Video Game Industry

The following is a summary of an online discussion about the power of the video game platform in the creation of learning environments. The panelists are two academics, author Marc Prensky (Digital Game-based Learning) and an American high school student, code-named Cory. There are a lot of interesting tidbits here, most notably about motivation and the power of community, collaboration and competition.

http://www.iaete.org/soapbox/summary.cfm

Simulations for Learning

Clark Aldrich is the author of a recent book, Simulations and the Future of Learning, in which he discusses how to leverage simulations as learning tools. In this Q&A article, he clears up some misconceptions about simulations (they needn't be complicated nor expensive!) and elaborates on their potential.

We're doing some work with simulations for a couple of clients of ours at the moment, so we find this stuff quite interesting.

http://www.elearningpost.com/features/archives/002199.asp

Synapsys Presentation on Educational Design

This is a presentation that we delivered to the Association of Technical Communicators in Christchurch, New Zealand on October 31st, 2003.

Many of the topics sparked lively conversation, particularly those related to leveraging opportunities like learning games for populations of learners who aren't motivated by traditional methods.

Download the presentation (right-click this link to save it to your hard drive)