BAM! EEEEEK! POW! What Video Games Can Teach Us About e-learning Feedback

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1 202 BAM! EEEEEK! POW! What Video Games Can Teach Us About e-learning Feedback Julie Dirksen, Allen Interactions Produced by Designing & Developing Online Assessments & Evaluations

2 What Video Games Can Teach Us About e-learning Feedback OR Page 1

3 What games do you play? Types of games (poll) Adventure / Strategy Role-playing game (RPG) MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games) Sports / Racing Arcade First person shooter (FPS) Puzzle (Tetris and the like) Simulation Platforms (poll) Console games (xbox, Playstation, Nintendo) Online single player games Online multi-player games Other PC or Mac Games What are some favorites? Please type your response in Chat Page 2

4 Evaluation in e-learning: Let s play a game Page 3

5 What types of evaluation did you see? Please type your response. Evaluation in e-learning: Page 4

6 Points Page 5

7 How games do evaluation: Collecting How games do evaluation: Time Page 6

8 How games do evaluation: Leveling How can this work for elearning evaluation? Please type your response. Page 7

9 And just what are we evaluating? Conscious Action Synthesis Comprehension Analysis Knowledge Conscious Effort Application Familiarization Cognitive Skills Proficiency Psychomotor Comprehension Unconscious Competence Affective What are you hoping for? Familiarization Comprehension Conscious Effort Conscious Action Proficiency Unconscious Competence - From Electronic Performance Support Systems by Gloria Gery Page 8

10 Points in elearning Example: Manpower Page 9

11 What potential benefits are there for Points in elearning? Greater degree of ambiguity Multiple points-based outcomes --- What could you use this for? Please type your response in Chat Collecting Example: New Hire Orientation Page 10

12 What potential benefits are there for Collecting in elearning? Different types of elements to be collected Motivational element Tracking progress ---- What could you use it for? (Please type your response). Page 11

13 Special Collecting: The Power-up Improve the abilities of the player Leveling Examples: Dialog Coach Page 12

14 Designing & Developing Examples: Dialog Coach Leveling Session 202 BAM! EEEEEK! POW! What Video Games Can Teach Us About e Page 13

15 What potential benefits are there for Leveling in elearning? Intermittent goals and overall goal Variable mastery of levels Gradual improvement of skills --- What could you use it for? Please type your response in Chat What if completion was enough... Page 14

16 Completion Build enough factors into completion, and you have conclusive evidence that the learner knows the material to a specific level. Completion=Proficiency Completion=Proficiency Can this work? Please type your response in Chat Page 15

17 Making this work Is using learning games: Learning? Or Evaluation? Or Learning? Or Evaluation? Or Learning? Or Evaluation? Page 16

18 Cycles of Expertise Principle: Expertise is formed in any area by repeated cycles of learners practicing skills until they are nearly automatic, then having those skills fail in ways that cause the learners to have to think again and learn anew... Games: Good games create and support the cycle of expertise...this is, in fact, part of what constitutes good pacing in a game. -James Paul Gee It s all integrated If you do it right, the game / learning experience will provide the evaluation. If you are not proficient enough, you don t move on until you are proficient. Completion = proficiency Page 17

19 So, can we just put more levels into elearning? Module 1 Module 2 Module 3 Module 4 Module 5 Module 6 TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST What does this get us? Please type your response in Chat It s all integrated. Making this work People have to be ENGAGED. So how are games different? Page 18

20 Why can it work in games? It may sound trite, but for us educational games are first and foremost games. Whether a bona-fide contest with logical rules and a winning condition, or a Sim City-style sandbox playtoy, a game experience needs to have certain basic elements to be a meaningful experience for players. - Eric Zimmerman What are those basic elements? Please type your response. Page 19

21 It s all about the brain What is going on when you are learning something new? Well, your frontal cortex gets busy. It starts burning a lot of fuel, and fills up pretty quickly. Page 20

22 What is going on when you using a regular pattern you already know? That leverages the basal ganglia a part of the brain that can run without a lot of conscious attention. How is most elearning structured? Module 1 Module 2 Module 3 Module 4 Module 5 Module 6 Intro New Info More new Info Even more new Info Yet again with the new info Summary Whew! Page 21

23 How are most games structured? Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Some new stuff, pretty easy though Stuff you know plus a bit more Stuff you know, maybe a little faster Stuff you know plus a bit more Stuff you know, kicked up a notch Boss Fight It s a lot like flow: Ability Flow Channel Challenge - Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Page 22

24 It also allows you to pay attention to what s different. Whew! In this model, everything is new and everything is important (so nothing is). It also allows you to pay attention to what s different. Whew! In this model, the new material is mixed in with existing stuff, so the new material stands out. Page 23

25 We all need a rest sometimes: Whew! If you don t give people a break, they will take it anyway. Wait, this is important Brain dead, leaking out the ears Okay, I get it Uh huh. Uh huh... Kind of distracted Tuned out Pacing in games Games: Good games create and support the cycle of expertise...this is, in fact, part of what constitutes good pacing in a game. -James Paul Gee Page 24

26 Goals, Goals and Goals Immediate, Short-term and Long-term goals Goals in Diner Dash Immediate Goal Task / Level Short-term Goal Stage Long-term Goal Game Completion Page 25

27 Long-term Goal: The boss fight When you put all the skills you ve learned together to beat the BOSS. The boss fight On the boss fight, you are ready to fail 5-6 times until you get it. If I get a boss on the 1 st try, I think it s too easy. - MS Hunter Page 26

28 Better than a Skinner Box Positive Feedback Negative Feedback Reward Punishment It s not that easy many times we ve seen educators entering into game development that are content to transfer the style of games onto educational tasks without understanding the substance of what makes a game work Eric Zimmerman Page 27

29 What makes it work? Getting and keeping attention What makes it work? How many people have had to take the written drivers test lately? Right Right of of Way Way and and Yielding Yielding Right-of-way and and yielding yielding laws laws help help traffic traffic flow flow smoothly and and safely. safely. They They are are based based on on courtesy courtesy and and common common sense. sense. Violation Violation of of these these laws laws is is a leading leading cause cause of of traffic traffic crashes. crashes. When When two two vehicles vehicles reach reach an an intersection at at the the same same time, time, and and there there is is no no traffic traffic light light or or signal, signal, the the driver driver of of the the vehicle vehicle on on the the left left must must yield yield to to the the vehicle vehicle on on the the right. right. -Minnesota Driver s Driver s Manual Manual Think about how that feels. Page 28

30 Now, how about this? How does this one feel? If there s no urgency... Most of the burden is on the frontal cortex. Page 29

31 What s happening here? The Amygdala is saying: PAY ATTENTION! This could be important. What makes it work? Balanced gameplay: expectation, surprise and reward Page 30

32 Good surprises are good Pleasant surprises cause a dopamine spike PAY ATTENTION! If this is good, then you want more. Even bad surprises are good Unpleasant surprises cause a dopamine drop. PAY ATTENTION! This is bad. Avoid in future. Page 31

33 No surprises are bad Hmm. I wonder what I should have for dinner... Games do this well Gold Coin Gold Coin Gold Coin Gold Coin Super Platinum Hammer of Death that lets you SQUASH evildoers!!! Page 32

34 It s also about the rewards "The feedback and reward needs to be equal to the frustration and effort." - MS Hunter It s all integrated Some of this is more about game design than game as evaluation. It s the same thing. Page 33

35 What s the catch? Games are good at teaching you how to play games (not necessarily how to actually do things) Page 34

36 Examples Page 35

37 Page 36

38 Examples Page 37

39 Questions? Page 38

40 Books References Electronic Performance Support System by Gloria Gery Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (A reasonable Wikipedia explanation can be found at ) What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee Game Articles: References Learning to Play to Learn - Lessons in Educational Game Design by Nick Fortugno & Eric Zimmerman - originally published in Gamasutra (Other publications by Eric Zimmerman Behavioral Game Design by John Hopson Proof of Learning: Assessment in Serious Games by Sande Chen Learning by Design: Games as Learning Machines by James Paul Gee Page 39

41 General Articles References The Neuroscience of Leadership by David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz The New Science of Change by Christopher Koch Hijacking the Brain Circuits With a Nickel Slot Machine by Sandra Blakeslee A8DDDAB0894DA (paid access) Getting past the brain's crap filter Posted by Kathy Sierra on December 22, 2004 on Creating Passionate Users Blog x.html Egghead stuff References Predictability Modulates Human Brain Response to Reward by Gregory S. Berns, Samuel M. McClure, Giuseppe Pagnoni, and P. Read Montague (Other recent publications by Gregory Berns When Things Are Better or Worse than Expected: The Medial Frontal Cortex and the Allocation of Processing Resources Geoffrey F. Potts, Laura E. Martin, Philip Burton, and P. Read Montague (Other recent publications by Read Montague Reward signaling by dopamine neurons by Wolfram Schultz Recent publications by Jonathan Cohen Page 40

References Games Diner Dash: http://www.shockwave.com/gamelanding/dinerdash.jsp Driver's Ed Game: http://www.venisproductions.

42 References Games Diner Dash: Driver's Ed Game: tml Super Collapse 3: Luck Charm Deluxe: Page 41

Creating Game-like Engagement without a Game Desginers Budget. Julie Dirksen, Usable Learning

105 Creating Game-like Engagement without a Game Desginers Budget Julie Dirksen, Usable Learning Creating Game-like Engagement (without a Game Designer s Budget) Learning Solutions 2010 Julie Dirksen March