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Games in Higher
Education
Barbara Z. Johnson, Ed.D.
College of Letters and Sciences
UWW

2. +
Who’s Here??

3. +
What Do We Want To Know??

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“Game” = ?

Commercial Off-the-Shelf Game

Educational or Serious Game

Simulations

Virtual Worlds

Augmented Reality

Gamification

5. Free to
explore
and act
Sandbox
Few
choices
Few
paths
Open World
Wide Spectrum of Player Agency
Tightly Constrained
+
Nearly
anything
possible

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Characteristics

Rules

Roles

“Magic Circle”
Suspension of
reality

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Not Usually Casual Games

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Difficult Games

~ 2 – 60+ hours to complete

May never be finished

Require “grit” to master

Multiple failures before success

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Some Examples in Use

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COTS – Rich, Immersive Worlds
Oblivion

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Educational or Serious Games
ReDistricting Game (http://redistrictinggame.org/)

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Simulations
Forensics Practice (in Second Life)

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Virtual Worlds

Approximately 275 educational locations in Second Life
maintained by schools, colleges, and educational non-profits

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Augmented Reality
ARIS (aris.org)

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How Used?

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Part of a planned process
Feedback
Prepare
Consequential
Experience
Goals

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Practice Performance
Forensics Assignment in Second Life

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Perspective/Empathy
Civil War Role Play Debate – US History

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Abstract Via Concrete Experience
Financial Literacy in a Virtual World (Gaia Online)

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Similarities and Differences K-12 vs.
Higher Ed

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Benefits of Games in Higher Ed

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Advantages
Different learning styles
Game Mechanics

Spatial

2-D or 3-D “world”

Visual

Graphical

Mathematical/logical

Game play orderly

Kinesthetic

Procedural

Tinkering

Trial and error with frequent
feedback

Concrete thinking

On-screen representations

Goals/tasks/quests

Understanding facet performance

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Bloom’s Taxonomy
Games can be used to facilitate
and demonstrate

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Facets of Understanding (Wiggins)
Games can be used to facilitate
and demonstrate

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Challenges

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Culture of Learning in Higher Ed

Learning <> Fun

Games = Fun

Therefore: Games <> Learning

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References and Resources

ARIS - http://arisgames.org/

Bloomfield, R. (2009). World of Bizcraft. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(3), 3 - 34.

de Lucia, A., Francese, R., Passero, I., &Tortora, G. (2008). Development and evaluation of a
virtual campus on Second Life: The case of SecondDMI. Computers & Education, 52(1).

Foster, A. L. (2007). Professor Avatar. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(4). Retrieved from
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i04/04a02401.htm

Gee, J. P. (2013). The Anti-Education Era: Creating Smarter Students Through Digital Learning.
New York: New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Horton, K., Davenport, E., Hall, H., & Rosenbaum, H. (2002). Internet simulations for teaching,
learning and research: An investigation of e-commerce interactions and practice in the Virtual
Economy. Education for Information, 20(3/4).

Hudson, K., &Degast-Kennedy, K. (2009). Canadian border simulation at Loyalist College.
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(1), 3 - 11.

Inman, C., Wright, V. H., & Hartman, J. A. (2010). Use of Second Life in K-12 and Higher
Education: A Review of Research. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9(1), 44 63.Kupperman, J., &Weisserman, G. (2005). Curriculum Games: An Online Character-Playing
Project as "Ironist Curriculum". Curriculum Games, 1 - 13.

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References and Resources

Liz Lawley

Lee, P. D. (2009). Using Second Life to Teach Operations
Management. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 2(1).

Just Press Play - https://play.rit.edu/

Andy Phelps - http://games.rit.edu/works-and-papers

Redistricting Game - http://redistrictinggame.org/

Savin-Baden, M., Gourlay, L., Tombs, C., Steils, N., Tombs, G.,
&Mawer, M. (2010). Situating Pedagogies, Positions and Practices
in Immersive Virtual Worlds. Educational Research 52(2), 123133.

Wiggins, G., &McTighe, J. (2006). Understanding by Design
(Second ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.