The document summarizes an agenda for a workshop on game-based learning. It discusses using role-playing games to teach about different industries and designing educational games. Participants were divided into groups to create roleplays for an educational game design course, with topics like concept documents, storyboards, and presentations. Feedback was provided on the roleplays and games created.
41. Engage in Game-Based Learning www.engagelearning.eu Workshop - Online Educa, Berlin 2009 Thank you and Farewell
Editor's Notes
Educational games have always been low budget, low tech, poor cousins of the computer game industry. Up until recently, very few commercial companies provide good quality educational games. Historically, these games have been written by teachers and academics who wish to utilize the technology within there teaching, but usually do not have the skill, not the finance, to create a high quality product. Commercial recreational games cost millions of dollars to create and often have teams of a hundred on more people. To make this a viable business, the resulting product must reach a wide audience and sell well. The industry has consciously not targeted education for this reason. Those companies who have ventured into this area, have traditionally aimed at the younger age group. Knowing that their parents will buy what is perceived as an educational game. However, it takes only a few nanoseconds for a child to realize that most educational games are homework and not a game.
In recent times, game-based learning has gained the interest of many teachers. Commercial off-the-shelf game (cots) provide many of the lessons that are needed and can be assimilated into the existing curriculum. Sim City, Civilization, Carmen Sandiego are all successfully used in schools across the globe. However, as commercial game engine become available as open source, many small developers are now using these to create high quality education games. Schools and institutions have accepted games as a learning resource, as have the military and many industries and a training tool. We will cover more of this, including examples, in subsequent lectures.
This course will be covered over 15 units. In general, the lecture will be 45 minutes followed by a 90 minute practical lab session, however, this may vary slightly with two lectures being put together. The course is group work with group assessment. Grades will be given for innovation, quality, and completeness of the output. A professional standard is required.
This course will be covered over 15 units. In general, the lecture will be 45 minutes followed by a 90 minute practical lab session, however, this may vary slightly with two lectures being put together. The course is group work with group assessment. Grades will be given for innovation, quality, and completeness of the output. A professional standard is required.
After your study is completed, most of you will work in a company; perhaps small or perhaps large. Either way, you will undoubtedly work as part of a team. Very few people work alone and certainly not in this industry. Therefore learning to work in a group, as part of a team, is an essential and valuable skill. Individual people have a separate knowledge based and varying skill sets. Combining these provides for a more extensive and often more exciting product. Working in a successful team can be very rewarding and highly motivating. Team members can bounce ideas of each other and mind mapping in a group is an accelerated process over that of the individual. Working as a group, as a team, should not just be 4 people working individually together. During this course, you should all strive to make the most of group dynamics.
You are required to keep an online development blog, and it should be updated every week. You can make this creative and have some fun with it. It will be viewed by your lecturer and comments will be added. The main output of this course is an educational computer game concept document. The content of this document will be based on concept documents used in the commercial game industry. However, the format of your submission can be creative and used to “sell” your idea. At the end of semester, we will have the “Golden Pineapple Awards”. Think of these as the “oscars” of this class. Groups will be chosen as winner of categories like best original idea, best commercial potential, and best in show. Photos and screenshots will be displayed on the Institutes web site, and the winners of last years best in show were invited to present to the director of the Kunsthaus - great potential for your future career. You will be require to present your work for judging for these awards. The winners will then be announced during a celebration at the end of term.
During this course, you will learn many new terms used in academia. Pedagogy is the science of education and as a science it has its own language. Terms such as scaffolding will be introduced as will the dynamics of game-based learning. You will also become aware of how the computer game industry, a billion plus market, is structured and how it functions. And hopefully, along the way you will reflect on your own learning process by reading your early entries in the group blog. As this course is given in English, it is a great chance for you to practice yours.
The course centers around a role play of a game development company. Each of your within your team, will take responsibility for a specific role. These will be detailed in a subsequent lecture. Each of you will also function within the group and assist with the completion of the work. However, at times you will be asked to assume the role that you have been assigned. This maybe project leader or quality assurance manager. You will design an educational game of your choice, and please be creative when developing your concepts, and you will complete a concept document and design marketing material in order to “sell” your concept to a publisher - think of the lecturer as the publishing company that will fund your project. The concept document will include technical specifications, which you will need to research, as well as artwork and gameplay design. The concept must be feasible and be able to be created if funding and resource was provided. You will also need to prototype your idea and analyze the usability. You will be shown how to do this in another session. Above all, take this class seriously. This role-play is based closely upon what happens in the real world and how the process of development occurs in a game design company.
Lectures during the semester will cover the listed topics. All the information you require to complete your concept document and assessed output will be provided. However, you must attend lectures to obtain this knowledge. Although the powerpoint slides will be made available after each lecture, the slides only contain bullet points and not the information that you will need. In addition to attending the lectures, listening quietly, taking notes, and asking questions where understanding is lacking, is also paramount to achieving the learning outcomes of this course. The topics are covered in the order that you will require them to complete the work. They will build on your knowledge of game-based learning and game development as we progress.
Along with the powerpoint slides being made available, printed handouts will be given for each practical session. Sample documents will also be available for download throughout the course as each topic is covered. References to web sites of interest and supplemental readings will also be provided, and it is expected that each students views and reads this material, not just file it away. Your blog must be kept up to date each week and this will be commented on by the lecturer to help you keep on track.
Along with the powerpoint slides being made available, printed handouts will be given for each practical session. Sample documents will also be available for download throughout the course as each topic is covered. References to web sites of interest and supplemental readings will also be provided, and it is expected that each students views and reads this material, not just file it away. Your blog must be kept up to date each week and this will be commented on by the lecturer to help you keep on track.
Along with the powerpoint slides being made available, printed handouts will be given for each practical session. Sample documents will also be available for download throughout the course as each topic is covered. References to web sites of interest and supplemental readings will also be provided, and it is expected that each students views and reads this material, not just file it away. Your blog must be kept up to date each week and this will be commented on by the lecturer to help you keep on track.