Supporting Active Learning Through Simulation Games

1
Supporting Active Learning Through Simulation
Games

• Maria Fasli
• University of Essex
• Department of Computer Science
• mfasli_at_essex.ac.uk
• http//cswww.essex.ac.uk/staff/mfasli/

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Outline

• Introduction
• Games
• Motivation Context
• e-Game
• Example simulation game
• Benefits
• Conclusions

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Introduction

• Engagement and motivation play fundamental roles
  in learning
• Setting goals, problems and challenges motivates
  students
• Learning by doing is more effective
• Putting into practice knowledge and skills helps
  students gain a deeper understanding and retain
  knowledge
• Motivated students learn better

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Games I

• Fascinating
• Different types of games action, adventure,
  fighting, sports, strategy, puzzles, simulations
• Key elements of games
• Goals and objectives
• Competition/challenge/opposition
• Outcomes and feedback
• Interaction
• Storyline
• Rules

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Games II

• Games have a number of characteristics that make
  them attractive from a pedagogical point of view
• They immerse users into a world
• They are interactive, engaging and fun
• They encourage and promote active learning
• They motivate participation
• Provide instant feedback on the users actions
• Tedious and difficult tasks can be fun when they
  are part of a good story

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Games III

• What can be taught through games?
• Facts, principles, cause and effect, complex
  problem solving
• Successfully integrating gaming principles and
  techniques into a learning environment could
• Make learning itself for fun
• Provide a challenge for the students
• Help them learn more effectively
• In some knowledge domains simulation games may be
  the only way of simulating and practicing real
  world problems (e.g. military, aviation, medicine)

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Simulation Games

• Educational simulations (as opposed to tutorials
  and drill-and-practice forms) excel in that they
  represent experience as opposed to information.
  Learning through direct experience has in many
  contexts, been demonstrated to be more effective
  and enjoyable than learning through information
  communicated facts. Direct, multi-sensory
  representations have the capacity to engage
  people intellectually as well as emotionally, to
  enhance the contextual aspects of information,
  and to encourage integrated, holistic responses.
• Laurel, B. Computers as Theatre (1991)

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Motivation and Context I

• Agent Technology for E-commerce
• A graduate course in Computer Science whose aim
  is to teach principles of design and
  implementation of software agents that can be
  used in e-commerce applications
• Software agents in e-commerce continuously
  running entities that can negotiate for goods and
  services on behalf of their users reflecting
  their preferences and negotiation strategies
• Core topics negotiation protocols such as
  auctions and other bargaining protocols and
  strategic behaviour
• Problem how to provide students with hands on
  experience of the problems that can arise in a
  dynamic environment such as a marketplace?

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Motivation and Context II

• Experimenting in real marketplaces NOT possible
• Only realistic alternative simulations
• Underlying idea integrate concepts and
  techniques from gaming in a framework that would
  support active learning
• Enhance the students learning experience
  through
• Interactive teaching of principles
• Hands on experience by putting principles into
  practice
• Providing instant online feedback on their
  coursework

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electronic Generic Auction MarketplacE I

• e-Game an auction platform that allows the
  development, running and administration of
  multiple-player simulation games

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electronic Generic Auction MarketplacE II

• It allows users to
• Create and experiment with different types of
  auctions and different strategies
• Design and implement software agents that are
  capable of participating in online auctions
• Design and implement electronic marketplaces
• Design and implement complicated software agents
  that can participate in electronic marketplaces

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Use in Teaching Learning

• e-Game can be used to
• Teach principles of market institutions,
  negotiation protocols and strategies, agent
  design and implementation in a systematic way
• Design and implement new simulation games
  (simple and advanced) to suit particular learning
  outcomes
• Run competition tournaments in which the students
  have to participate
• Provide online feedback while an exercise is
  running as well as at the end with the final
  results

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The Computer Market Game I
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The Computer Market Game II

• Auction Scheduling

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The Computer Market Game III
The CMG Applet showing game progression
and acquired goods for each player
e-GAME(1)
e-GAME(2)
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Benefits I

• The system was used in the Spring term of 2004
  (23 students) and 2005 (21 students)
• Firstly in teaching, to demonstrate principles of
  auctions and students had to create their own
  simple auctions and participate in them applying
  different strategies
• Secondly in assessment, where they had to
  implement their own individual agent, perform
  experiments and also participate in an internally
  organized competition the outcome of which was
  connected to a percentage of their coursework
  (25)
• In 2005 a version of the simulation game suitable
  for human users was built and used to run
  experiments in the classroom

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Benefits II

• 90 of the students reported that the use of
  e-Game had actually helped them in better
  understanding topics such as negotiation
  protocols and strategic behaviour
• 90 reported that the form of the coursework had
  enabled them to put into practice principles
  taught
• 85 of the students considered the competition to
  be enjoyable and fun
• 90 of the students claimed that the use of the
  simulation game and platform had enhanced their
  learning experience and the same percentage
  reported that they believed they had achieved the
  modules learning objectives

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Benefits III

• Student
• Deeper learning experience
• Hands on practice on applying principles in a
  realistic scenario
• Immediate feedback on the students efforts and
  coursework
• Discover themselves the principles governing a
  situation
• Peer feedback
• Observation of ones efforts in comparison to
  others
• Students can progress at their own pace
• Comprehend cause and effect
• Competition enthusiasm, incentive for more work,
  disincentive to plagiarism

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Benefits IV

• Teacher
• Savings in time and effort
• Better delivery of material
• The continuous interaction enables the teacher to
  identify difficulties with parts of the material
  and take action
• A repository of exercises can be built over time
• The material can be taught in a different form
  from year to year with minimum effort

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Conclusions

• Introducing gaming principles and techniques in a
  learning environment can have significant
  pedagogic benefits as games
• Provide a valuable and effective means to engage
  the students
• Help them learn more effectively
• Enable them to put into practice principles
  taught
• Allow them to learn at their own pace
• Allow the creation of communities of learners
  students develop a sense of camaraderie and they
  can learn with and from each other
• But, game content needs to be well-engineered and
  targeted at clearly defined learning objectives