PFI Case Study on Games

8/6/2019 PFI Case Study on Games

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TEChNOLOGY CORNER:

GAmES fOR GOOd

hOW dAU IS USING

GAmES TO ENhANCELEARNING

Alicia Sanchez

The use o games has become a popular initiative in many

learning organizations. The Deense Acquisition Univer-

sity, by targeting enhanced outcomes or learners and

using innovative, multiple approaches to develop games

and simulations that are engineered to yield perormance-

oriented outcomes, has created a unique opportunity to

reach an evolving workorce on multiple levels. Through the

use o story and interaction, students gain a better under-

standing o the dynamic application o course content,

while ostering motivation to learn and increasing perceived

relevance o the instruction. This article covers the use o

games and simulations in three dierent initiatives: Games

in Curriculum, Games in Continuous Learning Modules, and

Mini-Gameseach o which was created with the end result

o learning in mind.

3 4 2 | A Pubcaton of th Dfns Acquston Unvrsty www.dau.m

image designed by Miracle Riese


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background

As the Deense Acquisition University (DAU) prepares or a younger

workorce and the increased perormance capabilities that will be expected

o that workorce, it has simultaneously transitioned its curricula rom a more

traditional, educationally ocused organization to a true training organization.

Within DAU, the necessity or preparing students to perorm at higher levels

has generated an increased emphasis on providing students not just with the

inormation they need to do their jobs, but also the skills necessary to accomplish

the unique challenges they will ace upon arrival in their workplaces.

This combination o unique needs has caused DAU to innovate and transorma more traditional educational program into one that accepts the increased

use o online learning and reductions in classroom seat time, presenting an

opportunity to rebuild the universitys classroom lecture environment into one

that more closely aligns with a hands-on apprenticeship. This rebuilding is

made possible through the caliber o education that DAU provides, particularly

in its incorporation o a games and simulations-based initiative, which allows

students to experience workplace events that they will ace during their

classroom and online learning.

While simulations have traditionally been used to provide people with

experiences that they might otherwise not have because they are either too

expensive, too dangerous, or happen too inrequently, simulations are more

requently being used to address perormance-oriented learning objectives in

educational and training environments. Most simulations, however, are linear

and are only used once. To increase the benets o using simulations, DAU

incorporated gaming characteristics into its curricula because o their proven

capacity to increase a students motivation to interact with the course content

in meaningul and targeted ways. This is accomplished through the inclusion

o high-level storylines to serve as a uniying scenario or courses, and game

themes in order to support the use o increased interactivity. Specically, using

storylines makes it possible to present content that is more relevant to learners.

And relevance is a key component to increasing the perceived value o the

learning experience to the learner. When motivated learners are presented with

inormation in the appropriate context, gaming also acilitates the ability o

learners to integrate that inormation into the mental models where individuals

retain and recall their workplace experiences. Thereore, providing the context

o the inormation being presented can increase a students ability to understand

why and when that inormation can and should be used. This is also theorized to

lead to increased ability or a student to transer that learning experience intotheir everyday workplace experiences.

In short, the use o game characteristics can enhance the learners ability

to make meaningul connections, retain and transer knowledge, and motivate

them to interact with course content by providing experiences when combined


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Gams for GoodHow DAU is Usng Gams to enhanc larnng Octobr 2009 | 3 4 5

with simulations. When combined, games and simulations have the ability

to provide the learner with experiential learning opportunities that ocus on:

Appropriate ContextThe ability to allow learners to use the

content in scenarios or situations that are representative o how

the content would be used in the real world.

Cognitive FidelityThe alignment o the content with processes

that are representative o how the inormation would be used.

Varied Situations and Replay OpportunitiesThe ability to

provide multiple practice opportunities or content use based on

scenarios and situations that are dierent in key ways in order toexpose the students to a variety o experiences with the content;

and the ability or a learner to use these tools multiple times in

order to try new strategies or how the content could be used.

Sel-DiagnosisThe ability or learners to gain an understanding

o their strengths and weaknesses in order to provide them with

the inormation they need to sel-monitor their learning process.

ScaoldingThe ability or inormation to become increasingly

complex as a learner evolves, with previous inormation being built

upon in order to provide a gradual increase in their understanding.

Through these game characteristics, it is possible to provide students with

the necessary motivation and relevance (Figure 1) to internalize course content

Motivation

Experiential

Feedback Varied Practice

CommunitySelf E &

Regulation

GoalsModel Based

Team SkillsPublic Rewards

FIGuRE 1. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN GAME CHARACTERISTICS

AND uSER MOTIvATION


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and transer the knowledge gainedcomplemented by their own personal

abilitiesto perormance-oriented outcomes.

Following much time spent considering where and when games could make

a dierence, implementation o three separate types o games emerged to

address the specic needs o DAUs diverse student population and curricula.

These three categories vary in level o specicity o games and are detailed here.

GAMes in cuRRiculuM

The rst and most specic category, Games in Curriculum, ocuses on

games that are aligned highly enough with a courses learning objectives andcontext to warrant a game being placed in a course. Since acquisition is a very

specic process, oten these types o games are naturally going to be custom

developments. In these types o games, it is important to consider the aspects

o the algorithm that predict the meaningul use o a game in order to establish

the highest probability o enhancing perormance. One example o this type o

game lies in the use o a series o games within the Business, Cost Estimating,

and Financial Management curriculum. Specically, a low-level course that serves

as a required course or all students in the career eld was selected to include a

series o related games. While the course selected represented a high-perorming

course, a content analysis o the course indicated that this course transmitted

primarily conceptual knowledge, oten including a heavy emphasis on vocabulary

memorization while providing case inormation o little use or context. It was

hypothesized that by including games at the end o each o the online courses

eight modules that provided situations in which the inormation being memorized

could be usedstudents would nd more relevance in the inormation being

presented, and thereore would be motivated to retain the inormation.

The game, named Rat Race (Figure 2), centers around a story o a rat who,

ater having lived in the Pentagon or many years, has mastered the art o business

nancial management by listening, beriending, and assisting some o the worlds

greatest minds in the acquisition process. Under this rame, players are able to

practice the lessons learned within the context o their real-world application, but

using a antastical character that is both endearing and engaging.

GAMes in continuous leARninG MoDules

Continuous Learning Modules (CLM) at DAU are very specic 2- to 4-hour

online learning modules that supplement the core curriculum. They oten target

specic career-centered inormation related to process-oriented perormancecharacteristics. In the case o one CLM in particularProcurement Fraud Indicators

(PFI)the content o the module deals with the ability to identiy raud when it

takes place in the workplace. Like many judgment-sensitive areas, the nature o

this content is shaded in gray area, innuendo, and non-yielding protocol. The

continuum gap between novices and experts in these sorts o content areas is


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oten lled with personal experiences and rst-hand accounts. In the absence

o those, the use o an experiential game can serve to provide students with the

varied situations and opportunities to practice in a sae environment.

The PFI capstone game is, at heart, an adventure game, not unlike traditional

point-and-click adventure games designed or the personal computer. The game

is divided into several dierent scenarios, each ocusing on a specic character

that is suspected o committing raud. Each scenario is divided into two phases.

Phase I.The Hidden Object Phasean exploration mode where the player

visits two scenes to collect clues and piece together inormation about the

raud being investigated. The scenes dier between each scenario, and range

rom the mundane (a home ofce) to the exotic (a Navy vessel).

Phase 2. The Interview Phasethe point in the game when the player

moves to the interrogation room, where the suspect is questioned about the

situation to gather more inormation. In the Interview Phase, three theories are

presented, each using the same clues to draw dierent conclusions. The playercan investigate any or all o the theories, drawing his or her own conclusions

rom the inormation presented.

At the end o each line o questioning, the user can attempt to identiy

the raud that occurred and the indicators that suggest it (encapsulated by the

FIGuRE 2. REPRESENTATION OF THE BuSINESS, COST, AND

FINANCE GAME


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three theories). Finding the correct raud with the correct reasoning results in

the player winning the scenario; otherwise, the player can try other theories

until successul.

Mini-GAMes

Mini-gamessimple downloadable games that are commonly ound in

conventional Web-based training coursesshould no longer be considered as

nothing more than a distraction, breaking up the content rom the inevitable test

that will be presented on the next page. By applying new design patterns, mini-

games have come into their own as a legitimate orm o training and education.

DAU is incorporating mini-games into a Web repository that allows students to

brush up on their core topical knowledge o acquisition-related competencies.

Mini-games are usually small games that are easy to learn, but hard to

master. Anyone can play Tetris, but it is difcult to play Tetris well. While

conventional games might take days or weeks to play, mini-games are typically

played or less than an hour. Educational mini-games ollow the same philosophy

and contain a single learning objective. Furthermore, the design o mini-gameshas matured rom simple matching games and quizzes, to real and meaningul

interaction with training concepts as will be demonstrated. These mini-games

are used as homework assignments, remediation, pre-course materials, or just

as stand-alone, sel-motivated training by the AT&L workorce.

One such game currently in production was designed to introduce students

to the seven tools o Continuous Process Improvement (CPI). This game ocuses

FIGuRE 3. REPRESENTATION OF THE PROCuREMENT FRAuD

INDICATORS GAME


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on a students ability to understand when and why the tools are appropriate

or use, using a antasy-based alien production line (Figure 3). The story that

surrounds this game introduces an alien army heading towards earth. The

student does have a weapon that can deeat them, but only a limited amount o

time to nish production o enough weapons to deeat the aliens. At the current

production rate, there will not be enough weapons to save earth. Using proper

CPI methods, players have to improve the process currently in place to increase

production and save mankind.

Conclusions

Through insertion o the three types o games and simulations discussed

in this article into its course content, DAU will have an opportunity to measure

the success o games and simulations and their utility in learning. The insertion

o Games in Curriculum, Games in Continuous Learning Modules, and Mini-

Games into DAU course content, as well as several other projects currently in

development, will pave the way or the universitys ultimate transition to a more

hands-on, apprenticeship-type learning environment, increased motivation,

and increased relevance or students through interactivity and experiential

learning tools. Together, these will help engender a culture o perormance-

oriented learning, culminating in an across-the-board higher level o on-the-job

perormance excellence.

Ahr Bgraphy

Dr. Alicia Sanchez specializes in the imple-

mentation o games and simulations into a variety

o learning environments. Leveraging decades o

research in Education and Simulations, Sanchez'

ocus lies in using games within curricula and

emerging technologies, continuously redening

the potential o games-based learning options.

Since completing her degree in Modeling and

Simulation, she has served as a research scientist

at Old Dominion University prior to being named

DAUs Games Czar.

(E-mail address: [email protected])

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PFI Case Study on Games