CSCI 5530G - Serious Game Development

In contrast to traditional teaching and learning environments whereby the teacher controls the learning (e.g., teacher-centered), videogames present a learner-centered approach to learning whereby the player controls the learning through interactivity; this allows the player to learn via active, critical learning. Videogames provide students the opportunity to learn to appreciate the interrelationship of complex behaviours, sign systems and the formation of social groups. In addition to these benefits, the advantages of videogames to other applications have not gone unnoticed. In fact, videogame technology has been adopted and applied to applications whose primary purpose is not entertainment. These are referred to as serious games. Serious games “leverage the power of computer games to captivate and engage players for a specific purpose such as to develop new knowledge or skills.” Specifically, serious games support the development of analytical, spatial, strategic, recollection, psychomotor and visual selective attention skills. Further benefits of serious games include improved self-monitoring, problem recognition and solving, improved short- and long-term memory, increased social skills and increased self-efficacy. Serious games have been employed in a number of learning-based applications including educational, national, security, corporate management, military, government and in the training of emergency personnel/first responders and health care workers. This graduate-level course examines various aspects of serious games including i) technical components, ii) psychological components (and their application to learning) and iii) the business of serious games. A number of existing commercial and non-commercial serious games are examined.
Credit hours: 3