Making sense of virtual risks : a quasi-experimental investigation into game-based training / Casper Harteveld.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harteveld, Casper.

Series:

Deltares select series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer-assistened instruction.

Educational games.

Video games.

Problem-based learning.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (424 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Fairfax, VA : IOS Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Along with the rise of digital games over the past decades came an increased interest in using games for other purposes than entertainment. Although a few successes are known, much research seems to suggest little evidence for games' advantages. Existing literature claims that more comprehensive, rigorous, and innovative studies are needed to investigate the effective design and use of games. To contribute to this emerging field, the author investigated the case of Levee Patroller. The target audience of this game, levee patrollers, are considered the "eyes and ears" of the Dutch water authorities. They inspect levees and report any risks they encounter. Similarly, in the game players have to find all virtual failures in a region and report these. If they do not find the failures in time or report them incorrectly, it could result in a levee breach that floods the whole virtual region. Using this game, an innovative game-based training was set up to prove its effectiveness in training inspection knowledge and skills, and to understand the contributing factors. In total, 147 levee patrollers from 3 water authorities in the Netherlands participated in a structured 3-week training which was evaluated using a quasi-experimental design with a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. The results highlight a successful training. Clear evidence was found that the patrollers improved on their inspection knowledge and skills. But because how players perform in the game is most crucial for the game's success as a training tool, future research should consider game design, data, and performance more elaborately.

Contents:

Title Page; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgements; 1 LOADING; Rise of a Potential Powerful Tool; The Case of Levee Patroller; Toward a Thicker Description; What to Expect; 2 Sought: A Professional Hans Brinker; World of Reality: Levee Inspection; World of Meaning: Sensemaking; World of Play: 3D Simulation Game; Lessons Learned; 3 Toward an Innovative Training/Evaluation; Evaluating a Futuristic Scenario; Formulating Working Hypotheses; Setting Up a Futuristic Scenario; Lessons Learned; 4 Playing a Futuristic Scenario; The Participating Organizations; Setting the Facts Straight

Errors and ImprovementsLessons Learned; 5 Solving a Crime Is Easier; Playing the Game at Home; Rating the Exercise Every Time; Retrieving the Prevalent Gameplay Responses; Lessons Learned; 6 Opening the Black-Box; Performing in the Game; Dealing with the Virtual Failures; Retrieving the Prevalent Gameplay Patterns; Lessons Learned; 7 Knowing the Pen-and-Paper Generation; Retrieving the Questionnaire Responses; Reducing the Data; Investigating the Relationships; Lessons Learned; 8 Picture This!; Organizing the Sensemaking Test; Picturing the Learning Objectives; Picturing the Overall Results

Lessons Learned9 It Has an Exit Button, Right?; Setting Up a Discussion; The Impact of Levee Patroller; Suggestions for Improvement; Lessons Learned; 10 Picture That!; Playing with Digital Literates; Sensemaking by Super Experts; Interviewing the Levee Patrollers; Exercising on a Real Levee; Lessons Learned; 11 Integrating the Puzzle Pieces; Accepting the Hypotheses (or Not); Providing Additional Perspectives; Reflecting on the Puzzle; Lessons Learned; 12 The Future of Game-Based Training; Toward Sensegaming; Advice for Future Training/Evaluations

Recommendations for Future Research and PracticeThe Future of Levee Patroller; References; Summary; Samenvatting; Curriculum Vitae

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

1-283-92027-1

1-61499-171-5

OCLC:

826853887