An Architecture for Bidirectional Learning Games

Introduction

The potential of game-based learning (GBL) to provide effective learning environments is widely recognized (Connoly, Boyle, MacArthur, Hainey, & Boyle, 2012; Hamari, et al., 2016; Monterrat, Desmarais, Lavoué, & George, 2015). Codish and Ravid (2014) define GBL as the use of games with an educational objective. Serious games, games developed with a primary purpose other than entertainment, such as education or training, is a term often used interchangeably with GBL. Whilst the focus of GBL to date has been on improved learning outcomes of learners, few consider the impact of gameplay on other stakeholders. Stakeholders may include a combination of the learner, the education provider and facilitator, the sponsor of the learning or training instance, the real-world system or environment portrayed, and indirect stakeholders specific to the scenario domain that are impacted by gameplay. Even fewer instances consider the dynamic personalization of learning trajectories by integrating different perspectives and variable scenarios. Serious games offer a potential platform to aggregate learner behaviors and results, and use these to dynamically configure, adjust and tailor the game to individuals and contexts, ultimately providing a learning environment of improved quality, effectiveness and efficiency.

An architecture is presented to support the creation of serious games for specific scenarios, in a faster, more effective and more efficient manner. Through its modular structure and emphasis on reusability and configuration of existing tools and functionalities, the architecture enables the creation of serious games in a faster and more efficient manner. Mechanisms such as parameterized learning and contextualized adaptation of content in response to learner behaviors and results, increase the effectiveness of the game design. The architecture emphasizes the use of games to provide learning and training for various stakeholders of the game, not only the learner/end-user. Furthermore, the aggregation of behaviors and results to further improve the game mechanics, learning material and approach, as well as various other parameters that may influence the learning taking place are incorporated in the architecture. The primary research question addressed is two-fold. Firstly, whether such an architecture will enable the faster, more effective, and more efficient creation of serious games for specific scenarios. Secondly, whether the resulting games provide effective and efficient learning opportunities for multiple stakeholders.

The architecture is developed in such a way that serious games can be created in a faster, more effective, more efficient manner the more it is used, through mechanisms such as modularity and reusability. To this end, the development and validation of the architecture is attached to a number of case studies. Here, the focus lies on a case study in the diagnostic laboratory environment to demonstrate the usability of the architecture. More specifically, the focus of the case study is a series of courses aimed at conveying process understanding and teaching performance improvement to diagnostic laboratory professionals. In order to provide customers with more flexibility in completing the originally classroom-based training, the courses have been adapted for online consumption. The training provider has recognized the potential of technology, and especially games, in addressing some of the limitations of, as well as enhancing and even surpassing conventional methods of training.