Key Note
Maandag 11 april organiseerde professor Bettina van Hoven een klein congres over game-based learning. Het was een goed gevuld programma vol interessante aspecten. De key note van Dr. Benjamin Hoy ging in op de kracht van spel en spelen en hoe hij dit in in grote klassen benut. Waar traditionele didactiek als een hoorcollege of leesmateriaal niet goed in staat is om ook te ervaren waarom bepaalde keuzes zijn gemaakt en hoe het is om in een bepaalde situatie te zitten, laat zijn spel ‘Homesteaders’ dat grote groepen ervaren. Hij ondestreepte hoe zelfs een matig ontwikkeld spel nog steeds door goede briefing en debriefing een heel effectief leermiddel kan zijn. Zijn verhaal ging verder in op games ook goede ‘repositories’ van kennis kunnen zijn. Verder was een een mooie tip van hem dat door een grote groep (100 studenten) in teams op te delen waarbij zij elkaar hun spelkeuzes moeten laten beargumenteren en tot consensus te moeten komen ook al voor een korte debrief (en dus impact) zorgt tijdens het spel.
Panelgesprek
In het navolgende panelgesprek kwamen docent-onderzoekers van de RUG en Hanze aan bod en deelden ze hun antwoorden op de vragen. Ondergetekende, Arjan van Houwelingen, zat ook het panel en samen zijn collega Eugene Shenderov hadden zij op basis van hun ervaringen bij SAGANET, het spellenmaakgilde en serious game projecten bij de Hanze hun antwoorden voorbereid:
What is one design choice that mattered more than you expected?
- Arjan: Whether the experience is called a game, or workshop or… already matters. Also graphic design: I have seen a hard game become easy and easy games be hard to parse: UI and UX must be used to remove unneeded friction, so the the intended friction can take the spotlight more. And with that you waste your ‘complexity budget’ to better ends (see Richard Garfield for this term and meaning).
- Eugene: Words matter– for the digital literacy serious game I made, I used the word ‘bet’ for rating your confidence in another players response. Some teachers saw that term negatively, as they had not played tabletop games with betting and thought of it in the gambling sense. I should have considered a different way to phrase and implement rating confidence in a player’s response.
What do people in academia often misunderstand about gamification or game-based learning?
- Arjan: Any game loop is not good enough, I still see too much game of goose or quiz game. The play becomes external and extrinsic to the intrinsic value of the experience and the learning. How does it make players engage with the content and each other? Having said that, there is not always need to have replay value or have it balanced. Making an experience that is single use, still rough or requires a facilitator is fine and reduced the development time of game tenfold (or more, I dare to say) Cooperative gameplay might fit a topic will, but making a standalone (no facilitator), replayable coop game is a nasty pile of extra design/iterate/test work. The intervention is not only the game (e.g. what 8D does, it is an aspect of a campaign).
- Eugene: Proper onboarding, both for the facilitator of a workshop and the participants in terms of the goal of the game based session in a workshop, as well as a structured reflection moment for the learning to stick with participants. People in academia are often content experts, and can have trouble because of the curse of knowledge.
What kind of learning, reflection, or conversation becomes easier through play?
- Arjan: Understanding a bigger system and connections, changes over time, anything of a scope that is beyond a moment and a person are great to create a game around to help players grasp a complex model. Empathy: when feeling a role or perspective can lead more to a shift in attiture (e.g. play monopoly but the privileged player playing a female character gains less income each time they pass start, or plays a coloured character that needs to pass a safety check to pass the prison square).
- Eugene CMGT: In the elective we talk about the valley of despair: blissful ignorance of a problem, then realizing it, then seeing how to address it. Games are great for giving a framework with a system that responds to player input where these lessons can be learned collectively by a group at the same level of understanding. So applied games are great for problems that are difficult to grasp or not fully realized yet, and serve as a simplified model that participants can talk about.
Showcases & Spelen
Verder waren er een aantal rondes waarbij educatieve spelprojecten aan bod kwamen en werden er ook games geshowcased door studenten, docenten en professionals. Overigens, in 2024 besteedde SURF, de ICT samenwerking in onderwijs, aandacht aan game based learning in deze whitepaper. Op de vloer was nog een mooie discussie hoe
Gedeelde informatie vooraf en programma
Participants can look forward to an inspiring program featuring keynote speaker Dr. Benjamin Hoy (University of Saskatchewan), a panel with perspectives from research, education, and game design, and a marketplace showcasing playable demos and works-in-progress. Staff and students from Hanze University of Applied Sciences and Alfa-college are also invited, creating opportunities for collaboration and prototyping. The event will offer space to connect around themes such as education and training, games as a method, health and wellbeing, governance and policy, complexity and systems, and design and development.
Join us to discover projects, exchange methods, find collaborators, and share your own ideas. Interested in presenting a demo or poster? Please indicate this in the registration form.
Programme:
09:00 – 9:15 Doors open, coffee, networking, and themes wall
09:15 – 9:20 Welcome
9:20 – 10:10 Keynote and Q&A: Dr. Benjamin Hoy (University of Saskatchewan)
10:10 – 10:25 Coffee break
10:25 – 10:45 Panel discussion: What makes game-based learning and gamification actually work in practice?Panel members: Daniël Vullings (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), Arjan van Houwelingen (Hanze Applied University / Dutch Design Guild), Marianna Markantoni (University College Groningen)
10:45 – 10:55 Preview of demos
11:00 – 11.30 Demo round 1
11:40 – 12.10 Demo round 2
12:10 – 13:00 Lunch, free circulation and networking boardDemo rooms
Red Room
Round 1 11:00 – 11:30
This Abled City. Julia Munuera GarciaRound 2 11:40 – 12:10
UnExpected Values. Sean White and Angelos KonstantinidisPurple Room
Round 1 11:00 – 11:30
Fridge Crisis. Mariana Melo Santa Rosa, Carolina Luzio Coelho, and Marta DimitrijevicRound 2 11:40 – 12:10
Simulation Workshop “Consumer Decision Making”. Wander JagerGreen Room
Round 1 11:00 – 11:30
Policing the Sound. Benjamin HoyRound 2 11:40 – 12:10
Monster. Oksana Kavatsyuk and Catherine MeissnerOpen showcase
Alongside the scheduled demos, the event will feature an open showcase with posters, conversation tables, and interactive project contributions. These stations will remain open during both demo rounds and lunch.
Current showcase contributions include: