Outcomes Focused Games-Based Learning
Outcomes Focused Games-Based Learning
Outcomes Focused Games-Based Learning
Games-based learning and applied games are powerful tools that can be utilized for teaching, training, learning, education, and development. But one of the most difficult aspects of leveraging games for these powerful purposes is learning how to connect the formal and structural elements of games with stated and necessary learning outcomes and objectives.
This article will address how to develop, adapt, and apply existing and new games for these purposes. It’ll first cover the overall applications of games-based learning and then cover examples on how formal game elements and different criteria can be used to meet these learning outcomes.
Specific types of games, formats, and modalities will be explored as well as how their specific characteristics benefit applied games-based learning. Furthermore, specific steps for how to prepare to use and design games for learning outcomes will be discussed.
One of the most critical aspects to consider for an outcomes focused approach for games-based learning is how to address different varied player motivations and how they affect and influence learning outcomes. Therefore, this article will address this, in addition to how both choice architecture and decision structures can be designed to meet these needs.
Of course, these results of both choice architecture and decisions structures directly affect and influence players’ feedback and how their choices influence their further decision making. The results of which will be covered in how reinforcement schedules affect learners’ decision making in learning games.
The results of learners playing and engaging with games affects the overall player experience as well as how, when, and why they choose to play and interact with educational games. The latter of which is directly influenced by the overall philosophy of adapting games for learning and aligning educational purposes with learner intent.
Finally, this article will close on actionable and practical steps that can be taken for designing and adapting games for learning outcomes as well as how to tie those designs back to specific aspects. These assessments will be discussed alongside some of the drawbacks to applying, designing, and adapting games to fit specific learning outcomes in games-based learning.
Application of Games-Based Learning
Games are powerful, available, and useful tools for helping learners engage and grow. One of the reasons this is achieved is by providing an exclusive space for experimenting and exploring everything from complex concepts to experiencing different outcomes through decision structures inherent in games.
Games-based learning along with serious games and persuasive games exist as a means for creating venues from which players can engage and understand real-world issues through gameplay. This is often seen through simulations and recreations through play and experimentation which are often used by both businesses and the military to model case studies as well as explore different strategies to employ.
It's important to note that applied games and games-based learning differ from other gameful approaches like gamification. Gamification focuses on using specific game elements in non-game settings; whereas well designed and structed serious games and applied games-based learning focuses on the balance between engagement, assessment, and learning through the development of quality learning experiences.
This is because games-based learning focuses on games to facilitate the learning process rather than only argument it. Games-based learning serves as a more effective tool for holistically helping learners achieve specific outcomes when deployed thoughtfully and in consideration of curriculum alignment against students’ needs.
Overall, applied games can serve as fertile grounds of engagement for learners as it presents educational challenges through a means of achievable objectives with structure and elements that are conductive to empowering learners to succeed. The results of which are the means where problem-solving, critical thinking, and situational learning can be exemplified and experienced as part of the learning process.
Formal Game Elements and Criteria
Much of what is focused upon with designing and adapting games for games-based learning is how the formal elements of games and their criteria influence how the game is created and ultimately used. Some of the most common formal elements and game dynamics in many games include competition, challenges, goals, and interaction.
Ultimately, these characteristics of games best align with learning outcomes when they are designed so that the learning experience is challenging yet achievable and is provided with clear goals and feedback for improvement. One of the most important elements for many applied games is how players learn how to solve problems through gameplay. This is often encased within the theme of the game and accompanying narrative which situates the problem, challenge, and resources needed for success and solution with the players themselves.
This does not mean that all players must receive the same outcome for their interaction and input. Games possess the structure necessary to provide a variability of outcomes and multiple ways to achieve the same goal. This means that there are opportunities for meaningful play that can be designed and incorporated in games that are often left out of more traditional and orthodox approaches to teaching and learning.
Ultimately the specific goals and challenges that the game promotes is what drives players and focuses their activities. Therefore, applied games, serious games, and games-based learning can best harness this focus by aligning and clarifying outcomes for players and learners and matching challenges and goals to learning outcomes.
Types of Games, Formats, and Modalities
These formal elements of games are best aligned through the experiential learning cycle of game play. This is often explored in the core loop of play and is implemented through a core mechanic and one or more game dynamics which progress the player through the game.
Some of the most common game dynamics include competitive play involving contentious action in player-versus-player activities. However, non-competitive formats, such as cooperative games, can also serve as a means to meet learning outcomes for players. This is especially true for players who possess asymmetric abilities and specialties that need to synergize with others to achieve a common goal.
No matter what the type of game, format, or modality, players need a sense of autonomy and goal clarity through games. Both game core loops as well as learning outcomes can align and work with one another to define specific and actionable activities which meet these goals.
However, not all learners may feel motivated by these formal elements and instead expect a more guided journey. This is the reason why many learning games focus on a more narrative and linear approach to learning based on the branching narrative model. This model provides a story and thematic connection between the game and learning material in a more straightforward and approachable way.
Preparation for Games-Based Learning
Any successful application of games-based learning or serious game development requires adequate preparation beforehand. This is especially evident as integrating existing pedagogical activities into games requires forethought and planning in order to mitigate any perceived challenges.
Teachers, educators, and instructors can integrate and prepare students for games-based learning through some traditional methods. Those include determining learners’ backgrounds on the subject matter as well as choosing the appropriate game elements to emphasize in addition to allocating enough time for the activity.
This is best done when instructors themselves take control of their pedagogical approach to teaching and learning with games. The benefits of which, is augmenting and changing the way that games are played, and how they are played, in order to make their application for student-centered.
Furthermore, educators may also want to make the selection and application of games an option for their students as well. Providing learners the agency for what games to play, and how they want to connect those games with the learning outcomes of the overall curriculum, honors their own collective decision-making capabilities.
Lastly, when applying games for teaching and learning with other peers and co-instructors, it’s important to review the overall curricular approach of the selected game. This can often alleviate any miscommunications and misperceptions about the value of games for different instructors who may approach the content with pre-conceived notions of efficacy.
Player Motivation and Learning Outcomes
Perhaps one of the most underutilized areas for adapting and designing games for learning outcomes is how to best harness, handle, and address player motivation in learning. Therefore, one of the best ways to approach this is through Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) which focuses on the overall intrinsic motivations of players through gameplay.
This is important to consider because the modality of games may not be appropriate for all learners. This means that it’s helpful to determine what aspects of games work best for specific players. This could range from competition to fantasy elements and everything in between. Care must be taken to address these challenges and focus on mitigating any shortcoming that applied games may have.
Therefore, one of the most applicable and becoming models for adapting and designing games for learning outcomes in mind is the use of the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Its principles provide a handy and useful step-by-step guide for designing and developing serious educational games that are both engaging as well as effective learning tools.
The ABA framework focuses first on defining a target behavior as well as a target goal. Specifically asking educators and designers what they want their learners to be able to accomplish, know, or do at the completion of the game and how that is evaluated via a rubric or some other stated assessment.
Design considerations then progress in a loop in which rewards are defined, as well as a reward “schedule” implemented. As learners play this game, their performance is measured and analyzed, and feedback is presented to them. Often this feedback comes from in-game items; but can also come from competitors, peers, or the instructor.
Finally, the next step is to exit the loop and compare the feedback against the originally stated targeted behavior and goals for that behavior. If those goals are met, then they are reinforced with defined “rewards” for players according to the “reward schedule.”
The ABA loop provides a good reference point for creating games and formal structures that are tied to learning outcomes. Though, it’s also worthwhile to consider that players, over the timeline of their play, will choose to progress through the game through a series of short, medium, and long-term goals.
These goals – along with other types of player progressions – are what usually define and delineate more linear branching narrative games from more robust applications of serious educational games. That is because the decision framework that players take to achieve those goals often do not provide a schedule rewarding “success” upon the first, second, or event third attempt. Rather, several attempts are needed for learners to reach these goals.
Compared to branching narratives, the feedback is provided via different content related to a choice; rather than feedback on the original choice that allows players to further explore and deliberate how they may determine further actions. The overall indicator for those types of decisions in the future is based on what and how feedback is provided to the player.
Many modern digital games often include complex systems for presenting players with rewards for achievements. But they don’t have to. Rather, a simple and formal framework of what players can and should do in the game can be created in order to further reinforce the learning outcomes over a progressive course of time rather than through a single decision.
Choice Structure and Architecture
Of course, all players decisions in games will be influenced by the game’s overall choice structure which is informed by how and when choices are made in games through its architecture. These forms of interactions (especially when tied to assessments) form knowledge checks and quizzes in learning content.
The goal of multiple-choice knowledge checks as well as through well-developed choice structures in games, is that no one choice is obviously correct or best 100% of the time. Rather there is a tactical and strategic way of examining them and then making the choice that best suits the player’s desire.
This is done so that there still exists meaningful agency for players. Otherwise, always correct choices rob players of the very kind of decisions that designers mean to empower them with. This negatively impacts the potential impression that interaction in games can have on engagement and mastery.
Therefore designers, instructors, and educators should instead focus on the positive impact that these kinds of empowered choices can have on learners, especially when they are tied to clear outcomes of the learning content. Such a connection makes the application of learning and the use of serious games and games-based learning more player and learner centered.
While players themselves are the vessels in which choices are made in games, both educators and designers should also explore the role that leaners and students can play in the development and adaptation of games. This means that individual learners themselves can develop and create games that directly impact their learning. The result of which is a more present, relatable, and applicable feedback loop for improvement and iteration.
Player Feedback Loops & Reinforcement Schedules
Such feedback loops form the focus of experiential learning and reinforcement schedules in games-based learning. Perhaps one of the most powerful elements of games is how feedback given by the game demonstrates to players how, when, and where they can, and should improve through further play.
These types of reinforcement schedules are carefully selected to best reinforce player behaviors. They can best be summarized in a matrix of feedback that includes reinforcement and punishment and includes both positive and negative forms of each.
Positive reinforcement is perhaps the kind of reinforcement that we are most familiar with. It is served to players because of a behavior that designers want that player to pursue in the future. One of the most common types of positive reinforcement found in games is through the loot systems of dungeon-crawlers and role-playing games. Through player actions where they explore different areas of the game, they encounter items and currency that they can use to upgrade or improve their character.
Opposite of this, is negative reinforcement which is the removal or termination of an existing piece of feedback that players have experienced. This is seen as a consequence of a behavior that reduces a player’s decisions to mitigate that kind of impact. Returning to dungeon-crawler, role-playing games, and first-person shooters, players who take damage from opponents or non-player characters observe a reduction in their hit points. A reduction to 0 hit points would eliminate their character from the game. Therefore, they will take care to not take damage from other characters in the future.
Additionally, there exists positive punishment that introduces a new form of stimulus (or often time constraint) to players that take actions that are negatively reinforced. These are commonly known as “de-buffs” in games as it reduces the effectiveness of a player’s abilities over the course of play. An example of this is a character that has suffered a specific injury that affects one of their senses. This injury to a sense would then negatively impact other skills that they might use such as shooting, running, or hiding.
Finally, negative punishment describes a situation in which a player experiences something that is not beneficial to their play. Therefore, there is the removal of a beneficial stimulus. An example of this in games is the reduction of inventory slots to carry items for players that have suffered a specific injury in the game. Not only has the character become damaged, but now their overall capacity to carry loot has also been reduced.
Whether reinforcement for players is positive, negative, punishment or reinforcement is in the hands of the designer and the creator of the learning game. However, an option that is at the disposal of the instructor and educator adapting games for learning is how players’ actions in games are reinforced. This could come about through in-game or out-of-game activities. These are referred to as feedback schedules.
These schedules can take place on a fixed ratio. Meaning that feedback (positive, negative, punishment, or reinforcement) takes place a predicable path. Usually after every Nth response. However, these could also be augmented to take place on a variable ratio: meaning that feedback is provided to players on an oscillating basis.
Game example of these kinds of feedback could be through levelling a character. Each time a character has accumulated 10,000 experience points, they advance one level. This would be an example of a fixed ratio. Additionally, players’ characters could also experience feedback on a variable schedule when hunting for loot. Slaying “common” monsters might only provide them “rare” loot 10% of the time. However, slaying “epic” monsters could provide them an opportunity to claim “epic” loot 90% of the time.
Both fixed and variable feedback schedules can be further augmented so that time is also considered a factor for player feedback. A fixed internal feedback schedule provides a stimulus to a player after a set amount of time has passed. Conversely, variable internal feedback schedules can introduce stimulus to players at oscillating or seemingly “random” times.
The Player Experience
Player feedback for engagement and interaction all go towards informing the overall player experience. This player experience is best leveraged for games-based learning when it is connected emotionally and cognitively through game mechanics and interactions. The best learning games make the synergy between learning outcomes and mechanics one in the same.
However, these aren’t the only instances and opportunities where the player’s experience can be reinforced. Rather, game play observation by peers, players, and the instructor can be used to form this player experience. Doing so provides an opportunity for improving knowledge development acquisition and further reinforcing why players are playing the game in the first place.
Additionally, both educators and instructors should be mindful of the potential negative effects that games can have on learners. Some of this may come about from formal elements and dynamics of games such as with competitions. However, other content issues may arise that require instructors to support students to create more effective learning experiences.
One course of action that enables learner’s agency as well as provides a support network for their learning through games is for learners to accommodate, view, and support one another through play. This can already be done through formal game elements such as cooperative play, but also extend to activities that players can take outside of the game.
Overall, the player experience is based on what players actually experience and interpret from their time playing the game. This could include immersive activities through simulations and other forms of high-fidelity activities. But fidelity alone doesn’t directly and positively influence student learning if the format of the game doesn’t meet the expectations and needs of learners.
Therefore, it’s useful for educators and instructors to examine games within the context of their learning outcomes, their learners, and their resources in order to create and curate the most effective learning experiences. Doing so, starts first with the overall philosophy for how games are adapted for learning.
Philosophy on Adapting Games for Learning
There are many ways to approach adapting games for learning. But, perhaps one of the most salient formats is to approach it from the business perspective of commercial games. One such approach is to further engage and retain players. For mobile games, this is seen as the daily active users (DAU) and monthly active user (MAU) count for games that rely on some kind of advertising or targeting marketing as their business model.
Educators could adapt this model to engage and retain users on their platform and in their game. Doing so provides them an opportunity to further deliver and expose learners to more learning opportunities through play. The same could be said for microtransaction based games that rely on users’ purchases of cosmetic items that change player avatars. The same could be done for educators using games for play by reinforcing behaviors that are rewarded with such cosmetic items which allow players to customize their player characters.
Another approach towards adapting games for learning can be borrowed from creating games for activism. Here, activists choose to collaborate and cooperate with other likeminded and similarly driven individuals. Educators could cooperate with other instructors who serve the same population of learners to provide a more unilateral approach to games-based learning.
No matter what the philosophical approach is to adapting games for learning, the focus should be on creating quality content that is meant to engage learners meaningfully through play. This meaningful interaction can come in multiple forms; but the most salient of which are emotional, cognitive, and behavioral involvement that yield the most promising results for learners.
The same can be said for in-game learning assessments as means for ensuring that learning outcomes are supported within the structure, framework, and theme of the game. The adaptation of these assessments in games-based learning is usually accomplished through three formats: narrative-centered and thematic learning; problem solving; and player engagement.
Designing and Adapting Games for Learning Outcomes
One of the largest challenges facing games-based learning and adapting games for learning, is how to structure and approach their use in line with learning outcomes.
One of the first things to consider are the rules, formal elements, play and learners the educator intends to use for the game. These main considerations go hand in hand with determining if playing the game will be meaningful and applicable for learner’s needs.
Another aspect of adaptation is determining how and when assessment will play a role in gameplay, learning, and determination of learning outcomes. One of the best ways to structure this is through the Game-Based Assessment Framework (GBAF) which aligns assessment tasks with game activities and their connected learning outcomes.
This is accomplished through the review of five components. They include overall objectives of the game, the stated learning outcomes, game activities, scoring metrics (or rubrics) as well as grading methods. This format focuses on two aspects of applied assessments in games-based learning. The first includes in-game assessment tied to the formal elements of the game. The second includes external assessments such as multiple-choice questions and discussions to foster deeper understanding.
Overall, this assessment framework should be combined with varied pedagogical approaches that focus on experiential knowledge acquisition, skill development, and eventual behavioral change through gameplay. This is accomplished by directly linking game activities with desired learning outcomes and behavior and determining what game mechanics and aspects of play best embody and represent learning outcomes.
Sometimes designers may not be able to create games for learning. Therefore, they must select games to adapt that meeting their learning outcomes. The priority in situations that require adaptation is making sure that game mechanics align with intended learning outcomes.
The priority is the same when approaching serious game design with learning outcomes in mind. In this case, the designer needs to identify high-level player outcomes early in the design process, and create the framework for players to effectively achieve that.
This is a move that works towards the goal of creating leaner centered experiences. As with traditional and modern classrooms, games-based learning and applied games should highlight the importance of aligning all elements of the experience towards the common goal. This can be done through a team of dedicated educators and developers, or can even include the leaners directly within the design process.
Therefore, it’s especially important that whenever learners are included in the design process, that they too know how the core loop, mechanics, and dynamics of the game affect, influence, and support the learning outcomes. Often, this is best achieved through the assessment of the game and how well aligned they are to these outcomes.
Poor alignment can come about when learners are not prepared to face the assessment, or have not experienced the content necessary for them to succeed. Additionally, assessments could be poorly aligned when game structure and mechanics don’t match what is being evaluated. Misalignment in this context can have a negative effect on reduced learning outcomes and eventual frustration by players. Therefore, when in the design or preparation phase, it is helpful to develop an alignment chart which visually represents how game content, mechanics, and assessments related to the stated learning outcomes.
Often the first step that both educators and designers can take in these situations is to determine what a “great job” looks like for a player who is doing well. Once that is established, then work can continue to create the pathway for players to achieve that exemplary example.
Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Games-Based Learning
The notion of the “exemplary” player or the “star pupil” is not a new one. Rather, it is the archetype that many individuals strive to achieve. However, in games-based learning and applied serious games, this can only be realistically achieved when learners’ complete assessments that evaluate successful learning outcomes.
The way that these assessments can be deployed in games comes in multiple formats and modalities. They can include adaptive assessment within the game, collaborative assessments with other players, out-of-game knowledge-based questions, and reflection prompts to name a few.
The type, number, and duration of each assessment will be at the discretion of the educator, but it’s important to also distinguish whether this assessment will be formative (throughout the play and learning of the game) or summative (at the conclusion of game play and end of the course or session).
The decision to use one type of assessment over the other should be chosen based on how players are meant to meet challenges in-game. Long and complex challenges are broken down into requisite smaller parts that can chain together to scaffold and form the structure towards larger more meaningful assessments. This can be observed in games where player characters are sent on an increasing number of difficult quests that provide them with the inventory they need to accomplish the main quest in the game.
The structure that games provide in this regard can often be regarded as a comfort as they identify the pathway to achieve a recognizable outcome (i.e. beating the game). This can come as a contrast to events in learners’ everyday lives where ambiguity of actions is more prevalent than identifiable pathways. Therefore, the structure of games can be used as a clear framework for players to demonstrate excellence and mastery of certain skills or acquired behaviors in order to progress towards either accomplishing more complex tasks and/or meeting the learning outcomes set by the designers.
Overall, only educators can determine if, how, and when learners have achieved the outcomes set out for them in a viable and appropriate fashion. This can be achieved by in-game assessment, out-of-game assessments, and overall examination of learning in a social and discussion-based environment.
The approach between traditional and games-based education should not matter when evaluating whether or not learners have achieved identified outcomes. The results of individuals should speak for themselves. However, digital games-based learning does provide a means of capturing information about the player experience “invisibly” through assessments peppered throughout the game which help evaluate what learning content best meets players’ needs and engagement.
The overall collection, evaluation, application, and use of this data is subject to many considerations including privacy, autonomy, and agency for players. Discussion of which, is beyond the scope of this article, but leads into some significant and several drawbacks and concerns about utilizing games-based learning.
Drawbacks of Applying Games-Based Learning
There will of course be some weaknesses and drawbacks with the application of any kind of new pedagogical or andragogical approach to teaching and learning. Applied games and games-based learning are no different. Depending on the style, modality, and type of games used, these weaknesses can be addressed and mitigated.
Specifically, the benefits of digital games-based learning could be reduced by excessive screentime, distractions, and learning curves associated with new digital media. This also extends to the adaptation of current digital games into the realm of teaching and learning as some learners will be proficient at certain games due to their game literacy compared to their peers. The results of which could illustrate an imbalance in how games are consumed by learners.
These shortcomings can be mitigated when addressing the development of serious games from the ground up by integrating educators, learners, and developers directly into the process. These can be valuable relationships to for enhancing the overall learning experiences; but can often suffer from competing goals, objectives, and limitations of practice and applications between domains.
One of the most common challenges here, is meeting and addressing the resistance of stakeholders and the need for collaboration for disciplinary expertise. Stakeholders could come from administrators, grant providers, parents, and other groups who are critical of applied games practices.
These criticisms are not unfounded as there still lacks more robust research that further outlines the effectiveness of games in education – particularly as they address teaching higher level cognitive skills. Additionally, games are not always the appropriate or best mediums for learning content, as their effects vary across different contexts and disciplines as much as specific teaching and learning approaches.
Takeaways
This article addressed both the development of serious games and the adaptation of games for games-based learning through outcomes focused methodology. It first addressed the application of games-based learning and then explored the formal elements of games and their criteria for educational applications.
Types of games, their formats, and different modalities were discussed in addition to how they are best utilized for educational purposes. This was connected to the preparation for using games for teaching and learning for both educators and learners, as well as how to address player motivation and overall learning outcomes in the adaptation process.
Motivation was a key factor in identifying and designing the choice structure and architecture in games, and how they are best related to and connected to key learning outcomes. Such outcomes are best reinforced through the player feedback loop and key reinforcement schedules which are informed through experiential learning. Players can best learn when continually engaging with the game’s mechanics and core game play loop. Therefore, making sure that they are aligned with key learning outcomes is crucial.
This alignment informs the overall player experience and how learners will eventually interact and engage with games. The type and level of this engagement often informs the philosophy behind adapting games for specific learning outcomes, which dictates how games are designed for specific learning needs.
The remaining aspects of this article then focused on the specific aspects for design and updating games for learning outcomes and the processes and procedures necessary for doing so in a holistic and applicable manner. This also included how assessments are designed, developed, connected, and deployed with games. Assessments exist both within, as well as outside, of the game. Therefore, their use and application was discussed in relation to the whole player experience, while also taking into consideration the key drawbacks of utilizing games-based learning.
This article covered outcomes focused games-based learning. To learn more about gamification, check out the free course on Gamification Explained.
Dave Eng, EdD
Principal
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Cite this Article
Eng, D. (2024, July 9). Outcomes Focused Games-Based Learning. Retrieved MONTH DATE, YEAR, from https://www.universityxp.com/blog/2024/7/9/outcomes-focused-games-based-learning
Internal Ref: UXP08HVL0UE6