This thesis explores the use of serious games from an instructor perspective. More specifically, it aims to study the roles of instructors and how they can be facilitated within an instructor-led game-based training environment. Research within the field of serious games has mostly focused on the learners' perspective, but little attention has been paid to what the instructors do and what challenges that entails. In this thesis, I argue that serious games, as artefacts used for learning and training, cannot fully replace the instructors' tasks, but must rather be designed to facilitate the various activities of the instructors. Thus, instructors form an important target audience in serious game development – not just as subject matter experts, but also as users and players of the game – with a different set of needs than the learners. Moreover, serious gaming (the actualisation of a serious game) involves more than in-game activities, it also involves actions and events that occur off-game. These activities must also be considered when designing and utilising games for learning and training. Using a qualitative approach, instructor-led serious gaming has been explored from a range of contexts, from rehabilitation to incident commander training and military training. Several different instructor roles have been identified and characterised, including in-game facilitator, puckster, debriefer, technical support and subject matter expert. Based on empirical and theoretical material, a framework for instructor-led serious gaming has been developed. It involves best practices in different phases of game-based training, such as scenario authoring, coaching-by-gaming, assessing in-game and off-game performance, giving feedback, and conducting a debriefing or after-action review. Furthermore, specific needs and challenges for instructors have been identified and reformulated into guidelines for instructor-led serious gaming. The guidelines highlight the importance of usability and visualisation, as well as the need for carefully designed support tools for instructors' situation awareness, assessment and debriefing. Lastly, a number of success factors pertaining to both the development and actualisation of serious games are presented. Since serious games aim to be both productive and engaging, it is advantageous to work with interdisciplinary teams when developing serious games. This includes subject matter experts well versed in serious gaming practices. Furthermore, a successful serious game should adhere to sound pedagogical theories, be easy to use and maintain, and include system support for instructors' tasks. Successful serious gaming practices also involve having an organisational culture that fosters knowledge sharing among practitioners. / Denna avhandling undersöker användningen av serious games från ett instruktörsperspektiv. Mer specifikt är syftet att studera instruktörernas roller och hur de kan underlättas inom en lärarledd spelbaserad träningsmiljö. Forskning inom området serious games har mestadels fokuserat på elevernas perspektiv, medan ringa uppmärksamhet har ägnats åt vad instruktörerna gör och vilka utmaningar det innebär. I avhandlingen argumenterar jag att serious games, i egenskap av artefakter som används för lärande och utbildning, inte helt kan ersätta instruktörernas uppgifter, utan måste i stället utformas för att underlätta instruktörernas olika sysslor. Således utgör instruktörer en viktig målgrupp i utveckling av serious games – inte bara som ämnesexperter, utan även som användare och spelare – med en annan uppsättning av behov än eleverna. Dessutom innebär serious gaming (dvs. användandet av ett serious game) förutom de aktiviter som utförs i spelet, även handlingar och händelser som förekommer utanför spelet. Dessa aktiviteter måste också beaktas när man utformar och använder spel för lärande och träning. Serious gaming har, utifrån en kvalitativ ansats, undersökts i en rad olika sammanhang, från rehabilitering till utbildning av räddningsledare och militär utbildning. Flera olika lärarroller har identifierats och karakteriserats, bland annat facilitator i spelet, puckster (skötare av AI-enheter), utvärderare, teknisk support och ämnesexpert. Ett ramverk för lärarledd serious gaming har utvecklats baserat på empiriskt och teoretiskt material. Det omfattar en beskrivning av bästa praxis i olika faser av spelbaserad träning, såsom scenarioskapande, coachning genom spelande, bedömning av prestation i och utanför spelet, återkoppling, samt sammanfattande utvärdering. Vidare har särskilda behov och utmaningar för instruktörer identifierats och omformulerats som riktlinjer för lärarledd serious gaming. Riktlinjerna belyser vikten av användbarhet och visualisering, liksom behovet av omsorgsfullt utformade stödverktyg för instruktörernas situationsmedvetenhet, utvärdering och avrapportering. Slutligen presenteras ett antal framgångsfaktorer avseende både utveckling och utförande av serious games. Eftersom serious games syftar till att vara både produktiva och engagerande, är det fördelaktigt att utveckling av dessa utförs av tvärdisciplinära team. Detta inkluderar ämnesexperter väl bevandrade i serious gaming. Vidare bör ett framgångsrikt serious game hålla sig till välgrundade pedagogiska teorier, vara lätt att använda och underhålla, samt innehålla systemstöd för instruktörernas uppgifter. Framgångsrik serious gaming-praxis innebär också att ha en organisationskultur som främjar kunskapsutbyte mellan instruktörer.

There is an increasing interest in using video games as a means to deliver training to individuals learning new skills or tasks. However, current research lacks a clear method of developing effective instructional material when these games are used as training tools and explaining how gameplay may affect learning. The literature contains multiple approaches to training and GBT but generally lacks a foundational-level and theoretically relevant approach to how people learn specifically from video games and how to design instructional guidance within these gaming environments. This study investigated instructional delivery within GBT. Video games are a form of multimedia, consisting of both imagery and sounds. The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML; Mayer 2005) explicitly describes how people learn from multimedia information, consisting of a combination of narration (words) and animation (pictures). This study empirically examined the effects of the modality and temporal contiguity principles on learning in a game-based virtual environment. Based on these principles, it was hypothesized that receiving either voice or embedded training would result in better performance on learning measures. Additionally, receiving a combination of voice and embedded training would lead to better performance on learning measures than all other instructional conditions. A total of 128 participants received training on the role and procedures related to the combat lifesaver - a non-medical soldier who receives additional training on combat-relevant lifesaving medical procedures. Training sessions involved an instructional presentation manipulated along the modality (voice or text) and temporal contiguity (embedded in the game or presented before gameplay) principles. Instructional delivery was manipulated in a 2x2 between-subjects design with four instructional conditions: Upfront-Voice, Upfront-Text, Embedded-Voice, and Embedded-Text. Results indicated that: (1) upfront instruction led to significantly better retention performance than embedded instructional regardless of delivery modality; (2) receiving voice-based instruction led to better transfer performance than text-based instruction regardless of presentation timing; (3) no differences in performance were observed on the simple application test between any instructional conditions; and (4) a significant interaction of modality-by-temporal contiguity was obtained. Simple effects analysis indicated differing effects along modality within the embedded instruction group, with voice recipients performing better than text (p = .012). Individual group comparisons revealed that the upfront-voice group performed better on retention than both embedded groups (p = .006), the embedded-voice group performed better on transfer than the upfront text group (p = .002), and the embedded-voice group performed better on the complex application test than the embedded-text group (p =.012). Findings indicated partial support for the application of the modality and temporal contiguity principles of CTML in interactive GBT. Combining gameplay (i.e., practice) with instructional presentation both helps and hinders working memory's ability to process information. Findings also explain how expanding CTML into game-based training may fundamentally change how a person processes information as a function of the specific type of knowledge being taught. Results will drive future systematic research to test and determine the most effective means of designing instruction for interactive GBT. Further theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Research is limited on the role game-based training has on the engagement of learners. The following study was conducted to further advance research on engagement and game-based training in businesses by studying the engagement of travel agents in the game. Engagement is the manner in which a learner's cognitive and motor skills are motivated when participating in a game. Engaged learners will often push through challenging tasks and will concentrate on improving their skills due to their excitement about playing. The present study examined the engagement of travel agents as they played a serious game. The serious game, Adventures Game, was designed to provide a fun and memorable format for learning for travel agents who sell cruise tickets for a cruise line. The focus of this study was to examine the relationship between engagement (as measured by total number of minutes playing the game) and knowledge attainment (as measured by total number of fun points) of travel agents while playing a serious game. In addition, to understand the relationship between engagement and total cruise sales (as measured by total number of cabins sold). Thus, this nonexperimental study investigated the relationship between engagement and knowledge attainment. A combination of linear regression analyses and correlations were used to examine this relationship. The sample consisted of travel agents (N = 309) who played the serious game. The study focused on data which ranged from January 1, 2012 until December 31, 2014. The regression results supported both hypotheses proposed in this study. A strong, positive and statistically significant relationship between engagement and knowledge attainment was found. In addition, a modest, positive and statistically significant relationship between engagement and total cabin sales was found. Based on these results, further analysis was conducted, leading to finding a statistically significant relationship between knowledge attainment and total cabin sales as well. Future research should be designed to test whether the modest link between engagement and total cabin sales is mediated by knowledge attainment. The implications of the findings demonstrate theoretical, empirical and practical relevance, particularly as it is linked to adults learning optimally in computer-mediated, workplace settings.

No description available.

This research aims to enhance Simulation-Based Training (SBT) applications to support training events in the absence of live instruction. The overarching purpose is to explore available tools for integrating intelligent tutoring communications in game-based learning platforms and to examine theory-based techniques for delivering explicit feedback in such environments. The primary tool influencing the design of this research was the Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring (GIFT), a modular domain-independent architecture that provides the tools and methods to author, deliver, and evaluate intelligent tutoring technologies within any training platform. Influenced by research surrounding Social Cognitive Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, the resulting experiment tested varying approaches for utilizing an Embodied Pedagogical Agent (EPA) to function as a tutor during interaction in a game-based environment. Conditions were authored to assess the tradeoffs between embedding an EPA directly in a game, embedding an EPA in GIFT’s browser-based Tutor-User Interface (TUI), or using audio prompts alone with no social grounding. The resulting data supports the application of using an EPA embedded in GIFT’s TUI to provide explicit feedback during a game-based learning event. Analyses revealed conditions with an EPA situated in the TUI to be as effective as embedding the agent directly in the game environment. This inference is based on evidence showing reliable differences across conditions on the metrics of performance and self-reported mental demand and feedback usefulness items. This research provides source modality tradeoffs linked to tactics for relaying training relevant explicit information to a user based on real-time performance in a game.