Exploratory Learning Through
Educational Simulation & Games

Overall Course Themes

This course deals with aspects of the design process that are sometimes neglected. To design an instructional game well, you must be both systematic and intuitive, analytic and artistic. In mastering the ISD process, you've learned to handle the cognitive side of instruction (which, almost by definition, is the most important). In EDTEC 670, you'll also learn to deal with the affective side of instruction. Throughout the course we'll be addressing the questions: What makes some activities interesting or fun? How can we maximize enjoyment without sacrificing instructional quality? It's a difficult and fascinating challenge for any instructional designer.

A second major theme of the course involves the design of simulations. The questions that will dominate the second half of the course are these: How do we represent reality in a simulation? How do we balance simplicity, efficiency, and playability against realism, richness and complexity? These, too, are challenging design tasks.

Objectives

Upon completing this course, you'll be able to:

1. Analyze survey data and extract patterns and principles that describe the conditions that lead to boredom and enjoyment in learning environments.
   
2. Use, where appropriate, selected psychological theories and models to describe motivational and affective aspects of instruction. The models will include the following: Csikszentmihalyi's flow model; Keller's ARCS model; Malone & Lepper's intrinsic motivation taxonomy.
3. Conduct formative testing of a game and infer connections between elements of the game design and their emotional effect on the player.
   
4. Describe and explain selected issues, concepts and principles involved in the design and use of educational simulations and games.
   
5. Design an educational board game that is flexible and effective and document its rules, physical attributes, context of use, rationale, and variations.
6. Create face-to-face simulations, role plays and other activities designed to build social cohesion among learners and convey understanding of complex content.
   
7. Design and document a computer-based educational simulation-game, using flowcharts, maps, and equations as appropriate as well as the motivational principles at work in the design.
   
8. Reflect on and explain the design processes you use in creating motivating educational products.

Course Schedule

Readings

There is one optional book for the course which may be ordered from Amazon by clicking on the link below.

• Koster, R. (2005). A theory of fun. Scottsdale, AZ: Paraglyph Press.

In addition, these online readings will be assigned during the semester:

• August/September 2005 issue of Innovate, Journal of Online Education.
• Barab, S., & Roth, W. (2006) Curriculum-based Ecosystems: Supporting Knowing from an Ecological Perspective.

An additional set of readings is available through SDSU Electronic Course Reserves. It includes the following articles:

• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper & Row.
  Chapter 4: The conditions of flow
• Keller, J. M., & Suzuki, K. (1988). Use of the ARCS motivation model in courseware design. In D. H. Jonassen (Ed.). Instructional designs for microcomputer courseware. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Malone, T. W., & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In R. E. Snow & M. J. Farr (Eds.). Aptitude, learning and instruction. Volume 3: Conative and affective process analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

In addition to the readings, you'll be making use of Cardboard Cognition, a resource created by previous generations of EDTEC 670 students. Cardboard Cognition is a compendium of dozens of educational card and board game designs.

Tools

The final deliverable for your egame project will be primarily a design document, not a working game. To test your interface ideas and illustrate your design, though, you will learn to use specialized software tools and, depending on the project you choose, learn to work within the strengths and limitations of a single tool.

Some possible platforms that e-games will be designed for:

All project documentation will be presented in the form of web pages and shared via the course web site.

Grading

Your final grade will be determined by your performance on the design of a board game, an interpersonal learning activity and an egame; an analysis of data about learning and fun; and your contributions to the class forums and group blog.

There will be several e-game project opportunities to choose from. Each will involve the development of a computer-based prototype and a written analysis of its design from both instructional and motivational vantage points.

Discussion contributions will be graded individually. All three design projects will be team efforts. Each individual on the team will be graded separately, though the overall performance of the team will have an influence over individual grades. It behooves you, therefore, to put some energy into team building in order to maximize everyone's success. The projects will be weighted as follows:

This is a graduate level course. Grading performance in an amorphous area like game design is not easy, but not impossible either. Please keep in mind the following definitions of grading standards from the SDSU Graduate Catalog:

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