Exploratory Learning Through
Educational Simulation & Games

 

Course Syllabus
Fall 2007

Educational Technology Department
San Diego State University

Campus Section
Bernie Dodge, PhD

Home Page | Blog
Office: NE-288
Phone: 619.594.7401
Email: bdodge@mail.sdsu.edu
  Distance Section
Karl Richter, MA

Home Page | Blog
Email: karlrichter@gmail.com

 

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 a given educational game or simulation platform and explain the range of learning applications for which it might be effective.
  2. Decide what type of game or simulation (if any) would be an appropriate medium of instruction, given a set of objectives and a description of a learner group and context.
  3. 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.
  4. Describe and explain selected issues, people, concepts and principles involved in the design of educational simulations and games using a group weblog as the medium of communication.
  5. Design an educational board game that is flexible and effective and document its rules, physical attributes, context of use, rationale, and variations.
  6. 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.
  7. Reflect on and explain the design processes you use in creating motivating educational products.

Course Schedule



Week

Date

Topics

Tasks BEFORE Class

1

Aug 27

Course Overview and Introduction
Designing Your Own Board Game

Just be there

2

Sept 10

Board Design II
Team Formation

Read pp 1-31 of Game Design
Contribute two entries to the glossary
Explore: Cardboard Cognition
Post a board game idea to the forum

3

Sept 17

Board Design III
Work Session

Meet with your team at least once

4

Sept 24

Theories of Intrinsic Motivation
Analyzing Boredom & Interest
Work Session

Read: Making Learning Fun
Read: Conditions of Flow
Read: Use of the ARCS Model

5

Oct 1

Board Game Exhibition


Due: Playable Board Game Draft

6

Oct 8

Introduction to Second Life

Get an account on Second Life
Read: SL Guide pp 1 - 50
Due: Board Game Final Document

7

Oct 15

MUVE Game Project Team Formation

Finalize your avatar
Create an object in the sandbox
Read: SL Guide pp 51 - 80

8

Oct 22

MUVE Game Work Session

Meet with your team at least once

9

Oct 29

MUVE Game Work Session
eGame Project Selection

Meet with your team at least once

10

Nov 5

MUVE Game Exhibition
eGame Group Work Session

Meet with your egame team

11

Nov 12

Veterans Day
(no F2F class. Meet online.)

Due: eGame Analysis
(overview, objective, scope, learners, context, competing products)

12

Nov 19

eGame Group Work Session
Quiz on readings and glossary

Due: Contributions

 

 

Thanksgiving

Re-acquaint yourself with your family

13

Nov 26

The Glass Bead Game
eGame work session

 

14

Dec 3

eGame Peer Feedback & Research Work session

 

15

Dec 10

eGame Presentations

Due: eGame Design Document

Readings

There are two required books for the course which may be ordered from Amazon by clicking on the link below.

Thompson, J., Berbank-Green, B, & Cusworth, N. (2007) Game Design: Principles, Practice, and Techniques - The Ultimate Guide for the Aspiring Game Designer. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

v3image. (2007) A Beginner's Guide to Second Life. Las Vegas, NV: Archebooks.

Also:

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 being prepared and will be available through SDSU Electronic Course Reserves. It includes the following articles:

Models of Interest, Motivation, and Fun

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 one tool. The platform we'll be using this semester is:

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, a MUVE game and an egame, your contributions to the class forums and glossary, and a quiz.

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:

Board Game Design

25%

MUVE Game Design 25%
Forum & Glossary Contributions 10%

Quiz on Readings and Glossary

5%

eGame Analysis 10%

eGame Design

25%

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:

A

Outstanding achievement; available only for the highest accomplishment.

B

Praiseworthy performance; definitely above average.

C

Average; awarded for satisfactory performance.


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