Found a Predictive Probabilities Analysis software for download at the Dept of Biostatistics and Applied Mathematics (BAM Software Download Site), maintained by the MD Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas.
This is primarily a software to support clinical trials in which the endpoint is binary or time-to-event (TTE).
There will be a new Games for Learning Institute (G4LI) in New York University. The institute is a new joint research endeavor of Microsoft Research, New York University, and a consortium of universities, including: Columbia University, the City University of New York (CUNY), Dartmouth College, Parsons The New School for Design, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Teachers College at Columbia University.
Microsoft Research is providing $1.5 million to the Institute. NYU and its consortium of partners are matching Microsoft’s investment, for a combined $3 million. Funding covers the first three years of the G4LI’s research, which will focus on evaluating computer games as potential learning tools for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects at the middle-school years (grades 6–8). The institute will work with a range of student populations, yet focus on underrepresented middle-school students, such as girls and minorities.
The aim is to identify which qualities of computer games engage students and develop relevant, personalized teaching strategies that can be applied to the learning process.
Effectiveness of Video Games. Again!
“While educational games are commonplace, little is known about how, why or even if they are effective,” said John Nordlinger, senior research manager for Microsoft Research’s gaming efforts. “Microsoft Research, together with NYU and the consortium of academic partners, will address these questions from a multidisciplinary angle, exploring what makes certain games compelling and playable and what elements make them effective, providing critically important information to researchers, game developers, and educators to support a new era of using games for educational purposes.”
How do they plan on doing it?
The G4LI also will evaluate game prototypes and introduce them, along with accompanying curricula, to an existing network of 19 New York City area schools; results in the classroom will be tracked. Based on the findings, the institute’s goal is to expand its research and game development to all K–12 grades. Resulting scientific evidence will be shared broadly with researchers, game developers and educators.
Original article: here.
I am one who don’t think qualitative tracking will work. So I can only hope they are not going down that path. I can only guess (since it is NYU) at what methodology they will be using…
The interview of Virtual Heroes by Serious Games Source yielded some good information about what VH planned on doing to further their “learning with video game” technology and in making a name for their company. They have developed an assessment component called “Advance Learning Technology” for use with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine (VH licensed the U3 as their in-house game development tool).
SGS: Why choose the Unreal Engine?
VH: Our team has worked extensively on the America’s Army game project. Because of this experience, we have seen the power of Unreal technology as it is used in the serious games space for strategic messaging and training and education applications. Many of our clients are asking for UE3 technology by name…
[So, AA was powered by Unreal? I am skeptical about the next sentense, how may education application out there are powered by Unreal? Honestly, I haven't heard of any. Name please?]
By leveraging COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) technologies, we can focus on challenges specific to serious games. These include the creation of instructor authoring tools, after-action-review technologies, the integration of biometrics and human physiology engines and SCORM compliance etc.
We feel that our arrangement with Epic provides us with a competitive advantage in the serious games market. This approach will enable us to creative premium immersive experiences which provide the means to train and educate while measuring task related skills-proficiency along the way.
SGS: Recently the engine has come under scrutiny over its complexity and alleged support issues. Does this concern your company in developing future serious games and other learning products?
VH: Not at all. We’ve been part of the Unreal Developer network since January 2004 when we began developing for the America’s Army game project. We chose UE3 in large part because of helpful support available from UDN.
[Ah! So Unreal was difficult to use and perhaps have many bugs. It appeared that UDN will handle all the problems related to Unreal engine.]
SGS: Can you give us some examples of the types of products that Virtual Heroes will look to develop using this technology?
VH: We will use UE3 for our Advanced Learning Technology (A.L.T.) platform. We are currently developing HumanSim for medical education and training. We are also developing Virtual Astronaut for STEM education and SIMWARS for Federal Systems training. We will be building applications to “open standards” established by the DoD like DIS/HLA, SCORM, OneSaf etc.
[The military is certainly driving SCORM. So any games that wish to make it into the military playground will have to be SCORM compliant, too. This has been proven in I/ITSEC.]
SGS: How with UE3 be integrated into the Advanced Learning Platform? How will this platform be bettered through this middleware?
VH: UE3 will enable us to accelerate the creation of the A.L.T. platform and focus on the mission-critical challenges for serious games related to instructor authoring, after-action-reviews, linkages to learning management systems, AI, SCORM.
[Finally, here's the meat! But somehow, I get the naggy feeling that they are trying to make ALT the name in serious games. (You know, Tylenol (instead of analgesic), BandAid (instead of plaster), and Advance Learning Technology (instead of serious games). Why? They refer to themselves as maker of serious games and/or advance learning technologies.
While they are the maker of Advanced Learning Technology (name of a software application), they are not maker of advance learning technologies. What are the advance learning technologies out there? Nothing... unless, you rename instructional technologies as learning technologies.... The "advanced" part is obviously pointing to digital games.]
I will be presenting “Assessing What Players Learned in Serious Games: In Situ Data Collection, Information Trails and Quantitative Analysis”at the 10th International Conference on Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, Educational & Serious Games (CGAMES 2007) on July 25th – 28th, 2007, in Louisville, KY.
This would be my first foray into the computer games conferences outside of the field of instructional technology, it would be interesting to see what others think of Information Trails, and in situ data collection methodology.
The paper can be downloaded here: cgames2007.pdf
I have finally come across the first report about folks “using Neverwinter Nights 2 for learning and/or research.” I am pretty sure the folks at Heriot-Watt University are somehow “inspired” by the success at West Nottinghamshire — since both Judith Good and Judy Robertson also hailed from the United Kingdom.
But whatever the things they are doing with NWN2, the most important aspect (to me) is the last question on the interview: How are you going to measure the benefit (i.e. learning progress) of the game-based learning project?
Read on…
Hitting the Play Button : HERO
It’s part of a research project at Heriot-Watt University, where researchers are exploring how school pupils can learn through building their own video games. Using a toolkit adapted from the fantasy role-playing game Neverwinter Nights 2, it aims to engage pupils with a range of curriculum activities in literacy, IT and design. Below, Keiron Nicholson, software developer with the project at Heriot-Watt University, explains how it all works. Questions by Charlie Peverett.
How does the concept of Adventure Author go down initially in schools? Do teachers need much persuading that it’s ‘real work’ as well as popular?
There can be initial resistance from teachers, who haven’t grown up with video games in the way that most children have. We did some trial sessions at a typical primary school in Dundee and initially met with quite a cynical response from the teachers, but within a few weeks they’d become very enthusiastic about the project, largely because they saw how much it motivated the children.
In terms of persuading them that it’s ‘real work’, there’s a lot of links to the curriculum that they were keen to pick up on – since a big part of the design is coming up with a story and writing interactive dialogues, it feeds into their literacy and storytelling abilities. They also learn a lot about problem-solving and collaboration, and the teachers in Dundee particularly noted the kids’ willingness to ‘redraft’ their work, which is usually very difficult to get them to do.
Naturally they’re also keen on getting the children excited about an ICT package, since computer skills are a big focus nowadays. I think they feel that anything educational that actually gets kids motivated is a good thing. The teachers even chose to tie it in to additional areas of the curriculum, like getting them to make artwork and adverts to accompany their games.
Neverwinter Nights 2 is pretty warlike. Do pupils playing Adventure Author follow that lead? Do you find pupils are more likely to bring murder and military stuff into their games than, say, if they were doing a creative writing exercise?
The game sticks strictly to largely non-violent fantasy combat as seen in the Lord of the Rings films. Naturally, the game toolkit has plenty of resources for fantasy monsters and swords and sorcery stuff, as this can be a fun aspect of the gameplay. However in story terms, their writing has shown a lot of imagination, and doesn’t seem to be bound by the setting – in fact, they use the restrictions of the fantasy artwork very creatively. They use what’s available to them for what they want to do, so we’ve had stories where werewolves are cast as train conductors, and zombies hang about outside Blockbuster Video! In particular, the girls are less interested in the fantasy combat aspect, and more focused on the possibilities for storytelling and art design – it’s quite possible to leave the ‘warlike’ stuff out of the game altogether.
Have any designs particularly impressed you?
One of the kids at our workshops did a satirical game in which you had to interact with various famous political figures like George W Bush and Tony Blair, culminating in a duel with Jacques Chirac! We thought that was pretty inventive.
If pupils want to go on designing games beyond the time allowed by Adventure Author, what opportunities are there for doing so (either within formal education or outside it)?
The Neverwinter Nights 2 software is commercially available, and will probably be selling at below full price by the time the project is finished. We’ll be providing the Adventure Author software on our website free of charge for anybody who wants it, along with tutorials and teachers’ resources to help things along. In formal education, there’s a rapidly growing selection of courses and even institutions which specifically teach game design and programming. There’s also plenty of stuff on the web that pupils will find useful.
After the trials in Dundee, we found that a majority of the kids were asking for the game for Christmas so they could carry on working on their games, and that many parents then bought it on the recommendation of the teachers. The original Neverwinter Nights can be picked up for under £10, and it provides a fairly gentle start to game design for those wanting to get stuck in immediately.
How are you going to measure the benefits of Adventure Author for pupils’ development?
In educational terms, we’re going to be looking closely at the links between their progress in other areas of the curriculum and their experiences with the software. We’re most interested in the impact on literacy skills, since our results so far have indicated that a lot of kids will engage far more in creative writing within the context of game development, when ordinarily it wouldn’t interest them so much. We’ll also be gathering the opinions of professional game designers, teachers, and other pupils to judge how successful the kids have been at creating a well-rounded and fun video game.