Using educational video games to encourage behaviour change.

1. Using educational video games to encourage behaviour change. Coventry University Masters project By Michael Richards

2. contents • Introduction • Aims of CSEC • Videogames • Educational videogames (I-III) • Procedural knowledge • Conceptual knowledge • Our game (I-V) • Future Development

3. Introduction • Michael Richards • Studying a Masters by research in engineering and knowledge management at Coventry University. • My project is aimed at designing an educational video game to help young children learn about hazard avoidance and personal safety.

4. Aims of csec • To encourage and support activities which contribute to a reduction in unintended injuries to children and young people. • Identify common and avoidable injuries to children and young people. • Identify activities where practical safety education could be improved, extended or introduced. • Provide children with opportunities to develop risk competence appropriate to their age and developmental stage, which is transferable to all aspects of their lives. • Enable children and young people to have the confidence put their risk competence into practice.

5. Videogames • A brief history of the videogame: • `Spacewar’. • Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). • Core aspect of modern culture. • Potential educational tool.

6. Educational videogames i • Not a new area of study. • Academic subjects. • Obvious teaching approach. • Behavioural teaching game. • Subtle learning approach. • Hypothesis construction and testing.

7. Educational videogames ii • Fun to play. • Allows repetition. • Conceptual Vs. Procedural learning.

8. Procedural knowledge • The knowledge of actions. • Can be limiting. • Want children to learn appropriate actions via their knowledge, not just a procedure. • Conceptual knowledge. • Better understanding of all aspects.

9. Conceptual knowledge • Exposure over multiple scenarios. • Allows for better understanding of an artefacts characteristics. • More valuable than learning predetermined procedures. • More feasible to include concepts than all procedures in a game.

10. Educational videogames iii • Flow Experience. • Involved state of play. • Pursuit of achievement. • Heightened brain function & memory recall. • Potential for increased knowledge retention within educational video games. • Theory of Self Determination. • Providing tasks to encourage players. • Wanting to master an aspect of a game. • Can be used to encourage Flow Experience. • Both are difficult to achieve!

11. Our game i • Relevant information being taught. • Home Accident Surveillance Survey (HASS) • Leisure Accident Surveillance Survey (LASS) • Constructed a scoring system based on hazard likelihood and severity. • Players interact with data without knowledge of doing so.

12. Our game ii • Design of the game. • Colourful. • Fun. • Mixed gender cartoon characters. • Rapid development lifecycle led to card game design rather than electronic. • Allows for more testing and development of play style and mechanics before going electronic.

13. Our game iii • Scoring system based on hazard likelihood and severity. • (Likelihood x Severity /10) • (below) Scores of each hazard depending on situation.

14. Our game iv • Card game style of play. • Turn based structure. • Allows for repetition. • Repetition increases exposure to a larger amount of hazard and action combinations. • More chances to make positive and negative decisions. • Increases conceptual knowledge.

15. Our game v • Feedback through scoring codex. • Feedback enhances learning. • Scores used to reinforce good decisions (high points) and highlight bad decisions (low/no points). • This method of feedback is designed to make the player think about the possible consequences before they take an action; this encapsulates the behaviour we intend to encourage young children to adopt.

16. Future development • Make the game electronic. • Similar game design. • Increase exposure. • Easily updateable with new content.

17. Thank you for listening.