Peter Smith, Team Lead for ADL Immersive Learning Technologies and Alicia Sanchez, Games Czar at ADL’s partner institution, Defense Acquisition University (DAU), presented a peer-reviewed paper they authored collaboratively at the 2009 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), held in Orlando, Florida from November 30 through December 3. The paper, Bite-Sized Gaming: Using Mini-Games for Full-Sized Learning, describes the use of alternative game paradigms.
While interest in using games for training has grown over the last few years the types of games used has changed dramatically. While the industry’s initial attempts at building these games has focused on common and established genres of games such as Real Time Strategy (RTS) games and First Person Shooters (FPS) this is no longer the case. Mini-games for training are no longer relegated to the rote memorization games that were clumsily integrated into conventional Computer-based Training (CBT) in the form of uninspired Flash games. Mini-Games have emerged as an interesting way to integrate learning objective specific pieces of knowledge into an existing training regimen, either in a standalone form or in the context of a greater game or simulation. Peter and Alicia’s paper discusses how the military, academia, and industry can benefit by using bite-sized, game-based training applications citing specific examples being fielded with Defense Acquisition University (DAU), National Science Foundation (NSF), and others.
To learn more about Bite-sized Games: