Here is one
From: Alex Bryan [mailto:alexbryan@btinternet.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2007 1:21 PM
To: [Serious Games]
Subject: [seriousgames] Article Request
Dear all,
Can anyone point me towards some articles that criticise the use of Serious Games for learning, based on theories such as those by David Ausubel, and Kolb Cycles, Constructivism, etc.
Many Thanks
-Alex Bryan
And, here is a answer from another member of the community - Clark Alrich - to some independent research results. I've clipped in just a summary of results. Much more detail available on through the link below.
"Do Sims Work Better than Traditional Instruction?
A current critical question among those concerned with the future of education is, do "game-like" sims really teach? Do serious games have a social impact? How do immersive learning simulations compare to classroom lectures, web pages, and books? Do educational simulations actually improve Big Skills, including what one knows and what one does?
To help answer this question, I have encouraged studies of one practiceware leadership sim, SimuLearn’s Virtual Leader (and the updated VLeader 2007). To ensure the objectiveness of each piece of research, the leadership simulation is completely handed off to highly credible third-party evaluators, who do their own deployment, measurement, and analysis. Further, for a study to be summarized here, the independent evaluators have to “go public” with their results, such as in papers, including academic dissertations, or speeches, outside of SimuLearn’s influence.
This has now been done this in military, academic, and corporate settings. The results are consistent and surprising. Across multiple third-party studies, there is statistically significant (and often unprecedented) research results showing that:
the students do use the leadership skills they have learned when measured six months after they learned it, in contrast to traditional examples of executive education content and delivery that are quickly forgotten; (Executives in Class - From “Recalling” To “Applying” New Knowledge; Anecdote: Learning Leadership )
the students have become about 20% more productive when measured five months after the program, compared to their peers who did not go through the program (Fortune 100 Company: An Extra Day Every Week of Work);
the students have become better at using their emotional intelligence (A Sim Develops Emotional Intelligence); and
the non-context specific but real time practiceware is more effective than turn-based (but Army specific) branching stories (United States Military Academy - Self-Paced Practiceware Deployment Beats Traditional Approach)".
Click here to read all the articles and study results.
