Serious Games and MMORPGs as effective learning tools

Wu.et.al[1](Wu, Richards, & Saw, 2014) and Lester et.al[2] ((Lester et al., 2013) make a legitimate case for considering games as serious tools for learning in various areas including language and health education. Both articles provide a mix of evidence including quantitative and qualitative data measuring students affect, state and other relevant measures related to learning outcomes of the various disciplines where different games have been used.

All the evidence points to the effectiveness of games as learning tools in certain conditions, as identified in the Wu.et.al study. However, Lester and his compatriots make a strong and compelling case for intelligent game based learning on the results from their study and sample size. This makes for interesting policy decisions for educational thinkers and leaders. Some of the implications include, the amount of investment and time it will take to develop intelligent based games for various subject areas. In addition, will educational systems have the patience and time to wait for these games to be developed and used as instructional tools.

While games were shown to be effective in the Crsytal Island intelligent game study, this is an approach that the authors agree has been under development for seven years. In addition, recent research and the authors own research highlights the limitations of adopting these processes whole sale in all educational environments.

Finally as highlighted by Van Eck[3] ((Van Eck, 2015), and also echoed by Wu.et.al, the most effective aspects of learning games seem to improve are the so called 21^st Century skills which can be classified as noncognitive skills. While these are important skills and increasingly important in today’s world, schools are still held accountable for results on cognition based areas. Of those, it seems AI games which have the ability to adapt to individual learners’ responses but cost considerably more have the most potential to be effective.

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[1]Wu, M. L., Richards, K., & Saw, G. K. (2014). Examining a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game as a Digital Game-Based Learning Platform. Computers in the Schools, 31(1–2), 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1080/07380569.2013.878975

[2] Lester, J. C., Ha, E. Y., Lee, S. Y., Mott, B. W., Rowe, J. P., & Sabourin, J. L. (2013). Serious Games Get Smart: Intelligent Game-Based Learning Environments. AI Magazine, 34(4), 31. https://doi.org/10.1609/aimag.v34i4.2488

[3]Van Eck, R. (2015). Digital Game-Based Learning: Still Restless, After All These Years. Retrieved November 18, 2015, from http://er.educause.edu/articles/2015/10/digital-game-based-learning-still-restless-after-all-these-year