Decision and Game-based Simulations for

Improving Student Outcomes

Real-World Learning and Real-Time Assessment

Which Problems Are We Trying to Solve?

• We’ve taught and tested our students, only to discover that they’re not prepared to work and think in the real world.

• Half of what students learn as fact will be disproved by the time they retire

• Educators are expected to do more with less.• The gap between skilled and unskilled employees

continues to grow.• Our traditional ways of teaching and learning can’t meet

our current or future needs.

What’s the Root Cause of the Problem?

• Facts without action are just words and numbers.• Where are the critical-thinking skills?• In traditional education, you study and then you

take a test to prove that you know what you studied.– You can’t help but study for the test, rather that

studying to learn. – Teachers teach to the test, skewing the results for

both their and their students’ evaluations

The Best and Brightest Can’t Make Decisions

As a Result…

• Employers are looking for applied skills, not grades and test scores.

• Medical students haven’t learned how to become doctors. – Surgical residents with high scores on OSATS, nevertheless,

showed “a range of errors, including incorrect technique and poor intraoperative planning.”

• Financial services companies can find plenty of people with great grades, but few with good problem-solving skills.

A Generation Not Ready for Work

What’s Missing?

REAL-WORLD THINKING

What is Real-world Thinking?

• Real-world thinking combines substantive knowledge with proven decision-making techniques to solve problems

• We’ve long known that if we don’t apply what we’ve learned to a real situation, that knowledge will quickly fade.

• Acquiring facts is easy and getting easier. – Our ability to adapt to new information in new situations,

however, is essential to our ability to survive and thrive.

Real-time Assessment

Make vs. Buy Demo

What Can Get Us There?• Our students need to learn how to make decisions

– Most decisions are nuanced, based on a mix of quantitative and qualitative factors

• Our students need to learn how to deal with new information:– A new or changed parameter that changes an outcome– A new paradigm that changes almost everything

• Work and life is digital and mobile; our educational tools need be digital and mobile, as well.

• Education using games or decision-based simulations holds the greatest promise.

What Is a Game or Decision-based Simulation?

• A decision-based simulation allows a student to play a role that requires a series of decisions, based on prior knowledge and factors presented during the simulation to find the best solution to the problem at hand.

• The student is presented with a scenario, typically including a role definition, such as a manufacturing manager, surgeon, or chef.

• The student is given a goal and must make a series of decisions that move toward that goal.

• In some scenarios, one decision can change the parameters, affecting future decisions.

New Solutions Developed in New Ways

• Traditional methods yield traditional results• Good problem-based solutions aren’t found in textbooks.

– Textbooks are primarily repositories of facts with tests and quizzes that assess the student’s ability to recall those facts

– Because of the medium (print), textbooks invariably promote linear thinking

• Passive online viewing is no better than passive classroom instruction.– Low retention rates in MOOCs are the result of limited

opportunities for student engagement.– Students want to engage with teachers and the material.

What Goes into the Development of a Decision- or Game-based Simulation?• Domains of learning:

– Cognitive Domain – What must a student know before, during, and after the exercise?

– Kinetic Domain – What steps must/may the student follow?– Affective Domain – How does the student feel during and after the exercise?

• A suite of tools that students will use (online video, text, instructor guidance, etc.)

• A training plan for your teachers/leaders• Flowcharting tools to identify planned and unplanned outcomes• Avoid linear thinking (one starting point and one end point). Students

and teachers need to be able to adjust parameters while the simulation is in play.

Understanding the Progression from Information Retention to Creativity

Bloom’s new taxonomy of intellectual behavior

Simulations are Known by Many Names

• Decision-based simulations• Gamification• Workplace simulations• Problem-Based Learning • Simulation-based Learning

Why Simulations?• In a simulation learning and assessment happen along the same paths.• Students rated instructors as more effective in Simulation-based learning

courses than in comparison courses.• Students consistently perceived SBL as more action-directed and engaging

than comparison courses.• SBL courses provided more useful and timely feedback and assessment

information to students than did comparison courses.• SBL courses yielded a pattern of significantly higher evaluations with less

variability on instructional effectiveness over time than comparison courses.

• Passively watching videos or other online materials is no better than passively listening to lectures.

• Simulators are easier and less expensive to deploy.

Why Now?• Our technical infrastructure supports gaming.

– Processors are fast enough to keep pace with the demands of simulations.

– Students can learn anytime, anywhere, on any device.

• How will it benefit the end user and the business eco system at large– It’s enough to learn material so that you can pass a

test. Students have to learn how to apply that knowledge.

Here Comes the Science• Most research has focused on post-secondary

effectiveness. These findings show, among other things, that simulations are an effective method for teaching entrepreneurship.

• Gamified education provides more frequent and better feedback to students.

• Simulations improve the effectiveness of training for power systems engineers and operators.

We’ve come a long way since Operation

Medical students frequently use computer-based and hands-on simulators as a part of their surgical training.

Simulations Save Lives and Could Save More

Medicine must follow the example of the airline industry which has made travel safe by the use of simulation not only for teaching technical skills but also for teaching communication and critical reasoning which are main causes of error.

- Harry McConnell and Ashley Pardy

Keeping Kids Safe from Tsunamis

Using a game-based approach to a scary topic helps children understand how to stay safe.

Why It Works• Game-based learning makes teachers better.

– Teachers work better with students who are excited about learning.

• Failure and recovery become teaching moments.

• Students discover levels of abstraction.– Their experience is less about recitation of facts

and more about solving problems. That process allows students to see broader perspectives.

How Athletes Become Successful

It’s Not about Games for Games’ Sake

• You must understand your learners’ context and motivation.• Your solution must allow for and encourage creative

solutions.• It should be engaging, allowing for interaction between

student and teacher and among other students (whether they are playing the same game at the same time or not).

Caveat Praeceptor • Labeling a game educational doesn’t make it educational

– Games in the various app stores are rarely part of a educational plan– Baby Einstein has long been disproved as a good educational

experience for toddlers

• Make sure that your solution works throughout your environment– Food Hero helps kids learn about healthy eating habits. It’s fun and

instructive, but it uses Flash which doesn’t work in certain browsers and with some devices.

• YouTube’s Copyright School walks you through the basics of video copyrights. It’s also a good example of how not to teach the complexities of intellectual property law.

Our Goals and Can We Reach Them?

• Teach decision-making and critical thinking• Reward creativity• Deliver learning that can be applied in the real world• We want to give our students the best outcomes

while making the best use of our resources. • The best outcomes will vary from student to student,

but may include meaningful work, full participation in society, and meeting family responsibilities.

How will we know if we’re meeting our goals?

• Assessments can be short-term and quantitative, such as percentage of students achieving passing grades in courses and examinations.

• They can also be long-term quantitative, such as graduation rates and employment indices.

• Qualitative result, both short-term and long-term, can come from surveys, interviews, and anecdotal reports.

• Some program assessments can take literally a lifetime.• You must plan your programs according to the metrics

valued by your community.

More than “Do you want fries with that?”

Restaurant management requires that you make the best use of your product, people, and place.

Being an Educator Is the Best Job in the World, if You Don’t Mind …

• Limited resources• Constant criticism from the constituencies

you serve (students, parents, business people, and politicians)

• Volatile requirements• Hyperbolic rhetoric

For the Teacher, This Is Hard Work

Developing a course requires identification of multiple paths through the material

You must…• Develop a story with many endings• Allow for creativity in problem-solving• Plan for multiple outcomes based on varying

data and decisions

Little in Your Training Prepared You for This

• If you graduated from college 20 or more years ago, you were lucky to have any computers in the classroom.

• If you graduated 10 years ago, you might have taken a few online classes.

• If you graduated last year, most likely none of your training prepared you to develop and deliver online or hybrid courses.

Teaching Teachers• As educators, we might be skeptical (and a bit

fearful) that we could be replaced by simulators. • Teachers are needed to guide the student, just as,

even in this age of Google, librarians are needed more than ever.

• We are preparing students for jobs that don’t exist yet. For that reason, we need to teach them how to learn.

Developing the Next Generation of Creative Thinkers

“Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.“

- Albert Einstein

A Serious Game For Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneur Simulation

Fostering Next-gen Entrepreneurs

• Key among the characteristics of entrepreneurs are resilience, flexibility, and tolerance of ambiguity.

• Using simulators, students can quickly learn from their mistakes, make adjustments, and move forward.

• Entrepreneurs know that yesterday’s best answer may not work today and that decisions must be rethought in the presence of new data.

• Presented with an array of nuanced choices, students learn to make decisions with incomplete and often contradictory information.

About UsFocus EduVation has over a decade of experience as a partner to institutions and educators around the country:

– Educational Publishers– Higher Ed Institutions– Consumer Services and Retail Organizations– Healthcare Companies

We offer a variety of services to a large selection of institutions and industries, and our overall goal is to help improve learning

outcomes and the learners’ e-Learning experience.