Introduction: Serious Games for Law Enforcement Agencies

This chapter is an introduction to the field of serious games, with emphasis on law enforcement agencies. It outlines their use focusing on four concrete application cases: crime scene investigations, investigative interviews, communication skills and terrorism training. It further outlines the general benefits of serious games compared to traditional training methods

Understanding Engagement within the Context of a Safety Critical Game

One of the most frequent arguments for deploying serious games is that they provide an engaging format for student learning. However, engagement is often equated with enjoyment, which may not be the most relevant conceptualization in safety-critical settings, such as law enforcement and healthcare. In these contexts, the term ‘serious’ does not only relate to the non-entertainment purpose of the game but also the environment simulated by the game. In addition, a lack of engagement in a safety critical training setting can have serious ethical implications, leading to significant real-world impacts. However, evaluations of safety-critical games (SCGs) rarely provide an in-depth consideration of player experience. Thus, in relation to simulation game-based training, we are left without a clear understanding of what sort of experience players are having, what factors influence their engagement and how their engagement relates to learning. In order to address these issues, this paper reports on the mixed-method evaluation of a SCG that was developed to support police training. The findings indicate that engagement is supported by the experience situational relevance, due to the player’s experience of real-world authenticity, targeted feedback mechanisms and learning challenges

Co-created Evaluation: identifying how games support police learning

HCI often produces improved systems through co-creation with practitioners. However, evaluation methods are primarily researcher-led (i.e. not co-created with practitioners). As part of a games-based learning evaluation, we detail a novel co-creation method that produces evaluations on how technology influences learning. Based upon educational threshold concept theories, the Tricky Topic method supported the co-creation of knowledge-based evaluation questionnaires with trainers. The evaluation involved 116 new recruit police officers from three UK police forces who participated in a randomized-control trial. The Tricky Topic method provided insights of how the game significantly increased understanding p<.001 (moderate effect size) in comparison with face-to-face training. Tricky topic breakdowns identify increased tacit understanding (e.g. empathy, attention) after games training, and decreased tacit understanding (e.g. respect) after face-to face training. Finally, further research opportunities are discussed concerning co-created evaluation for valid and relevant deconstruction of participants’ understanding that allow designers to pinpoint systems-specific learning benefits

Digital educational games, mathematics, and primary school students. Results of a pilot project

Η εργασία παρουσιάζει τα αποτελέσματα πιλοτικού προγράμματος για τη διδασκαλία ενοτήτων του μαθήματος των Μαθηματικών σε μαθητές της Δ΄ τάξης του δημοτικού με τη χρήση ηλεκτρονικών εκπαιδευτικών παιχνιδιών. Τα παιχνίδια κατασκευάστηκαν από τον εκπαιδευτικό της τάξης χρησιμοποιώντας το πρόγραμμα κατασκευής τρισδιάστατων παιχνιδιών Kodu Game Lab της Microsoft. Για να είναι δυνατή η σύγκριση των μαθησιακών αποτελεσμάτων, συγκροτήθηκαν δύο επιπλέον ερευνητικές ομάδες. Στην πρώτη οι μαθητές εργάστηκαν ομαδικά, ενώ στη δεύτερη η διδασκαλία έγινε καθαρά συμβατικά. Ερευνητικά δεδομένα συλλέχθηκαν με ερωτηματολόγια και φύλλα αξιολόγησης. Από την ανάλυσή τους προκύπτει ότι η ομάδα των μαθητών που χρησιμοποίησε τα παιχνίδια ξεπέρασε, στις περισσότερες περιπτώσεις, την ομάδα που διδάχθηκε συμβατικά, αλλά όχι την ομάδα όπου οι μαθητές εργάστηκαν ομαδικά. Οι απόψεις των μαθητών για τα παιχνίδια ήταν ιδιαίτερα θετικές. Τα αποτελέσματα οδηγούν στην ανάγκη περαιτέρω διερεύνησης του θέματος, εξετάζοντας παράλληλα, τη δυνατότητα ένταξης των εκπαιδευτικών παιχνιδιών για τη διδασκαλία των μαθηματικών στο δημοτικό σχολείο.The study presents the results of a pilot project in which digital games were used for teaching units from the mathematics' course to fourth-grade primary school students. In general, Mathematics is not an easy teaching subject; students do face quite a lot of problems. On the other hand, digital games are highly compatible to students' mentality and skills. Indeed, the relevant literature suggests multiple benefits for students when using digital games for teaching a wide range of learning subjects, Mathematics included. By exploring and experimenting in the game students can discover useful mathematical relations and strategies, and learn new concepts and rules. The development of mathematics-related skills, problem-solving skills, understanding of abstract mathematical concepts, increase in students’ motivation as well as their interest in the subject matter of Mathematics, and the improvement of communication and collaboration between students and teachers were also reported. On the other hand, the educational potential of digital games with regard to Mathematics is still understudied. Having that in mind, a pilot project was designed and implemented having as a target group fourth-grade primary school students (ages 9-10). The units that were selected were related to decimal and compound numbers. The teaching method was based on constructivism and specifically on Driver- Oldham's teaching model. The games were developed by the class's teacher using Microsoft's Kodu Game Lab. The learning outcomes were compared to two other groups of students. In the first, students worked in groups, while in the second, the teaching was conventional. A total of 63 students participated in the study and the project lasted for four two-hour sessions (for each group of students). The main research question was whether the use of digital games for teaching the previously mentioned subjects yields better learning outcomes compared to other more conventional teaching methods. The attitude of students towards the digital games, as well as the time needed for their development, were also examined. Research data were collected using questionnaires and evaluation sheets. Results indicated that the students in the games group outperformed, in most cases, the students that were taught conventionally, but not the students who worked in groups. The views of students for the games was highly positive and no problems were reported. Also, the time needed for the development of the games raised questions whether an amateur (as was the teacher who developed the games) can cope with such a task. Although the results are in agreement with previous studies that indicated that conventional teaching is not an effective method, they also emphasize the need to further investigate the use of digital games. It is also suggested that the integration of educational games for teaching mathematics in primary school can be considered. For that matter, software engineers have to develop easier-to-use tools for the development of games. More importantly, there is the need to change the educational system by providing support to teachers that want to use innovative methods during their teaching

Playing it safe : A literature review and research agenda on motivational technologies in transportation safety

While motivation affects safety-related decision-making and human reliability, technologies to promote it are scarcely used. We have only recently witnessed how motivational technologies, including serious games, gamification, and persuasive technologies have emerged on the palette of methods for enhancing transportation safety. However, the research on these technologies for transportation safety is fragmented, preventing future studies and practical efforts. This paper describes the state-of-the-art through a systematic review to address this issue. Analyzing 62 studies, we perceive that motivational technologies focus on reducing the accident likelihood and mitigating their consequences. While these technologies can induce positive psychological change and improve learning, the evidence of behavioral change is mainly limited to simulation settings, lacking examination of the long-term benefits and potential adverse effects. Our results highlight the importance of aligning motivational design with the cognitive demand of the transportation task and the means for improving safety. Future research should explore how motivational technologies can enhance safety from the system design perspective, cover a broader scope of transportation modes, compare their effects to conventional approaches while considering social aspects in their design and evaluation. Beside providing an overview of the area and future directions, this paper also introduces design recommendations to guide practitioners.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Creating a Virtual Training Environment for Traffic Accident Investigation for the Dubai Police Force

Serious games are successfully applying game engines for purposes that go beyond pure entertainment However this results in a serious game being dependent on a particular game engine. This undermines the ability to keep the serious game up to date with the latest in gaming technology and also causes insecurity due to the possibility of the discontinuation of a game engine or the possibility of its support dwindling. In this thesis, the 'game' is separated from the game engine in order to make it portable between game engines. The game elements this work makes portable are the game logic, the object model and the game state, which represent the game's brain, and which are collectively referred to as the game factor, or G-factor. This separation is achieved by using an architecture called game space architecture (GSA), which ,combines a variant of the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern to separate the G-factor (the model) from the game engine (the view) with on-the-fly scripting to enable communication through an adapter (the controller). This enables multiple views (i.e. game engines) to exist for the same model (i.e. G-factor). The success of GSA in achieving its objective is evaluated by two types of evaluation: structured and unstructured. The principal findings from the evaluation process reveal that GSA is capable of servicing the same G-factor to multiple game engines and that it supports modifiability. They also reveal that GSA adds little development overhead. The ability of GSA to scale to real world applications is demonstrated by the development of a serious game for traffic accident investigators (SGTAI). SGTAI itself is used to investigate the suitability of a serious game to address the Dubai police force's current traffic accident investigation training needs. These needs were identified in a field study conducted in the summer of 2004 to assess the current training methods oflectures and on-the-job training. SGTAI was then developed by combining game design and instructional design to ensure the learning objectives were integral to the gameplay. To assess the learning effectiveness of SGTAI an experiment was conducted in February and March of 2006 for fifty-six police officers from the Dubai police force. They were divided into two groups: novices (0 to 2 years experience) and experienced investigators (with more than 2 years e.'{perience). The experiment revealed significant performance improvements in both groups, with the improvement reported in novices significantly higher than the one reported in experienced investigators