Grenzen von 'Serious Games for Health'

Hintergrund: Der Bereich Gesundheit ist eines der wichtigsten Anwendungsfelder für "Serious Games" (digitale Spiele, deren Zweck über die reine Unterhaltung hinausgeht) und umgekehrt sind "Serious Games" auch einer der zentralen aktuellen Ansätze in der digitalen Gesundheitskommunikation. Dies spiegelt sich u.a. in der großen und stetig wachsenden Anzahl an entsprechenden Spielen sowie Publikationen zu diesem Thema wieder. Fragestellung: Wie ist die aktuelle Befundlage zur Nutzung und Wirkung von "Serious Games for Health"? Wofür sind "Serious Games for Health" besonders gut geeignet? Wofür sind sie weniger gut geeignet oder evtl. sogar ungeeignet? Was bedeutet dies für die Entwicklung und den Einsatz dieser Spiele? Ergebnisse: Insgesamt deuten die bisherigen Befunde darauf hin, dass der Einsatz von "Serious Games for Health" in vielen Fällen gewinnbringend sein kann. Allerdings ist die methodische Qualität vieler Studien nicht optimal ist. Zudem sind "Serious Games for Health" nicht für alle Anwendungsbereiche und Ziele gleich gut geeignet. Schlussfolgerungen: Um eine informierte Entscheidung darüber zu treffen, ob sich die Entwicklung oder der Einsatz von "Serious Games for Health" für einen bestimmten Bereich bzw. ein bestimmtes Ziel lohnen, sollten neben den Vorteilen und Möglichkeiten stets auch die (möglichen) Nachteile und Limitationen bedacht werden.Background: Health is one of the most important application areas for Serious Games (i.e., games with a purposed beyond entertainment), and Serious Games are an important tool for digital health communication and education. Objectives: What are the overall findings regarding Serious Games for Health? For which applications and goals are Serious Games for Health especially suitable? Where are they less suitable or maybe even unsuitable? What does this mean for the development and use of these games? Results: Overall, findings from empirical studies suggest that the use of Serious Games for Health can be beneficial in many cases. However, the methodological quality of many studies in this area is not ideal. In addition, Serious Games are not equally suited for all application areas and goals. Conclusions: To arrive at informed decisions whether the development or use of Serious Games for Health is worthwhile, it is important to not only consider their advantages and potentials, but also their (potential) disadvantages and limitations

Serious games for health promotion in adolescents – A systematic scoping review

Digital gaming has broad appeal globally, with a reported 2.7 billion gamers worldwide. There is significant interest in using games to enhance learning, with ‘serious games’ being included in classrooms to engage adolescents’ learning across a range of domains. A systematic scoping review of serious games used for health promotion with adolescents was conducted to identify serious games, review the methods used to evaluate these games, and outline evidence available to support the efficacy of these games in improving knowledge, beliefs/attitudes and behaviours in the target groups. Player engagement/enjoyment was reported if assessed. A total of 21 studies were found to have met the inclusion criteria domains: ‘healthy lifestyle’ ‘sexual health’ and ‘substance use’. A heterogenous approach across studies to game design and development, duration of game play, use of a control group and measurement of outcome(s) was observed. Game efficacy was difficult to assess due to broad generalisations and lack of consistent evaluation methods. Several studies demonstrate serious games can be engaging and pedagogically effective as a learning device and behaviour-change agent. Several studies, however, had less rigorous evaluation and lacked longer-term follow up. The ability for developers to demonstrate positive short- and long-term impacts of serious games with high-quality evidence is essential to the ongoing acceptance and use of these serious games as part of the school curriculum

Der gespielte Ernst des Lebens: Bestandsaufnahme und Potenziale von Serious Games (for Health)

Serious Games werden aktuell im Zusammenhang mit den positiven Potenzialen von Computerspielen in verschiedenen Kontexten diskutiert. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die Entwicklung und der Forschungsstand des relativ neuen Konzeptes skizziert und gegenüber anderen Lernkonzepten wie Edutainment, Digital Game-Based Learning und E-learning abgegrenzt. Das Spektrum von Serious Games wird am Beispiel von zwei Spielen aus dem Gesundheitsbereich (Re-Mission und Fatworld) dargestellt und die Potenziale und Grenzen von Serious Games (for Health) erörtert. Da bislang nur wenige empirische Befunde zur Wirkung von Serious Games vorliegen, plädieren die Autoren für eine umfassende Grundlagen- und Wirkungsforschung

Evaluating social games for kids and teenagers diagnosed with cancer

Serious games for health are interactive games with a focus on health care, physical and mental fitness. As it is assumed that social support can also indirectly influence patient's health condition, multiplayer online health games present an innovative approach of improving the player's health condition. In this paper we present the health game prototype "Adventures in Sophoria" developed at the University of Duisburg-Essen with the goal of facilitating the intercommunication of teenagers during cancer treatment. Two versions of the game were implemented, one explicitly referring to cancer and an implicit version with no cancer content. In a between-subjects experimental study with a clinical sample, both versions were compared. Additionally, parents and nursing staff were interviewed in order to evaluate the demand regarding health games. Results suggest that the implicit game version yielded higher enjoyment and acceptance compared to the explicit version. © 2011 IEEE

Involvement of end users in the development of serious games for health care professions education : systematic descriptive review

Background: On the basis of ethical and methodological arguments, numerous calls have been made to increase the involvement of end users in the development of serious games (SGs). Involving end users in the development process is considered a way to give them power and control over educational software that is designed for them. It can also help identify areas for improvement in the design of SGs and improve their efficacy in targeted learning outcomes. However, no recognized guidelines or frameworks exist to guide end users’ involvement in SG development. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe how end users are involved in the development of SGs for health care professions education. Methods: We examined the literature presenting the development of 45 SGs that had reached the stage of efficacy evaluation in randomized trials. One author performed data extraction using an ad hoc form based on a design and development framework for SGs. Data were then coded and synthesized on the basis of similarities. The coding scheme was refined iteratively with the involvement of a second author. Results are presented using frequencies and percentages. Results: End users’ involvement was mentioned in the development of 21 of 45 SGs. The number of end users involved ranged from 12 to 36. End users were often involved in answering specific concerns that arose during the SG design (n=6) or in testing a prototype (n=12). In many cases, researchers solicited input from end users regarding the goals to reach (n=10) or the functional esthetics of the SGs (n=7). Most researchers used self-reported questionnaires (n=7). Conclusions: Researchers mentioned end users’ involvement in the development of less than half of the identified SGs, and this involvement was also poorly described. These findings represent significant limitations to evaluating the impact of the involvement of end users on the efficacy of SGs and in making recommendations regarding their involvement

Adaptive Tele-Therapies Based on Serious Games for Health for People with Time-Management and Organisational Problems: Preliminary Results

Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent disorders within the child population today. Inattention problems can lead to greater difficulties in completing assignments, as well as problems with time management and prioritisation of tasks. This article presents an intelligent tele-therapy tool based on Serious Games for Health, aimed at the improvement of time management skills and the prioritisation of tasks. This tele-system is based on the use of decision trees within Django, a high-level Python Web framework. The technologies and techniques used were selected so as to boost user involvement and to enable the system to be easily customised. This article shows the preliminary results of the pilot-phase in an experiment performed to evaluate the use of adaptive tele-therapies within a group of typically developing children and adolescents aged between 12 and 19 years old without ADHD. To do so, we relied on the collection of parameters and the conduct of surveys for assessing time management skills, as well as measuring system usability and availability. The results of a time management survey highlighted that the users involved in the trial did not use any specific or effective time management techniques, scoring 1.98 and 2.30 out of 5 points in this area for ages under 15 and over 16 years old, respectively. The final calculations based on the usability questionnaire resulted in an average score of 78.75 out of 100. The creation of a customisable tool capable of working with different skills, in conjunction with the replication of the current study, may help to understand these users’ needs, as well as boosting time management skills among teenagers with and without ADHD

Theory and Research into Practice: Using Self-Determination Theory to Analyze Gamification and Motivational Affordances in Serious Games for Health Education

poster abstractIn serious games for health education, regulation styles in gamification help the player achieve goals through behavioral motivations that may not be apparent in an educational activity. These regulation styles are referred to as motivational affordances and might be widely employed in gamification or game-like systems that motivate users to engage in play a “gameful-type” experience. Gamification is defined as the application of game mechanics (point scoring, competition, rules, etc.) and game design techniques in order to engage and motivate players to achieve goals. Zhang defined affordance as “the actionable properties between an object and an actor” which determine how they can support one’s motivational needs. Are there common gamification and motivational affordances in serious games that prove to be effective in game play on the topic of diabetes? To answer this question, the authors explore the effects of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation during game play by analyzing six serious games in health education on the topic of diabetes. The games selected for this study are: Carb Counting with Lenny, Dex: Your Virtual Pet, Pancreas!, I Got This, Packy & Marlon, and Captain Novolin. As a work-in-progress, the authors provide evidence using the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the constructs of motivational affordances. The characteristics in SDT were identified as competence, relatedness, and autonomy. In addition, the author’s research explores motivational affordances found in these health education games namely: psychological outcomes: motivation – keeping the player engaged, attitude – the effect of solving a problem or challenge, and enjoyment – a behavioral outcome produced by competition, play, and achievement. Behavioral outcomes: achievement – attaining success, learning evidence – gaining new knowledge (learning outcome), participation – player immersion in the game objective or story. The authors present their findings and identify, compare, and contrast gamification and the motivational affordances found in each game. Mentor: Joseph Defazio Ph.D., Department of Human-Centered Computing, IU School of Informatics and Computing, IUPUI; Indianapolis, I

The Effects of Serious Games’ Genres and Frequency of Exposure on Children’s Dietary Preferences

Information technology artifacts can help to engender health behavior change but not enough is known about how to effectively do so. Despite the attractiveness of serious games for health promotion, we still lack an educational, theoretically founded and evidence-based framework to explain their pedagogic effectiveness and the extent to which transformative learning (health behavior change) takes place in serious games. Motivated thus, this study assesses the role of two serious games genres: simulation and puzzles in eliciting a sustained health behavior change and the moderating role of frequency of exposure on the effectiveness of these serious games’ genres. The effects of the serious games\u27 genres and the moderating role of frequency of exposure will be examined in a lab experiment

Which game narratives do adolescents of different gameplay and sociodemographic backgrounds prefer? a mixed-methods analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate which narrative elements of digital game narratives are preferred by the general adolescent population, and to examine associations with gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and gameplay frequency. Further, the study aims to discuss how results can be translated to serious digital games. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adolescents were recruited through school to complete a survey on narrative preferences in digital games. The survey included questions on sociodemographic information, frequency of gameplay, and an open-ended question on what could be an appealing narrative for them. Data were analyzed in a mixed-methods approach, using thematic analysis and chi-square analyses to determine narrative preferences and the associations between game narrative elements and player characteristics (gender, SES, and frequency of gameplay). RESULTS: The sample consisted of 446 adolescents (12-15 years old) who described 30 narrative subthemes. Preferences included human characters as protagonists; nonhuman characters only as antagonists; realistic settings, such as public places or cities; and a strong conflict surrounding crime, catastrophe, or war. Girls more often than boys defined characters by their age, included avatars, located the narrative in private places, developed profession-related skills, and included a positive atmosphere. Adolescents of nonacademic education more often than adolescents of academic education defined characters by criminal actions. Infrequent players more often included human characters defined by their age than frequent players. After performing a Bonferroni correction, narrative preferences for several gender differences remained. CONCLUSION: Different narrative elements related to subgroups of adolescents by gender, SES, and frequency of gameplay. Customization of narratives in serious digital health games should be warranted for boys and girls; yet, further research is needed to specify how to address girls in particular