An educational game does not need to have a serious storyline in order to transmit serious information or knowledge. Rather it is the fundamental mechanics of the game that are important. The mechanics determine how the player interacts with and consumes the presented information. Dr. Christopher See suggests in his TEDxTalk that a good way to create an educational game is to start with the content and concepts that should be covered in the game. Then build them into gamified training environment with mechanics hat help embed the information effectively in the memory. (1)
(Video.: Christopher See, TEDxCUHK, Gamification in Higher Education, 22.04.2016)
The Gamified Knowledge Encoding Model is an approach to describe how such a gamified training environment can be constructed around a specific knowledge. In the game environment then trains this knowledge by building it into the game mechanics after segmenting and encoding it as internal rules, thus urging the player to apply the encoded knowledge. The game mechanics further demostrate the underlying principles of any input by visualizing the resulting effects. The model also demonstrates the way the knowledge then becomes transferable from the gamified training environment to a target context as the player compiles a mental model by training the encoded knowledge through rule-based (declarative) and skill-based (procedural) solutions to the game mechanics. (2)
Sources:
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- See, Christopher; Gamification in Higher Education, TEDxCUHK, 22.04.2016, (www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8s3kZz1yQ4)
- Oberdörfer, Sebastian; Latoschik, Marc; Gamified Knowledge Encoding: Knowledge Training Using Game Mechanics, 2018
