At first sight, putting words like “serious” and “game” together might seem impossible, but it’s not. In recent years, serious games have proven that it is possible to learn while you play. This teaching method is known as game-based learning, a trend that it expanding at the speed of light in primary schools, prestigious universities and large corporations. In this post, we’re going to tell you all you need to know about serious games and learning through video games, including their main characteristics and benefits, and a few prime examples.
What is a serious game?
Serious games are games whose primary objective is NOT fun or entertainment, rather learning or practicing a skill. Its use has grown, particularly in such sectors as education, defense, aeronautics, science or health. Its purpose can be one of many: from training firefighter crews in emergency situations to training a sales team, teaching mathematics or practicing a language.
Example 1: Dragon Box Elements
In the field of education, one of the most simple (and effective) games is Dragon Box Elements. Here, players have to build an army, defeat the evil dragon Osgard and save Euclid’s island. Designed for kids of nine years-of-age and upwards, to manage all that, they have to learn basic geometry and the theorems of Euclid himself. Dragon Box is a good example of a serious game: the students learn math while they have fun with a video game.
What is game-based learning?
The method that uses video games for learning purposes is known as game-based learning. The key lies in the fact that the content and the skills that you want to teach are not put across in a face-to-face class or in a book but rather through video games. Advocates of this innovative method of teaching think that video games can be a fun and effective tool at one and the same time, reducing the costs of training programs, increasing student motivation and facilitating direct practice. The star products of game-based learning are precisely, serious games.
Example 2: Pulse!!
The healthcare sector has enthusiastically welcomed this innovative method of teaching. The expert in nursing, Claudia Johnston, based herself on first-person shooting video games (such as Quake or Duke to develop Pulse!!, which reproduces the conditions of an emergency ward in a hospital. Thanks to this video game, future nurses can practice all they have learnt in their theoretical classes and gain experience handling real situations. The goal of the players is to identify each patient’s problem, giving priority to the most serious cases and applying the appropriate measures depending on each person’s condition.
