Opening Up Access In Games, Simulations and Virtual Worlds
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Opening up Education in Games, Simulations and Virtual Worlds Daniel Livingstone University of the West of Scotland
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Computer games, simulations and virtual worlds are making increasing inroads into academic education and corporate training. This is often fuelled by a desire to improve engagement, or to immerse learning in realistic simulated settings, but often limited by economics and resources. Open Education initiatives hint at solutions, but there are some particular challenges in opening access to virtual world, game and simulation educational resources. Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike
Transcript of Opening Up Access In Games, Simulations and Virtual Worlds
Opening up Education in Games, Simulations and Virtual
Worlds
Daniel Livingstone
University of the West of Scotland
Open EducationOpenCourseWare
Open Education ResourcesContent
Syllabi, Notes, Lectures, Podcasts,
Video, Quiz Banks, Games, RLOs
Designs
LAMS
Technologies
Open?
Free...
to use
to edit/re-mix?
to share with others?
to use in commercial courseware?
Additional Restrictions
attribution
Why bother with Open Education?
Why use OER?
Why create OER?
How To: A Famous Example
Tutor buy in
Tradition of sharing, openness
Senior Management Support
Market Research
Technical Support
$11 Million Dollars
No funding?
Use OER – save your time and money
If there is no prospect of large institutional program then why produce your own?
Funding and research opportunities?
American Graduation Initiative
US$500 Million for the creation of OER
“an open-source, easily accessible system of robust courses will produce the most profound equalization of access to cutting-edge knowledge and information since the creation of the public library.”
Arne Duncan (Secretary of Education), Politico, 1st October
Games and SimulationsEngage students
Learn by doing
Structured learning experiences
Incremental challenges
- “Frustration and Resolution”
- “Pleasantly Frustrating”What Video Games Have to Tell us About Learning, Gee, 2003
Learning By Doing, Aldrich, 2005
Epistemic Games, Schaeffer
Simulations
• Recreate real world systems or situations
• Single user (usually)
• STEM simulations– e.g. Mechanics (gravity, springs, …)
• Social Sims– Management, Business
• Education specific and game oriented sims (Lemonade Stand, SimCity Online)
Games
Put educational content in a game framework
Challenges
Rewards
Missions / Quests
Raise the challenge over time
Informal learning in non-educational games
Virtual Worlds
Multi-user online places
Often massively multi-user
Looks like a computer game
Some are!
Some allow users to create their own content
Including educators!
Second Life
Economics
How much does it cost to create an educational game or simulation?
Can we afford to produce educational OER games and virtual worlds as a sustainable activity?
Economics of Games
Commercial console game:
US$10 Million+
Education game:
America's Army: $7.5M, $12M, ?
More typical?: $100,000+
Alternatives?
'Modding' - Can still be expensive
GameSpaceSQA
Basic skills
National roll-out (Scotland)
Expected life: 3+ years
Development costs:3-6 months, 4 staff
Are games open?Free...
to use
to edit/re-mix?
to share with others?
to use in commercial courseware?
Additional Restrictions
Do I need to buy something else first?
Will it run on my machine?
Bespoke Virtual Worlds
Platforms:
Forterra OLIVE, VastPark,
Thinking Worlds, …
Generate your own bespoke VW
Costs in-line with game development
Second Life
Free client
Cheap to use during evaluation
(Can be) cheap to develop new content
Can build on existing content easily
Community
OpenSim
Open source server software
Compatible (largely) with SL client
Host yourself
...or 3rd party host
Similar surface experience
Economics of Second LifeBespoke content created by consultants
Reduced rates for educators
Content created by faculty and students
Quality? Time?
3rd Party bought in content
Costs: $1000 - $10,000+
True costs?
Second Life Permissions
Hard coded:
Copy
Modify
Transfer
Additional:
Copy out of Second Life
Second Life Backups
Tools to copy items out of Second Life
Second Inventory
CopyBot
BuilderBot
Meerkat Viewer
Compliance with Linden Lab policy?
OpenSim Backups
OAR Files
OpenSim Archive
XML file format
Can backup/restore complete sims
Is a SL resource open?Free...
to use
to edit/re-mix?
to share with others?
to use in commercial courseware?
Additional Restrictions
Can I copy this to OpenSim?
Are scripts published online?
From OER to RLOReusable Learning Objects
Content
Metadata
Standards
SCORM, IMS LD, AICC, LAMS
Packaging
Interoperability with LMS
Repositories
Virtual World RLOs
Content In-world, OAR, XML
Metadata Merlot
Repositories Merlot, JORUM
Interoperability SLOODLE
Packaging ?
Opening Up Education in Virtual Worlds
Growing OER movement
Growth in interest in VW OER
Missing Standards
What is a VW OER?
Technical Standards
Missing Tools
