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Psychology
Virtualized training provides high fidelity environments to practice skills and gain knowledge, potentially mitigating harmful consequences from real life mistakes. Videogames are believed to have characteristics that improve learning. There is conflicting evidence on the benefits of using videogame-based training to improve learning.
- videogame-based training
- game characteristics
- training performance
1. Introduction
Organizations have used virtualized trainings for decades [1,2,3] to allow employees to practice complex, work-related skills in a high-fidelity environment before performing those skills on the job [4]. Although virtualized training can come at a high monetary cost [5,6], it remains popular, particularly in high stakes learning environments such as the medical industry. One reason for the continued use of virtualized training is the potential mitigation of harmful or costly consequences of real-life mistakes [7,8,9,10]. Recent research in this area has focused the different elements of videogames [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. Videogame-based trainings, sometimes called serious games [19] attract organizations because they are perceived to increase motivation and attention [20] which is believed to improve learning outcomes [21]. Despite this belief, there is mixed research evidence for the usefulness and application of videogame-based training as a tool for workplace training [22,23]. Despite the growing trend of using videogames as a form of training within organizations [24], the conditions under which videogames impact learning outcomes are still largely unknown [25]. Expanding this research area will provide guidance to organizations currently investing in videogame-based training. To that end, this study explores two videogame characteristics (i.e., rules/goals clarity and human interaction) and their impact on learning outcomes [26], in addition to probing their potential interaction. These two characteristics were selected in particular, because they are aspects of the game that can be easily controlled and changed by an organization without in-depth changes to a game’s design or programing. Many of the other game characteristics would require programming changes with the assistance of a game developer such as changing the story narrative of a game or changing the degree of fantasy that they game introduces. Since the purpose of this, particular, study is to better understand how organizations can optimize the implementation of a videogame-based training intervention, it makes most sense to use game characteristics which an organization has the agency to change.
Some researchers have proposed exploring videogame characteristics to better understand the use and effectiveness of videogames as training tools [27]. Some have predicted that certain videogame characteristics will improve performance during the training and learning outcomes after a training has been completed. However, it is still largely unknown how videogame characteristics influence learning [25]. Luckily there has been ore recent theoretical interest in videogame characteristics [19], and a growing number of empirical studies are being published [28,29]. While several researchers have shifted towards micro examinations of the connection between videogame characteristics and improved training outcomes [30,31,32], few have isolated and manipulated specific videogame characteristics to observe changes in learning outcomes [33,34].
Many definitions for videogame characteristics have been proposed [35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42]. This study uses the Game Attributes taxonomy [30] which is widely cited by videogame researchers [43,44,45,46]. This taxonomy defines nine game characteristics (i.e., action language, assessment, conflict/challenge, control, environment, fiction, human interaction, immersion, and rules/goals). The two videogame characteristics of interest for this study are rules/goals clarity and human interaction because these two characteristics can often be changed without needing to alter a videogame’s programming [30].
2. Videogame Characteristic: Rules/Goals Clarity
The rules/goals videogame characteristic is defined as the parameters a player must abide by when playing the game. This includes rules the player must follow (i.e., a player cannot return to a level once they have exited that level) and goals the player must strive to meet in order to win the game (i.e., a player must fix a device using the correct tool before the two-minute timer expires [30]). Videogames inherently have rules/goals, but the clarity of that information often varies. Researchers have previously claimed that providing clear rules/goals for a videogame is required when games are intended to teach players, since it is believed that the clarity of the rules/goals can positively impact performance in the game and learning outcomes [47,48]. It is valuable to establish empirical evidence for the relationship between clear rules/goals and how much a player learns in the game, beyond these theorized benefits [30,48].
Garris argued [48] that the concepts of goal-setting theory (i.e., clear, specific, and difficult goals improve job performance [49]) can be applied to the rules/goals of games that are intended for learning. The theorized benefits of clarifying the rules/goals of a game include adding structure, increasing motivation for the players, and stimulating the gaming process [39,48,50,51,52,53,54,55], all of which may aid performance in the game and learning.
3. Videogame Characteristic: Human Interaction
The videogame characteristic human interaction is defined as the amount of contact an individual has with others while playing a videogame [30]. This broadly includes any form of communication between players in the game. Greater human interaction in a videogame-based training when conducted in a cooperative setting, may generate the context of a team-based training experience. Team training is defined as a scenario that includes collaborative involvement with others for the purpose of developing knowledge or skills [60,61]. Few studies have directly compared individual training to team training using the same training scenario [62].
The few studies that have compared team-based training to individual training have generally found support that in team-based trainings, participants have had better recall on trained information, made fewer errors, and demonstrated better quality task performance than those trained individually [62,63,64]. Virtual team training research does not typically make direct comparisons between virtual teams and individuals [65,66], but has demonstrated several positive mechanisms through which virtual teams interact [67]. Based on these findings it is predicted that human interaction will promote mid-training performance in the videogame-based training.
4. Post-Training Performance
As previously mentioned, mid-training performance is the scoring of observable behaviors that occurred during the videogame-based training experience. In contrast to this, post-training performance can be observed and scored after the training has been completed, in other tasks given to trainees. This means the knowledge or skills from the training are being applied to another context, such as a post-training task or back on the job; this is referred to as transfer of training [68]. Evaluating post-training performance can be beneficial for organizations to ensure that the knowledge and skills developed in training are applied outside of training to benefit future work. According to a model of decision-based evaluations, post-training performance can impact valuable outcomes such as long-term changes in workplace performance or organizational payoffs [69].
5. The Impact of Videogame Characteristics
Some researchers have looked at how videogame characteristics uniquely contribute to different outcomes (e.g., game motivation leads to immersive game playing [47]). These studies have not typically examined the statistical interactions between these characteristics [55]. Bedwell and colleagues argued [30] that videogame characteristics are not orthogonal and cannot be easily parsed apart from one another. They further stated that studying videogame characteristics independently is nearly impossible because they are too interdependent (i.e., influencing one videogame characteristic will influence several other characteristics through unintentional manipulation). Thus, it is important to consider videogame characteristics in conjunction with one another and to further explore the extent to which they interact. The analyses of this study will further explore how clear rules/goals and human interaction impact one another.
Researchers who study teams have identified beneficial processes between team members, such as knowledge sharing and information elaboration, which aids performance [72]. Having clear rules/goals is expected to assist learning to a greater extent for team members because they will have the added benefits of engaging in teamwork processes. Team members who are uncertain about the training will have an additional resource of working together to figure out what is needed to complete the training. Participants training individually will not have team member support for clarification or assistance.
Human interaction is expected to have a positive effect on mid-training performance and is anticipated to enhance the positive effects of clear rules/goals on mid-training performance and post-training performance in both the familiar and novel tasks. Participants working with a team may have assisted one another on certain tasks and understanding components of the game. The theory of transactive memory states that teams depend on each other to fill knowledge gaps during times of team interaction [73]. It is likely that participants will employ transactive memory during the videogame-based training in which they interact with their team and will therefore demonstrate the benefits of this in the post-training activities. Thus, participants in the team training condition will demonstrate greater benefit from clear rules/goals than participants who trained individually.
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/mti6030019
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