Game-Initiated Learning: A Case Study For Disaster Education Research In Taiwan

Sarah Chen Lin, Meng-Han Tsai, Yu-Lien Chang and Shih-Chung Kang National Taiwan University, Department of Civil Engineering

Xinhai Road, Sec. 3, No. 188, 6F-610, Taipei, Taiwan. sarahcl@caece.net

Abstract Game-based learning has been proven an effective method to engage students in the class. However, it is very challenging to balance playability and learnability when only developing digital games. Some "playable" games may not carry sufficient knowledge; some "learnable" games may reduce the students' interest and curiosity. In this ongoing research, we proposed an innovative learning method, "game-initiated learning." This method consists of three main steps: game, discussion and self-directed learning. In this model, students can experience real-world problems from the game, discuss problems they found in the game, and finally, the instructors can deliver related knowledge that is useful to solving the problems previously discussed. To validate the proposed method, we selected a topic of disaster education in Taiwan and experimentally developed a set of course materials including a digital game, animation videos and an e-book. We conducted a review meeting, inviting experts from hydraulic engineering, game development, and disaster mediation as well as school teachers and students. The reviewers were asked to play the games and review all course materials. From the feedbacks of the reviewers, we found game-initiated learning an educational method with great potential in providing tacit and explicit knowledge about disaster management.

Introduction to Game-initiated Learning There exists many methods of triggering change; whether conceptual or behavioral change. Behavioral change may result from a change in perceptions, experiences or both simultaneously. One of the most effective methods of triggering change is through education (Fujiwara et al. 2012). Yet depending on what knowledge is being transmitted, appropriate educational approaches should be chosen to obtain the most efficient results. Game-based learning has been deemed by many researchers as having great potential when compared to Copyright © 2013, National Taiwan University Water Games (water.caece.net). All rights reserved.

traditional learning. In the last few decades, digital games have emerged in the market and have become popular for entertainment. Digital games have also been used more often in educational contexts; such games are widely

-entertaining purpose (serious) with a video game structure (gamebeen used in a variety of disciplines with some limited success, including but not limited to medicine, business, military training, science, mathematics, biology, and geography (Haring, Chakinska and Ritterfield 2011). However, few digital Serious Games have been produced and used in game-based learning for disaster education to

. Taiwan has a strong need for disaster education because of its vulnerability to natural disasters. According to the

survey Natural Disaster Hotspots A Global Risk Analysis, Taiwan was classified as the most vulnerable country to natural hazards in the world. (Dilley et al. 2005). It is also ranked second place in the world in terms of annual rainfall (MOFA 2011), meaning frequent water-related disasters are an ongoing challenge for the island. However, it is challenging to carry out disaster education because disasters cannot be reproduced. Furthermore, it is difficult to emotionally engage the students without having witnessed the disaster firsthand. It is also impractical to take students to a dangerous site recently affected by disasters for educational purposes. As thus, using Serious Games could be a suitable option for disaster education. Countless of research has shown that engaging the students first, allows them to absorb more information afterwards (Annetta 2011, Svingby and Nilsson 2011). The channels that students prefer to use should also be considered to optimize learning efficiency. Nowadays, the majority of the millennial generation prefer interacting and learning via digital means (Singer 2008). This may be

Shikakeology: Designing Triggers for Behavior Change: Papers from the 2013 AAAI Spring Symposium

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through web forums, online video lessons, multimodal texts, discussions via chat platforms and more. Since

-requisite to efficient learning, engaging them through digital means seems logical. They enjoy social interaction, especially, via gaming (Michael and Chen 2006, Whitton 2010). In line with the opinion of Haring, Chakinska and Ritterfield (2011), we believe students may process the educational content better and implicitly by enjoying the game. This is ideal considering a predominant gaming culture has been observed in Taiwan among the youth (Lo and Chen 2012) as well as a lack of understanding of water-related disasters.

We -optimal approach to teaching with digital Serious Games, selecting disaster education as the chosen theme to be transmitted. Game-Initiated Learning differs from game-based learning in that the lesson begins with students playing the game, followed by a discussion; the discussion gives the students an opportunity to reflect on the game they just played; the discussion is then followed by a self-study session where students can inquire via an eBook for more in-depth information (Please refer to Figure 1).

-disaster education, we have developed a prototype of a digital Serious Game and an eBook for high school students. Our game focuses specifically on flooding, a common water-related disaster in Taiwan. Our eBook is equipped with condensed information on water-related issues in Taiwan and internationally. The game is designed to provide implicit knowledge, knowledge acquired indirectly, while the eBook serves to provide explicit knowledge, information that is clearly stated.

Game and Booklet Development Our digital game focuses on flooding. Severe flooding worldwide has been brought to attention by the media in recent years; not just in Taiwan but also in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Thailand, the Philippines and Pakistan. Regardless of the time and location, flooding

always bring a host of challenges and leave both short-term and long-term impacts; the impacts are seldom beneficial, which is why it is crucial that students understand the basics of flood protection while seeing the bigger picture

The player can learn different basic flood prevention approaches (i.e. soft engineering, hard engineering, and do-nothing approach) through the game by choosing icons to protect important city infrastructures. As shown in Figure 2, the game begins with a river and some infrastructures along the river. Once hit by a flood, the player must choose different engineering methods to protect the infrastructures so that they can keep generating income and the Happy Index, which reflects social stability, can remain high. Our game also gives opportunity for the student to reflect on the difficulty of balancing social and economical dimensions to a water-related disaster. Is it more important to protect the people or the key infrastructures economy? The game also gives opportunity for the student to reflect on water as a essential and a destructive force at the same time (Chen Lin et al. 2012).

However, playing the game alone only initiates the change; more thorough information should be provided directly after to encourage conceptual change. Thus, the eBook was created as an extension of the digital game, in order to reinforce the content of the game with more information. It has been created as an iBook, currently only accessible via an iPad.

Many factors were considered when designing the eBook. The content was set at a high school level, written with appropriate language in Mandarin Chinese, and combined with graphs, maps, and even animation videos created by our team. The content should be both rich and

interest. As thus,

(2001), were used when designing the eBook. Furthermore, educational material should be interactive

and grant the user perceived control, not just in the digital game. Research has shown users to be more engaged when they feel a certain degree of control over the learning process (Annetta et al. 2011), which explains why an eBook was produced. However, it must be noted that although an eBook is ideal, not all students have access to an iPad or a computer. For this reason, a paper version of the booklet will be produced in the near future.

The eBook covers a wide range of water-related topics. These include but are not limited to the role of climate change on water resources, the water cycle, water footprint, water security, water pollution, water-related hazards, water management, city planning for drought-prone and/or flood-prone areas, and water recycling. The eBook will also introduce efforts done regarding water education in Taiwan as well as a section on trivial facts about water.

Figure 1. Comparison of a Traditional learning model with a Non-traditional learning model

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(a) Start of the game. Normal water flow with full Happy Index.

(b) Flooding takes place with warnings given.

When sad faces appear, the Happy Index is lowered.

(c) Money earned and Happy Index remains high by keeping flood

plains safe.

Validation To ensure the content in the game and the booklet is coherent and accurate, advisers have reviewed our games throughout the developmental process (Figure 2). Our advisers are professors and experts from various disciplines; these include but are not limited to water pollution, green economics, water footprint, water management, architecture, civil engineering, and education. The content in both the game and eBook has been reviewed via individual interviews as well as an expert forum.

The expert forum allowed the experts to discuss ideas of how to improve the educational tools. Giving the experts an opportunity to discuss amongst themselves may increase chances of generating new and more ideas as opposed to individual interviews. All advisers expressed great hopes for the project and commented that the

educational tools developed are suitable for secondary school students in terms of style and content load.

The experts made several suggestions to improve the concept that s to be transmitted from the game. They suggested adding the concept of water rights and green economics to show the difficulty of balancing the

suggested adding more clues and information in the digital game to guide the students when using the tool and considering incorporating other secondary topics such as water pollution.

Aside from the content of the game and eBook, to ensure the tools are user-friendly, our team members gather on a biweekly basis to test the tools and give feedback. The tools were also tested by our advisers during the expert forum and will be tested again during a pilot study in January 2013 by secondary school students from different Taipei schools.

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(a) Meeting with expert reviewer Chang-E Zhou from Taiwan Institute of Economic Research on September, 2012.

(b) User test during the expert forum held on November, 2012.

Figure 3. Content validation and user test

Implementing Game-initiated Learning Once re-adjusted after the first pilot study, the digital game and eBook will be used during a one-day study at Huwei Junior High on February 2013. The study will begin by dividing the students in two groups; one group will undergo Game-Initiated Learning while the other group will undergo traditional learning. Students will be further divided into groups of 3, where students will take turns to play while the others observe and discuss. The Game-Initiated Learning model consists of first emotionally engaging the students by playing the digital game. A dimension of competitiveness will be added as students will be asked to complete the tasks in the game in the least time possible, keeping students actively engaged. The students will then proceed to discuss and share thoughts that may have arisen. And lastly, the students will be given

the eBooks to browse through information. By allowing students to inquire by themselves, information is more likely to be retained as opposed to being spoon-fed through a traditional lecture.

Summary The primary objective of the project is to develop an interactive game for high school students for two main reasons; to validate the efficiency of Game-initiated Learning for water-related issues and to meet the need for disaster education in Taiwan, which has been a growing concern for the island. Our educational content is set at a high-school level due to an observed predominant gaming culture amongst teens in Taiwan; especially in urban settlements.

As part of the developmental process, game proposals, paper prototypes, storyboards have been completed and

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programming has taken place, via Adobe Flash. A draft of the eBook has also been produced with the program iBook Author; the eBook is currently only accessible via an iPad.

To ensure development for both the game and the eBook move at the same pace, congregates on a biweekly basis to test both education tools as well as to exchange ideas. The content of both tools has been reviewed by external advisers, who are experts in the field of water governance. Experts have reviewed the tools individually as well as collectively through an Expert forum held in 2012.

The game and the tool will be used during a short pilot study with high school students from various schools in Taipei and a one-day study with Huwei Junior High, a secondary school based in southern Taiwan. Such studies are necessary in order to obtain direct feedback from the targeted users so that the tools may be improved. We expect this ongoing project to become sustainable in years to come in that both interactive tools will continue to upgrade as studies, such as the one scheduled at Huwei, will continue to run annually. We also hope to have the educational tools exhibited at public spaces, such as

accessible to the public.

Acknowledgments

Council (NSC) under contract 101-2515-S-002 -002. The authors are gratef contributors from National Taiwan University: Kai-Lin Kao, You-Rong Kuo, Pei-Yen Liao, Ting-Ju Chen, Da-Yio Tseng, Ming-Zhang Wen, Chih-Tian Shih, Yi-Zhi Tsai, Ting-Ying Chang Jian and Ting-Ju Chen. The authors further thank our project reviewers Ko-Chiu Wu from the National Taipei University of Technology, Jing-Yuin You from National Taiwan University, Chang-E Zhou from the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, Yu-Chen Lin from National Taiwan University, and Xi-Ting Fang from the Center for Weather Climate and Disaster Research for guiding the students and reviewing the educational tools.

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