Designing a 3D Collaborative Game to Support Game ...

Designing a 3D Collaborative Game to Support Game Based Learning Theodouli Terzidou, Thrasyvoulos Tsiatsos Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Informatics, Thessaloniki, Greece [email protected] [email protected] Abstract: The main goal of this paper is to provide educational game designers with a design model for the development of 3D virtual collaborative games aiming to utilize the advantages of 3D immersive environments. The proposed design model is presented through a detailed 3D collaborative game scenario, appropriate and suitable for implementing educational games in virtual immersive environments. Thereby this paper presents a proposal to support collaborative learning based on 3D serious games. Keywords: 3D Virtual Game Based Learning, Virtual Learning Environments, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, 3D Collaborative Learning Game Design Model, Serious Games

1. Introduction Teachers count already three decades since they were faced with the challenge of taking advantage of computer science and technology to improve teaching and learning. Computer and communication technologies nowadays, more than ever, offer a wide variety of possibilities that make the teachers’ role more challenging. Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) and Game Based Learning (GBL) seem to have gained an advantage in modern learning approaches. Taken into consideration that modern teaching methodologies ask for a learner-centred education that exploits the advantages of collaboration and learners experimentation to construct knowledge, we propose an innovative way to combine collaborative game based learning and 3D collaborative virtual learning environments. The proposed design model presented in this paper, concerns 3D collaborative games aiming to be implemented in Virtual worlds and consists an extension of an already existing evaluation framework for collaborative educational virtual environments (CEVE). The design model is presented through a detailed 3D Collaborative Knowledge Game, called GrAFiCA. More particularly, the game design includes the design of the following elements: a) the game learning scenario, b) the pedagogical 3D game features, c) the motivation and collaboration features and d) the virtual game space. Our proposal also makes use of virtual metaphor learning techniques based on the constructivist and the activity learning theory. The proposed virtual game design model can be used in any 3D virtual environment that supports avatar representation and virtual object construction. The platform we selected to present the learning game scenario for its future development is the virtual environment of Second Life. Within this context we have created a game scenario to support the educational process in tertiary education and specifically of the course "Multimedia Systems" in a Department of Informatics. The 3D game scenario is about a group-collaborative hunt "game" in which the students-players have to navigate, interact, experiment, collaborate and learn in a properly designed and equipped educational virtual game space through an answering questions process and by earning points collaboratively. The main aim of engaging the game in the educational process is to arouse student motivation for learning, develop their collaboration skills and guide them in a pleasant manner to construct knowledge and achieve better learning by augmenting the traditional learning process with an appropriately designed 3D collaborative virtual educational game. The ways that a digital game can be utilized in the learning processes could vary as much as the multiplicity of the different existing learning theories. However, it is very important to find and keep the balance between "playing" and "learning", while using the latest available technological "substances". Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to present a 3D virtual educational collaborative game for virtual worlds like Second Life and to propose an effective design model for similar games expected to guide to effective, experiential and active learning. During the latest years it has been widely discussed whether Virtual worlds could potentially contribute successfully to the acquisition of knowledge through contextualized scenarios. Designing Games for Virtual worlds could be considered as such a contextualized scenario, which, with the aid of “playing”, supports students in the process of acquiring knowledge in a pleasant manner.

The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The next section describes the theoretical framework of serious games and game based learning. In section 3 we present design model for virtual collaborative games and the collaborative 3D game scenario based on that. Finally, some concluding remarks and planned next steps are described in brief.

2. Theoretical framework: Serious Games This section presents a bibliographical research study about game-based learning. The study focuses on two directions which are relevant to the theme of this paper: a) the utilization of digital games in the educational process, and b) the research being carried out regarding the applicability of virtual worlds as platform for game-based collaborative learning.

2.1 Games: A tool for learning There are several definitions about game-based learning, termed also as "Serious Games", "Digital Game Learning" (DGL), "Digital Game Based Learning", "Educational Games" and "Immersive Learning Simulations". We adopt the term Game Based Learning as the educational process, which uses game experiences as a tool to learn. Michael and Chen (2006) define serious game as a game, in which, education (in its various forms) is the primary goal, rather than entertainment, while Aldrich (2009) defines serious games as interactive experiences that are easy and fun to engage while building awareness. According to Prensky (2001) Digital Game-Based Learning is precisely about fun and engagement into a newly emerging and highly exciting medium: the Digital Learning Game. In addition, researchers from the Psychology Department of Graz University state that, the major strength of digital games in education is a high level of intrinsic motivation to play and to proceed in the game and, thus, to learn (Kickmeier-Rust et al., 2007). There are various learning theories that deal with intrinsic learning (Piaget, 1951; Bruner, 1966; Berlyne, 1965). Environments can evoke a learner's curiosity by providing an optimal level of informational complexity (Berlyne, 1965; Piaget, 1952) and therefore they should be novel and surprising, but not completely incomprehensible (Malone 1981). According to the constructivist learning theorist Piaget (1970), game-like activities can foster students’ deep learning. Piaget (1961) points out the curiosity as the best factor for learning, while Malone (1981) at his framework for a motivation theory identifies three factors that form games' strength and making them fun, namely: a) challenge, b) fantasy and c) curiosity. Later, in 2001 Prensky (2001), identifies six characteristics that make a game engage: a) Rules, b) Goals and objectives, c) Outcomes and feedback, d) Conflictcompetition-challenge-opposition, e) Interaction, and f) Representation or story. Game-based learning, apart from the learning theories, has to keep consistent with and utilize the rapidly technological growth of computing and communications. Nowadays, more than ever, 3D technology appeal to be promising for the development of 3D Game-Based Learning, in a synthetic interactive and collaborative virtual environment, that could utilize the constructivist learning theories with less technological limitations. A virtual learning environment can distribute knowledge and cognition among various artefacts (such as educational tools and virtual objects), among students, for example when they collaborate to solve a problem, or to perform an experiment (Perkins, 1992). According to the above mentioned theories, 3D virtual worlds seem to have the potential to support Game-based learning both in a collaborative and an exploratory learning way. Finally, students’ learning is not imposed simply by conditioning and reinforcement, but rather a cognitive and sociocultural interaction in an engaging and authentic learning environment (Otting and Zwaal, 2007).

2.2 Why Exploiting Three Dimensions? Although the term Game Based Learning is not new to educators and instructional designers, the majority of the already existing learning games are implemented in two dimensions (2D). According to Kolb (1984), an experiential learning theory defines learning as ‘‘the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”. Virtual 3D immersive worlds provide students a constructivist environment, where they can play, act, communicate, collaborate through their humanlooking representations, named avatars. Capin et al. (1999) defines avatar as a graphical representation of a real person in a collaborative virtual environment, including its behavior. In

addition, the use of non-verbal communication (NVC) acting capabilities, provided by 3D virtual environments through the avatars, can foster the users' collaboration interactions (Tsiatsos and Terzidou, 2010). Similarly, Dede, early in 1992, argues that, simulation instructional approaches enhance students' ability to apply abstract knowledge by situating education in authentic, virtual contexts similar to the environments in which learners' skills will be used (Dede, 1992). Moreover, Dede (1995) mentions, which a wide range of participants are attracted to cooperative virtual environments because they gain something valuable by collaborating together.

2.3 Examples of Games Utilizing Virtual Worlds There are different modes to utilize games for learning, like: virtual labs, simulations, role playing, minigames, hunting games, microworlds, virtual places for experimentation etc. Learning Villages (LV) constitutes such a game paradigm; LV is a game-based CSCL platform that operates in a form of massively multi-player online gaming, in which, each student can design his/her own virtual character (an avatar) to participate in this virtual world and create villages collaboratively (Jong et al., 2010). Virtual world platforms, feature also education game projects. Ohio University, has to demonstrate a remarkable number of projects implemented in the virtual platform of Second Life, including: a) the "Nutrition Game", that allows visitors of the Ohio University Sim to play and learn about the impact fast food has on health (Ohio University VITAL Lab Public Wiki, 2007); b) the "Software Engineering Process Game", a 3D multiplayer online role-playing game for software engineers, that aims to teach students the principles of the software engineering process by simulating the development of a moderately sized software project (Ohio University VITAL Lab Public Wiki, 2009). Similar, the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London has developed a Virtual Hospital in Second Life that aimed to design game-based learning activities for the delivery of virtual patients that can drive experiential, diagnostic, and role-play learning activities supporting patients’ diagnosis, investigation and treatment (Faculty of Medicine-Imperial College London, 2008). Finally, the research project from ScienceSim (a virtual world based on the open source OpenSim platform), called "Water Wars", explores the use of 3D computers games in environmental policymaking, allowing members of a community to help simulate water management issues to provide insight into better policy (Research@Intel, 2010).

3. Designing a 3D Collaborative Game Based upon constructivist and collaborative learning approaches we designed our 3D game called GrAFiCA. Ideally, a Virtual Collaborative Educational Game (VCEG) aims to meet and gain most of the above mentioned advantages of serious games running in an interactive environment like Second Life. The next paragraph presents the design framework created and exploited for designing the GRAFICA game. The rest paragraphs present the scenario of the game and the design of the virtual game space.

3.1 Design Framework In order to meet our primary goal to support collaborative learning, through a 3D game for virtual immersive environments, it is important to determine which model is appropriate to apply for both the design and the evaluation process. The design of an educational game scenario can be regarded as similar equivalent in the design of a learning scenario and therefore has to be correspondingly evaluated. Tsiatsos, Konstantinidis and Pomportsis (2008), proposed a framework to evaluate both the pedagogical and educational nature of a Collaborative Educational Virtual Environment (CEVE). More specifically, they proposed a hybrid evaluation framework, structured by two evaluation cycles comprised of phases. This set of cycles can be repeated as many times as necessary in order to achieve the system development and evaluation goals desired. Furthermore, for each additional version of the system an additional cycle can be added. Sharing researchers’ argumentation, that better evaluations can lead to better designs (when they are based on users’ and experts’ recommendations and suggestions), in conjunction with their proposed iterative and incremental development process, we can inductively infer that better designs can also achieve better evaluation outcomes. Consequently, based on the above evaluation framework, we

propose a comprehensive framework that combines both design and evaluation processes for the development and evaluation of 3D collaborative virtual educational games (CVEG). Our new proposed framework extends the initial evaluation framework structure by adding an extra “Educational Game Design” Phase and by adapting its phases to correspond to the needs and requirements of 3D Virtual Game Based Learning. Our extended model focus on the Learning Phase, which has to be addressed with a game-based aspect, adding an extra Game Design Phase to the already existing framework. Table1 presents the structure of the extended design and evaluation framework for 3D collaborative virtual games. Table 1: Extended Design and Evaluation framework for 3D Collaborative Virtual Games Cycle 1 Phase Step Goals Pre-analysis Pre-test Set the evaluation goals and separate the target group (e.g., learners-players, tutors, researchers, designers) into advanced and novice CEVE users and determine learners’ learning styles and CEVE game abilities. 3D Game Design

Game Scenario

    

3D Game Usability

Learning by playing

Define the learning objectives of the game (e.g. collaboration, knowledge acquisition, 3D navigation skills improvement). Specify the curriculum subject needs. Discover game motivation and collaboration features. Create a suitable to the learners’ skills and learning style game scenario. Select platform

Pedagogical 3D Game Elements

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Define pedagogical-learning objectives Create and map 3D virtual game elements with pedagogical-learning objectives.

Motivation & Collaboration Features

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Foster collaboration through specific group awards or/and missions. Motivate learners by offering them through intrinsic game conditions of 3D non-learning immersive games, the sense of playing.

Virtual Game Space Design

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Create the virtual game space. Familiarize users with the virtual game space.

Familiarization session (usability session 1a) Co-presence session (usability session 1b) Expert evaluation

Learning 3D Game-based session (GBL session 1)

Uncover usability problems of the most important parts of the user interface concerning the basic functionalities of the first prototype. Uncover usability problems of the communication and collaborative functionalities of the first prototype. Similar to the “Familiarization session” and “Co-presence session”. It also integrates the know how of usability and pedagogical experts in the field of CVEs and 3D Immersive Games.       

Identify possible game scenario difficulties (e.g. skills, knowledge, collaboration). Collect further requirements and additional functionality. Discover the pros and cons of the virtual game space. Determine the appropriateness of different kinds of game-based learning scenarios. Insure that pedagogical 3D elements fulfil their didactic goal. Point specific motivation behaviors and discover new. Ensure that the game supports collaborative playing and uncover usability problems.

Cycle 2 Phase Pre-analysis

Step Meta-evaluation

3D Game Design

Game Scenario

Virtual World Usability

Learning by Playing

Virtual Game Space Design Usability session 2

Updated Learning 3D Game-based session (GBL session 2)

Goals Ensure that the evaluations of Cycle 1 are valid, accurate and unbiased.  Adapt game to the results of the first evaluation cycle by enriching game scenario with new appropriate learning objectives, motivation and collaboration features and pedagogical 3D game elements.  Adaptation to the student’s first learning-game session performance and skills.  Development of additional game levels and goals.  Reconfiguration of virtual game space to respond to the updated game scenario. Uncover usability problems of advanced features of the second game prototype, including new concepts of the 3Dgame elements that were developed according to the results of the first evaluation cycle. Collect information about the possible changing game experiences and attitudes of the users toward the 3D Virtual Game Based Learning, discover appropriateness of different kinds of game learning scenarios and better game user interfaces and collect data about missing possibilities and functions.

3.2 Game Scenario The game falls into a special category of multi-user Haunt game that requires and develops collaboration skills among players, in our case among students. The game is acted out in a virtual environment and the students play in groups. The required skills which are likely to be enhanced by the game are listed below:  Knowledge Skills: the players have to study subjects concerning the “Multimedia Systems” course from their third year undergraduate study, in order to answer correctly questions that cover the entire course curriculum. 

Collaboration Skills: the players have to collaborate in groups using the virtual tools offered both by the virtual environment and the virtual game. Group collaboration aims to obtaining the best strategy to win the game.

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Communication Skills: the players have to communicate and interact, in an individual and/or group level, so as to collaborate with their group members.

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Virtual Exploration Skills: the players have to navigate and interact with the virtual environment, aiming to explore its virtual elements (objects) and thus find the hidden questions.

The main goal of the game is to collect as many points as possible during a specific time period by answering knowledge questions. The winner of the game is the group with the highest score. Groups score by answering questions, while questions have to be first discovered in a virtual world environment. Based on motivation theory of Malone (1981), we hide questions interspersed into virtual objects in the virtual game space in order to provoke through this feature, curiosity, as well as contributing to the challenge of the game activity. The total score is determined by the sum of correct answers given by each group during the game. Each correct answer corresponds to one point. A more detailed game flow is described below by describing the process of the game. The phases of the game are Grouping and selecting Attire, Find, Collaborate and Answer. The acronym of these phases is the name of the game (GrAFiCa). 

Grouping and selecting Attire: Participants-players form groups and enter the virtual environment. Players start their exploration from the starting point called "Game Lobby", where they will be provided with clothes for their avatars. Each group corresponds to a particular avatar attire color to be easily differentiated from other groups and to be supported in the internal group interactions during the game (Tsiatsos and Terzidou, 2010). Next the group members have to choose their group moderator. At that phase the professor imposes the specific duration of the game (start and end date, time).

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Find (Question Hunting): The players are now free to navigate through the virtual game space and start their question discovery. Each group has the opportunity to develop its own strategy for the question hunt (game) and the group members can move and collaborate based on this strategy. They have to interact to virtual environment so as to find objects that hide questions and finally answer them. When a player discovers a question, he/she can collaborate with his/her group to answer the question correctly, using the communication tools offered from the virtual environment and the virtual game. If the question is answered correctly, the group gets the points. Every found answer can be asked only once. If the group fails to answer the question then the question will be locked for this group until another group discovers it and tries to answer it.

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Collaborate and Answer (Collect points and awards): At this phase the students of each group define a strategy to collaborate, answer questions and collect awards. Close collaboration, a good time score and a proper strategy, consist three important key factors that could lead a group to victory. Concerning the collection of points, as mentioned above, each group’s score is equivalent to the total counting of the correctly answered questions. The players do not know the exact number of questions they are looking for; thereby groups are led to a positive game competition that is expected to result in higher internal group interactions and in the acquisition of better collaboration skills between group members. When a group faces difficulties in answering a question, the game gives him/her the opportunity to ask for help. In that case, a correct answer earns only half points for the group, while a negative score for wrong answers is not foreseen. Table2 below presents points scoring for the game.

Table 2: Game Scoring Points for Players’ Answer Correct Wrong With help 0,5 0 Without help 1 0 It is obvious that the more questions players find, the greater the probability to attain a higher score for their group, simply because there are more opportunities for correct answers. Each group member can anytime monitor its group’s progress and score on his/her screen. The collection of awards, is included in this game in order to support collaboration and knowledge acquisition. Therefore besides the main winner prize there are also a set of other awards that the participating groups can claim. These awards also determine the winner of the game in case of a tie. More specifically, the awards are as follows:   

Subject award: is given to the group that has correctly answered all questions of a subject (i.e. sound subject award). Exploration award: is given to the group that has discovered the largest number of questions, even if finally they have not answered them correctly. “Wise-Man” award: is given to the group that doesn’t have any wrong answers.

The group having the highest score, when time expires, is the winner of the game. If two or more groups have the same score, the winner is determined by the number of attained awards. In case there is still a draw, then the winner is the group that has achieved the “wise-man” award (as long as there is such a group), otherwise the winner title is awarded to the groups that have the same score.

3.3 Scene and Virtual Objects The designed virtual game space is based on the undergraduate course titled Multimedia Systems and its knowledge and skills requirements. The main space of the game consists of six buildings, each of which represents one specific subject from the course curriculum. The appearance of the virtual buildings, as well as the objects used to decorate them, was carefully designed in order to refer visually to the corresponding subject. The main buildings are listed below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Building of Theme 1: Communication Tools Building of Theme 2: Compression-digitization Building of Theme 3: Video-Animation Building of Theme 4: Hypertext Building of Theme 5: Digital Image Building of Theme 6: Sound

Figure 1: Floor plan of virtual game space

Figure 3a: Grafica Game Lobby

Figure 3c: Interior design from buildings and virtual objects with hidden questions

Figure 3b:Students exploring the virtual game space

Figure 3d:Students inside the building looking for hidden questions

Figure2 depicts the floor plan of the virtual game space, while Figure3a presents the game lobby, Figure3b shows the students while exploring the virtual game space, Figure3c presents the interior design from the sound building and Figure3d gives a snapshot from students' question search inside the same building. The Virtual objects that decorate buildings are classified into the following three categories:  Question-objects: virtual objects with hidden questions. 

Assistant-objects: virtual objects with auxiliary course material, which provide players with useful information and lead them indirectly to the answer of some questions.

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Dummy-objects: virtual decorative objects without content. The existence of these objects contributes to students’ Virtual exploration Skills improvement.

Furthermore, a set of pedagogical virtual game elements were designed aiming to enhance students’ collaboration skills and teachers’ awareness during the game. The pedagogical elements concern both students and teachers and they were designed through game user’s interface. There are several HCI rules for user interface design, which must be taken into account when implementing any game. Designing a game interface is often considered as one of the most challenging aspects of the game development. The difficulty in our case was that we wanted to provide students and teachers with an interface integrated into the virtual environment’s user interface that wouldn’t distract, while providing them with useful information about the game in a manner that won’t increase their cognitive load. The elements that were designed can be distinguished into two categories: a) students’ user interface and b) teacher’s user interface: 

Collaborative educational elements integrated into students’ game interface: The students’ game interface is the main collaboration tool that supports them with the necessary awareness about theirs and others group activities and therefore about their progress in the game. It is important to keep user’s interface in a little screen space of the default virtual environment screen and can be implemented with HUDs wear by the players. More specifically, the user interface includes the following indications: a) time remaining till the end of the game, b) score of one’s group, c) scores of other groups, d) awards gained by the group and e) a map of the game space that depicts all traces of the group members and their current position.

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Collaborative educational elements integrated into Teacher’s Game Interface: During the game and after its completion as well, the teacher has the ability to monitor students’ progress and their contribution to the learning process through his/her specifically designed user interface. In particular, the teacher’s user interface provides additional features to the students’ user interface: a) scores and awards for all groups, b) number of failed attempts, c) number of help requests, and d) visual representation of each group’s virtual races and its currently position at the game map.

4. Conclusions and Future work This paper proposed a model for the design and development of 3D collaborative games in virtual environments. The proposed design model was presented through a 3D collaborative game scenario aiming to be implemented in the collaborative virtual environment of SL. Educational CVEs seem to have special requirements for hosting and integration of serious games that could support the learning and collaboration process. Therefore, we plan to conduct an evaluation to reveal the added value of the 3D collaborative game scenario. The new proposed collaborative game features were designed in addition to the user game interface provided already from SL, through a specific game interface for students and teachers. We also, strongly believe that educators and Instructional designers have many to gain and to learn from the latest game technology if they adapt their advanced collaboration and interactivity features to the learning purposes. Our future work aims to verify our initial research expectation to support online knowledge acquisition and collaboration interactions by implementing the 3D collaborative game in SL using the specific design model and the extended proposed evaluation model. The work in this paper reported only part of the features that can be used towards 3D collaborative game based learning. During our research another important issue that requires further research was revealed. We assume that external help in the form of an anthropomorphic SL artificial intelligence could provide the necessary support for the effective implementation of a collaborative learning game scenario in a 3D virtual environment. This will also be the subject of our future work. According to Dede (1992), agents provide both intellectual and psychosocial feedback to students, mimicking the types of interactions occurring in face-to-face constructivist learning. Finally, it is hoped that the combination of current and future work will contribute in general to the enhancement of collaborative scripted educational games conducted in 3D virtual environments. Acknowledgement This work is partly supported by the project “Education of foreign and repatriated students”, which is materialized by the Special Account of the Research Committee at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The project is funded by the European Union (European Social Fund) and the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs in the context of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF, 2007-2013).

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