Simulation/Gaming and the Internet Craig M. Parker School of Management Information Systems Faculty of Business and Law Deakin University, Australia
[email protected] Simulation/gaming is a widely used approach to experiential education. Computers and other tools (such as dice) have long been used in the design of simulation/games, but the Internet now provides an additional tool for developing these pedagogic environments. The Internet can be used to support and enable simulation/games designed to teach in a variety of disciplines (including cross-cultural communication, political negotiations, electronic commerce and medical diagnosis). This tutorial will examine some Internet-based tools which can be used to enable playable simulation/games. It will also look at examples of Web-based resources and forums which support designers and users of simulation/games. Keywords: simulations, games, Internet, Web, electronic commerce
1 Introduction This tutorial will examine the impact which the Internet is having and will continue to have on the world of simulation/gaming. It will look at how the Internet supports simulation/gaming by, for instance, providing and disseminating information about this approach to experiential education. It will also describe some common Internet-based tools, including email and the Web, which can be used to develop playable simulation/games.
2 Simulation/gaming background Simulation/gaming dates back to military or war games which were used to train soldiers [2] – chess is perhaps the oldest type of war game [4, 21]. Business simulation/games have been used for many years in company personnel training, management/executive development and university education in business schools [4, see also 11]. Simulation/games have also been applied in a range of other areas, including electronic commerce [16, 17]; and the teaching of communication [9], decision-making, problemsolving [18, 19], international negotiations [5, 7] and international diplomacy skills [14]. According to Jones [10], simulation/games typically comprise three components: • a briefing component in which participants are introduced to the procedures, rules and objectives of the simulation/game, so that they will know how to play with minimal interruption from the coordinator of the simulation/game; • an action component in which the simulation/game takes place and the players carry out their assigned activities or tasks; and • a debriefing component in which simulation/gaming participants return to their roles as students and reflect on their experiences (or decisions, actions, etc), so that learning can take place (see also [1, 3, 13, 22]).
A number of tools are available for designing simulation/games, ranging from items such as dice through to computers running specifically designed simulation/gaming software. In this tutorial we will examine the use of another tool – the Internet – which can support simulation/gaming initiatives and can enable the development of playable Internet-based simulation/games.
3 Internet support for simulation/gaming The dissemination of information about and experiences concerning the use of simulation/games is important, so that simulation/gaming designers and educators generally can further their skills in and their understanding of the use of this experiential approach to education. Traditionally this collaborative role has been performed by journals (such as Simulation & Gaming: An International Journal) and conferences (such as the Annual ISAGA Conference and the Annual ABSEL Conference). The Internet (and the Web in particular) provides another forum for the dissemination of this information and the sharing of experience, because it can be used to provide: • information about particular simulation/games; • collections of articles about simulation/games and their use; • resources for simulation/game designers and users; • calls for papers concerning conferences and journals on simulation/gaming; • locations for downloading (computer-based) simulation/games and their resources; and • discussion environments for simulation/gaming designers to exchange ideas and to collaborate, perhaps, on the building of simulation/games. A Web-based resource of particular note, which offers these features, is the Simulation/Gaming eXchange (SGX) [20]. SGX enables people to submit information about and Web addresses for their simulation/games. Information (such as calls for papers) and resources which might help simulation/game designers (such as in the use of debriefing sessions) can also be disseminated using SGX. A further advantage of SGX is that it offers a single location on the Web for simulation/gaming related material, so that people do not need to rely on Internet search engines to find these valuable resources.
4 Internet-based tools enabling simulation/games The Internet also provides an effective tool for simulation/game designers to build playable Internet-mediated simulation/games. The following sections look at commonly used Internet tools which enable the development of such simulation/games: 4.1 Email, chat sessions and mailing lists Email via the Internet provides a mechanism by which players in a simulation/game can communicate with each other, despite being separated by large distances. While email typically involves text-based communication, many email software packages enable users to attach graphics and audio files to an email to enhance the communication potential. Email also tends to be asynchronous in nature, thus facilitating simulation/games in which time-zone differences prevent synchronous (or real-time) communication.
Croson [6] describes an electronic negotiation simulation in which pairs of students negotiate a marketing agreement and take on the role of a producer or a retail-buying group. A pair of students use either face-to-face and email-based negotiations, after which the results of the negotiations can be compared. Synchronous examples of Internet-based textual communication include chat sessions, in which type-written responses appear immediately on the computer monitors of the other parties. The advantage of these approaches over email is that communication can occur in real-time, but in the case of time-zone differences they do require individuals to be on-line at the same time. These times might be unrespectable for some! The main disadvantage of text-based communication tools such as email and chat sessions is the reduced “richness” of communication which exists with face-to-face interactions. This richness can be achieved to an extent, however, using textual expressions (such as smiley-faces) to help correspondents understand the context or hidden meaning of the written message. Email and chat sessions are especially suited to player communication during the action component of a simulation/game. Mailing lists (where an individual can send an email to a single address, which is then distributed to all addresses on the list) might also provide a mechanism for supporting global debriefing sessions. Mailing lists enable large numbers of individuals, separated by distance, to contribute and share their reflections on and experiences with the simulation/game in an asynchronous manner. 4.2 Internet conferencing Audio-visual communication in simulation/games can be facilitated by the use of Internet conferencing, which permits voice and/or moving images of the players to be transmitted. The main advantage of this approach in simulation/games is its close approximation to the richness of real-time, face-to-face communication. For instance, Internet conferencing enables other players to see the expressions on another person’s face or the tone of their voice. The main disadvantage of Internet conferencing is that voice and/or image transmission requires large bandwidth (or data throughput) which is generally not available on the Internet, especially as the number of conferencing participants increases or where this communication is to occur internationally. Internet conferencing is useful for the action component of simulation/games when communication is required between three people (or less) simultaneously. In addition to bandwidth limitations, this is also often due to computer monitors being able to accommodate only a few images on the screen at one time. For this reason, Internet conferencing might be inappropriate for briefing and debriefing sessions which often involve a large number of simulation/gaming participants communicating with each other. 4.3 Bulletin boards Bulletin boards provide an effective means by which participants in a simulation/game can exchange reflections, experiences, views etc during a debriefing session. Bulletin boards display email subject-headings in a list, often grouped together according to particular topics or “threads” which are being discussed. Participants can click on the subject of any of the messages to read what has been written and, if desired, contribute their own thoughts
in a response. Bulletin boards can be established on the Web or through specialised Internet-based applications – the Web is becoming more popular because the bulletin board then becomes available to anyone without them needing to install any special software. 4.4 The Web The Web, which is enabled by the Internet, has the potential to impact greatly on the development of simulation/games because of its global and interactive qualities. The Web has a number of advantages over more traditional computer application-based simulation/games which require separate installation [16, 17]: • Web browsers are largely platform independent, so that participants should theoretically be able to use any type of computer to access and play the Web-based simulation/game; • people can participate in the simulation/games globally, rather than these simulation/games being restricted to a physical area such as a classroom. This is especially significant when the educational objectives have an international perspective; • Web browsers provide the potential for multimedia, including audio, visual, text, etc; • there is no need for separate software installations on multiple computers, because participants only need a Web browser and an Internet connection to play; • there is better handling of simulation/game version control, because all players will use the most recent version of any Web-based simulation/game software; and • Web servers are designed to run 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This means that players can participate in a simulation/game at a time which is most convenient to them, which is especially important for international players in different time-zones. Web-based simulation/games can be highly interactive for a number of reasons: • the hyperlink nature of Web pages means that participants can navigate their way through a simulation/game environment in their own way; • Web-based forms can be designed so that participants can provide information in text boxes, interact using pull-down lists, and submit completed forms to a Web server; • Web browser processing of data and information is made possible with Web browser programming languages such as Javascript and Jscript. These languages can instruct a Web browser, for example, on how to carry out certain events depending on a particular button which might be pressed by the simulation/game player; • Web server processing of data or information “submitted” by a simulation/game player can be achieved with server-side languages such as VBScript. This processing, for instance, might involve the Web server calculating the result of “decisions” which are submitted by a player, and returning a Web page summarising the outcome; and • Web server processing can include the updating and querying of databases, which increases further the interactive qualities of Web-based simulation/games. This is because the Web pages seen by players can be generated dynamically using data in a database, rather than being static pages which players navigate through. The interactive, versatile features of the Web therefore mean that this Internet-based tool has the potential to support all three components of a (global) simulation/game: • briefing resources, user manuals, role-playing profiles, etc can all be provided via the Web using a range of multimedia. Web-based bulletin boards can be used to address participant queries prior to commencing the simulation/game. Demonstration versions of a simulation/game can also be provided to help participants learn how to play; • simulation/game activities and interactions can be facilitated through the Web, especially where these tasks involve the exchange of information or the making of
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decisions. Both forms of interaction can be achieved using Web forms, Web server processing and databases to display, process and store the information; and debriefing sessions can be conducted via Web-based bulletin boards. The Web might also be used to display the results or outcomes of the simulation/game to form the basis of debriefing sessions conducted using more traditional face-to-face tutorials.
There are a growing number of quite different Web-based simulation/games currently in existence. A few examples include: •
The Interactive Patient, where physicians, residents and medical students use the Web to diagnose and formulate treatment plans for simulated “on-line” patients [12]. Participants can ask their own questions of the patient, which are then interpreted by the simulation software and an answer returned. When the player has finished making the diagnosis, they can submit it along with a treatment plan, which will then be evaluated and feedback provided.
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ICONS (International Communication and Negotiation Simulations), where university and high school students engage in international relations negotiations via the Web [8]. Groups of students in different locations worldwide take on the roles of decision makers for their assigned country and negotiate solutions to global problems. ICONS permits both synchronous and asynchronous communication via the Web. Project IDEALS [5, 6] is another example of a negotiation simulation, which originated from ICONS.
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Web-TRECS (Teaching Realistic Electronic Commerce Solutions), which teaches participants how businesses can use Electronic Commerce technologies (such as the Web, email, etc) to improve their business operations [15, 16, 17]. Participants adopt the role of an organisation and trade with other player-operated organisations by exchanging business documents using a Web browser.
5 Conclusions This tutorial has provided insight into some of the Internet-based tools which can be used during all phases of a simulation/game. The disparate examples of established Web-based simulation/games presented in this tutorial demonstrates the versatility and applicability of this approach to computer-based education in a range of disciplines. The tutorial has also provided information about Web-based simulation/gaming resources available to current and future designers and users of simulation/games. It appears, therefore, that the Internet and its associated tools will enhance the design, availability, global interactivity and the pedagogic value of simulation/games in the future [see also 23].
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