There are a number of presumed benefits to using games for training including greater portability, improved training effectiveness, increased student motivation, and overall cost effectiveness. Unfortunately, not all of these presumed benefits have proven to be true; for others, experimental evidence has yet to confirm them. On the other hand, evidence so far suggests that current approaches to game-based training are not a cost effective replacement for direct instruction. We hypothesize the gaps between evidence-based instructional design and game-based technologies can be bridged, with the goal to provide engaging and effective learning via Instructional Games. The paper describes two complementary research and development thrusts:
1. Content-design principles that place relatively greater emphasis on iterative development of skills and capabilities via direct instruction, guided practice, and on-going assessment, while also maintaining central elements of gaming experience such as interactivity and positive feedback.
2. Technologies that organize and constrain student experience to follow proven instructional design methods and fill functional gaps. Examples include a Lesson Designer that enables rapid authoring and integrated presentation of instructional content within a game-based practice environment; an Instructional Game State Manager software component that integrates instructional design principles and the user-experience managers used in computer games; and contextual feedback delivery that provides learner support and feedback during practice. The integrated toolset gives students and instructors the ability to capture and annotate game sessions for use in presentation (e.g., after action review briefings) and instruction (demonstrations of concepts or skills).
We illustrate the principles and supporting tools with existing examples of an instructional game focused on the US Army Military Decision Making Process. The instructional game prototype was developed using the tool suite. However, the tool suite is general purpose and can be applied to future instructional games in other domains.