David I. Schwartz

Supporting workflow in a course management system

CMS is a secure and scalable web-based course management system developed by the Cornell University Computer Science Department. The system was designed to simplify, streamline, and automate many aspects of the workflow associated with running a large course, such as course creation, importing students, management of student workgroups, online submission of assignments, assignment of graders, grading, handling regrade requests, and preparation of final grades. In contrast, other course management systems of which we are aware provide only specialized solutions for specific components, such as grading. CMS is increasingly widely used for course management at Cornell University. In this paper we articulate the principles we followed in designing the system and describe the features that users found most useful.

Instructional design as game design

Games have made their way into the classroom in a multitude of ways to attract and retain students. The academic community has made great strides incorporating games into academic study. Although some have suggested formal links, little work has been done on formalizing how game design can inform instructional design. We explore this avenue by showing existing overlaps between the disciplines and areas where game design and instructional design can inform each other. Examples from a series of introductory programming courses will demonstrate the connections and suggest future development.

GameX: a platform for incremental instruction in computer graphics and game design

Recent trends have resulted in an increased focus on game design as a topic for teaching in higher education [Deutsch 2002]. Although many game engines currently exist, few of these were designed with educational goals in mind. We distinguish between industry-oriented engines and instructional game engines designed to teach a range of concepts. The features needed to teach game development to college undergraduates in engineering and the humanities are explored. Specifically, we develop a platform that supports incremental education in game design. GameX, an open source instructional game engine, was developed with this approach in mind and was used to initiate the Game Design Initiative at Cornell University (GDIAC).

Game-based forensics course for first year students

This paper focuses on the design and development of a game-based forensics course. This course uses the game-based learning (GBL) approach that builds the game in a real computing environment that has direct access to actual forensics tools from a forensics machine and the evidence from a suspect machine. Interactive visualizations will be used to help students to understand the intangible and inaccessible abstract concepts such as deleted/hidden/encrypted/over-written digital evidence.

Serious social games: Designing a business simulation game

This paper describes a newly released educational game called StoreWorld(TM) that introduces students to fundamental business concepts. Although many educational games introduce business concepts, they were founded many years ago and lack modern innovations. The core innovation that StoreWorld attempts to address is how social interaction can enhance simulation in the field of business gaming. After giving some background about related games, the authors provide an overview of the design and implementation of StoreWorld in regard to business modeling, education, and social interaction. The paper gives preliminary results and concludes with future directions of design.

Debunking the fallacy of the individual decision-maker: An experiential pedagogy for sustainability ethics

Existing pedagogical approaches to ethics education in engineering and science reinforce what this paper terms “the fallacy of the individual decision-maker” by suggesting an oversimplified, individualistic model of ethical decision-making, rather than recognizing the organizational, cultural, or group deliberative context of an ethical dilemma. Consequently, students fail to develop the group deliberative and ethical reasoning skills necessary to properly recognize and resolve ethical questions. This paper critiques existing approaches and presents an alternative pedagogy that emphasizes active, participatory, and experiential learning that is intended to more deeply immerse students in questions of fairness, justice, and equity in the context of sustainability by playing the Externalities Game. Preliminary testing supports the hypotheses that game play results in deeper consideration of ethical issues, more emotionally engaged students, fosters greater deliberative discourse, and encourages experimentation with different ethical strategies. The Externalities Game may be an appropriate piece of a larger course in sustainability ethics when combined with traditional reading and pedagogical strategies.

Gamifying Course Modules for Entry Level Students

The growing shortage of skilled professionals in cybersecurity and forensics has increased global demand for information systems professionals. To identify and attract more students to cybersecurity and forensics programs, the authors developed a game engine along with a sequence of entertaining, engaging, and educational games, suitable for forensics and cybersecurity courses. This paper focuses on the design and development of a modular educational game framework composed of a game engine and a GUI-based game creator. Following narrative and storylines of the game via interactive dialogs and visualized abstract concepts, students are motivated and engaged to obtain the necessary knowledge. Students will also develop their problem solving skills by using real tools and technologies while playing the game. The GUI-based game creator allows educators to create and develop new educational games by only focusing on game content.

GIS and Serious Games

This article presents the interdisciplinary idea of combining geographic information systems (GIS) and serious games. We argue that further integration of GIS and serious game can have large ranging impact on learning and advancement of spatial knowledge and expertise in numerous application domains. In this regard, we draw heavily, although not exclusively, upon disaster management as an exemplar case study of the integration of GIS and serious games for education, spatial thinking skill development, and problem solving. We provide context for GIS and serious games through definitions of games, serious games, the difference between serious games and simulations, the idea of gamification, spatial representations, and serious games. GIS and serious game case studies are drawn from the research experiences of the authors that include (1) capacity development via emergency response exercises that incorporate geospatial tools with a real-time simulation exercise and (2) a virtual serious GIS game environment called serious GIS or SerGIS that allows for flexible creation of serious GIS game scenarios using real GIS tools. The article also provides discussion on evaluating spatial games as a means for further research on development and evaluation of new serious GIS games. The article concludes with a GIS and serious games research agenda.