Elaine M. Raybourn

TDCS guided using fMRI significantly accelerates learning to identify concealed objects.

The accurate identification of obscured and concealed objects in complex environments was an important skill required for survival during human evolution, and is required today for many forms of expertise. Here we used transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) guided using neuroimaging to increase learning rate in a novel, minimally guided discovery-learning paradigm. Ninety-six subjects identified threat-related objects concealed in naturalistic virtual surroundings used in real-world training. A variety of brain networks were found using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected at different stages of learning, with two of these networks focused in right inferior frontal and right parietal cortex. Anodal 2.0 mA tDCS performed for 30 min over these regions in a series of single-blind, randomized studies resulted in significant improvements in learning and performance compared with 0.1 mA tDCS. This difference in performance increased to a factor of two after a one-hour delay. A dose-response effect of current strength on learning was also found. Taken together, these brain imaging and stimulation studies suggest that right frontal and parietal cortex are involved in learning to identify concealed objects in naturalistic surroundings. Furthermore, they suggest that the application of anodal tDCS over these regions can greatly increase learning, resulting in one of the largest effects on learning yet reported. The methods developed here may be useful to decrease the time required to attain expertise in a variety of settings.

Applying simulation experience design methods to creating serious game-based adaptive training systems

The purpose of the present paper is to briefly introduce adaptive training systems, and describe the Simulation Experience Design Method. Adaptive training systems are serious games whose goal it is to engender communication opportunities for players to learn about their strengths and weaknesses, receive real-time in-game performance feedback, and share diverse solutions and strategies during, between, and after game play in order to update, or adapt, player understanding. The Simulation Experience Design Method extends HCI approaches to create engaging multiplayer learning experiences by focusing on how dynamic game content, roles, scenarios, and assessment feedback contribute to emergent culture. Preliminary evaluations of an earlier instantiation of serious game-based adaptive training systems employing this design method have been positive. The contribution of the present paper lies in describing how designers create rich systems of experiences for serious games and adaptive training systems by employing HCI principles and the Simulation Experience Design Method.

A new paradigm for serious games: Transmedia learning for more effective training and education

Abstract Serious games present a relatively new approach to training and education for international organizations such as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Although serious games are often deployed as stand-alone solutions, they can also serve as entry points into a comprehensive training pipeline in which content is delivered via different media to rapidly scale immersive training and education for mass audiences. The present paper introduces a new paradigm for more effective and scalable training and education called transmedia learning. Transmedia learning leverages several new media trends including the peer communications of social media, the scalability of massively openonline course (MOOCs), and the design of transmedia storytelling used by entertainment, advertising, and commercial game industries to sustain audience engagement. Transmedia learning is defined as the scalable system of messages representing a narrative or core experience that unfolds from the use of multiple media, emotionally engaging learners by involving them personally in the story. In the present paper, we introduce the transmedia learning paradigm as offering more effective use of serious games for training and education. This approach is consistent with the goals of international organizations implementing approaches similar to those described by the Army Learning Model (ALM) to deliver training and education to Soldiers across multiple media. We discuss why the human brain is wired for transmedia learning and demonstrate how the Simulation Experience Design Method can be used to create transmedia learning story worlds for serious games. We describe how social media interactions and MOOCs may be used in transmedia learning, and how data mining social media and experience tracking can inform the development of computational learner models for transmedia learning campaigns. Examples of how the U.S. Army has utilized transmedia campaigns for strategic communication and game-based training are provided. Finally, we provide strategies the reader can use today to incorporate transmedia storytelling elements such as Internet, serious games, video, social media, graphic novels, machinima, blogs, and alternate reality gaming into a new paradigm for training and education: transmedia learning.

Social learning through gaming

Introduction Throughout human history we have played and gamed. According to Eric Berne (1964), author of Games People Play, human relationships are in fact comprised of game playing behaviors. Huizinga [1] observes that playing games is one of the most common ways to form new groups – groups formed from playing games tend to become stable. Since playing games is such an important factor in the human socialization process, a natural extension is to believe that we learn social behavior from playing games. But while the general opinion holds this to be true for sports, other types of gaming, in particular computer gaming is rather seen as more anti -social than socializing behavior. This view has recently become challenged from many researchers, both through studies of children gaming behavior and the study of multi – player online role-playing games including MUDs.

Adding cultural signposts in adaptive community-based virtual environments

Abstract This paper describes an experimental, adaptive community-based system, the Forum, designed to facilitate communication where there are mutual concerns or interests among virtual communities within or across organizations. Our description of the Forum is presented from the perspective of user-centered interaction design. The system consists of a WWW-based collaborative virtual environment comprised of intelligent software agents that support explicit information sharing, chance meetings, and real time informal communication. The Forum provided the technological support for users to interact informally, but lacked the social support necessary to motivate users to interact with strangers in their community of practice. Context, or the reasons why two persons might want to meet, was overlooked. We propose future directions for the Forum including cultural signposts that provide contextual cues in the intelligent community-based system to better support information sharing and real time communication between strangers. The contribution of the present paper is to provide lessons learned about design considerations from a series of user trials over a period of one year for developing adaptive community-based systems.

Adaptive thinking and leadership training for cultural awareness and communication competence

This paper presents a report on a new multiplayer simulation game for government and/or non‐government interpersonal and intercultural communication training that launched in December 2004 and was designed expressly to serve as a non‐violent virtual sandbox in which multiple players practice communication skills, mental agility, and hone cultural awareness acumen. The game is currently being used in leadership training programs.

Intercultural Competence Game That Fosters Metacognitive Agility and Reflection

In this paper we describe the development of a multi-player computer game created to train the intercultural competence and metacognitive agility (self-awareness and self-regulated learning) of United States Army Special Forces team leaders. We describe a unique design that features a novel role for real-time, in-game peer performance assessment and feedback to encourage user reflection and self-explanation. We also discuss how the multiplayer game is successfully used in Special Forces intercultural communication education and offer user feedback results from a study conducted with 51 Special Forces officers.

Honing Emotional Intelligence with Game-Based Crucible Experiences

The focus of the present paper is the design of multi-player role-playing game instances as crucible experiences for the exploration of one’s emotional intelligence. Subsequent sections describe the design of game-based, intercultural crucible experiences and how this design was employed for training with members of the United States Marine Corps (USMC). This work with the USMC is presented as a case study and example of the use of crucible experiences in game-based learning. Crucible experiences are learning opportunities relevant across a number of different domains and disciplines such as education, healthcare, corporate training, diplomacy, crisis management, international business, and intercultural communication. The present paper demonstrates that crucible experiences are catalysts for personal growth and can be incorporated into game-based learning design whose intent is to create defining moments in which learners can explore emotional intelligence and examine who they are under challenging conditions.

DocuDrama conversations

This sketch describes DocuDrama, a tool that offers a generation of interactive narratives that are based on activities in a collaborative virtual environment. DocuDrama [Schäfer et al. 2001] is built as part of TOWER [2002], a Theatre of Work Enabling Relationships, which allows project members to be aware of project relevant activities as well as to establish and maintain the social relationships that intensify team coherence.

The effects of simulation participation on the perception of threatening cultural dynamics in a collaborative virtual learning environment

Findings indicate that, on the subject of power, participants in the computer-mediated, collaborative, inter-cultural DomeCityMOO (Multi-user dimension, Object-Oriented) simulation perceived its learning environment to be less threatening than did those who participated in the face-to-face Ecotonos simulation. Additionally, participants in the DomeCityMOO simulation perceived its environment as better for learning about identity and power differences than participants in the face-to face Ecotonos simulation.