Poster Information
| Title | Transitioning a report driven academic simulation to an interactive game |
| Presenter(s) | Mark Fitzgerald, Eileen Quintero, Sean Meyer and Michael Bleed |
| Session | Conference Reception, Game Exhibition, and Poster Session |
| Time | Thursday, October 16, 7:00p-10:00p |
| Location | Ballroom |
| Format | Poster Presentation |
| Description | Although gaming theory is gaining popularity among academic environments, challenges for implementing games in academia include: engaging the user, measuring outcomes, creating the game in the most appropriate media.
In almost any setting, greater performance outcomes can be elicited from self-determined engagement as compared to forced engagement (Deci & Ryan, 2008). Games are an effective method for fostering environments for self-determined engagement. Learning itself is fun, and game incentives and inventiveness can be used to inform an existing, effective higher education curriculum rather than building isolated games with embedded academics (Begg, Dewhurst, & Macleod, 2005). Business and military trainings use games for successful acquisition of social and technical talents (Fortmuller 2009), but fewer games have been deployed in the medical fields where they may be equally useful (Seagull, 2012). Simulations are different than games and require separate planning and implementation to work in a dental setting (Klabbers, 1980). Udin and Kuster found that a board game did not increase empathy or confidence among dental students for treatment of special needs patients (1985), however more recent gaming strategies employed in dental hygiene and prosthodontics specialties found increased test performance and speed among gaming groups as compared to traditional lecture groups (Peterson, Mauriello, & Caplan 2000) (Loney, Murphy, & Miller, 2000). |