Developing organizations using serious games: A qualitative study of learning through collaborative play
Abstract
Collaborative serious games, games with a purpose beyond entertainment, are being widely used in research and practice. Proponents believe that collaborative serious games improve or cause learning, a view that is supported by growing research evidence. However, limited research has been carried out on how collaboration is experienced by players, and how collaboration plays out during play.
Therefore, this thesis aims to improve understanding of how serious games are experienced. This is done by exploring how player experiences emerge and occur during the process of play. More specifically, the thesis explores how collaboration, engagement, and learning experiences come to be and plays out in small play groups.
Findings show that collaboration can arise rapidly when players manage their differences, face the unknown together, and adapt to the needs of others. Getting collaboration going through play thus opens the door for players to learn in unique ways. For one, individual learning through formalizing practical experience, exploring diverging perspectives, and reflecting on others’ thinking is found to be experienced in collaborating groups. Players are also found to have shared learning experiences, arising as they jointly overcome challenges, craft collaborative strategies, and acquire know-how together.
These findings indicate that serious games can create a unique setting for collaborative learning experiences, wherein collaboration and learning reinforce each other. This adds to what is already known by improving understanding of how learning and collaboration come to be and develop during play.
The thesis establishes that the process of play makes possible ways of acting and interacting that set play apart from other approaches to learning. Especially so by quickly establishing the conditions needed for fruitful collaboration that leads to learning. Findings can also be interpreted using established theories of collaboration, engagement, and learning, but remain game specific and dependent on the individual players.
A qualitative approach was applied throughout the thesis to explore player experiences and the process of play. Approximately 200 players were observed across five game play sessions using four different serious games. 24 players and facilitators were subsequently interviewed. Data was analyzed using a constructivist grounded theory approach.
Has parts
Paper 1: Almås, Håvard Bjørge; Hakvåg, Magnus; Oliveira, Manuel Fradinho; Torvatn, Hans Yngvar. Participant Centred Framework to Support the Digital Transformation of Boardgames for Skill Development. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 2021 s. 85-97. © 2021 Springer Nature. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88272-3_7Paper 2: Almås, Håvard Bjørge; Pinkow, Felix; Giæver, Fay. Reimagining how to understand learning game experiences: a qualitative and exploratory case study. Smart Learning Environments 2023 ;Volum 10.(1) s. – Published by Springer. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License CC BY. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40561-023-00234-0
Paper 3: Almås, Håvard Bjørge; Giæver, Fay. The emergence of collaboration in serious games: An exploratory study. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SERIOUS GAMES 2024 ;Volum 11.(3) s. 89-108. Published by Serious Games Society. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License CC BY NC-ND. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.17083/ijsg.v11i3.739
Paper 4: Almås, Håvard Bjørge; Giæver, Fay. Serious games as a catalyst for teamwork: a qualitative learning study. This paper is under review for publication and is therefore not included.