Beyond game effectiveness. Part II, a qualitative study of multi-role experiential learning.

The present paper is the second in a series published at I/ITSEC that seeks to explain the efficacy of multirole experiential learning employed to create engaging game-based training methods transitioned to the U.S. Army, U.S. Army Special Forces, Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations teams. The first publication (I/ITSEC 2009) summarized findings from a quantitative study that investigated experiential learning in the multi-player, PC-based game module transitioned to PEO-STRI, DARWARS Ambush! NK (non-kinetic). The 2009 publication reported that participants of multi-role (Player and Reflective Observer/Evaluator) game-based training reported statistically significant learning and engagement. Additionally when the means of the two groups (Player and Reflective Observer/Evaluator) were compared, they were not statistically significantly different from each other. That is to say that both playing as well as observing/evaluating were engaging learning modalities. The Observer/Evaluator role was designed to provide an opportunity for real-time reflection and meta-cognitive learning during game play. Results indicated that this role was an engaging way to learn about communication, that participants learned something about cultural awareness, and that the skills they learned were helpful in problem solving and decision-making. The present paper seeks to continue to understand what and how users of non-kinetic game-based missions learn by revisitingmore » the 2009 quantitative study with further investigation such as stochastic player performance analysis using latent semantic analyses and graph visualizations to correlate against human coder ratings and pre- and post-test self-analysis. The results are applicable to First-Person game-based learning systems designed to enhance trainee intercultural communication, interpersonal skills, and adaptive thinking. In the full paper, we discuss results obtained from data collected from 78 research participants of diverse backgrounds who trained by engaging in tasks directly, as well as observing and evaluating peer performance in real-time. The goal is two-fold. One is to quantify and visualize detailed player performance data coming from game play transcription to give further understanding to the results in the 2009 I/ITSEC paper. The second is to develop a set of technologies from this quantification and visualization approach into a generalized application tool to be used to aid in future games development of player/learner models and game adaptation algorithms.« less