Serious Games in the Workplace
Project Synopsis:
The use of Serious Games (SG) in different industry sectors as a means of capability development has been gaining traction. SGs are known to be purpose-built interactive computer applications that set gamers a challenging goal. In doing so, gamers are engaged, have fun but most importantly learn a skill, gain new knowledge and as a result improved behavioural and attitudinal changes are likely to be evidenced in the real world construct. SG thus provides a balance between ‘challenge and learning’.
Research shows that the average game player is 37 years old and has been playing games for an average 12 years. Interestingly, 42% of players are known to be women and women aged 18 and over represent a greater share of this population.
The progress in SGs, which started in the educational technology domain, is seen to be penetrating different industry sectors. The iterative process of this growth cycle has meant that the technology on which SG is developed has grown to be robust; and, technology acceptance has more or less been achieved. However, with the growth in serious gaming and its user base, the evidence base linking SG and productivity benefits within business units or organisations has not been validated.
SCRIPT is breaking new ground here with organisational partners in the development, testing and launch of a Serious Game for the construction sector focussed on Safety Training. In doing so, SCRIPT will also attempt to understand the productivity impact from such SGs by deploying its Interface/Content-Construct-Concurrency (i3C) approach.
Lead Investigators:
- Associate Professor Christopher VAS
- Associate Professor Peter WARING
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