Comments on the Perception, Identification, and Measurement of Learning from Simulation Games

Abstract

Although a number of evaluative typologies exist, the systems of James [4] or Suchman [12] are particularly useful when considering the gaming literature. In their systems, the success or failure of a gaming application is judged by the (1) effort expended by the applicator, (2) obtained performance outcomes, (3) adequacy of the application’s performance, (4) relative efficiency of the application when compared to alternative teaching methods, and (5) process and affects through which results are presumed to occur. While the early gaming literature abounded in reportorial and descriptive studies of the first category and there has been a continuing interest in studies of the last category (termed an epistemological approach by Keys [51), this short note has been delimited to those studies that are basically comparative in nature and are primarily interested in the efficacy of one pedagogical approach over some other pedagogical approach.