Mid Sweden University

Game-based learning has established itself as a student-centred supplementary learning activity in most higher education subjects. Many university campuses are today providing collections of board games available at no cost for self-directing student activities. For universities with a high degree of distance education there is little comparable material available for online courses. There is of course a plethora of digital games available online, but rarely with any alignment to academic subjects and specific courses. For STEM subjects there are several research studies that report on successful initiatives for virtual labs with a mix of tailored simulations and educational games.  The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss the requirements for a virtual lab that could provide user-friendly access to simulations and educational games in a wide range of university subjects. In the first phase of this educational development project, the focus is on games for the subjects of History, Pedagogy, and Computer science. The long-term goal is to create a virtual learning lab for all university subjects. Beside the work on finding the appropriate learning games and applications, a large part of this project will be creating a structure for the virtual lab and providing access to different types of games.  The research strategy utilizes the Design science framework, with a focus for this paper on the initial phases of 1) Explicating the problem and 2) defining the requirements for the artefact. Data were gathered partly through a literature review, partly through a study of earlier development projects at the university, and partly from discussions with other researchers in the field of game-based learning. Regarding phase 1) To explicate and elaborate on the problem, the findings indicate that the issues of user-friendly access and licenses for commercial games are of primary importance. This leads over to phase 2), which indicates requirements for high usability and user-friendliness in a virtual gaming lab. This means hosting a mix of commercial quality games and educational games developed and tested in earlier development projects at the university. There are also discussions on collaborations with other game developing teachers from outside our university.    

With the rapid development of games in the 21st century, the panoply of games on history shows a wide variety. Backstories from most historical eras have been implemented in different game genres and modalities. Furthermore, a growing number of studies have pointed to the didactic potential of historical games as learning tools. This study aims at investigating university students' perceptions of gaming and their game preferences, with a particular focus on history. The research question to answer was: "What types of games do history students play, and how can games, in their view, contribute to learning in their subject?" Educational action research was used as the overall strategy in a study where data was collected from five different university course groups in general history at the basic level. Students answered questionnaires with open ended questions about gaming preferences and their perceptions of games. The answers were then analysed in an inductive thematic analysis. Findings show that the students play a mix of analogue board games, digital games and hybrid forms. In the transmedial array of games available, important genres include role playing games, strategy games, quizzes and first-person action games. The students frequently provide arguments for the use of games in history education, and they give reasons why they find a particular game useful for this purpose. They describe how these games have a potential to add value to history education. To some extent, they also discuss how this can be implemented. In conclusion, the authors argue that so-called technology tree games are particularly relevant to learning history from a structural perspective, while RPG:s can strengthen interpretive approaches through a subjective historical experience.

This chapter explores the education of King Charles XI. The king struggled when learning to read and his teacher struggled to understand and alleviate his pupil’s difficulties. The teacher claimed that the king’s difficulties were a result of a heroic talent, characteristic of monarchs. Deterministic views of individual talent could serve to reinforce the hierarchical relations of seventeenth-century estate society, but it could also benefit a few talented men from the lower orders. Even in a king, the expectation of innate talent had a meritocratic side, incompatible with hereditary monarchy. The young king was expected to have an exceptional talent, but when this turned out to be unsuitable for academic study, political ideology and pedagogical theory conflicted, while also being unhelpful to the royal pupil.

Game-based learning has become a mainstream didactic approach used in many educational contexts.There is today a large-scale development of tailored educational games, but also a frequent use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) games. The use of technology trees in games has a specific interest for game-based learning in history education, where technology trees illustrate a civilization’s progress in terms of scientific, technological, cultural or economic innovations. The aim of this study is to investigate technology tree games and their potential use in history education. What particular skills can this tool learn students of history? Which insights does it provide in their understanding of historical processes? This study was carried out as a scoping review to provide an overview of game-based learning based on technology trees. A scoping review is an exploratory study that systematically maps the literature on a specific topic to build a foundation for future work and further research. The results from this study will be used in the implementation of game-based learning in university courses on history. The literature review showed that the technology tree-feature in historical games has the potential to train students on four major and interconnected points above all: 1) The understanding of historical causality, 2) The concepts of contingency and determinism, 3) Counter-factual reasoning, and 4) The application and discussion of historical theories in relation to major historical processes and epochs. The review also highlights recurring criticisms of games using the technology tree concept: 1) From a postcolonial perspective, many strategy games including a tech tree are considered to reinforce a Eurocentric narrative of world history through emphasis on scientific development, international trade,war and expansionism, while sometimes also downplaying important but controversial historical institutions and developments, notably slavery, and 2) From a feminist perspective, many games have been criticised for a male gender-bias in portraying leading historical figures or the general marginalization of the role of women in society. Again, the tech tree has been claimed to reinforce such tendencies. Finally, the review concludes with suggestions for future research. Most importantly, the findings point to the need of testing and evaluation of the use of games involving the techno tree feature in actual course practice in higher education.

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