serious games

Nowadays computers are increasingly being incorporated into school curriculums and serious games are occupying the educational games markets. This article addressed the integration of serious games as tools for learning and teaching English in Iranian schools to zero-beginner students. An experiment was concluded using Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) to investigate the effectiveness of using serious games; namely, Mingoville English as an educational aid and also to examine parents, students and instructors’ attitudes towards using serious games. To this end, 60 female students were chosen and divided into two groups. The control group was taught in the conventional way and the experimental group received the educational aiding material Mingoville, a web-based serious game program, as the treatment. The results of the analyses revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group as the method of teaching was changed. The study also showed the willingness of children, their parents, and teachers toward using such games. It can be concluded that using serious games such as Mingoville can be regarded as an effective tool in teaching English to Iranian EFL children at schools and language institutes. The study can benefit teachers and heads of institutes to add serious games as aiding instructional materials to their English classes.

The purpose of this study was to determine the potential power of teaching using urban simulation software such as the SimCity computer game for educating master’s students at Iranian Universities. This quasi-experimental study was conducted considering two groups: one control group and one experimental group, including a pre-test and a post-test design. The sample of the study consisted of 60 students of three public universities of Art (Tehran, Isfahan, and Yazd) in 2017-2018. Thirty master’s students in urban planning and urban design were selected from the population using a random sampling method and were randomly divided into two groups: one experimental group and one control group (30 participants in each). The pre-test and the post-test included the Torrance test in creativity with Abedi's questionnaire and the open-ended and close-ended "workshop course learning skills" questionnaires were distributed in both groups. The experimental group was trained by the SimCity computer game, while the control group received normal classroom training. The pre-test and post-test results were analyzed using the IBM SPSS, and the inferential statistics in the form of the Pearson correlation, the Analysis of Covariance, and independent samples t-test were investigated. Findings showed that the SimCity positively improved the participants’ skills of learning workshop courses in the aforesaid fields, and increased their overall scores. Regarding the components of the learning skills in this course, it improved problem-solving and the planning skills of the students. However, the status of these components did not considerably improve the creativity and systems thinking of postgraduate students.

It is generally perceived that serious games are more interesting to people who are more educated. But is this perception really true? This paper tries to answer this question and some other related questions to provide a clearer picture of who plays strategic games in the US. Data were taken from a large dataset of one of the PEWs surveys. The American Trends Panel is a probability-based online panel which is carried out nationally using a sample of adults in the United States living in households. This survey was fielded for the Pew Research Center by Abt Associates from April 4 to April 18, 2017. Overall, 4,168 participants completed the Wave 26 survey. The results found that in comparison with non-strategic gamers, strategic gamers are more likely to be men, more educated and wealthier, though the differences are small. It seems the old stereotypes about Sgamers and NSgamers should be re-evaluated, if we want to know how to use serious games for educational purposes. 

SUBJECT & OBJECTIVES: In their quest for survival, organizations must comprehend and adapt to the evolving conditions of the modern environment. This necessity fosters organizational dynamism and enhances productivity. In the meantime, human resources, as the vital force of the organization, play a crucial role in fulfilling its mission and vision. Therefore, the recruitment and development of human resources emerge as fundamental components of effective human resource management. This study aims to investigate serious games in organizational talent management, with a focus on serious games.METHOD & FINDING: This research employed a mixed-method approach, and thematic analysis was utilized to explore the typology of serious games and examine their impact on two dimensions: talent attraction and development and their influence on enhancing the quality of organizational human work life. Also, an expert panel of seven human resources professionals, experienced in assessment centers and serious games, facilitated the thematic search process.CONCLUSION: In terms of categorizing serious games in talent management and their role in enhancing the QWL for organizational humans, 188 codes were extracted, of which sixteen core themes were related to talent attraction and development. Of the sixteen themes identified, three themes were focused on talent attraction: role-playing, oral presentation, and gamified psychological testing. Six themes were dedicated to talent development: educational energizers, educational icebreakers, educational nudges, escape rooms, storytelling, and virtual simulations. Additionally, seven themes were effective for both talent attraction and development: boot camps, group discussions, board games, case studies, handicraft creation, information search, and gamification.