1. SUNY Games
AN IITG Sponsored Project to Investigate Games for Learning across SUNY

2. Overview What are games?
Why might games be useful in education settings?
What have we done so far on the IITG grant?
What are we doing next?

3. What are games?
Take a minute.
Write a definition.
Share it.

4. One definition
“A voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.”
Four Defining Traits
Goals – provide a sense of purpose
Rules – foster creative and strategic thinking
Feedback system – e.g. levels, scores, progress bars (supports/sustains motivations)
Voluntary participation – makes playing safe a and enjoyable

5. Problem
“…research indicates that U.S. students are becoming less engaged and falling significantly behind the rest of the world in STEM disciplines.”

6. International Achievement
Between , 4th/8th graders’ test scores in science, math, and reading:
US improved annually at a rate of about 1.6% of a standard deviation.
Student scores in 24 countries improved at a faster rate:
Latvia, Chile, and Brazil improved at an annual rate of 4% .
Portugal, Hong Kong, Germany, Poland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Columbia, and Lithuania: twice the rate of the US.
US is losing the competition in the world community for academic achievement (25th/49 countries).
SOURCE: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (Hanushek, Peterson, & Woessman, 2012).

7. Other Indices of “Trouble”
Declining number of earned doctorates in physical sciences and engineers by US citizens and permanent residents in the past decade (Tai, Liu, Maltese, & Fan, 2006).
Persistence of underrepresented groups in science majors and professions:
African American women: only 2% of full-time science faculty in US (Gregory, 2002).
Growing student boredom and inattentiveness (Mann & Robinson, 2009; Grier et al., 2003; Bunce et al. (2010), & Young et al. 2011).
Lack of motivation/attention and student disengagement from the classroom (Christenson & Thurlow, 2004; Moore, Armstrong, & Pearson, 2008)

8. Trouble with Boys…
gaming_to_re_engage_boys_in_learning.html
In her presentation Chellman discusses the 100 Girls Project…

15. Chellman In her work she indicates:
Disconnect between the culture of boys and culture of schools
93% of teacher in primary schools are women
Culture of boys dismissed/degraded
Boys turn to sports and video games neither of which are valued academically
The message is “academically you don’t belong”

17. Why video games?
“Videogames are a powerful medium that curriculum designers can use to create narratively rich worlds for achieving educational goals. In these worlds, youth can become scientists, doctors, writers, and mathematicians who critically engage complex disciplinary content to transform a virtual world.”
Barab, S. A., Gresalfi, M., & Ingram-Goble, A. (2010). Transformational Play: Using Games to Position Person, Content, and Context. Educational Researcher 39(1), pp

18. National Academy of Science
The committee views simulations and games as worthy of future investment and investigation as a means to improve science learning.

19. National Academy of Science
Simulations and games have potential to advance multiple science learning goals, including
motivation to learn science
conceptual understanding
science process skills
understanding of the nature of science
scientific discourse and argumentation
identification with science and science learning

20. National Academy of Sciences
To facilitate ongoing improvement in simulations and games for science learning:
academic researchers
developers and entrepreneurs from the gaming industry
education practitioners and policy makers
Should form research and development partnerships to facilitate rich intellectual collaboration.

21. National Academy of Sciences
These partnerships, which may be large or small, should coordinate and share information internally and with other partnerships.
Government agencies and foundations may consider the potential benefits of providing sustained support for such partnerships.

22. Goals of Grant
Develop an online academic program that will span campuses via Open SUNY
Reflect the interdisciplinary nature of STEM and video game development
Promote rich collaboration between students, educators, designers, musicians, scientists, artists, business.
Develop relationships with industry partners
Seek external funding through this consortium to achieve the vision

23. Principles Fostering authentic and interdisciplinary STEM learning
Engaging students in learning as both game consumers and producers 
Building an open collaborative infrastructure (Open SUNY-network) to enable:
cross-sector, cross-campus, and cross-program collaboration

24. A Multi Campus, Multidisciplinary Effort
Peter Shea, Alan Oliveira, Jianwei Zhang, Faculty - Educational Theory & Practice, University at Albany Daniel Goodwin, Chair, Art Department, University at Albany Jennifer Goodall and George Berg – Faculty - College of Computing and Information, University at Albany Roberta Johnson and Mathias Vuille, Faculty - College of Atmospheric Science, University at Albany Bina Ramamurthy, Faculty - Computer Science and Engineering, University at Buffalo James McElwaine, Professor of Music, Purchase College

25. A Multi Campus, Multidisciplinary Effort
Edward Bever, Faculty College at Old Westbury
Role: Game design process consultant
Alexandra Pickett, Associate Director - SUNY Learning Network
Role: Project coordination, online course design, instructional design
Kim Scalzo, Director, SUNY Center for Professional Development
Role: Project coordination, support for community building activities, project communication
Suzanne Hayes, Director of Instructional Technology - Empire State College
Role: Consultation on technology infrastructure needs, curricular options at ESC, research
Larry Dugan, Director of Online Learning, Finger Lakes Community College
Role: Curriculum development, community college component of program
Anna Zhou, Shoubang Jian, Doctoral students, University at Albany
Role: research and curricular support for project, provides in-kind support ($21k) for lead institution.

27. Industry Partners/Affiliates
Tobi Saulnier, First Playable – Game Design Company, Troy, New York
Aaron Westendorf, Agora Games, Integrated Online Gaming Community, Troy, New York
Glenn Van Knowe, MESO, Atmospheric Science Simulation Developer
Craig Alexander, Turbine Games, Boston MA (Subsidiary of Warner Bros Studio)
Steve Swink (Flash Bang Studios – Quest Atlantis)

32. Some progress to date Literature review in progress (session here)
A .5 day conference – CIT sessions, ALN…
New online course at UAlbany –
Introduction to Games for Learning: Theory and Practice
Outlines/draft syllabi for other courses
Structure of program developed (certificates)
New industry partners – guest speakers
Another NSF proposal coming
Website created…submit ideas!
NSF proposal submitted ($1.2M)

33. Mini-conference at SUNY SOL
Grant sponsored a half day games for learning session at SLN Online Learning Conference
Speakers
Sean Duncan – Indiana University – Affinity Spaces
Ann Derryberry – Sage Road - (Gamification)
Bina Ramamurty (UB)
Alan Oliveria (Ualbany)
Peter Shea (Ualbany)

34. New online course at UAlbany –
Introduction to Games for Learning: Theory and Practice
Jason Vickers
First time offered Summer 2013
Part of the MS in CDIT
21 students enrolled!
Currently working on syllabi for related coursework

36. Course 2: Introduction to Games for Learning Design
Course in development with Steve Swink of Flash Bang Studios
Swink also worked on Quest Atlantis
Joint offering with CCI and ETAP at Ualbany

38. NSF Proposal Call: ITEST
Title: SUNY Games: A Scalable Collaborative Infrastructure for Immersive Environments in STEM
Duration: 3 years
Goal: use video games development to address the STEM problem through collaboration on the design, development, testing, implementation and ongoing refinement of such videogames.

39. NSF Proposal
Intervention: Development of “computer-based narrative discovery learning game”.
Definition: “players are faced with a challenge within a simulated environment in which they can control the action of one or more characters… having a clear story line in which characters’ actions are directed toward a goal in the story…[and] players learn academic content in the context of solving problems or exploring within the game (Adams, Mayer, &MacNamara, 2012)
Focus: global climate change (STS connection and SSI)
Rationale: Combines pedagogical elements effective in promoting active and engaged science learning: narratives, exploration, science discovery, guide play, and collaboration.
Encourage students to develop “science identities by positioning them as active science storytellers or knowledge producers (Jimenez-Aleixandre & Pereiro-Munoz, 2002).

40. An example of how campus expertise/experience can contribute: UB

41. Visual Environments for STEM Learning: Experiences and Opportunities
Bina Ramamurthy (Bina)
This talk is partially funded by NSF grants
NSF-CCLI NSF-TUES , NSF-OCI
B. Ramamurthy, 3/1/2013, SUNY Online Learning Conference

42. Our Quest
For the past ten years or more we have been trying to disseminate difficult concepts in STEM (esp. CSE and BIO) through visual environments
I will discuss three such projects (Past, present, future)
Our experience: These tools and environments we have been developing have technical depth and correctness but are minimal in user engagement and visual appeal
We seek your (games and instructional technology ) help in this aspect
These are excellent opportunities for collaboration
B. Ramamurthy, 3/1/2013, SUNY Online Learning Conference

43. ViGOR: Visual Grid Tutorial
B. Ramamurthy, 3/1/2013, SUNY Online Learning Conference

44. Pop!World Collaborative with BIO
Dr. Jessica Poulin and Dr. Katharina Dittmar of Biology
NSF supported
Used by entry level students in Biology
Other upper level students also use it
K-12 component is also included (Pop!World Gateway)
Cloud deployed on Google App Engine
Monitoring student learning behavior
B. Ramamurthy, 3/1/2013, SUNY Online Learning Conference

45. Pop!World
B. Ramamurthy, 3/1/2013, SUNY Online Learning Conference

46. Google App Engine Load Monitoring
9/17/2018
CUBRC/Calspan, Buffalo, NY. Ramamurthy

47. MemCache on GoogleAppEngine (2010)
9/17/2018
Memcache partial unavailability

48. Data-intensive Computing (Big-data)
Certificate program at University at Buffalo
Lot of learning material in the traditional setting has been generated
See
We would like to create a highly interactive Massively Open Online Course format pedagogy and game-like learning environment for Big-data
Open for discussions.
B. Ramamurthy, 3/1/2013, SUNY Online Learning Conference

49. Next Steps…

50. Open SUNY Turbine Agora MESO Other SUNY Partners… Pre-college partners
External Funding Agencies

51. Join Us!
Does your campus have a related program or interest in developing one?
Would you like your students to collaborate across SUNY campuses to create games for learning?
Send an to

52. Potential Solutions
Engage students in science inquiries experiences (apprenticeship models)
Allow students to experience science first-hand
Allow students to develop “science identities”
Provision of role models (collaborating mentors)
Common formats: afterschool programs, summer programs

53. “Videogames are a powerful medium that curriculum designers can use to create narratively rich worlds for achieving educational goals. In these worlds, youth can become scientists, doctors, writers, and mathematicians who critically engage complex disciplinary content to transform a virtual world.”
Barab, S. A., Gresalfi, M., & Ingram-Goble, A. (2010). Transformational Play: Using Games to Position Person, Content, and Context. Educational Researcher 39(1), pp