Serious Games And Virtual Worlds In Education Professional Development And Healthcare

"This book explains how digital environments can easily become familiar and beneficial for educational and professional development, with the implementation of games into various aspects of our environment"--Provided by publisher.

With advances in technologies and revolutions in patient, trainee, and public expectations, the global healthcare sector is increasingly turning to serious games to solve problems. Serious games are applications with serious purposes, developed using computer game technologies more often associated with entertainment. Serious Games for Healthcare: Applications and Implications will introduce the development and application of game technologies for health-related serious games. Further, it provides cutting-edge academic research and industry updates which will inform readers about the current and future advances in the area. Encapsulating the knowledge of commercial and noncommercial researchers, developers, and practitioners in a single volume will benefit not only the research and development community within this field, but could also serve public health interests by improving awareness and outcomes.

There is a tremendous interest among researchers for the development of virtual, augmented reality and games technologies due to their widespread applications in medicine and healthcare. To date the major applications of these technologies include medical simulation, telemedicine, medical and healthcare training, pain control, visualisation aid for surgery, rehabilitation in cases such as stroke, phobia and trauma therapies. Many recent studies have identified the benefits of using Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality or serious games in a variety of medical applications. This research volume on Virtual, Augmented Reality and Serious Games for Healthcare 1 offers an insightful introduction to the theories, development and applications of virtual, augmented reality and digital games technologies in medical and clinical settings and healthcare in general. It is divided into six sections: section one presents a selection of applications in medical education and healthcare management; Section two relates to the nursing training, health literacy and healthy behaviour; Section three presents the applications of Virtual Reality in neuropsychology; Section four includes a number of applications in motor rehabilitation; Section five aimed at therapeutic games for various diseases; and the final section presents the applications of Virtual Reality in healing and restoration. This book is directed to the healthcare professionals, scientists, researchers, professors and the students who wish to explore the applications of virtual, augmented reality and serious games in healthcare further.

With the continued application of gaming for training and education, which has seen exponential growth over the past two decades, this book offers an insightful introduction to the current developments and applications of game technologies within educational settings, with cutting-edge academic research and industry insights, providing a greater understanding into current and future developments and advances within this field. Following on from the success of the first volume in 2011, researchers from around the world presents up-to-date research on a broad range of new and emerging topics such as serious games and emotion, games for music education and games for medical training, to gamification, bespoke serious games, and adaptation of commercial off-the shelf games for education and narrative design, giving readers a thorough understanding of the advances and current issues facing developers and designers regarding games for training and education. This second volume of Serious Games and Edutainment Applications offers further insights for researchers, designers and educators who are interested in using serious games for training and educational purposes, and gives game developers with detailed information on current topics and developments within this growing area.

This book introduces new concepts and mechanisms regarding the usage of both social media interactions and artifacts for peer education in digital educational games. Digital games in general, and digital educational games in particular, represent an area with a high potential for interdisciplinary innovation, not only from an information technology standpoint, but also from social science, psychological and didactic perspectives. This book presents an interdisciplinary approach to educational games, which is centered on information technology and aims at: (1) improving digital management by focusing on the exchange of learning outcomes and solution assessment in a peer-to-peer network of learners; (2) achieving digital implementation by using forms of interaction to change the course of educational games; and (3) providing digital support by fostering group-formation processes in educational situations to increase both the effects of educational games and knowledge exchange at the individual level. In addition to a systematic analysis of the relationship between software architecture, educational games and social media applications, the book also presents the implemented IT systems' architectures and algorithmic solutions as well as the resulting applicable evaluation findings from the field of interactive multimedia learning.

This textbook provides an introduction to the fundamentals of serious games, which differ considerably from computer games that are meant for pure entertainment. Undergraduate and graduate students from various disciplines who want to learn about serious games are one target group of this book. Prospective developers of serious games are another, as they can use the book for self-study in order to learn about the distinctive features of serious game design and development. And ultimately, the book also addresses prospective users of serious game technologies by providing them with a solid basis for judging the advantages and limitations of serious games in different application areas such as game-based learning, training and simulation or games for health. To cater to this heterogeneous readership and wide range of interests, every effort was made to make the book flexible to use. All readers are expected to study Chapter 1, as it provides the necessary basics and terminology that will be used in all subsequent chapters. The eleven chapters that follow cover the creation of serious games (design, authoring processes and tools, content production), the runtime context of serious games (game engines, adaptation mechanisms, game balancing, game mastering, multi-player serious games), the effects of serious games and their evaluation (player experience, assessment techniques, performance indicators), and serious games in practice (economic aspects, cost-benefit analysis, serious game distribution). To familiarize the readers with best practice in this field, the final chapter presents more than 30 selected examples of serious games illustrating their characteristics and showcasing their practical use. Lecturers can select chapters in a sequence that is most suitable for their specific course or seminar. The book includes specific suggestions for courses such as “Introduction to Serious Games”, “Entertainment Technology”, “Serious Game Design”, “Game-based Learning”, and “Applications of Serious Games”.

The ever-growing creation of new internet technologies has led to a growing trend and use of scenario-based virtual environments and serious games in education. Along with these new technologies, there is an increasing interest in how students can be effectively assessed when using these virtual environments. Cases on the Assessment of Scenario and Game-Based Virtual Worlds in Higher Education is a comprehensive collection that provides aspects of assessment in virtual worlds combined with lessons learned from critical reflection. These case studies present successes, challenges, and innovations to be utilized as a framework for practitioners and researchers to base their own effective forms of scenario-based learning. This publication would be of particular interest to practice-based disciplines such as education, nursing, medicine, and social work.

Written by a leading team from the Australian Society for Simulation in Healthcare (ASSH), Simulation Australasia, Healthcare Simulation Education is a new resource for a rapidly expanding professional healthcare simulation community. Designed as a core reference for educators who use simulation as an educational method, it outlines theory, evidence and research relevant to healthcare simulation. Containing examples of innovations from around the world, the book offers opportunities to make clear connections between the underlying rationale for the use of simulation, and what this looks like in practice. Healthcare Simulation Education: Helps readers gain a systematic understanding of theory and application of simulation Facilitates access to high quality resources to support healthcare simulation education and research Edited by a leading team from the Australian Society for Simulation in Healthcare (ASSH), the leading body for healthcare simulation in Australia Contains information on educational theory, the elements of simulation practice and contemporary issues in simulation An important text in healthcare literature and practice, Healthcare Simulation Education provides a unique cross-disciplinary overview of an innovative subject area, and is ideal for medical, nursing and allied health educators, policy makers and researchers.