IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/simgam/v52y2021i2p132-152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Challenges in Serious Game Design and Development: Educators’ Experiences

Author

Listed:
  • Anastasia Dimitriadou
  • Naza Djafarova
  • Ozgur Turetken
  • Margaret Verkuyl
  • Alexander Ferworn

Abstract

Background. Relatively little is known about the role of educators in serious game design and development and their experiences with serious game implementation . We investigate educators’ perceived challenges deriving from their involvement as subject matter experts during the serious game development trajectory. Methods. A secondary analysis of data collected through an exploratory survey about serious game design and development approaches was carried out. The sample included 41 educators from post-secondary education institutions across North America. An in-depth analysis of qualitative data revealed educators’ roles in game development, the challenges they faced, and the strategies they deployed in serious game design, development, and implementation. Results. Educators, as serious game designers, perceived challenges to be administrative, design-related, attitudinal, and communicative. Strategies deployed to overcome challenges during the concept development, pre-production, and production stages of game design include the creation of games that balance learning and fun, and enhanced team collaboration through cultural mediation. During the post-production stage, although challenges are acknowledged and some strategies, such as improving the usability of a game, are deployed, a clear pattern in challenges and mitigating strategies could not be observed. Conclusion. Serious game design and development can be improved by nurturing diversity of ideas and adopting creative design and development methodologies. Serious game implementation can be improved by devising effective administrative and attitudinal strategies, and incorporating diversity of ideas into target curricula. Additionally, clear directives about usability should be devised, and academic objectivity towards serious games needs to be be created. Strategies to achieve these goals should focus on developing trust between target users, the technical development team, and educators as serious game implementers.

Suggested Citation

  • Anastasia Dimitriadou & Naza Djafarova & Ozgur Turetken & Margaret Verkuyl & Alexander Ferworn, 2021. "Challenges in Serious Game Design and Development: Educators’ Experiences," Simulation & Gaming, , vol. 52(2), pages 132-152, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:simgam:v:52:y:2021:i:2:p:132-152
    DOI: 10.1177/1046878120944197
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1046878120944197
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1046878120944197?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wijitbusaba Marome & Boonanan Natakun & Diane Archer, 2021. "Examining the Use of Serious Games for Enhancing Community Resilience to Climate Risks in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-14, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:simgam:v:52:y:2021:i:2:p:132-152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.