Serious Games Testing for I/ITSEC

Serious Games Testing for I/ITSEC: the world's largest modelling, simulation, and training conference

About Serious Games Testing

Evaluators: NBCC Instructors, Terry Gadsden and Kevin Gallant, and NBCC Electronic Game 3D Students

NBCC Miramichi staff and Electronic Game 3D II (EG-3D) students are participating as evaluators in I/ITSEC’s 2015 Serious Games Showcase and Challenge – for the sixth year in a row!

I/ITSEC, which stands for Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, is the world's largest modelling, simulation, and training conference. From November 30-December 4, this Conference will attract over 20,000 attendees to Orlando, FL .

As part of this Conference, the 2015 Serious Games Showcase and Challenge (SGSC) is an opportunity to celebrate the use of games and game technology as a delivery medium for instructional material.

As a lead up to this SGSC, NBCC staff and students are testing serious games software to help identify finalists in the following award categories:

• Special Emphasis Award: Social Media Crowdsourcing for Peer Learning
• Best Business Game
• Best Student Game
• Best Government Game
• Best Mobile Game

Other awards include the Students' Choice Award and the People’s Choice Award.

What does this mean for NBCC?

• Students from the Electronic Game 3D year II (EG-3D II) Program will be testing games in the new Mobile Ideaspace at NBCC Miramichi.
• As evaluators, NBCC staff and students play each of the games, including mobile serious games in both IOS and Android, and then score them as a group through online surveys.
• After a rigorous evaluation, the top entries are selected as serious game finalists and are invited to showcase their games on the exhibit floor during I/ITSEC.
• Finalists are notified after all the software testing rubrics are filled in by the judges monitored by NBCC Instructors Terry Gadsden and Kevin Gallant.
• This year, Terry Gadsden will be using his course Emerging Trends to evaluate these games as part of the evolution of education and games technology. His experience with Audio, Video will certainly provide a positive User experience on these games.

What is a Serious Game?

The definition of a “serious game” varies among different communities and different parts of the world, but a qualifying SGS&C serious game must:

• Have clearly defined, measurable learning objectives;
• Provide players with a clearly identified challenge/problem;
• Make use of game play dynamics and/or gaming technology; and
• Provide players with positive/negative feedback with respect to progress toward the Game’s challenge and achievement of learning objectives.