Empiric Empires: Game-based learning preparing students for health careers

来自服务不足和少数族裔社区的学生不仅在健康方面代表不足 但在学术上也没有准备好在导致这些工作的专业上取得成功。现有应用程序 在提高数学成绩方面没有成功，很大程度上是因为三分之二的教育技术 学校购买的许可证从未使用过。要在教育程序中使用，软件必须 适应预算、硬件和互联网的限制，但仍能让学生参与进来，轻松 安装和使用。我们的目标是开发和测试一个原型集成软件平台，以快速创建 基于手机游戏的学习软件，引人入胜，有效，可在低端设备上运行。 帝国帝国的创新有四个方面：1)更快、更便宜地开发软件的平台， 2)强调人物和叙事，而不是视频和3D图形，支持在低端移动设备上安装 设备3)嵌入真正的冒险游戏中的教育和评估内容以及4)跨课程 内容包括数学、社会学和健康科学。游戏中收集玩家答案的数据 数学和健康科学问题提供了学生已有知识的基线，并衡量了 教材的有效性。视频主要被画外音和动画gif、图形所取代 小说和人物之间的“短信”。 我们将通过创建中学移动应用Aztec Era来验证这一平台 纳入流行病学和生物统计学概念的数学标准。我们将进行 阿兹特克时代的可用性测试，最大变异样本为60名中学生。测试人员将成为 摘自三个地点的项目：加利福尼亚州多元化的城市社区和美国印第安人保留地 在北达科他州和南达科他州。访谈和观察产生的定性数据将汇总在 五个用户案例研究，确定典型用户和“边缘”用户。在整个项目中，量化数据将被 以电子方式收集游戏会话的频率和持续时间、已完成和更正的模块或 对STEM挑战的回答不正确。将为学习任务的数量生成描述性统计数据 完整的，正确的答案，数学和健康科学的问题，整体和按地点。马诺娃会的 用于测试不同性别和地点的差异。 原型阶段以完整的设计文档、可用性数据和数据代码库结束 收集活动、基于游戏的指导和可在第二阶段扩展的应用内增强器 商业产品的开发。解决了让学生使用软件的问题 定期在第一阶段，我们可以评估使用对数学和公共卫生科学知识的影响 并对第二阶段的健康事业感兴趣。 好了！

Students from under-served and minority communities are not only under-represented in the health professions but also academically unprepared to succeed in majors leading to those jobs. Existing applications have been unsuccessful in raising math scores, in large part because two-thirds of educational technology licenses purchased by schools are never used. To be usable in educational programs, software must accommodate limits on budget, hardware and Internet yet still offer engagement of students, ease of installation and use. Our goal is to develop and test a prototype integrated software platform to rapidly create mobile game-based learning software that is engaging, effective and runs on low-end devices. The innovation in Empiric Empires is four-fold; 1) a platform that develops software faster and cheaper, 2) emphasis on character and narrative, over video and 3D graphics, enabling installation on low-end mobile devices 3) educational and assessment content embedded in a true adventure game and 4) cross-curricular content including mathematics, social studies and health science. In-game data collection of players’ answers to math and health science questions provides a baseline of student pre-existing knowledge and a measure of effectiveness of the instructional material. Video is largely replaced with voiceovers and animated gifs, graphic novels and ‘text-messaging’ between characters. We will validate this platform with the creation of Aztec Era, a mobile app for middle school mathematics standards with incorporation of concepts from epidemiology and biostatistics. We will conduct usability testing on Aztec Era with a maximum variation sample of 60 middle school students. Testers will be drawn from programs in three sites: a diverse urban community in California and American Indian reservations in North and South Dakota. Qualitative data generated from interviews and observations will be summarized in five user case studies, identifying typical and “edge” users. Throughout the project, quantitative data will be collected electronically on frequency and duration of gameplay sessions, modules completed and correct or incorrect responses to STEM challenges. Descriptive statistics will be generated for number of learning tasks completed, correct answers, for mathematics and health science questions, overall and by site. MANOVA will be used to test for differences by gender and site. The prototype phase ends with a completed design document, data on usability and a codebase of data collection activities, game-based instruction and in-app reinforcers that can be expanded in Phase II development of a commercial product. Having solved the problem of getting students to use the software regularly in Phase I, we can assess the impact of use on knowledge of mathematics and public health science and interest in health careers in Phase II. !