Gaming and Simulation for Online Instruction

The December 2005/January 2006 issue of Innovate, the journal of online education, has an interesting article titled Applying Gaming and Simulation Techniques to the Design of Online Instruction, by Carolyn Rude-Parkins, Karen Hughes Miller, Karen Ferguson, and Robert Bauer. The article offers a number of considerations for software designers and educators seeking to incorporate gaming and simulation techniques into course-specific software. One does need to log in with a password to access Innovate content; however sign up is free.

Apparently, even for the U.S. Army, games are becoming an increasingly important tool in education, as the image on the left shows. Described in the article is a recently developed online course for Army captains at the U.S. Army Armor School in Ft. Knox, KY.

The Army contracted with the University of Louisville and its partner Northrop Grumman Mission Systems to design and develop the course discussed in the article.