Research Notes from Informa Systems, Inc.
Have you ever thought that Angry Birds could be used to help learning? Informa Systems is putting this theory to the test and is using games to improve learning within law enforcement agencies.
The first step was to determine if games improved learning outcomes. Although some research has been done on this issue, the actual definitive answer to this question is not well-known. “So we decided to perform some experiments to determine if game-based learning actually improves learning outcomes,” says Dr. Mark Connolly, Chief Scientist at Informa Systems, Inc.
Informa set up a controlled experiment and measured the scores from officers taking the assessments through games and also taking the assessments using a traditional multiple choice format. Well, the results were interesting. While no improvement in learning outcomes was obtained when using the game format, a startling finding was that the compliance for the game format was substantially better than regular assessment. “In fact,” says Dr. Connolly, “we couldn’t keep them away from the assessments.”
The big side benefit with games is that officers will tend to jump in and take the games more readily when presented in a multiple choice format.
If you would like to see this (fun) report, please contact ann.konzal@informasystems.com