Clark Aldrich On Simulations and Serious Games: Spend some time engaging some of the best sims in the world

25.2.09

Spend some time engaging some of the best sims in the world

If you want to see some of the best examples of educational simulations and serious games, go here: http://www.actonsims.com/.

You do have to register, but it only takes a second and there is no downside to doing so.

A bit of background: Acton Business School for Entrepreneurs in one of the newly accredited (within the last decade) universities that give me faith, even excitement, in the future of formal education.

These sims are great for the following reasons:

Despite their cartoonish looks, they are deep and real. The content is absolutely top-tier. You will learn real, advanced business school content.
They take about an hour or so to play.
They are completely flash based.
They represent a level of depth and production value that is deep enough to really help the students, but not so deep as to not be a valid challenge for all other academic (and corporate) institutions.

There is no question but that these represent the future of content.

I would challenge any educational institution, from MIT and Harvard to Microsoft and General Motors, to use these as their benchmark. There is not excuse for any organization with a desire for a competency in formal learning to produce a lot of these.

I am not sure for how long these sims will be available to use for free, so take advantage while they still are.

New Generation of Simulations Provide Cost Effective, Measurable Behavior Change

The new models of simulations and serious games are filling that razor edge of opportunity and necessity for people responsible for organizational or community learning. In about an hour, these new sims develop business-critical concepts and drive long lasting behavioral changes in a way that is engaging for the user, reinforced by a deeper understanding of the material, and can meet certification requirements and other external measurements for the sponsor. Multiple sims can be chained together for greater depth and breadth. And their visual and kinesthetic nature make them the perfect choice for global audiences.

Building Simulations

I design and build simulations, and either manage the entire end-to-end process or just take on the role of Lead Designer if an external team is already in place, for a growing list of international clients from corporate, military, government, and academic environments.

My clients and I have been called thought leaders, mavericks, rebels, and upstarts. We are together forever changing the way wisdom is recorded from experts and developed in others, while driving unheard of results for organizations and promotions for sponsors.

Email me if I can answer any questions.

Rates

End-to-end projects by quote.

$3K per day for on-site work, including speeches.

$140 per hour for remote (synchronous collaborative and asynchronous) work.

$60 per hour plus expenses for travel.

The Complete Guide: A Brief Description

The Complete Guide for Simulations and Serious Games offers an encyclopedic overview and complete lexicon for those who care about the next generation of educational media. This is the essential reference for not only those directly involved in simulations and serious games, but also for researchers and writers, computer game designers, policy makers, and entrepreneurs.

Organized as a style guide, the book includes more than 600 easy-to-browse entries and definitions, divided into key topics with introductory essays highlighting essential concepts. Written by Clark Aldrich—acclaimed educational simulation game designer—the book creates a unified view of capturing skills and knowledge and then developing them in others, through different uses of: computer interfaces, level design, bosses, dynamic systems, game elements, displays, units on maps, skill cones, feedback, assessment strategies, even balanced scorecards and artificial intelligence, just to name a few.

It balances tactical (what needs to go into a first level of a sim; what are questions to ask subject matter experts, how should programs be evaluated; when and how should coaches be used) to strategic (what is the difference between learning to know, learning to do, and learning to be; what does situational awareness look like when developing leadership or stewardship).

In the spirit of Webster, Strunk and White, and Tufte, filled with helpful guidance and illustrative case studies, The Complete Guide for Simulations and Serious Games is the definitive “go to” bookshelf reference for this generation.

Virtual Leader Product Line Available

SimuLearn's Virtual Leader Global Product Line, for which I was the lead designer, is available. Virtual Leader is the winner of countless awards and recognitions, including a patent and the title "The Best Online Training Product of the Year," and the world's first example of a new type of educational content. Through the AI and interface that I designed for the program, Virtual Leader develops leadership and emotional intelligence in players, as has been proven and documented in numerous third party published research. While I was not involved with the subsequent vLeader line, including vLeader Essentials, SimuLearn have taken the core product and my supporting content and put new packaging and additional linear material around it, while breaking it into smaller pieces.

Clark Aldrich On Simulations and Serious Games

25.2.09

Spend some time engaging some of the best sims in the world

4 comment(s):

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