Page 328 - International Perspectives on Effective Teaching and Learning in Digital Education

Betül Tosun and Ayla Yava

tialing Center (ANCC) and national and local Nursing Associations emphasize
that evidence-based patient care and adaptation of current technologies in
nursing education are the most important factors in increasing nursing com-
petence (Şenyuva, 19).

Development of Serious Digital Games
Serious games are applications designed and operated in the digital field that
are adapted to any level of education for any discipline or field of science, and
that have specific educational goals and learning objectives. Although some
digital games were developed for educational purposes with the widespread
use of computer games towards the end of the last century, they began to be
used in formal education much later. The concept of ‘serious games’, which
was first comprehensively addressed and published in a book by C. C. Abt
(1987), discussed the basis of learning through games in education, its con-
ceptual framework, and the impact of games on education and other sectors.
In his book, Abt emphasizes that ‘games are considered serious games if their
primary purpose is not entertainment and if they have a clearly stated and
carefully planned educational purpose’ and that the game activity must be
prepared at a level appropriate to the age and educational capabilities of the
students. In addition, for a game to be recognized as a serious game, it is
necessary that it has measurable learning objectives and that there is a prior
definition of how these objectives will be measured (Abt, 1987, pp. 7–11).
Serious games have continued to grow and spread in scientific and aca-
demic research and in the gaming industry for the last twenty years in par-
allel with the pace of development in digital technologies. Serious digital
games have especially attracted the attention of health educators. Video
games have begun to be used as an effective method for developing cogni-
tive and practical skills of students in the health field (Gee, 3). Today, it is
expected that the use of mobile-based serious games to develop the clinical
competencies of nursing students will become widespread and the concept
of DGBL will become an important part of nursing curricula.
Serious games developed for educational purposes do not contain com-
pletely fictional and imaginary elements and have scenarios meticulously
prepared by professionals in this field. These scenarios must be inspired by
real environments. At the same time, the scenario must be created in a way
that will carry the entertainment feature of the games. When compared to
practical trainings with high-fidelity simulators frequently used in nursing
education, the most important difference between serious digital games and
serious games is that a serious game also includes the entertainment factor.

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