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Library Automation 72.3 OpenURL Linking and the Rise of Link Resolvers 1295

per discusses the new functionality that has been

enabled, the implementation process and system

architecture, assessment of the new catalog’s per-

formance, and future directions.

Other new players have also entered the market for

new library delivery systems, generally called NextGen

or discovery-to-delivery (D2D) systems. AquaBrowser

is another example of a pure-OPAC replacement with

no pretensions of replacing the complete range of ILS

functions. Among more traditional library vendors, In-

novative Interfaces has released its product, Encore

(http://www.iii.com/encore), and Ex Libris its prod-

uct, Primo (http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/primo.htm).

Both were developed with a group of partners and both

tout a one-stop solution for the discovery and delivery

of information.

Ex Libris’s choice of development partners was

perhaps the more atypical in that one of its part-

ners, Vanderbilt University, was particularly keen to use

Primo to combine its library catalog, Acorn, with a fa-

cility to enable easy discovery and delivery of its unique

Television News Archive [72.29]:

The Television News Archive collection at Vander-

bilt University is the world’s most extensive and

complete archive of television news. The collection

holds more than 30 000 individual network evening

news broadcasts from the major US national broad-

cast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, and

more than 9000 hours of special news-related pro-

gramming including ABC’s Nightline since 1989.

The University of Iowa had a different goal, namely

to push exposure of many of its otherwise isolated

digital collections. These collections, which developed

over time and throughout the institution, possess no na-

tive discovery interface and consequently suffer from

a widespread lack of awareness. With Primo as its

unifying discoverytool, theuniversitycan provide a sin-

gle search interface to all of its rich collections. One

notable example is the university’s and the Iowa His-

torical Society’s World War II newspaper clippings

collection.

The Primo discovery and delivery system enables

libraries to present their collections in an entirely new

way, providing users with the ability to access a wealth

Fig. 72.7 Primo at the University of Iowa: an example of the new

D2D paradigm

of authoritative information from a single point. Central

to the development of Primo has been the concept of

harvesting and publishing as the means whereby a sin-

gle, Google-like search interface can provide rapid and

easy, normalized and enriched discovery for the entire

range of resources under the control of the institution:

local catalogs, locally digitized collections harvested

by the open archieves initiative protocol for metadate

harvesting (OAI-PMH) collections, and so forth. Primo

is integrated with both metasearching (MetaLib) and

OpenURL linking (SFX) to enable discovery in a vast

range of external resources, with onward navigation and

other services via the OpenURL syntax. In this way

the institution can satisfy its users’ desire for almost

instantaneous response to simple queries while provid-

ing the ability to search a vast array of databases and

e-Resources that are not held locally.

Part G 72.3

1296 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

72.4 Future Challenges

Libraries and librarians have frequently stood at the

forefront of the information revolution. The MARC for-

mat was a model of interinstitutional and international

collaboration in its time. As libraries and their vendors

evolved, though, large installed bases of customers and

data made further change that much more challenging.

At the same time, libraries became but one outpost on

the information frontier. The growth of the Internet, the

World Wide Web, and the rise of newer information

industry players such as Google and Amazon have all

combined to put libraries on the defensive. Libraries

have now come to realize that standards such as unicode

and XML can be exploited for their beneﬁt by partak-

ing of a global information chain. Librarians have come

to grasp the signiﬁcance of capturing information at its

earliest stage and repurposing it throughout its lifetime,

all the while continuing to add value to the information

content package.

Almost 20years after the advent of the integrated li-

brary system, we are witnessing the opening wedge in

the dissolution of the ILS into a series of independent

modules that communicate with each other by means

of Web 2.0 services. These new discovery-to-delivery

solutions are indeed, on the one hand, OPAC or OPAC-

plus replacements and designed to work with a variety

of vendor systems, but they are at the same time the ﬁrst

in a series of new librarysystem modules that will likely

appear over the next decade [72.30, 31]. As the indus-

try continues to evolve, and as open systems respond to

the demands of Web 2.0, we can expect the Integrated

Library System to morph into a strategy based on the

survival of the best-of-breed. The future will be one of

distinct functional modules that communicate with one

another by exploiting the concept of uniﬁed resource

management (URM) [72.32].

Responding to the requirements and demands of the

digital era, where e-Resources proliferate and dominate

the publishingand acquisitions scene, the venerable ILS

acquisitions and serials modules are already showing

sings of coalescing around the ERM model. The ERM,

with support for licensing and the other key attributes

of e-Content, will replace the traditional systems which

are oriented largely toward print and nonprint analogs

(maps, kits, scores, sound recordings, etc.).

As the ILS gives way to the URM,andtheURM

becomes the predominant model for the third gener-

ation of library management systems, management of

e-Content will no longer be an afterthought. The chal-

lenge for libraries, librarians, and vendors alike will be

to develop a system, or perhaps a series of intercon-

nected systems, that can inherently manage all manner

of information content, both traditional and digital, and

do it by exploiting both content and metadata from the

very cradle of their existence.

72.5 Further Reading

72.5.1 General Overview

•

R.W. Boss: The Library Administrator’s Au-

tomation Handbook (Information Today, Medford

1997)

•

M.D. Cooper: Design of Library Automation Sys-

tems (Wiley, New York 1995)

•

T.R. Kochtanek, J.R. Matthews: Library Informa-

tion Systems: From Library Automation to Dis-

tribution Information Access Solutions (Libraries

Unlimited, Westport 2002)

•

Public Library Association: Tech notes section

(updated regularly).

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/

plapublications/platechnotes/index.cfm (last ac-

cessed 2009)

72.5.2 Speciﬁc Topics

Automated Authority Control Services

Of all the vendors that existed to provide automated

outsourcing of authority records in the 1990s (Black-

well’s, WLN, OCLC, Marcive, Library Technologies,

etc.), few are still functioning: see, for example,

•

Library Technologies: Ofﬁcial homepage. (2008)

http://www.librarytech.com

•

MARCIVE: Ofﬁcial homepage. (2008)

http://www.marcive.com

Interlibrary Loan Services

•

For a broad listing of interlibrary loan products

and vendors, see http://www.cdlc.org/Resource

Sharing/ill/illproducts.shtml

Part G 72.5

Library Automation References 1297

•

For an overview, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Interlibrary

loan

•

For information on two widely used software prod-

ucts, seeILLiad (Interlibraryloan managementsoft-

ware): http://www.oclc.org/illiad/, Clio software:

http://cliosoftware.com/public/

•

Online Computer Library Center (OCLC): The fu-

ture is now: the convergence of reference and

resource sharing, Proc. OCLC Symp., ALA Mid-

winter Conference (OCLC, Dublin 1996)

RFID/Self-Checkout Services

•

R.W. Boss: RFID technology for libraries. (updated

2007), http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/

plapublications/platechnotes/RFID-2007.pdf (last

accessed 2009)

Virtual Reference Services

•

R.W. Boss: Virtual reference. (updated 2007),

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/pla/

plapublications/platechnotes/Virtuel

reference.pdf

(last accessed 2009)

•

L.W. Healy, S. Brown, L. Barrett: Creating the

Virtual Reference Desk: The Decision to Take Ref-

erence Live and Online (Outsell, Burlingame 2002)

•

D.K. Kovacs: The Virtual Reference Handbook: In-

terview and Information Delivery Techniques for

the Chat and e-Mail Environments (Neal-Schuman,

New York 2007)

•

R.D. Lankes (ed.): The Virtual Reference Desk:

Creating a Reference Future (Neal-Schuman, New

York 2006)

•

A.G. Lipow: The Virtual Reference Librarian’s

Handbook (Library Solutions, Berkeley 2003)

For one speciﬁc vendor product, see

•

Online Computer Library Center (OCLC): Ques-

tionPoint (2009). http://www.oclc.org/questionpoint/

default.htm (cooperative virtual reference) (last ac-

cessed 2009)

References

72.1 V. Porter: Continuous library catalog card, Patent

4005810 (1976), This represents a computer-area

patent on the original library catalog card.

http://www.google.com/patents?

vid=USPAT4005810 (last accessed 2009)

72.2 T.-A. Wong: Card catalogs and card catalog

drawers, Patent 5257859 (1993), This represents

atweakontheoriginaldesignofthecard

catalog drawer. http://www.google.com/patents?

vid=USPAT5257859 (last accessed 2009)

72.3 University of Pennsylvania: Cards from rapidly-

disappearing card catalog. (Philadelphia 2008),

http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/

pennhistory/library/cards/cards.samples.html (last

accessed 2009)

72.4 Online Computer Library Center (OCLC): OCLC catalog

cards. (Dublin 2008), http://www.oclc.org/support/

documentation/worldcat/cataloging/cards/

default.htm (last accessed 2009)

72.5 K. Coyle: Catalogs, card – and other anachronisms,

J. Acad. Librarians 31(1), 60–62 (2005)

72.6 H. Avram: Obituary, with reference to the MARC

project. (2006), http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/

03/us/03avram.html?ex=1304308800&en=

60308f72d854136a&ei=5088&partner=

rssnyt&emc=rss (last accessed 2009)

72.7 F. Kilgour: Obituary, with reference to the founding

of OCLC. (2006), http://www.oclc.org/news/releases/

200631.htm (last accessed 2009)

72.8 Online Computer Library Center (OCLC): Ofﬁcial

homepage. http://www.oclc.org (last accessed

2009)

72.9 C.M. Goldstein: Integrated library systems, Bull.

Med. Libr. Assoc. 71(3), 308–311 (1983)

72.10 E.G. Fayen: Integrated library systems, Encyclop.

Libr. Inform. Sci. 1(1), 1–12 (2004)

72.11 C. Lynch: From automation to transformation:

forty years of libraries and information technology

in higher education, Educause Rev. 35(1), 60–68

(2000)

72.12 T. Primich, C. Richardson: The integrated library

system: from innovation to relegation to innova-

tion again, Acquis. Libr. 18(35–36), 119–133 (2006)

72.13 T.R. Kochtanek, J.R. Matthews: Library Information

Systems: From Library Automation to Distributed

Information Access Solutions (Libraries Unlimited,

Westport 2002)

72.14 R. De Gennaro: A computer produced shelf list, Coll.

Res. Libr. 31(5), 318–331 (1970)

72.15 T. Robinson: Personal Communication (Harvard

Univ. Ofﬁce for Information Systems, Harvard

2007)

72.16 Elsevier: Endeavor merges with Elsevier Science,

American Libraries (2000)

72.17 P. Caplan: Information on the appropriate

copy problem (2001). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/

september01/caplan/09caplan.html (last accessed

2009)

Part G 72

1298 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

72.18 NISO: Information on NISO’s OpenURL standard.

(updated 2008), http://www.niso.org/standards/

index.html (last accessed 2009)

72.19 NISO: NISO metasearch initiative (2006),

http://www.niso.org/workrooms/mi (last accessed

2009)

72.20 Harvard Crimson: e-Resource elation. (2005),

http://www.thecrimson.harvard.edu/

article.aspx?ref=508846 (last accessed 2009)

72.21 DSpace: Ofﬁcial homepage. http://www.dspace.org

(last accessed 2009)

72.22 Fedora: Ofﬁcial homepage. http://www.fedora.info

(last accessed 2009)

72.23 National Library of New Zeland: Information on the

NLNZ project. (updated 2008),

http://www.natlib.govt.nz/about-us/current-

initiatives/ndha (last accessed 2009)

72.24 Digital Library Federation: Electronic resource

management. (2004), http://www.diglib.org/

pubs/dlf102/ (last accessed 2009)

72.25 Online Computer Library Center (OCLC): Percep-

tions of libraries and information resources. (2005)

http://www.oclc.org/reports/2005perceptions.htm

(last accessed 2009)

72.26 D. Flecker: OPACS and our changing environment:

observations, hopes, and fears (2005).

http://www.loc.gov/catdir/pcc/archive/

opacfuture-ﬂecker.ppt (last accessed 2009)

72.27 Endeca: Ofﬁcial hompepage.

http://www.endeca.com (last accessed 2009)

72.28 K. Antelman, E. Lynema, A.K. Pace: Toward

a twenty-ﬁrst century library catalog, Libr. Inform.

Technol. Assoc. 25(3), 128–139 (2006),

http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/div/lita/252006/

number3september/antelman.cfm (last accessed

2009)

72.29 Vanderbilt University: Television News Archive.

(Nashville 2008), http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/

(last accessed 2009)

72.30 M. Breeding: Trends in library automation: meet-

ing the challenges of a new generation of li-

brary users. (2006). http://www.oclc.org/programs

andresearch/dss/ppt/breeding.ppt (last accessed

2009)

72.31 R. Dietz, C. Grant: The disintegrating world

of library automation, Libr. J. 130(11), 38–

40 (2005), http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/

CA606392.html (last accessed 2009)

72.32 J.E. Grogg: Investing in digital, Libr. J. 132(9), 30–

33 (2007), http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/

CA6440577.html (last accessed 2009)

Part G 72

1299

Automating S

73. Automating Serious Games

Gyula Vastag, Moshe Yerushalmy

In this chapter, we present the theoretical under-

pinnings of and conditions for learning through

experiences gained in immersive learning sim-

ulations (or simply gaming) and show some

examples of authentic learning experiences

for business professionals. We argue that re-

cent developments in the theory of knowledge

acquisition coupled with changes in the ed-

ucational landscape (e.g., the proliferation of

online courses and programs) present an unri-

valled and so far mostly unexploited opportunity

for serious games. The examples presented are

from using Managerial Enterprise Resource Plan-

ning (MERP) in a variety of MBA and corporate

business training programs. Related examples

of other virtual learning environments are also

included.

73.1 Theoretical Foundation

and Developments:

Learning Through Gaming.....................1299

73.2 Application Examples............................1303

73.2.1 MERP ..........................................1303

73.2.2 L’Oreal e-Strat .............................1306

73.3 Guidelines and Techniques

for Serious Games.................................1306

73.3.1 The Serious Game Solution

for e-Learning Characteristics ........1306

73.3.2 The Virtual World for Learning

by Doing Characteristics ................1306

73.3.3 Supporting the Learning

by Doing Characteristics ................1308

73.4 Emerging Trends, Open Challenges.........1309

73.5 Additional Reading...............................1310

References ..................................................1310

73.1 Theoretical Foundation and Developments:

Learning Through Gaming

It is widely accepted that “serious games are (digital)

games used for purposes other than mere entertain-

ment” [73.1]. Michael and Chen [73.2] give a similar

deﬁnition: “A serious game is a game in which educa-

tion (in its various forms) is the primary goal, rather

than entertainment.” The market for serious games is

growing rapidly as more and more organizations are

adopting or expected to adopt them in their training

programs.

Conceptually, serious games are related to and

somewhatoverlap with thefollowingterms: e-Learning,

edutainment, game-based learning, and digital game-

based learning [73.1]. In 2002, the Woodrow Wil-

son Center for International Scholars (in Wash-

ington, DC) founded the Serious Games Initiative

and the term, following the ﬁrst Serious Games

Summit held in 2004, became generally accepted

(http://www.seriousgames.org/) and a growing num-

ber of scholars began working in this ﬁeld. Most

recently, Sawyer and Smith developed a taxonomy of

serious games and made it available on the organi-

zation’s website (http://www.dmill.com/presentations/

serious-games-taxonomy-2008.pdf), and Table 73.1

provides a synthesis of applications in different seg-

ments in society.

The illustrative applications of serious games in-

clude, but are certainly not limited to, disaster prepared-

ness, health care, military training, and education, the

main focus of this chapter (Table 73.2). For a related

discussion of the role of automation in education also

see Chaps. 44 and 85. Breslin et al. [73.3] describe

how a game is used to execute and assess the effective-

ness ofalternative strategies forresponding toa disaster.

Kelly et al. [73.4] introduce Immune Attack, a personal

computer (PC)-based game, used for learning the rules

of the immune system and revealing deeper insights.

Part G 73

1300 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

Table 73.1 Taxonomy of serious games (courtesy of Sawyer and Smith)

Games

for health

Advergames Games

for training

Games

for

education

Games

for science

and

research

Production Games

aswork

Government

and NGO

Public

health

education

and mass

casualty

response

Political

games

Employee

training

Inform

public

Data

collection/

planning

Strategic

and policy

planning

Public

diplomacy,

opinion

research

Defense Rehabilita-

tion and

wellness

Recruitment

and

propaganda

Soldier/

support

training

School

house

education

Wargames/

planning

War plan-

ning and

weapons

research

Command

and control

Healthcare Cyber-

therapy/

exergaming

Public

health

policy

and social

awareness

campaigns

Training

games for

health pro-

fessionals

Games for

patient

education

and disease

management

Visualization

and epi-

demiology

Biotech

manufac-

turing and

design

Public

health

response

planning

and

logistics

Marketing

and

commu-

nications

Advertising

treatment

Advertising,

marketing

with games,

product

placement

Product use Product

information

Opinion

research

Machinima Opinion

research

Education Inform

about

diseases/

risks

Social issue

games

Train

teachers/

train work-

force skills

Learning Computer

science and

recruitment

P2P

learning

construc-

tivism

documen-

tary?

Teaching

distance

learning

Corporate Employee

health

information

and wellness

Customer

education

and

awareness

Employee

training

Continuing

education

and

certiﬁcation

Advertising/

visualization

Strategic

planning

Command

and control

Industry Occupational

safety

Sales and

recruitment

Employee

training

Workforce

education

Process

optimization

simulation

Nano/

biotech

design

Command

and control

America’s Army (www.americasarmy.com) was intro-

duced at the 2002 Electronics Entertainment Expo and

was, after some initial hesitation, ofﬁcially embraced

and supported by the United States (US) Army as an

effective military training simulator [73.5].

In addition to the wide variety of applications, the

theoretical underpinnings of learning through gaming

were also explored. Although Gros [73.6]hassome

reservations about the current status of research in the

educational use of computers (speciﬁcally, he cautions

that research inthis area is still disjointed),he andothers

also point to some common understanding and princi-

ples of learning. First, there are publications showing

the advantageous effects of computer games. Green-

ﬁeld [73.7, p. 29] reported that “more skilled video

game players had better developed attentional skills

Part G 73.1

Automating Serious Games 73.1 Theoretical Foundation and Developments: Learning Through Gaming 1301

Table 73.2 Serious game types and application examples

Seriousgame

types

Application examples

Game-based

education

Game-based learning,

edutainment, learning games

Game-based

production

Game-based authoring,

machine behaviors

Game-based

simulation

Game-based simulator,

simulation games

Game-based

messaging

Game-based advertisement,

game-based marketing,

advergaming

Game-based

training

Game-based trainer

Game-based

interface

Game-like interface,

game-based graphical user

interface (GUI)

than less skilled players.” Backlund et al. [73.8]wrote

about the positive impact that playing computer games

had on trafﬁc school students’ driving behavior. Koepp

et al. [73.9] showed that playing video games stim-

ulates substantial dopamine release and that gamers’

performance was related to the amount of dopamine

present. Considering that dopamine is a chemical pre-

cursor to the memory storage event, it can be argued,

they write, that video games are able to chemically

prime the brain for learning. Furthermore, they write

(p. 34) that “Beyond science and engineering games,

further evidence suggests that games teach not only

facts but detailed reasoning applicable to life’s many

challenges” (Fig.73.1).

Mayo [73.10, pp. 32–34] listedseven characteristics

that enable video games to address the deﬁciencies of

education, speciﬁcally the shortcomings of big lecture

formats typically used at universities.

1. Massive reach of players/participants.

2. Experiential learning (If you do it, you learn it). In

games, players must navigate game scenarios and

make decisions with consequences.

3. Inquiry-based learning (What happens when I do

this?). This is the dominant philosophy in science

and is also a natural mode for many video games

that support freeform exploration, discovery, and

experimentation.

4. Self-efﬁcacy (If you believe you can do it, you’ll

try longer/harder, and you’ll succeed more often

Fig. 73.1 Leadership development to assess critical reasoning using

a virtual environment (courtesy of SimuLearn)

than you would otherwise). In games, points, lev-

els or magic swords are awarded at positive decision

points, encouraging players to keep going.

5. Goal setting (You learn more if you are working to-

ward a well-deﬁned goal). All games have goals,

a key distinction between games and simulations.

6. Cooperation (team learning). Studies of classroom

techniques show that cooperative learning results

in about a 50% improvement over either solo or

competitive learning. Some types of games (such as

massive multiplayer online games) are intrinsically

structured as a team effort toward a common goal.

7. Continuous feedback and tailored instruction.

Corti [73.11] coined the term immersive learning

simulation (ILS) and pointed out that many corporate

learning professionals and suppliers of ILS are not

aware of what is needed to create a truly effective and

appropriate learning solution. His call is supported by

Zyda [73.12] who writes about the reasons supporting

the need to deploy immersive storytelling in service to

society in the interactive realm. Shaffer et al. [73.13,

p. 7] argue that

Games are powerful contexts for learning because

they make it possible to create virtual worlds, and

because acting in such worlds makes it possible to

develop the situated understandings, effective so-

cial practices, powerful identity, shared values, and

ways of thinking of important communities of prac-

tice.

Part G 73.1

1302 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

An example of such a virtual world is presented in the

sequence of screenshots in Fig.73.2.

Writing about computer-supported collaborative

learning (CSCL), Salomon et al. [73.14] used the term

cognitive residue to refer to a byproduct effect of learn-

ers interaction withmedia [73.15].By cognitiveresidue,

they meant [73.15,p.3andp.6]

subsequent changes in mastery of knowledge, skill

or depth of understanding away from the computer

[...] higher order thinking skills that are either ac-

tivated during an activity with an intellectual tool

or are explicitly modeled by it can develop and can

be transferred to other dissimilar, or at least similar

situations.

These cognitive effects are effects with technology

obtained during intellectual partnership with it, and ef-

fects of it in terms of the transferable cognitive residue

that this partnership leaves behind in the form of better

mastery of skills and strategies.

It has long been conﬁrmed that learning and do-

ing are tightly linked, as learning typically involves

activities as well [73.16]. Many professionals, includ-

ing current and would-be business managers, are action

oriented; they learn to do something that later is to im-

prove business operations. Schon [73.17] called the link

between knowing and doing a reﬂective practice.

Professional societies (e.g., for doctors, lawyers,

managers) develop supervised settings, residencies for

doctors or moot courts for lawyers, where a learner can

develop his/her skills by trying a course of action and

then reﬂecting on the results together with his peers and

mentors. During this course of action, learners develop

epistemic frames of knowledge that are [73.16]:

the conventions of participation that individuals

internalize when they become acculturated. The

reproductive practices of the community are the

means by which new members develop that epis-

temic frame.

There is a clear message here: learning does not hap-

pen in a vacuum; communities of practice or afﬁliation

groups provide elements of the good learning that

include goals, interpretations, practice, explanations,

Fig. 73.2a–d The friction explorer allows users to see how

a sliding object behaves when the force applied to push

it and the coefﬁcient of friction are modiﬁed.

(a) With an

applied force of 0 and coefﬁcient of friction of 9, the ob-

ject does not move;

(b) with an applied force of 2 and

a coefﬁcient of friction of 2 the object barely moves;

object slides off the table;

(d) with an applied force of 9

and a coefﬁcient of friction of 9 the object moves about

one-third of the width of the table (courtesy of Schlum-

berger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED)

http://www.seed.slb.com/en/index.htm)



Part G 73.1

Automating Serious Games 73.2 Application Examples 1303

debrieﬁng, and feedback [73.18]. Serious games rep-

resent a clear opportunity to create communities of

practice for business professionals.

In all settings or contexts, learning is about content

acquisition while games typically focus on experi-

ence [73.19]. In other words, there is content (facts,

principles, information, skills) that has to be learned.

Gee [73.18] argues that indirect teaching of content

(that is, teaching content via something else) is supe-

rior to the traditional approach used by schools, which

teach content directly. Serious games can be that some-

thing else that helps in content acquisition by providing

a variety of authentic learning experiences that mimic

those of professional societies.

New results in learning theory [73.20,21] show that

people primarily think and learn through experiences

they have had, assuming that these experiences meet

certain conditions. Gee [73.22] summarized these ﬁve

conditions as follows:

1. Experiences are most useful for future problem

solving if they are structured by speciﬁc goals

2. For best learning, experiences must be interpreted

by extracting the lessons learned

3. Learning is enhanced if immediate feedback is pro-

vided so that the learners can recognize and evaluate

their errors

4. Learners need ample new opportunitiesto apply and

reapply their previous experiences

5. Learners need to learn from interpreted experiences

and explanations of other people, both peers and

experts.

Gee’s situated learning matrix [73.18,22] refers to

the linkage between content and identity. Content is

given in the context of a goal-driven problem space.

Learners move through similar problems representing

various contexts and learn to interpret and generalize

their experiences in these contexts. In video games, for

example, players can get lots of practice at a given level

and can then apply what they have learned in less fa-

miliar situations (across levels, for example). Through

offering learning in varied contexts, the problem of

context-speciﬁc learning is solved; for example, learn-

ing through a case study may leave the learner with

knowledge that is speciﬁc to the given case but can-

not easily be generalized to other settings. On the other

end of the spectrum, learning out of context, focus-

ing on principles only, for example, may give learners

knowledge that cannot be applied.

Learning, in Gee’s view, moves from identity to

goals and norms, to tools and technologies, and only

then to content. Identity has been linked to two char-

acteristics that enhance learning. First, the ability of

the players to have microcontrol over some elements of

the game extends and creates an, as Gee [73.22]wrote,

“embodied empathy for a complex system.” The second

characteristic is the learner’s motivation for and own-

ership over the successful outcome of the game. The

often quoted saying is that success is based on experi-

ence and experience comes from failures. A lot can be

learned from a failed business or from not reaching the

next level in a game. If the players are motivated to take

risks, try out new ideas, and eventually, learn from the

experiences, then the game has a good design.

73.2 Application Examples

Two illustrative examples of serious games are intro-

duced and discussed in this section:

•

Management Enterprise ResourcePlanning (MERP)

– a dynamic, real-time-based online simulation

aimed at strategy execution

•

L’Oreal e-Strat –an onlinestrategic business market

competition game aimed at exploring various strate-

gies by teams of managers who compete in the same

market.

73.2.1 MERP

MERP was developed to facilitate learning by offering

a variety of managerial contexts in which good prac-

tices can be discovered and practised (for details, see

http://www.mbe-simulations.com).

Unlike the usual static, written case studies, the

dynamic case study scenarios (DCSS) by MBE Sim-

ulations offer a live business environment with com-

puterized scenarios that the students must manage and

thereby control the destiny of their own business op-

erations. Students participate in a virtual organization

that is made real and dynamic as minute-by-minute

business events and conditions unfold. Students must

respond to and make complex managerial decisions

in real-time based on the big picture view. While tra-

ditional strategic business games deal with results on

a periodic basis (i.e., monthly, quarterly or yearly),

the MERP experience involves real-time execution of

Part G 73.2

1304 Part G Infrastructure and Service Automation

strategies and the results are shown by key performance

indicators (KPI).

MERP consists of a whole suite of scenarios that

cover practices at various levels of complexity and

scope. Focusing on individual departments (such as

production, purchasing, and others in a production

environment), as well as different industrial business

processes (make-to-stock versus make-to-order), cus-

tomer orders and client contracts ﬂuctuate, allowing

the use of different management models and inventory

purchasing replenishment methods [e.g., the materials

resources planning (MRP) mechanism or order level

inventory policies]. Students can integrate theory into

practice while they learn to test, retest, think, and re-

think constantly in various real-life, dynamic situations.

Since 2001, MERP has been used both in traditional

and online settings to teach operations and supply-chain

management coursesfor MBAs. These courses involved

about 500 students at the Stuttgart Institute of Manage-

ment and Technology (Stuttgart, Germany), the Kelley

School of Business (Kelley Direct Online MBA Pro-

gram at Indiana University, USA), the CEU Business

School (Budapest, Hungary) and the Corvinus School

of Management (Budapest, Hungary). Typically, about

30–35% of the total points were assigned to MERP-

related work. The simulation software covers the full

supply chain of ﬁctitious companies. Generally, stu-

Fig. 73.3 Simulation: management view

dents have to work with three scenarios that differ

in customer segmentation (small individual customers

and/or clients with long-term contracts), product rout-

ings (ﬂow shops and job shops), level of variability or

randomness, and number of suppliers and ﬁnal prod-

ucts. Teams of students have to manage these ﬁctitious

companies and make a variety of interrelated, complex

decisions, so the simulation serves as an integrating

theme.

One ofthe ﬁrst decisionsis to choose the key perfor-

mance indicators (KPI) fromthe many options available

for monitoring the progress of the enterprise (Fig.73.3).

The screen, in addition to current measurements, also

shows a benchmark: results without any intervention

(the light grey line).

Managerial success is measured both by numerical

results (proﬁt, cash on hand, and reputation level) and

by the actions that the students have taken. The proﬁt

earned (the more, the better) is the primary measure of

success, while the others serve as qualiﬁers (at the end

of the simulation, students have to have positive cash

on hand and minimum 75% reputation). The quality of

the students’ decision-making is also evaluated to avoid

successes based on random acts not supported by an

analysis.

In evaluating the simulation runs, assuming that all

qualiﬁers are met, different weights can be assigned to

Part G 73.2