Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present “The Teaching Game” – a tool developed for the needs of the “Virtual Training Environment (VTE) for Teachers”. VTE for teachers is a platform created at the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), University of Westminster, London.
Games play a crucial role in many educational environments as they allow users to learn in a very enjoyable way. “The Teaching Game” asks users to play the role of a teacher and face the challenges a teacher might face in the classroom. It is based on a real-life scenario that is recreated in the format of a game. The event used as basis of this game is a real event that took place at the University of Westminster, Harrow School of Computer Science. The instructions the user receives at the beginning of the game are the following: “You are the lecturer of the first year computer science module ‘Programming 1’ and you organise a lab exam. Students are already in the lab waiting for your instructions – they have no previous experience of University lab exams and they might be a bit anxious... They expect to work in a 'peaceful' environment with no disruptions.” The user plays the role of the teacher. The aim of the game is for the teacher to make sure that the exam goes smoothly whatever unforeseen circumstances arise. There are several actions available to the user to overcome any problems that might come up during the course of the exam.
The educational aim of this game is to recreate the environment of a classroom and to put the user in the place of the teacher who comes across some unforeseen circumstances. There are two health bars that calculate the “confidence of the teacher” and the “acceptance of students”. Players gain marks if they manage to increase students’ acceptance and teacher’s confidence as well as to resolve the problems that come up as soon as possible.
Players have the chance to test and improve their understanding of the techniques they could use to resolve problems in the classroom as well as their effectiveness in class management.
The game has been implemented in “Game Maker 7” (professional edition). “Game Maker 7” (download from the address: http://www.yoyogames.com/make) is an easy-to-learn software that makes use of basic concepts in games design and follows the principles of commercial software (Microsoft Office). The main advantage of “Game Maker” is that it is easy to learn, it is fully programmed and it is compatible with most programming languages. The disadvantage is that graphics are relatively simple. “The Teaching Game” is part of the “Virtual Training Environment for Teachers” that has been implemented in Visual Basic 2008.

Keywords:

Virtual Training Environments, Games, Teachers Training.