CS499R/PSYCH482/CS798 Games for Health is a reading seminar and game design course that will review the current major applications of games in healthcare. Readings will cover the major fields in healthcare where games are being used. Case studies will survey a representative set of current health-related games, from best-practices to examples indicating just how far this field has yet to develop.
The special themes for this offering of the course will be:
By the end of this course students should have a good understanding of the current major topic areas for health-related games, an appreciation for what makes for good "gamification" in healthcare, and the ability to apply good game design principles in healthcare applications.
There are no formal requirements other than interest in the topic and ability to read and analyze technical material. Some pre-existing knowledge of popular video games would be helpful but is not necessary. Background in other relevant fields (e.g., psychology, health sciences, narrative modeling) will also be useful.
A project team may choose to extend their digital game prototype towards a working implementation for their own interest but no programming is required in the course. Full marks may be obtained for a card game, board game, or other paper prototype of a game. Ideally, Computer Science and students from other disciplines will participate as members of a team.
The focus of the course is on analyzing the requirements for a case study and developing a game design that fulfils these requirements, ideally introducing some novel aspects that improve upon the state of current health games in the area of application.
Students are encouraged to tailor the game-design project to their own academic discipline.
PDF
(***LAST UPDATED JANUARY 21)
All readings will be made available from this website, or either in hardcopy or electronic versions from University of Waterloo Library Course Reserves or e-journals.
***COURSE E-RESERVE ACCESS NOW SET UP - JANUARY 21***To find the location of a reading, go to the course reserves link on the
University of Waterloo's Library web page at:
http://lib.uwaterloo.ca
When you choose your course (CS499R, PSYCH482, CS798) you will see a list of the titles on reserve. Electronic content can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Jane McGonigal
Reality is broken: Why games make us better and
how they can change the world
Penguin Books, 2011
S. Arnab, I. Dunwell, and K. Debattista (editors)
Serious games for healthcare: Applications and
implications
IGI Global, 2013
K. Bredl and W. Bosche (editors)
Serious games and virtual worlds in education,
professional development, and healthcare
IGI Global, 2013
B. Schouten, S. Fedtke, T. Bekker, M. Schijven, and A. Gekker
(editors)
Games for health: Proceedings of the Third European
Conference on Gaming and Playful Interaction in
Health Care
Springer, 2013
Jesse Schell
The art of game design: A book of lenses
CRC Press, second edition, 2015
Jesse Schell
The art of game design: A deck of lenses
Schell Games, second edition, 2014
(cards to accompany the book)
Games for Health Conference
Game Developers Conference
Serious Play Conference
Jane McGonigal's website:
http://janemcgonigal.com/
Friday January 15 12:00-1:30 DC1316
PDF
(***UPDATED JANUARY 20***)
Bill Ferguson,
"Videogames: The good, the bad, and the ugly",
Games for Health Journal, February 2013, 2(1): 1-2
Jane McGonigal
Reality is broken: Why games make us better and
how they can change the world
Penguin Books, 2011
Chapters 1, 14, Conclusion
PDF
(***LAST SLIDE UPDATED JANUARY 28)
Quest to Learn: The world's first game-based public school
http://q2l.org
Top Secret Dance Off: Unlocking the secret power of dance
http://topsecret.ning.com/video/choreopower-trailer-for-top
Free Rice: A crowdsourcing game to combat world hunger
http://freerice.com
World Without Oil: A massively collaborative imagining of
a global oil crisis
http://worldwithoutoil.org
Fold It!: Solving protein-folding puzzles
http://fold.it/portal
EyeWire: A game to map the brain
About EyeWire:
http://blog.eyewire.org/about/
Where to sign up to play the game:
http://eyewire.org
MalariaSpot: Building a global network of
virtual malaria hunters through gameplay
Demo and TED talk:
http://malariaspot.org/en
Play the game:
http://malariaspot.org/game/
Game available:
Android, PC, iPhone
Paper
Miguel Angel Luengo-Oroz, Assier Arranz, and John Frean,
"Crowdsourcing malaria parasite quantification:
An online game for analyzing images of infected
thick blood smears",
Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2012;14(6):e167
"According to the World Health Organization, approximately 216 million cases of malaria occur in the world each year, and the disease kills about 655,000 people annually....Currently, the gold standard for malaria diagnosis worldwide consists of first detecting parasites, and then counting the number of parasites in blood smears by using a microscope....An average of 100 images have to be visually checked by a specialist, a process that can take up to 30 minutes. Confirmation of a negative diagnosis is ultimately dependent on the technician’s expertise....
Thus, we need scalable, fast, ubiquitous, and accurate screening systems...Mobile phone coverage is reaching every corner of the planet and we see the global connectivity as an opportunity to distribute the images all over the Internet.
We believe that there is so much online talent out there that can be used to analyze malaria images (while you play a game!)..."
Friday January 22 12:00-1:30 C1316
"...Too often, people say gamification when they mean games, and sometimes people say games, when they mean the simplicity of gamification. Most often, people are literally confused, thinking that these two words, and their associated practices and traits are one-in-the-same.
Well they’re not.
...the true health experience designer sees games and gamification as mutually inclusive...A common source of trouble on pure gamification implementations is that people often define the experience very narrowly, sacrificing the fundamental appeal that draws people to games in the first place. A broader approach to design, still connected to some of the strengths gamification makes appealing, can lead to better outcomes...[this] session seeks to get at the bigger issue at play when defining experiences as being games or gamified. That issue, simply put, is what works for the user and why?"
Friday January 29, 12:00-1:30, DC1316
Objective: One-page project proposal (due next week)
POX: A public health game
http://www.tiltfactor.org/game/pox/
Game available:
Both board and digital versions are available
from the course coordinator.
Geoff Kaufman and Mary Flanagan,
"Lost in translation:
Comparing the impact of an analog and digital version of a
public health game on players’ perceptions, attitudes,
and cognitions",
International Journal of Games and Computer Mediated
Simulations, 5(3), 2013, 1-9
Available at:
Monster Appetite
https://mobiletech4dev.wordpress.com/teams/monster-appetite/
Video
https://vimeo.com/59237217
Presenters: Salman
Monday February 8, 12:00-2:00, DC1316 ***NOTE: DATE CHANGE***
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3339488/
Ian Bogost, "The rhetoric of exergaming"
http://www.bogost.com/writing/the_rhetoric_of_exergaming.shtml
Traditional game rewards:
Elizabeth J. Lyons,
"Cultivating engagement and enjoyment in exergames using
feedback, challenge, and rewards",
Games for Health Journal, February 2015, 4(1): 12-18
Presenters: Hengzhi
Social exergaming:
Deborah L. Feltz, Samuel T. Forlenza, Brian Winn, Norbert L. Kerr,
"Cyber buddy is better than no buddy: A test of the Köhler
motivation effect in exergames",
Games for Health Journal, April 2014, 3(2): 98-105
Arwen M. Marker, Amanda E. Staiano,
"Better together: Outcomes of cooperation versus
competition in social exergaming",
Games for Health Journal, February 2015, 4(1): 25-30
Presenters: TBA
"Immersion":
Bredl and Bosche, Chapter 1,
"Concepts behind serious games and computer-based trainings
in health care: Immersion, presence, flow"
Presenters: Ricky
Fitbit
http://www.fitbit.com/ca
Game available:
App Store, Google Play, Windows Store (Fitbit wristbands
available from course coordinator)
Testers/Presenters: Samantha, Hengzhi
Zombies, Run!
https://www.zombiesrungame.com
Game available:
App Store and Google Play
Testers/Presenters: Chantelle, Salman
Friday February 12, 12:00-2:00, DC1316
Schouten et al., "A taxonomy of serious games for dementia", pp219-232
Kelli N. Dunlap, "Integration of game design and theory into group psychotherapy with veterans with severe/chronic mental illness", Games for Health Journal, April 2013, 2(2): 109-112
SuperBetter
https://www.superbetter.com
Game available:
App Store (US), Google Play
Background reading
http://peopleslab.mslgroup.com/peoplesinsights/peoples-insights-volume-1-issue-35-superbetter/
Depression Quest
http://www.depressionquest.com/dqfinal.html
Follow the history at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_Quest
Game available:
Steam
Presenters: Samantha
MoodHacker: A mobile app for depression
self-management
http://www.orcasinc.com/products/moodhacker
"...ORCAS [producer of MoodHacker] is applying gamification, personal user recommendations, and persuasive design to address challenges of user experience and engagement...The goal of ORCAS is to demonstrate long-term behavior change through evidence based outcomes. The result is improved health for individuals, which can drive down individual costs and costs to organizations when adopted by health care systems."
Friday February 26, 12:00-2:00, DC1316
K. Gerling, I. Livingston, L. Nacke, and R. Mandryk,
"Full-body motion-based game interaction
for older adults",
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors
in Computer Science, 2012, 1873-1882
Cancer
Meveshni Govender, Randy C. Bowen, Massiell L. German,
Grzegorz Bulaj, Carol S. Bruggers,
"Clinical and neurobiological perspectives of empowering
pediatric cancer patients using videogames"
Games for Health Journal, October 2015,
4(5), 362-374
Autism
Peter J. Chung, Douglas L. Vanderbilt, Neelkamal S. Soares,
"Social behaviors and active videogame play in children
with autism spectrum disorder",
Games for Health Journal, June 2015, 4(3): 225-234
Presenters: Chantelle
Bullying
SchoolLife
http://giantotter.com/schoollife
Game available:
Browser-based version currently available. Mobile version
planned.
Presenters: Samantha
"SchoolLife is a social role-playing game that teaches and assesses social skills to combat the bullying epidemic....The technology platform underlying SchoolLife builds on over 10 years of research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the MIT Media Lab — research which has proven that walking in another’s shoes virtually improves relationships, and has demonstrated automating conversational characters with crowdsourced data."
Monday February 29, 3:00-5:00, DC1316
Friday March 4, 12:00-2:00, DC1316 ***NOTE DATE AND TIME CHANGE***
Amy Shirong Lu,
"Narrative in exergames: Thoughts on procedure, mechanism,
and others",
Games for Health Journal, February 2015, 4(1): 19-24
Presenters: Ricky
LongStory
http://www.longstory.com
Game available:
App Store and Google Play
Presenters: Salman
"LongStory is a dating and adventure game that helps pre-teens sandbox healthy relationships and sexuality. It deals with issues such as consent, bullying, being different, fitting in and learning how to ask for what you really want.
LongStory has based its health strategy on encouraging players to develop empathy through a meaningful and challenging romantic storyline....Games can be interventions for mental health promotion, but the majority of mainstream games don't address the capacity to be emotional sandboxes in a meaningful way."
QuitIT: Teaching coping strategies
for smoking cessation through interactive storytelling
http://www.muzzylane.com/products/1450
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af7ItVqss0I
Paper
Paul Krebs, Jack E. Burkhalter, Bert Snow, Jeff Fiske, and
Jamie S. Ostroff,
"Development and alpha testing of QuitIT: An interactive
video game to enhance skills for coping with smoking urges",
JMIR Research Protocols, Jul-Dec; 2(2), 2013
Published online Sept 11, 2013 at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3786125/
Presenters: Hengzhi
"For decades, the standard behavioral treatment for smoking urges has been behavioral rehearsal, which entails the identification, modeling, and role-playing of diverse cognitive and behavioral coping strategies to identify and manage smoking cues. This treatment promotes skill acquisition, bolsters confidence in coping with smoking cues, and reduces relapse to smoking."
In game vernacular, this skills acquisition approach is called “mastery” and is consistent with a gamer player’s experience as they advance through a variety of game genres such as Role Playing Games (RPGs)....Virtual reality games and simulations provide environments similar to those faced in the real world, which increases personal relevance and learning potential...games serve as powerful tools because they encompass many aspects of human learning, such as engagement, problem-solving, receiving corrective feedback, and repetition."
Monday March 7, 12:00-1:00, DC1316 ***NOTE DATE AND TIME CHANGE***
Second Life: A 3D virtual world for eHealth
http://www.secondlife.com
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2553247/
http://www.slideshare.net/timbuckteeth/second-life-in-education-presentation
Presenters: Salman
SimCoach/SimSensei: A virtual human support agent for PTSD
http://ict.usc.edu/prototypes/simcoach
Background
Short video overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEli_3rau9c&feature=youtu.be
CBC Radio Article and Audio Program (approx 30 minutes):
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/popup/audio/player.html?autoPlay=true&clipIds=2669874500
Paper
Albert Rizzo, Eric Forbell, Belinda Lange, John Galen Buckwalter,
Josh Williams, Kenji Sagae, David Traum,
"SimCoach: An online intelligent virtual agent system for
breaking down barriers to care for service members and veterans",
Chapter in Healing war trauma: A handbook of creative
approaches, Routledge, 2012.
Friday March 11 , 12:00-2:00, DC1316
Objective: Individual feedback on features of your game prototype
***Draft Design Document due Friday March 18***
DATE TIME LOCATION - TBA
DATE TIME LOCATION - TBA
Narrative and Storytelling in GamesArnab et al., Chapter 5, "Ethics in the design of serious games for healthcare and medicine."
Bredl and Bosche, pp105-115, "Evaluation of serious games."
Schouten et al., pp75-84, "Servitization and commoditization: The business model dilemma confronting serious games for health."
DATE TIME LOCATION - TBA