Article

Games and Culture

2014, Vol. 9(3) 167-181
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Future: Best Practices

of Epistemic Video
Game Design

Nikki Kim Boots1 and Johannes Strobel2

Abstract
This article seeks to create a synthesis of different elements of epistemic games and
their place in the larger scale of games and educational games and the potential for
learning as these elements are incorporated into classroom use. This article is
intended to assist educators in familiarizing themselves with the concept of epis-
temic gaming to both enable them to incorporate these ideas in teaching the next
generation of game designers and developers and to encourage its inclusion among
the various markets available for game design.

Keywords
epistemic games, virtual simulations, professional development, serious games,
educational games

Introduction
As the last decades saw a tremendous increase of differentiations in and the emer-
gence of new and refined gaming genres, it becomes increasingly important to

1
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
2
Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:
Nikki Kim Boots, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02318, USA.
Email: nikkikimboots@gmail.com

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168 Games and Culture 9(3)

prepare the next generation of game designers and developers not only for the evol-
ving technical skill sets and genre-specific skills they need but also to give them the
tools to develop better understandings of different gaming genres. Epistemic games
are the most notable among the large variety of new serious or educational video
games. By nurturing a player’s way of thinking in a particular context, these games
teach skills preparing the player for the complex thought processes required in high-
level professions such as surgery, urban planning, and mechanical engineering. As
Thomas Friedman (2005) mentioned in his book, The World is Flat, students are
being prepared to fulfill jobs of commodity, jobs ‘‘that can be done more cheaply
and just as efficiently outside of the United States’’ (Shaffer & Gee, 2005, p. 3). Such
jobs include both the lowly and the prestigious, from a call center operator to a soft-
ware engineer. As long as it ‘‘requires only standard and standardized skills, the jobs
can and will be outsourced overseas to parties who would gratefully perform the
same exact tasks at significantly lower prices’’ (Shaffer & Gee, 2005, p. 3). This
is feasible because of the technological advances that allow for global communica-
tion on both the large and small scale. Possibilities brought forth by the Internet,
Web, e-mail, and videoconferencing allow for people to connect with each other
regardless of considerations like location or time zone. The commodification of
work via technological means can be seen as a threat, but rather than holding tech-
nology responsible for the loss of jobs, we can use these advances to further educa-
tional practices. Consider the benefits outlined by Shaffer and Gee (2005), ‘‘Indian
radiologists can read American X-rays while American doctors and patients sleep at
night.’’ As Prensky (2001) notes, the majority of students today are ‘‘digital natives’’
meaning ‘‘native speakers of the digital language of computers, video games and the
Internet,’’ and therefore, rather than upholding traditional methods of teaching, ‘‘we
need to invent digital native methodologies for all subjects, at all levels’’ (pp. 1–6).
A response to Prensky’s timely appeal to change is an innovative method of teaching
that involves the use of video games in an educational context, otherwise known as
‘‘serious gaming’’ (Abt, 1970). Within this realm of educational video games, the
scope of this article will focus on epistemic gaming, which is a type of game that
engages the participant in a ‘‘way of thinking’’ (Shaffer, 2006, p. 233) that resembles
the complex thought process necessary in the current digital workplace.

Overview of Serious Games

Original discussions regarding the idea of serious games stem back to Clark Abt’s
seminal work in his book Serious Games (1970). According to Abt, the basic defi-
nition of a game is ‘‘an activity among two or more independent decision-makers
seeking to achieve their objectives in some limiting context. A more conventional
definition would say that a game is a context with rules among adversaries trying
to win objectives’’ (1970, p. 9). The primary difference that Abt points out between
general games and serious games is that serious games ‘‘have an explicit and care-
fully thought-out educational purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for

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Boots and Strobel 169

amusement’’ (1970, p. 9). Although Abt was mainly speaking about card and board
games at the time, the premise that the rules of a serious game will involve the trans-
fer of knowledge was a pioneering observation when games like Pong, Pac man, and
Asteroids, whose clear focus was pure entertainment, were reaching peak popularity
(Baer, 2005; Lee, 2004).
Champions for educational gaming are often willing to subscribe to the idea that
any game that is entertaining can be transfused with educational content and be suc-
cessful; however, the simple ‘‘act of placing educational content inside a game does
not guarantee that it will succeed in achieving a fun, motivating experience, meeting
educational goals, or being a commercial success’’ (Gunter, Kenny, & Vick, 2008,
p. 513). Although studies have been conducted on the value of jeopardy in the class-
room (Sarason & Banbury, 2004), there is much left to be desired as far as long-term
retention, for example, is concerned (Murphy, 2005). The educational games that
will impact a child’s worldview are the few with the capability to ‘‘engage the child
with complex and deep learning from the start’’ (Nodoushan, 2009, p. 898). To truly
measure the impact of an educational game, ‘‘any analysis of games for their educa-
tional value must be evaluated both in terms of how well they immerse academic
content within the game’s fantasy context and how tightly the game designers couple
game play with other fundamentally sound instructional strategies’’ (Gunter et al.,
2008, p. 514). Simply put, the game must create a learning environment that incor-
porates academic content in a fluid manner that engages the student, and gives
opportunities for knowledge to be built, for ‘‘future learning that gets ever more
technical and complex’’ (Nodoushan, 2009, p. 898).
This article follows the definition of serious games by Zyda (2005) as ‘‘a mental
contest, played with a computer in accordance with specific rules that uses entertain-
ment to further government or corporate training, education, health, public policy,
and strategic communication objectives’’ (p. 26). While the genre is differentiated
from other games, there are various types of serious games available today, ranging
from drill and practice games to intelligent tutoring systems and epistemic games.

Epistemic Forms, Theory, and Games

On its basic level, epistemic games can be defined as games that are essentially
about equipping learners with the ability to think in inventive ways. To thoroughly
understand the premise of epistemic games, one must become familiar with the
underlying theory that creates a foundation for producing significant learning out-
comes, namely epistemic forms and theories.
Several scholars have created their own shades of definitions for this particular
type of instruction. Crowley and Jacobs (2002) mention islands of expertise, which
is when a particular idea becomes the object of acute interest to a child, therefore
compelling him or her to cultivate a keen understanding of the subject matter. Per-
kins (1992) would deem this phenomenon as epistemic understanding, which is the
‘‘knowledge and know-how concerning justification and explanation in the subject

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170 Games and Culture 9(3)

matter’’ (p. 85). Schwartz and Stern (2002), based on the work of Collins and Fer-
guson (1993), proposed epistemic structures, which is the blend of epistemic forms
(abstract schemata) and epistemic games (rules to manipulate the schema).
However, to promote a complete understanding of a topic, one must not only, as
Broudy (1977) posits, grasp concepts of knowing that and knowing how but also
master knowing with, which is ‘‘a context within which a particular situation is per-
ceived, interpreted, and judged’’ (p. 12). The testing of knowledge in authentic situa-
tions, while involving social collaboration, ‘‘supports learning in a domain by enabling
students to acquire, develop, and use cognitive tools’’ (Brown, Collins, & Duguid,
1989). This also falls in sync with situated learning theory, where Lave and Wenger’s
(1991) communities of practice begin by starting off with an apprenticeship, gradually
increasing in responsibility to the point where the learner masters a certain skill or
practice
Shaffer’s epistemic frame hypothesis (2006) best summarizes the key ideas
by defining five categories (SKIVE), which consists of (1) Skills, (2) Knowledge,
(3) Identity, (4) Values, and (5) Epistemology (Rupp, Gushta, Mislevy, & Shaffer,
2010). The definitions for each category are noted in the list below, as enacted by
participants within a community of practice:

1. Skills: Common actions that are performed

2. Knowledge: Information and agreements that are shared
3. Identity: Means of which participants perceive themselves
4. Values: Principles that are upheld by participants
5. Epistemology: Merits that validate actions to be reasonable and authentic

Shaffer’s epistemic frame hypothesis asserts that the collection of the five cate-
gories is bound together into an epistemic frame, which, once fully adopted by a par-
ticipation of becoming a member of a community of practice, will consequently
form the member’s perception of circumstances and equip the member with proper
techniques to approach possible problem solving.
Several different instructional design theories, especially in the area of open-
ended or problem-based learning environment, incorporate epistemic elements:
Goal-based scenarios (Schank, Berman, & Macpherson, 1999), for example, incor-
porate simulations of real-world work situations and cognitive apprenticeship-based
environments (Wang & Bonk, 2001) emulate support structures similarly encoun-
tered in professional settings. While these environments incorporate epistemic ele-
ments, major elements of games are missing, as the scenarios focus on completing a
task, rather than nurturing a mind-set within a profession. Therefore, epistemic
games, defined as ‘‘games where players think and act like real world professionals’’
(Bagley & Shaffer, 2009, p. 36), allow players to take information and use it in a
meaningful context in the context of a game-like environment. In essence, epistemic
games are ‘‘role playing games that help young people learn the knowledge, skills,
and values of a profession by simulating professional training’’ (Bagley & Shaffer,

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Boots and Strobel 171

2009, p. 39). Students become familiar in a specific environment that could aid the
student in preparation for the real world. ‘‘By playing epistemic games, young chil-
dren will begin their apprenticeship in innovative thinking; they will learn to think
using a variety of epistemic frames. In other words, they learn to see the world and
solve its problems in multiple ways’’ (Nodoushan, 2009, p. 900). Not only are the
students learning the skill sets of a certain career, they are also taught how to delib-
erate like a professional in a certain situation. Rupp et al. expand on this further:
‘‘Learners may learn what it is like to think and act like journalists, artists, business
managers, or engineers by using digital learning technologies to solve realistic
complex performance tasks’’ (2009, p. 4).

Principles of Epistemic Game Design

Now that the concept of epistemic games has been clarified, it is important to see
what literature offers in terms of design and development of epistemic games. In
reviewing the literature, there is not much established research in designing effective
educational video games. Since it is a relatively new area of study, and there are
many distinctions between the various types of gaming, the only research that was
suitable for the aims of this article is Leonard Annetta’s six ‘‘I’s’’ for serious educa-
tional game design (2010): identity, immersion, interactivity, increasing complexity,
informed teaching, and instructional. Beginning with identity, these six elements
build upon each other to create an effective learning framework for game design (see
Figure 1).
Identity, the core of the framework, is the most important element, because of the
‘‘ability to capture the player’s mind and trick him/her into believing he or she is a
unique individual within the environment’’ (p. 106). In the context of epistemic gam-
ing, it is imperative that the designer allows the player various unique options for the
creation of character. The freedom to mold a character engages and promotes own-
ership of the environment. Annetta’s previous work (2008) emphasized the impor-
tance of individuality within a game. In this study, two sections of graduate
students participated in a virtual environment. One section had the choice of a male
or female avatar, while the second section had the choice to choose from a hundred
different avatars. The comments from the first section comprised of students com-
plaining about having avatars that looked the same within an environment, which
decreased their engagement in the virtual environment and also lessened their invest-
ment for the rest of the serious educational game design. To that end, creating an
identity that highlights the individual’s unique traits is necessary for engagement and
investment into the epistemic game.
Immersion comprises of having a ‘‘heightened sense of presence through individ-
ual identity, are engaged in the content, and thus are intrinsically motivated to suc-
ceed in the challenge of the game’s goal’’ (p. 107). Included in this definition is
Csikszentmihalyi’s idea of flow, which he defines as ‘‘the state in which people are
so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience is so

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172 Games and Culture 9(3)

Figure 1. Annetta’s nested model of six I’s for SEG design (Annetta, 2010, p. 104). Note.
SEG ¼ serious educational game.

enjoyable that people will do it even at a great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it’’
(1990, p. 4). According to Csikszentmihalyi, a person in flow has the following eight
characteristics:

1. Feeling the activity can be successfully completed,

2. The player can concentrate fully on the activity,
3. The activity has clear goals,
4. The activity provides fast feedback,
5. The player is deeply involved in the activity,
6. A sense of control over the actions is necessary to perform the activity,
7. Self-awareness disappears during flow, and
8. There is an altered sense of time. (p. 4)

When the player exhibits these eight characteristics, the player is immersed into
his or her environment and play, and compels the player to complete a challenge in
the game. Motivation, an essential driving force in the continuation of play, is further
elaborated by Paras and Bizzocchi (2005): ‘‘Looking at the ‘effort’ expelled during
the learning process will help determine whether learners are motivated. However,

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Boots and Strobel 173

for ‘effort’ to even occur, there are two necessary prerequisites required: (1) the per-
son must value the task and (2) the person must believe he or she can succeed at the
task’’ (p. 2). The player, once he or she has assumed a certain identity, and has
accepted the reality of the gameplay world, must then see the explicit value in com-
pleting a particular task, and that it is possible to complete, and that this will be for
the overall improvement and well-being of the character. In order to measure the
conditions of flow, Schaffer (2013) created a Flow Condition Questionnaire (FCQ),
which is recommended as a helpful instrument to aid in the facilitation of immersion.
Interactivity involves ‘‘players in a multi-player environment or with the
machine, communicating with computerized agents who are considered non-
player characters’’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, p. 101). Interactions usually consist
of hooks, defined by Howland (2002) as ‘‘anything that requires the player to make
a decision that relates to the game, and thus keeps them playing’’ (p. 78). Howland
continues to describe four types of hooks: action, resource, tactical and strategic, and
time hooks. Action hooks consist of choices about navigation, missions, and quests
that need to be made. Resource hooks provide a constraint on valuable tools or sup-
plies in the context of the game, such as health or forms of money. Tactical and stra-
tegic hooks are comprised of strategic planning and consumption of resources.
Finally, time hooks serve as limitations to various aspects of the game, which could
be through the use of counters or prescribed time limits. Howland suggests to create
these hooks according to the game genre. This allows for the player to foster a mind-
set of effectively communicating with others within the game, regardless of whether
they are real people participating in multiplayer games or nonplayer characters that
have been incorporated into the game by the designers.
Increased complexity naturally builds upon interactivity, as this sort of practicum
for socialization and collaboration is crucial when the difficulty level rises through-
out gameplay. Specifically, increased complexity describes the increasing difficulty
of the challenges within the game as ‘‘the abilities of the player should improve’’
(p. 108). If the challenges within the game are not measured properly to keep the
player engaged in flow, the motivation to continue playing the game will be lost.
However, the task in creating just the right amount of increased complexity is pro-
blematic because much of burden depends on the personality of the player, which the
designer cannot make any assumptions about. Therefore, as Annetta suggests, ‘‘the
designer wants to be sure that the player always progresses but must also be certain
the player is rewarded for his or her qualities and in-game decisions’’ (p. 108). In
doing so, based on the decisions made by the player, the game is tailored toward the
individual learner.
Informed teaching is the ‘‘feedback and embedded assessments’’ (p.108) within
the game, allowing for the student’s understanding to be measured and primed for
further learning. While traditional assessments are taken via the visual observations
of students in a classroom, in the context of an educational video game, the data are
taken through units such as login times, length of play, activities and tasks accom-
plished, and other forms of evidence of learning. Since assessment of learning will

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174 Games and Culture 9(3)

Table 1. Annetta’s Framework for Effective Game Design—Urban Science.

Identity Viewing oneself as an urban planner and the conduct that is expected
among professionals within the urban planning community
Immersion Recording field notes, speaking with various stakeholders, analyzing survey
data, producing and presenting final redevelopment plans and reports
Interactivity Listening with discernment to the concerns of various constituents and
willingness to consider a variety of solutions earnestly
Increased Math, politics, science, and design knowledge; Understanding what impact
complexity institutions and other places of power have in finalizing municipal,
economical, and political decisions; and knowledge of demographics,
processes, and common issues of communities
Informed Ability to discern what is relevant in making impactful decisions seen as
teaching reasonable within the urban planning community

Note. SEG ¼ serious educational game.

be administered in such a way, the designer must keep in mind that all actions could
be integrated as a form of analytics to give a holistic picture of how learning takes
place, and as Annetta notes, remains an untapped area of research.
The result of having all the previously mentioned elements present will result
in the education video game to be instructional in nature (p. 108). In order to
promote further understanding as to how an effective epistemic video game is
designed, three games were chosen and reviewed according to Shaffer’s SKIVE
model for evaluation of a cohesive epistemic frame. Each review will feature a
chart that specifically details each SKIVE component as incorporated in the
game and how the target audience is affected by the game play that ensues.

Urban Science
Bagley, Shaffer and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
designed the game Urban Science (see Table 1), which simulates the tasks and envi-
ronment of an urban planner (Bagley & Shaffer, 2009). Similar to the game Sim
City, the basis of the game is to ‘‘promote civic thinking in young people as they
learn about urban ecology by role-playing as urban planners redesigning a city’’
(p. 38). The students who participated in the game were 12 middle school students,
who played Urban Science for two consecutive weekends, with a total of 10 hr. At
the beginning of the experiment, students were asked to define what an urban plan-
ner actually does, to which one student responded that urban planners ‘‘plan an urban
environment’’ (p. 46). The players not only were responsible for the everyday affairs
of running the city but also had to collaborate with the Business Council, People for
Greenspace, Urban League, and the Cultural Preservation Organization. In game-
play, the students experience going to the site of a new building, following a GPS
mobile, where they collect the data necessary in order to write a proposal that is

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Boots and Strobel 175

Table 2. Annetta’s Framework for Effective Game Design—Nephrotex.

Identity Viewing oneself as an urban planner and the conduct that is expected
among professionals within the urban planning community
Immersion Data analysis of variations, design–build–test cycles, oral and written
communication, literature search and interpretation, and working
within teams
Interactivity Taking on the challenge of balancing all of the stakeholders demands while
maximizing performance
Increased Basic manufacturing, nanotechnology, trade-offs in design, understanding
complexity the structure of ultrafiltration units, and the changes in performance
from changes
Informed Making design decisions that can be adequately justified, and ultimately,
Teaching approved by management for processing

to be presented at the city council. At the conclusion of the experiment, the same
student mentioned previously answered the same question with a completely differ-
ent mind-set: ‘‘Well, first you need to talk to the general public to see what they want
(S, K, V) . . . Talk to our stakeholders (S), make a plan (S, E), go back to the general
group (S, K, I), go back and take one person from each group (S, I), and make a fina-
lized plan (S, E)’’ (Bagley & Shaffer, 2009, pp. 46–47). The statement displays evi-
dence of each SKIVE element and that the learner has adopted to the epistemic
setting that the game allowed. Not only were the students able to engage in solving
complex civic problems, the students were able to manipulate the actual tools the
students also received a chance to experience ‘‘the value of serving the public in that
process’’ (p. 49). Seeing that communication takes place between the public and the
planner also signifies the internalization of the identity as an urban planner.

Nephrotex
The brainchild of University of Wisconsin, Madison’s departments of Biomedical
Engineering, Engineering Physics, and Educational Psychology, Nephrotex was cre-
ated for first-year engineering students (see Table 2). The game allows students to
experience a workplace environment, which ensures that ‘‘learning develops in con-
text and the experience has the potential to more realistically mimic the engineering
experience’’ (Chesler, Bagley, Breckenfeld, West, & Shaffer, 2010, p. 1). In this
context, students will be able to face real-world stakeholders, such as a variety of
collaborating engineers, marketing and product representatives, and feedback from
focus groups, which all have a tremendous impact on the choices that the students
make in creating and revamping their design. Students will be given the task of rede-
signing hemodialyzers (ultrafiltration units) by learning about the four aspects that
can be varied in the design to affect the performance measures, which are biocom-
patibility, marketability, reliability, ultrafiltration rate, and cost. Participants are

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176 Games and Culture 9(3)

Table 3. Annetta’s Framework for Effective Game Design—Escher’s World.

Identity Assuming the role of an artist through interactions with mentors

Immersion Designing art through the use of computational tools and mathematical
shapes and meeting design goals
Interactivity Translating an idea of design from one’s vision to paper as truthfully as
possible
Increased Transformational geometry, creativity, art design, expressive intent, use of
complexity Geometer’s sketch pad
Informed Making decisions in design that can be adequately defended in the artist
teaching community

divided into small groups, who will have the experience of performing Design–
Build–Test (DBT) cycles in order to determine the slight nuances of change that
each alteration causes. While running these tests, various stakeholders, such as clin-
ical engineers, manufacturing engineers, focus groups liaisons, and representatives
from marketing and product support will all weigh in on the needs and interests that
need to be addressed. Once the students have finished their redesign, the stake-
holders will reevaluate the product and announce their respective decisions. Students
will be exposed to this game approximately 8 to 9 times in 50-min modules, in addi-
tion to individual activities, such as keeping an electronic journal to record
reflection.
The inclusion of this epistemic game in first-year engineering design courses is
helpful in allowing students to experience problem solving in a real-world environ-
ment. It also diminishes the time that students might need with faculty or clients in
order to receive valuable feedback.

Escher’s World
The use of digital design studios has played a significant role to support the learning
of mathematical concepts in Escher’s World (see Table 3). Created at MIT’s Media
Laboratory under the direction of Dr. William David Shaffer, students are given the
opportunity to engage in mathematical concepts while expressing their own creativ-
ity, which is the main compelling factor that drives learning. Famous works of art are
studied for the use of color, balance, and perspective, which raises questions regard-
ing transformational geometry. With the use of the Geometer’s Sketchpad, students
are given free rein to utilize polygons, points, arcs, and other shapes and determine
the mathematical relationship between them, while creating individualistic pieces of
expression in various forms of art. This studio has been utilized in various studies,
each resulting with participants significantly gaining knowledge in areas of concep-
tual insight, auto-expressivity, and meeting explicit design goals, furthering the gra-
phic designers’ mind-set of construction (Shaffer, 2005). Interviews with the
participants, such as Hallie, aptly illustrated the transfer of mathematical concepts,

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Boots and Strobel 177

such as ‘‘the mirror line creates symmetry, and symmetry creates equal parts on both
sides, which makes it balanced’’ (p. 28). The quantitative analysis demonstrated
there were significant increases in developing conceptual insights when combined
with interactions from the use of computer-aided design and the motivation express
creativity (Shaffer, 2005).

Discussion
What must also be taken into consideration in designing an epistemic game is the
countless epistemic frames and disciplines that would have to be created and simu-
lated. The amount of data, programming, and design would no doubt take years to
assemble, and as a result, the chance of having an epistemic game for being a cos-
metologist created would be very low. Therefore, the variety of professions for epis-
temic games would at first be very limited to the mainstream conventional
professions of medicine, law, science, and education; some areas of occupation
might never become epistemic games due to the difficult nature of recreating the
environment of a certain vocation. In addition, it is difficult to assume that there
is no variety of tasks when it comes to a vocation. The steps that an engineer might
take to solve a particular problem might be completely different from another.
Therefore, as future designers of an epistemic game, one must have access to subject
matter experts who are willing to spend the time and energy to invest in the creation
of the game and capable of giving a broad outlook for an occupation.
Another consideration is that the games designed will have limitations, which
cannot be helped to a certain degree, since it is a simulation. For example, my per-
sonal experience playing SimCity did evoke true learning, causing me to retain and
apply some of the knowledge even to this day. However, by no means, was it an in-
depth introduction to the daily plights and struggles of an urban planner. A true
urban design epistemic game, such as iPlan, would have been a better choice since
it causes much more collaboration with other team members, with feedback from
mentors who overview the design schemes. Even games such as iPlan, although very
influential and eye-opening, will have some miscalculations and will not be able to
replace the required internship that an urban planner needs to undertake before
attaining their professional license. This highlights that educational games
should never be a replacement of an instructor or be presented as a curriculum as
a whole; rather, it would be best utilized as an instructional tool, guided along with
an instructor who provides scaffolding when necessary. It is then pertinent that while
designing epistemic games, that the role of the facilitator is available in addition to a
free-standing game.
Understanding that the traditional education system is not likely to change very
quickly, this puts educators, and in result, the students, in a difficult position to uti-
lize epistemic games, since they are very specific to which subject area they pertain
to. Therefore, the prime time for using epistemic games would occur early in a
child’s life, in order to allow the child to experience a variety of workforce

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178 Games and Culture 9(3)

environments. Shaffer and Gee claim, ‘‘With epistemic games, students don’t have
to wait to begin their education for innovation until college, or graduate school, or
their entry into the workforce’’ (2005, p. 13). The notion that arises from this pos-
sibility is that it allows for a child to somewhat experiment with what professions
would be the best fit for his or her interests, which would also affect the amount
of time it takes to settle into a career path, because specific careers require more edu-
cation or other methods of preparation than others. As it is common for college stu-
dents to change their major before graduating (Leonard, n.d.), this could not only be
avoided but also make for a more focused student, whose aspirations are clearly deli-
neated. It would also result in the saving of numerous years, although this requires
much more research since a person’s interests and values can change significantly
with age and life stage. Therefore, as designers of epistemic games, it would be prof-
itable to aim for the youth, as most impact would occur during this time.

Conclusion
The educational system of the United States lacks much in terms of equipping young
people for the jobs of the future. The necessary skills of innovation and creativity are
not being fostered, in addition to lack of exposure to the reality of the professional
work setting. Because of the global competition that exists educationally, and con-
sequently, economically, the focus of learning must move toward teaching students
complex problem-solving skills, where manipulation of tacit knowledge results in
the creation of innovative solutions. A method that seamlessly incorporates the lan-
guage of digital natives with traditional educational content is in the use of serious
games, specifically, epistemic games. Epistemic games allow students to immerse in
simulations of professional environments, causing the students to not only learn the
factual knowledge that is necessary in the occupation but also emulate the way of
thinking and acting as a professional. However, as future designers of epistemic
games, it is important to review Shaffer’s SKIVE model as a framework for episte-
mic elements, and Annetta’s Six I Framework to include crucial elements of game
design. In addition, future designers must take into account the complexity of creat-
ing an epistemic game, as each occupation has a large variety of complexity, which
is also a limitation to this form of game design. Finally, rather than depending on an
epistemic game to be the stand-alone solution in the classroom, it is imperative that
the role of facilitator be made available where the teacher can provide scaffolding to
the students when necessary. Although it is not without its limitations, epistemic
games bear the merit of further development and research in its use in the realm
of education.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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Boots and Strobel 179

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of
this article.

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Author Biographies
Nikki Kim Boots is a recent graduate with a PhD in Learning, Design and Technology from
Purdue University. Her research interests include serious games, online learning, teacher and
faculty professional development, technology integration, and engineering education at the
elementary level. Currently, she serves as an instructional technologist at Harvard University
where she works closely with faculty to integrate sound pedagogical practices with emerging
technologies.
Johannes Strobel is Director of Educational Outreach Programs in the College of Engineer-
ing and College of Education at Texas A&M University. NSF and several private foundations
fund his research. His research and teaching focuses on policy of P-12 engineering, how to
support teachers and students’ academic achievements through engineering learning, the mea-
surement and support of change of ‘‘habits of mind,’’ particularly in regards to sustainability
and the use of cyber-infrastructure to sensitively and resourcefully provide access to and sup-
port learning of complexity. Email: jstrobel@tamu.edu.

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