DIGITAL GAMES' EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES UTILISED IN E-LEARNING COURSES

Universities are the pioneers of e-learning but the process of teaching and learning on-line has not yet been sufficiently innovated (at least in the context of the Czech Republic where school as a playful environment has its roots in the work of John Amos Comenius). My contribution suggests a shift from the instructive (linear) approach to games, a shift which I believe provides an ample opportunity to develop an alternative, more effective educational model based on the teaching principles incorporated in digital games as learning systems. Playing, using and consuming digital games (in various forms) as a contemporary medium of choice for my generation structures students' everyday life. It leads to a transformation of our habits and creates a need for a new form and content of communication. The aim of interaction here in general is to switch over from one-way instruction to active student engagement in the subject matter, in cooperation with other participants. I want to uncover what the place of games in schooling is, how (or why) teachers use them with respect to design of an e-course, how so-called serious games affect people, what students think about them and what they possibly take away from them. Serious games as a learning tool successfully apply several teaching principles which I want to identify. I compare e-learning agendas (i.e. tools in an on-line learning environment) to the modular structure of digital games as complex learning systems. Elements of these dynamic, interconnected systems operate under rules and gameplay mechanisms. I start from the idea of a teacher/designer and his/her shifted role in designing an e-learning course through effective use of ludic principles found in modern digital games. We will touch upon ways in which a teacher (while designing an ecourse) engages, motivates, evaluates and rewards students. Teachers possessing knowledge on how to direct transmission of information in class can now design a playful e-course accordingly, so that they can exploit digital games' inherent educational potential in teaching mediated by e-learning resources.