Get ready to immerse yourself! This is the first week of the serious gaming course of Erasmus University Rotterdam. Although probably all of you have some personal experience with playing entertainment games – serious games are less known. To be able to study the subject, we first need to understand what serious games are. Therefore, we start this course by defining serious games and showing you what characteristics they have. Also, you might wonder if there is a clear difference between entertainment games and serious games; can entertainment games teach? Can serious games entertain? You will get an answer to these questions. Before we officially start, you might want to get an overview of the course and what you can expect the coming weeks. To make it easier for you to schedule your own learning path, we recommend that you watch the video: What can you expect of this course?

Now that we know what serious games are, we take you a level deeper. In this module we will provide you with two perspectives on games: the cultural perspective and the psychological perspective. The cultural perspective shows us how play and culture are connected. Humans are playful, and play serves a social function in our society. The psychological perspective explains in more depth why we keep on playing a game, even though we sometimes lose or get stuck in a level. You will learn about what is so motivating about games. We will not only discuss theories, but also give you a practical example of a serious game that encourages commuters to leave their car at home more often.

From a brain training game to a game that simulates working in the emergency room in the hospital; throughout this MOOC, you will learn that serious games are applicable in various situations. In this module, we will introduce you to a taxonomy of serious games; a classification of the different kinds of serious games. Gamification is the lightest form of serious games - game elements are used in a non-game context. Simulations are the most immersive and 'serious' type of serious games. Players can actually practice a certain skill in a game. In this module, you will not only get explanation, you can also take a look at three case studies.

So far you have learned what serious games are, how they are different from entertainment games and other media products, and you have seen a range of domains where serious games can be used. This module, we will dive into the way serious games work. How can a game influence the attitude of a player? You will be introduced to persuasive games. Rhetoric and psychological theories will help you to understand how the process of persuasion works. And we will analyze in practice how persuasive games can help us to feel empathy for poverty-stricken teenagers, what it feels like to have autism or understand the impact of gun violence.

By now you probably wonder to what extent serious games actually reach their desired outcome. This seems to be the million-dollar-question, because when an organization invests serious money in a serious game, they would like to be sure it works. But the answer is not that simple. To know more about impact, you need to know more about what it means, its complexities and understand what we already know about the impact of serious games. You will need this knowledge to be able to assess claims on certain impacts serious games can have. This module, we do not have a separate case-study, but we invited three serious games researchers to a round table in the studio, in which they will tell you about their own case studies and research projects. Put on your lab coat!

This is the final module of this course. Now you know and understand many aspects of serious games, and are aware of state-of-the-art research concerning the persuasiveness and impact of serious games, it is interesting to look forward. Although we do not own a crystal ball, we will explore some possible futures of serious games. Will we be playing games in virtual reality, or will we guide our game characters with our brains? We will discuss two technological developments in more detail; virtual reality and augmented reality. But before we look forward, this module will also provide you with a brief overview of all the things we have discussed so far. At the end, you will find the final quiz to test your knowledge gained throughout this course. Good luck!