RECOMMENDATION FOR DESIGNING GAMES FOR CLASSROOM USE

for HIV prevention intervention and prototype evaluation, the following the guidelines for designing similar games (Bada and Suhonen, 2011b).

1) An educational game should be constructed on themes (topics) with corresponding learning objectives for each theme (topic). Content contribution and evaluation by the subject teachers is important when gathering pedagogical requirements for game design.

2) The game should have an assessment component for formative evaluation of the learners’ understanding of the lessons. For the case of NetAIDS game, +1 is awarded for every success made in game play and -1 for every unsuccessful attempt in the game play and zero for no attempt made.

3) The game environment should be lively in order to capture learners’ attention.

Rainbow colors were used for continuous change in the background environment of the game. In general the game environment should be recreational.

4) Separate the computer user interface of the game from the interface of the lessons so that students do not switch from a game to a lesson or vice versa.

Alternatively restrict one application to run at any one moment. This way you can prevent students from searching answers to the game logic.

5) In a situation where ICT resources are limited, design games that reside on computer CDs. This eliminates the problem of paying for slow and expensive Internet services.

GASONEL – Pedagogy and Software design method

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Based on the experience of developing NetAIDS environment, the following system’s specifications is recommended for developing similar learning environments.

1) Windows operating system. Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 or the latest version of Windows operating system may be used

2) Eden window. This provides an environment for computer game design.

This can be downloaded from online.

3) Open source e-learning management system. This provides an environment for developing virtual classroom for online lessons and discussion forum.

4) Video camera for recording video drama

5) DVD/CD-ROM drives for making copies of computer games and video drama software.

6) Monitor with resolution of at least 1280 by 800 true color (60 Hz).

7) Processor: Intel core ™2 Duo CPU @ 1.80 GHz 8) Memory (RAM): 2038 MB

9) Sound, video and game controllers 7.7 SUMMARY

The use of ICT tools for HIV/AIDS prevention educations in secondary schools has been evaluated as a good approach of education children of dangers of HIV/AIDS in societies and possible preventive measures for all healthy children. The learning objects that were designed, developed and evaluated with children and teachers were namely computer games, online discussion forum and online lessons. The major outcomes of an online web-based project for HIV/AIDS education were discovery of pedagogical approach (GASONEL) of using ICT for AIDS prevention and counseling services and systems development methodology for developing similar systems for HIV/AIDS prevention education and counseling services support for schools especially in developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa. In the context of pedagogy we established the use of computer games for students’ self-assessment of learning online resources.

The students were able to reflect on online lessons when they played computer games after taking online lessons. The games were very interesting, challenging and motivating to the students and teachers. The educational resources for building digital environment for HIV/AIDS prevention education were gathered from existing literature and students’ drama. Moodle LMS was used as a technical solution to support the NetAIDS learning environment. Moodle was chosen because it was available free of charge and this solved the problem of schools raising funds for buying proprietary e-learning software. The computer games were designed using the scheme of work for the online lessons and hence the games were designed to test student’s understanding of the lessons. The students discussed with fellow students and teachers online. The games were played offline using CDs, this was important to keep the lessons and games separate so that students don’t have to switch between lessons and games since they games were designed the assess individual understanding of the lessons.

The NetAIDS environment was evaluated by three schools: one boys’ school, one girls’ school and one mixed school in Uganda. The evaluation results by students

Joseph Kizito Bada: Integrating digital learning Objects for HIV/AIDS prevention: a contextualized approach

and teachers strongly recommended the use of discussion forums and computer games for HIV/AIDS prevention education and counseling services support in schools. The other important recommendation was the inclusion of medical HIV/AIDS counselors in the online environment to answer to the queries from students and teachers. A systems development methodology was formulated, this takes into consideration e-learning systems development for HIV/AIDS prevention education and counseling from five different sequential and yet iterative software development process. The phases included: The initial content identification from students’ drama and existing learning content from text books and the Web, from this we were able to design and develop learning objects. The second phase was design of the system which included the following components: online lessons, computer games and discussion forum. The design was followed by systems construction in which we used open source software tool to horde the learning objects. The computers games were coded using C++ and produced on CDs for offline play. The games provided alternative way of learning HIV/AIDS prevention and assessment strategy for students understanding of the online lessons. The use of ICT tools for HIV/AIDS education in high schools has worked well in Uganda and now needs greater outreach to other schools in the country. The education content generated by teachers through online discussion forum should be printed and circulated to students and teachers in schools that do not have internet access. Internet can be used productively by schools to equip students with HIV/AIDS prevention education. The support from government is important to make the process operational in school. There is also need for the relevant stakeholders to fund such projects so that implementation is not frustrated by lack of funds.

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