Customer Reviews

Learning by Doing: A Comprehensive Guide to Simulations, Computer Games, and Pedagogy in e-Learning and Other Educational Experiences (Wiley Desktop Editions)

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Before buying this book, I listened to Aldrich's presentation at IT Conversations and read the review at Training Media Review, and if you are unsure, I would suggest you do the same. Aldrich also is an active contributor to the blog at Learning Circuits.

I manage both classroom trainers and e-learning developers, and I needed to get a handle on simulations.

This book does that. It is a well-illustrated encyclopedia of different types of educational simulations (what Aldrich calls genres), what they are, what they look like, what they do and don't do, and how to buy, build (mostly), and deploy them. The simulations in Learning By Doing range from simple models that both my e-learning and even classroom people will use immediately, to medium complexity approaches that we may plan to use over the next year, to very complex types that are interesting and shed light but that I will never deploy personally.

However, unlike a traditional encyclopedia, Aldrich brings a writing style that is fun to read and full of humor (with the notable exception of the appendixes, which are a bit dry.

The book deals very specifically with the different approaches, but at a "one-level" up from the actual technical implementation. There are architectures and flow charts, but not examples of actual code. This is probably inevitable considering how many different media are covered (video vs. Flash vs. DirectX for example). The good news is that this makes it a very accessible text for clients and strategists, and yet still very helpful (if not in and if itself sufficient) for developers.

I am currently asking my entire staff to read through this, and will ask some partners as well.

I have been involved with eLearning for many years. I have developed and implemented an LMS from the ground up and reviewed other LMSs for their content. This is one area I know.
Clark, however, never fails to stun me with his knowledge.

In his book, Learning By Doing, Clark takes you through what works and what doesn't when it comes to simulations and games. He has a skill at not only writing this type of program, but at also doing what works, not just what looks fancy.

This material is a MUST HAVE for ANYONE who is even thinking about venturing into eLearning. With ease, Clark will guide you through everything you will need to know about investing in, creating or reviewing programs and determining how effective they will be for your needs. If you follow his advice I guarantee that he will save you money.

With the price of eLearning today, the investment in this book will return to you tenfold with the money you will save and the accolades you will gain through your newfound intelligence. Don't miss this one.

Clark Aldrich's book, Learning by Doing, is a "must read" for anyone wanting to implement an effective learning strategy in today's business environment. Clark keeps readers engaged as he systematically lays the foundation for anyone to easily understand the simulation genre along with practical uses and potential pitfalls. His extensive knowledge and experience have enabled him to communicate the most complex simulation nuances in effective and memorable ways. He has put together one of the best simulations books I have read to date... and frankly, I have read a lot of them over the past few months. Clark's use of humor and wit kept me interested and on track throughout the entire book... including the potentially tedious more technical parts. [...]

In 1985, I started developing educational computer simulations in DOS on the IBM PC. Since that time I have been involved in every new form of educational technology.... touchscreen, videodisc, CD-ROM, internet. For the last 8 years I have been consulting in corporate training. To try to stay smart, I read everything I can get my hands on.

After reading Learning by Doing by Clark Aldrich, I am completly blown away. Clark is a genius. This book is relavent and puts into context everything I have been doing for 22 years.

This book captures in a fun, easy to read informative style, both the pedagogy and technology for creating state of the art e-learning experiences.

I have never been motivated to write an Amazon review before, but I can't over emphasize my enthusiasm for this book. I have already had several of my clients buy this book. The book is well researched and completely current with latest trends and advancements. The use of bullet lists and charts/ diagrams is very helpful. The index is more comprehensive and complete than any book I have ever seen. Clark's editorial comments are right on target.

The book is not a dense encyclopedia, so if that is what you are looking for then supplement your library with some of the other current titles on blended learning. I give this book my highest recommendations as an introduction/ overview to the most current research and pedagogy in the use of educational technology for corporate training.

I especially recommend this book for corporate trainers who are trying to figure out how to evolve from instructor led to a blended learning paradigm.

It is no secret that "conventional eLearning" is not as engaging, interactive and interesting-and therefore also not as effective-as it should be. And we know that even current technology has the potential to do much more for "eLearning," or "technology-enabled learning" than we see today. And the rate of change in most technology is accelerating rather than slowing. It is the future potential that excites most of us who are involved in learning technology.

Games and simulations (G&S) is clearly one of the most interesting and exciting areas of learning technology and undoubtedly will play a big part of "next generation (e)Learning," whether in schools, universities, government or industry. This is now being recognized, and evidenced by the growing number of "conferences-within-conferences" (seen most recently at the Training Fall Conference and Expo in Long Beach) or the Serious Games Summit in WDC-to mention just two-dedicated to the topic of G&S.

Clark's book is a most welcome addition to the growing literature covering G&S-and it is a book I highly recommend for anyone interested in learning technology. And if you are involved in some way in learning and training, you cannot avoid technology and if you want to be conversant and be ready to make (smart) decisions on issues that undoubtedly will soon come your way, if they have not already, the ROI on the money spent on Clark's book will no doubt be great.

Clark is a highly respected analyst-with a long history of insightful writing on learning and learning technology (which thousands of practitioners and analysts have enjoyed for a number of years)-as well as a simulation developer, and a business executive (leading Simulearn). Few others can equal his credentials in the area of learning technology so even before the book arrived in my mailbox I knew that this would be one I would enjoy and find very useful. It did not disappoint me.

Not only is it well written but it is a very nice combination of the following:
-- Clear analysis of different types of G&S. This is very useful as it will help future discussion and dialog and reduce the confusion that results when people think they are talking about the same things but in fact are not. Even if one does not agree with Clark's taxonomy he is nevertheless doing us a service by stimulating a richer dialog around these issues.
-- Lots of good examples. Especially for readers interested in using G&S in their organizations, and therefore need to understand the practical side of G&S, Clark's book is very useful as it provides a range of different examples covering the different types of G&S discussed in the book. The examples come from different types of users and sectors, and few application areas exist where G&S could not be highly useful.
-- Challenges that lie ahead. Because of Clark's varied background he is very well positioned to reflect on the challenges that lie ahead and to give a realistic assessment of where we are heading with G&S. As with other analysts, like Clark Quinn, for instance, Aldrich recognizes that the future for G&S is no cakewalk. It is very hard-and often costly-to build high quality, customized simulations, for instance, as Clark learned when he built Virtual Leader. But as tools and technology improve, as more vendors compete and offer better products, and as buyers recognize the benefits of G&S (See the excellent work by James Gee at the Games and Professional Practice Simulations at the Academic ADL Co-lab, for instance) and demand thus accelerates, "effective cost" per user (nominal cost normalized by learning effectiveness) will no longer be a major adoption barrier.

Clark is also one of the most popular speakers on the conference circuit so once you have read his book you will have more to talk to him about when you meet him at one or more of the upcoming events where he will speak.

Eilif Trondsen, Ph.D.
Director
Learning on Demand Program
SRI Consulting Business Intelligence
(...)

[...]
I really enjoyed "Learning by Doing" Clark. Your frame of thinking helps place things into a space for mulling over the possibilities. I noticed the big "we have no idea" at the end of the interviews on the question of measuring the effectiveness. That is a big challenge, and I think the way there is already being constructed by Mislevy and others in the "adaptive testing" arena - but instead of giving an adaptive test, we'll just make an unobtrusive observation using the same rigorous theory base without hurting the playability, fun, sim aspects.

What you called the "universal truths" (I wasn't as convinced about sticking it in the intersection of games and sims) are also called "generic structures" in the systems dynamics literature - you probably know that. It makes one wonder if in the authoring environments of the future, those structures will be facilitated through wizards to help people build games and sims. With a few critical questions, the agent could "fill-in" a generic structure to some extent...including capturing the causal chains of events (e.g. what happens first?, when that goes up what does it do to the second thing?).

I really like the clarity of the framework of "sim, game, pedagogy" crossed with "systems, cyclical, linear" and also the idea that sims allow-uses discovery/practice, games allows-uses testing/softening and pedagogy allows-uses presentation/support. The Mislevy (et al) assessment model has four parts: task model (a bit like the sim in that it is the model of everything that the user could be doing, sets the context and expectation), user model (a bit like the game in that it models in clear computational terms what the "winning" user will be doing), the evidence model and presentation layer (collects data, makes judgements about what the user knows, and selects the next item to present to the user). The presentation layer is a bit mechanical...so really the three essential parts of any assessment are the task, user and evidence models, which I think can be brought into a useful alignment with your framework - in order to go after that issue about metrics of effectiveness.

Another thing your model makes me think of is that on the content type side, cyclical contains linear and is contained by systems. e.g. systems models have both linear and cyclic causal relationships, simple cycles are first created by two linear relatinships that bounce back to each other...and curvilinear paths of many kinds are essentially linear at the microscopic level. So that leads me to wonder (and I think your chapters make this point) that pedagogy is contained in games (i.e. games teach) and are contained by sims (i.e. sims can be fun, have prefered goal states like "winning" or "succeeding", use scores, give feedback. etc.) These metaphors might break down on some issues, but they're giving me pause to reflect and relate to your framework.

I just finished reading "Learning By Doing" from cover to cover. Those who are practicing in this field will want to read this book to learn of techniques that might not be readily apparent such as branching stories and interactive spreadsheets. I would recommend that they read "What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy" by James Paul Gee first, however, as I found the writing style of "Learning By Doing" a little sparse, like fleshed out bullet point slides. It is clear, though, that the author has a lot of experience in this topic and his book is a contribution to the field.

Remember those dreadful years spent in school. Dull subjects, dull teachers, dull students, it was a test just to get through the system. Contrast this with learning to do something like "Flight Simulator." Or look how fast the kids pick up the new, rather complex game.

"Formal" education began with a teacher taking a handful students to instruct on the way of the world. This has grown to the couple of hundred students in a lecture hall being instructed by a TA. This is "progress?" I'd rather be in Professor Snape's potients class.

The use of the computer through interactive techniques of simulations, games or whatever you choose to call them can take us back to the past with one intelligence working with one student.

But can you imagine what the teachers union will say.

This book analyzes the techniques that the gaming people use to teach people how to play the game. When you think about it, that's not terribly different from teaching people how to drive a tank. And it becomes a self-fullfilling thing, "Join the Army and you can drive a real tank."

I believe that this book points the way that education has to go.

The title says it all, Clark Aldrich really succeeded in sharing a comprehensive synthesis of his own experience (no doubt about it) in this particular field of learning. Well organized, thoroughly documented with real life example, and above all, filled with ideas and helpfull tools to begin or continue your journey. Learning by doing is a must have ressource for anybody in the learning and gaming business. More than a guide, a "virtual coach"...
Don't believe me... have a look at his site!

This is a book that effectively introduces fundamental concepts and surveys the state-of-the-art for at least two different audiences: e-learning managers faced with buying a training simulation or managing a simulation development project, and students in introductory games and simulations courses. It will also serve very well to get novice developers started, although it does not claim to be an A-to-Z how-to development guide. The pedagogical quality of Aldrich's organization and writing makes it a fast but informative read. His writing style is clear, concise, easy-going and humorous--you'll crack a smile fairly often as you move through the chapters. By doing a good job of incorporating pedagogy and humor, Aldrich genuinely practices what he preaches, which is refreshing and won my respect. Almost everyone interested in games and simulation design will find at least a few pages that explain some area better than they've ever seen it explained, or that map out a topic remarkably well. The breadth of the survey, if not the depth, is impressive.

Learning By Doing is sure to be useful to corporate e-learning practitioners who aren't experienced specialists in game or simulation design, and who haven't been satisfied by more abstract and theoretical academic treatments of the subject. Training managers who are dealing with vendors and want to cut through the sales hype and jargon will find Aldrich's experience as an industry analyst especially helpful: scattered throughout are warnings, suggestions and questions that need to be asked before you take the plunge. Designers and developers who are moving from more conventional material into simulations, or who want to build game elements into their work, will also find this book is the right place to start to get a feel for the field.

Learning By Doing also looks promising as a textbook for introductory games and simulations courses, either for undergraduates or Master's level. The latter describes my situation, and I've found that Aldrich's survey and analytical approach has helped me organize my thinking. Unlike some academic treatments, this book does not focus on abstract semantics and sterile schema building: his writing is practical, nuanced and based on real experience. Aldrich's sensible and illuminating treatment of "games vs. simulations" semantics stands out--they're not mutually exclusive, but some authors would have you believe this. Another feature that recommends Learning by Doing to profs and students is its currency: this is a rapidly-evolving field, and the standard texts that cover both games and sims that I've seen and used hail from the Nineties, and are both a little stale and a little too theory-based (they'd fit better in anthropology or sociology classes than instructional design, educational technology or anything similarly practical and applied). The index is excellent--this is one of my make-or-break criteria for deciding if a book is worthwhile, and Aldrich has not cut corners here.

There are a few caveats: academic readers should know that many design hints and theory discussions are relatively brief, and ideas are not cited or footnoted in scholarly style. Thought leaders and their affiliations are provided in the text, however, usually one per idea. There is no unified bibliogaphy, although most chapters have lists of further reading. Learning By Doing is not for more advanced graduate-school readers who want the theoretical academic approach, and who already have a basic understanding of types of sims that are out there, and of the psychology that underlies their effectiveness in the right situations.

Despite helpful sections on development and project management, this is not a detailed development guide. This book will take a designer or developer part of the way toward being ready to build something that will work in a real implementation, but not all the way. For detailed design and development guidance, you'll need something like Kaye and Castillo's FlashMX for Interactive Simulation, along with a standard ISD text like Dick and Carey--and this is for a relatively simple device simulation project. The details of planning and developing constructive and distributed military simulations, full flight simulators and immersive video games are obviously well beyond the scope of this book.