Cognitive Games for Civics

Since 2015

Evanston, IL, USA

How might we scale development of policy argumentation skills? Cognitive games embed intelligent computer tutors in game-like environments to teach policy argumentation skills. Intelligent tutors can achieve learning gains rivaling that of human tutors by observing how students solve problem and giving them feedback on each step of their problem solving process. Embedding tutors in games allows us to achieve high levels of learning and interest levels that equal to or better than those in conventional games. Games include: Policy world teaches students how to make arguments for policy intervention by constructing and using diagrams that depict causal claims of different sources. Political Agenda teaches students how to reason about the ideological values using Moral Foundations Theory to understand the common ground between political groups. State of Nature – multiplayer game designed to teach fundamental political concepts such as the State of Nature and Hobbes' Leviathan.