The economic effectiveness of serious games in the healthcare environment - Application and Evaluation of the Comparative Transformation Model (CTM)

This article aims at empirically validating the Comparative Transformational Model (CTM) in the realm of healthcare. The model compares two different learning situations, one using Serious Games, the other one using conventional ways of learning. Because the application of freshly learned knowledge is fundamental for any change of behavior (e.g. in business processes) the model can be applied to any cogitable process change. The CTM will be combined with the Serious Game Design Assessment Framework (SGDAF) as stressed by the learning theorists Konstantin Mitgutsch and Narda Alvarado [4]. By testing the models´ applicability in terms of the CTM itself as well as of the combination with the SGDAF, it is not only elaborated whether the examined Serious Games (SGs) are an economically valuable alternative to classical transformation processes. Also, an answer will be given to the question how the (first six, later eight) design components should be rated and whether the melted model is complete as it stands. The analysis raises the question, whether the CTM and the SGDAF respect the inevitable influencing factors like for example personality for whether they need adaptation and if so, which. Three healthcare SGs will be evaluated in order to indicatively calculate whether the single-step classical way of change management (A) is more effective than the sum of the three steps (B1, B2, B3) taken in the SG detour. The same will be done with the SGDAF. Finally, it will be reflected upon the question whether the outcome, an eight-elements-chart, is universally valid, meaning whether it might serve as an omniuseful tool for the assessment of any SG.