Learning & retention in adaptive serious games.

Serious games are being actively explored as supplements to and, in some cases, replacement for traditional didactic lectures and computer-based instruction in venues ranging from medicine to the military. As part of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) for nuclear event first responders, we designed and evaluated two serious games that were integrated with adaptive multimedia content. Results reveal that there was no decay in score six weeks following game-based training, which contrasts with results expected with traditional training. This study suggests that adaptive serious games may help integrate didactic content presented though conventional means.