Asphalt Pave Simulator

Asphalt Pave Simulator is a serious game created for asphalt road construction education. The goal of the serious game was to teach students the cause effect relationships between weather conditions and asphalt quality. This project was done as a graduation project for the University of Twente and was created by ASPARi, an asphalt road construction conglomerate.

 

The project had two goals: 1. To educate students in a fun way, which environmental factors would influence the way compaction should be done during the process of asphalt road construction and 2. to attract new students to the field of asphalt road construction. A secondary goal of the project was to familiarise students with new technologies which are developed for asphalt road constructions. These technologies include thermal imaging technology, geological tracking, real-time weather data and compaction sensors.

The game consists of three phases, a planning phase where the player/learner is presented with a scenario and is asked to input the parameters of the construction job; an execution phase, where the player/learner executes the plan, paves the asphalt and compacts the asphalt; and finally a feedback phase where the user gets feedback on his/her performance. This loop is repeated in every subsequent level.

The serious game was tested twice with students in asphalt road construction. Once at the SOMA college for construction and once at the ROC of Twente. Both tests resulted in a lack of perceived learning. This could be contributed to the fact that the target users which the game aims to teach were not able to test the game, therefore a group of students who already know the material which was tested. Another factor could be the game itself, as the game coped with some technical problems which could have influenced the game’s ability to teach. The fun factor for the game was probably also influenced by this, as stated by the testers.

The full report can be read here.