Correlation of Game-based Experiential Education to Self-reported Driving and Learning styles

For the last half century, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of modeling and simulation (M&S) applications in training and education.  M&S can be leveraged to enhance conventional mechanisms for knowledge retention by bridging the gap between classroom theory and real-world application to better enable engaging, experiential participation in the learning process.  This paper discusses the technical and experimental design of a game-based simulation environment for an existing road vehicle dynamics (RVD) university course.  The basis of the simulation experiment is to provide an environment for learners to actively discover the interplay between two key vehicle parameters (i.e., vehicle weight distribution and roll-stiffness distribution) while driving upon an oval speedway.  The goal of the learner, in real-time, is to optimize these parameters to maximize vehicle performance (i.e., to minimize lap time).  Simultaneously, our objective as educators is to observe how simulator-measured experimental performance correlates to self-reported tendencies (e.g., driving style; learning style; video gaming preferences) relevant to driving and dynamics education.  Our holistic goal is to determine if and to what degree M&S-based instruction is better suited towards certain types of drivers or learners, which might inform how to maximize the effectiveness of the delivery of M&S in future training and education curricula.  While the M&S environment and experimental protocol described here is intended primarily for education and training, it has extensibility to other applications (e.g., pilots for aircraft), and enables related applications in transportation and human factors research.