Exploring interactive stories in an HIV/AIDS learning game: HEALTHSIMNET

Abstract

This article is based on work to develop an interactive documentary learning game called HEALTHSIMNET, which is intended for improving practice in a health care network. The authors look briefly at past work done to develop interactive narratives using structural artificial knowledge representation techniques. They illustrate a method for collection and analysis of documentary data acquired during semi-structured interviews with participants of a network of health practitioners in the HIV field. The article reviews the expansive theory of learning and explains how the technique can yield interactive narrative. They discuss the design implications of this work for their interprofessional learning game. They end with a description of the game and a discussion of the extent to which games developed using this method can be said to sustain the kind of learning described by activity theory.