3cisd

3C Institute

Games for Learning

Online games teach social, emotional, and behavioral skills that users can apply in real life.

Game-based Programs

Game-based programs are an effective way to immerse users in virtual situations similar to real-life settings. Through the engaging game platform, you can assess and teach social emotional skills. Students learn and practice skills in the game and then apply the lessons in their real lives.


Games immerse users in virtual situations


User choices drive content


Interactive exercises collect dynamic social skills data


Interactive exercises reinforce learning


Custom avatars engage users in the game experience
(two different avatar pickers)


Custom avatars engage users in the game experience
(two different avatar pickers)


Mini-games support specific skills

 
Awards and badges reward student success


Reports reflect student progress and skills

Student-driven content
Game software can dynamically adapt the content based on user responses and engage students in developing strategies and skills to navigate social situations.

Data collection and analysis
Programs include stealth assessment that allows you to collect dynamic social skills data in real time, based on user choices during gameplay. Students aren’t aware they’re being evaluated, making them more likely to make the choices they would make in real life.

Supplemental content
Additional lessons and interactive exercises reinforce learning.

Mini-games
Mini-games allow users to practice a specific skill or strategy or check their knowledge. Incorporate a 3C mini-game as is, or work with 3C to customize an existing mini-game or develop a new one for your behavioral change or professional development program.

Collaborative development

3C’s team of game developers, artists, and e-learning professionals will collaborate with you to create a successful game-based online program tailored to the learning needs of your users.

Share our Games for Learning flyer.

Featured Projects

News
To prepare children for a successful transition to middle school, 3C developed Hall of Heroes, an innovative Intelligent Social Tutoring System (ISTS). Players navigate customizable avatars through challenging social situations in a virtual middle school for superheroes.
This engaging game dynamically adapts content to individual students and documents their progress toward specific measurable social goals. Players’ actions are recorded for teacher monitoring and reporting.
CASE STUDY

With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, 3C developed Zoo U, an online game-based social and emotional skills assessment and skill-building program for children aged 7-11. In Zoo U, children become students at a virtual school for future zookeepers and build their skills by working through a series of common social scenarios.

Zoo U leverages powerful technology to eliminate the barriers of traditional social and emotional skills assessment and training methods.

CASE STUDY

3C developed Adventures Aboard the S.S.GRIN, a nine-episode digital game for children ages 7-12 who experience significant social-behavioral problems. As children navigate Pacifico Island in search of the Friendship Stones, the game presents challenges requiring them to apply specific social and emotional skills. The single-player format enables individualized feedback and multiple play paths based on player choices, and it creates a safe environment for practicing fledgling skills. Data offered to parents, providers, or teachers allows them to document each child’s progress toward specific, measurable social goals.

CASE STUDY
DEMO OR PURCHASE

Stories in Motion is an online social visualization program that empowers upper elementary students with ASD to improve their social skills. Students create individualized story scripts from a bank of twelve common social challenges, including bullying, nonverbal communication, impulse control, cooperation and other areas of social difficulty. Students select graphical, behavioral, and verbal options to build stories to meet and achieve targeted goals. After creating a navigation plan for social challenges in the controlled game environment, students can view their custom stories as animated videos or printable comic books. Stories in Motion also includes data collection and monitoring tools and its user-friendly interface enables teachers and parents to work collaboratively with students.

CASE STUDY

DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.