Best of Both Worlds: The Inclusion of Gamification in Virtual Lab Environments to Increase Educational Value

Previous research investigating gamification and virtual laboratories has suggested that both are successful in educational outcomes, but few have looked at both gamification and virtual labs in tandem. This research explores the idea of investigating both contexts within one unified platform. We examine whether using gamification within virtual labs is effective in enhancing learners’ educational performance. Particularly, we employ leaderboards as a motivational gamification mechanism for more engagement and participation that can result in higher learning outcomes. Using a sample of students, our results show that utilization of gamification within a virtual lab environment causes students to exhibit higher performance in terms of more task accomplishments (specifically more complex tasks) and higher self-efficacy. The current findings show promising evidence on the positive influence of gamification within virtual lab learning environments

Empowering vulnerable people with serious games and gamification

Although many people will associate games with entertainment and leisure, games can also aim more serious purposes, such as training or education. Games with such goals are called serious games. In addition, gamification means that a (serious) task is enhanced with game elements. Examples of serious games and gamification can be seen in many aspects of daily life. Loyalty programs of stores, educational games in schools, fitness wearables and their gamified applications, rehabilitation games, and so on. In this dissertation, the focus is on a specific domain in which serious games and gamification can create societal benefit, namely by using them to empower vulnerable target groups. In the first part of this dissertation, a literature review is performed to understand the domain of serious games and gamification for vulnerable target groups. Based on this review, research gaps can be identified. Moreover, the review resulted in a taxonomy that is used throughout the dissertation to classify different games and applications. In the following parts of the dissertation, projects addressing two different target groups and in total three vulnerabilities are discussed. The first target group is older adults, who are vulnerable in different ways. In this dissertation, safety risks for doorstep scams and health risks through malnutrition are addressed. The first vulnerability is addressed by a serious game using interactive scenarios of doorstep scams. A diet tracking system that was used to support participants in a diet trial addressed the latter vulnerability. The second target group is young adults, which is an age group with a vulnerable mental well-being. The last part of this dissertation aims to study how gamification can be used to enhance self-compassion among young adults via an online 6-weeks training program, to increase their resilience in the face of mental well-being difficulties. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can be used to personalize and adapt the experience of a game to users. Tone of voice analysis was used to influence the progression in scenarios of the serious game about doorstep scams, and it gave players the possibility to assess the assertiveness of their voice. Machine learning algorithms were used to create personalized meal recommendations that can be used to improve the user experience of the diet tracking system for older adults. These algorithms base their recommendations on information about the historical intake of users to suggest meals and to additional items during meal editing. This makes the process of registering a meal less time-consuming. Sentiment analysis is used to adapt responses of the system in an exercise from the self-compassion training program. In addition, a topic detection algorithm was designed to assign one topic from a predefined set of topics to a note by a user of the training program. With this information, users can choose different types of situations to use in the exercises: frequently or rarely discussed topics. Aside from those techniques, knowledge representation is used in all projects, which is important for serious games/gamified applications since they are often based on expert and/or domain knowledge. This dissertation contributes to understanding the domain of serious games and gamification to empower vulnerable groups. The work also contributes to the research on the development of applications within that domain. On top of that, it contributes to understanding how AI techniques can be used to offer (personalized) features that enrich serious games or gamified applications. Finally, for each of the project centered parts, the results that are found in those parts contribute to the research in those specific fields

Gamifying Software Testing – A Focus on Strategy & Tools Development

This study aims to introduce new software testing strategies and tools with the aim of creating a more engaging and rewarding environment for software testers. For this purpose, gamification has been selected as a potential solution to raise the performances of testers. Empirical experiments were conducted to validate key factors and metrics influencing the design and development of a gamified software testing system

Gamification for Software Development Processes – Relevant Affordances and Design Principles

A Gamified Information System (GIS) implements game concepts and elements, such as affordances and game design principles to motivate people. Based on the idea to develop a GIS to increase the motivation of software developers to perform software quality tasks, the research work at hand aims at investigating relevant requirements from that target group. Therefore, 14 interviews with software development experts are conducted and analyzed. According to the results, software developers prefer the affordances points, narrative storytelling in a multiplayer and a round-based setting. Furthermore, six design principles for the development of a GIS are derived

Development and Content Validation of Scoresheet and User Manual to Assess the Quality of Health Apps

There has been a continuous growth of health application programs (apps) both in web-based and mobile platforms in recent years. However, there has been no instrument available to assess the degree of quality of these apps in Finland during the time this study has been initiated. The aim of this study was to develop an easy-to-use and practical scoresheet and user manual to assess the degree of quality of health apps as well as validate its contents using an expert panel. The design of the study adopted a two-stage process. The first stage entails designing the instrument in which the identification of conceptual framework, item generation and determining the structure of the instrument were performed. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken as well as the examination of applicable legislations, policies and guidelines pertaining to mHealth and digital health devices. The second stage entailed judgement wherein the scoresheet was tested for face validity with a small representative sample (n=6) of intended users and two rounds of content validation using an expert panel (n=19). The Content Validity Index (CVI) both in item and scale-levels were computed. The result of the study yielded a total of 34 content validated items categorized into five distinctive domains – Basic Details, Health Content, Technical Properties, User-orientation, Privacy and Safety. The CVIs on item-level for all items reached a favorable score of > 0,78 on the assertions of relevance and clarity. Whilst it garnered > 0,90 on scale level based on universal agreement and average. This study paved ways for the scoresheet and user manual to proceed with further psychometric measurement procedures such as reliability, feasibility and acceptability.Terveydenhuollon ei-lääkinnällisten sovellusten (apps) määrä on kasvanut jatkuvasti viime vuosina sekä verkko- että mobiilialustoilla. Tämän tutkimuksen aloittamisen aikana ei Suomessa kuitenkaan ollut saatavilla instrumenttia näiden sovellusten laadun arvioimiseksi. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kehittää helppokäyttöinen ja käytännöllinen mittari ja käyttöopas terveyssovellusten laadun arvioimiseksi ja validoida sen sisältö asiantuntijapaneelin avulla. Tutkimus toteutettiin kaksivaiheisena. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa kehitettiin mittari eli määritettiin teoreettinen viitekehys, ja muodostettiin sen perusteella mittarin osiot ja rakenne. Vaiheessa yksi toteutettiin kattava kirjallisuuskatsaus sekä koottiin yhteen terveyssovelluksia koskeva lainsäädäntö ja viralliset ohjeistukset. Tutkimuksen toisessa vaiheessa arvioitiin kehitetyn mittarin ilmivaliditeettia (face validity) tavoiteltua käyttäjäjoukkoa edustavalla tarkoituksenmukaisella otoksella (n=6). Sisältövaliditeetin (content validity) testaamiseen rekrytoitiin asiantuntijapaneeli (n=19) ja he toteuttivat mittarille kaksi validointikierrosta. Vastauksista laskettiin Content Validity Index (CVI) sekä osioiden että mittarin tasolla (item and scale levels). Tutkimuksen tuloksena syntyi 34 kohdan asiantuntijapaneelin validoima mittari terveyssovellusten laadun arvioimiseen. Mittarin kohdat on luokiteltu aihealueittain viiteen osa-alueeseen: perustiedot, terveyteen liittyvä sisältö, tekniset ominaisuudet, käyttäjälähtöisyys, sekä yksityisyys ja turvallisuus. Kaikkien osioiden CVI pisteet saavuttivat suotuisat lukemat > 0,78 relevanssiuden ja selkeyden osalta. Lisäksi mittari sai > 0,90 pisteet koko mittarin tasolla (universal agreement and average). Tämä tutkimus tuotti uuden tavan arvioida terveyssovellusten laatua. Jatkossa mittarin ja sen käyttöoppaan psykometrisiä ominaisuuksia kuten reliabiliteettia sekä käyttökelpoisuutta ja hyväksyttävyyttä tulee edelleen testata