Authoring Edutainment Stories for Online Players (AESOP): Introducing Gameplay into Interactive Dramas

The video gaming industry has experienced extraordinary technological growth in the recent past, causing a boom in both the quality and revenue of these games. Educational games, on the other hand, have lagged behind this trend, as their creation presents major creative and pedagogical challenges in addition to technological ones. By providing the technological advances of the entertainment genres in a coherent, accessible format to teams of educators, and developing an interactive drama generator, we believe that the full potential of educational games can be realized. Section 1 postulates three goals for reaching that objective: a toolset for interactive drama authoring, ways to insulate authors from game engines, and reusable digital casts to facilitate composability. Sections 2 and 3 present progress on simple versions of those tools and a case study that made use of the resulting toolset to create an interactive drama

Toward Intelligent Support of Authoring Machinima Media Content: Story and Visualization

The Internet and the availability of authoring tools have enabled a greater community of media content creators, including nonexperts. However, while media authoring tools often make it technically feasible to generate, edit and share digital media artifacts, they do not guarantee that the works will be valuable or meaningful to the community at large. Therefore intelligent tools that support the authoring and creative processes are especially valuable. In this paper, we describe two intelligent support tools for the authoring and production of machinima. Machinima is a technique for producing computer-animated movies through the manipulation of computer game technologies. The first system we describe, ReQUEST, is an intelligent support tool for the authoring of plots. The second system, Cambot, produces machinima from a pre-authored script by manipulating virtual avatars and a virtual camera in a 3D graphical environment

Evaluating the usability of authoring environments for serious games

Background. The EMERGO method and online platform enable the development and delivery of scenario-based serious games that foster students to acquire professional competence. One of the main goals of the platform is to provide a user-friendly authoring environment for creating virtual environments where students can perform authentic tasks. Aim. We present the findings of an in-depth qualitative case study of the platform´s authoring environment and compare our findings on usability with those found for comparable environments in literature. Method. We carried out semi-structured interviews, with two experienced game developers who have authored a game for higher education, and a literature review of comparable environments. Findings. The analysis shows that the usability of the authoring environment is problematic, especially regarding understandability and learnability, which is in line with findings of comparable environments. Other findings are that authoring is well integrated with the EMERGO method and that functionality and reliability of the authoring environment are valued. Practical implications. The lessons learned are presented in the form of general guidelines to improve the understandability and learnability of authoring environments for serious games

Storytelling as playful exploration of biological image data: reviewing a candidate interaction paradigm

Computer Systems, Imagery and Medi

Serious pervasive games

Serious Pervasive Games extend themagic circle (Huizinga, 1938) to the players’ context and surrounding environment. The blend of both physical and fictive game worlds provides a push in player engagement and promotes situated learning approaches. Space and time, as well as social context, acquire a more meaningful impact on the gameplay. From pervasive learning towards science communication with location-based games, this article presents research and case studies that exemplify their benefits and related problems. Pervasive learning can be defined as “learning at the speed of need through formal, informal and social learning modalities” (Pontefract, 2013). The first case study—the BEACONING project—aims to contextualize the teaching and learning process, connecting it with problem-based game mechanics within STEM. The main goal of this project is to provide the missing connection between STEM subjects and real-world interactions and applications. The pedagogical foundation is supported on problem-based learning (PBL), in which active learning is in the center, and learners have to work with different tools and resources in order to solve problems (quests). Teachers create, facilitate, and assess pervasive and gamified learning activities (missions). Furthermore, these quests are gamified in order to provide non-linear game plots. In a second case study, we demonstrate and evaluate how natural heritage can benefit from pervasive games. This study is based on a set of location-based games for an existing natural park, which have been developed in order to provide enhanced experiences, as well as additional information about some species that are more difficult to observe or that are seasonal. Throughout the research and development of these projects, we have encountered and identified several problems, of different nature, present in pervasive games.This work was financed by the ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation - COMPETE 2020 Programme and by National Funds through the Portuguese funding agency, FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030740 - PTDC/CCICOM/30740/2017. Part of this work has also been supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 - The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation 2014–2020, under grant agreement No. 687676. We would also acknowledge the research grant from the Operation NORTE-08-5369-FSE-000049 supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Social Fund (ESF), and also the FCT-Austin grant Ref. PD/BD/142893/2018.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity

Authoring Game-Based Adaptive Units of Learning with IMS Learning Design and <e-Adventure>

Burgos, D., Moreno-Ger, P., Sierra, J. L., Fernández Manjón, B., & Kooper, R. (2007). Authoring Game-Based Adaptive Units of Learning with IMS Learning Design and <e-Adventure>. International Journal of Learning Technology, 3(3), 252-268.Electronic games and simulations (eGames) are a valuable support for adaptive learning. This adaptation can be based on different inputs, such as the user´s performance, behaviour or cognitive load. Both adaptation and eGames can be modelled with IMS Learning Design or integrated from an external resource. In this article we show the relation between IMS Learning Design and the <e-Adventure> Project when it comes to authoring adaptive Units of Learning integrated with eGames. We first describe the challenges of this objective and the several different solutions on authoring and integration. We also describe the content-centered authoring approach in <e-Adventure>, and the need for a communication service with IMS LD that makes a bi-directional influence on the user’s adaptive learning experience. At the end, we describe a practical example that illustrates how an adaptive IMS LD Unit of Learning with an integrated <e-Adventure> eGame is developed.This paper is partially supported by the European projects TENCompetence (IST-TEL/2004-2.4.10, www.tencompetence.org) and ProLearn (IST 507310, www.prolearn-project.org), and the research group <e-Ucm> (www.e-ucm.es). The Education and Science Spanish Committee (projects MetaLearn TIN2004 08367 C02-02 and OdA Virtual TIN2005-08788-C04-01) and the Regional Government / Complutense University of Madrid (grant 4155/2005 and research group 910494) have also supported this work partially. Special thanks to Bruno Torijano Bueno for his participation in the creation and preliminary tests of the sample game

A revised production model of learner-generated comic: validation through expert review

Recent advancement of authoring tools has fostered a widespread interest towards using comics as a Digital Storytelling medium. This technology integrated learning approach is known as learner-generated comic production; where learners constructively produce digital stories in a form of educational comics. However, there were concerns towards the obstacles and challenges of producing learner-generated comics. Hence, a conceptual production model of learner-generated comic was proposed to guide learners in designing and developing digital educational comics. Accordingly, as the decision making stage for validating the proposed model, expert review method was adopted. Results of expert review were coded and classified into flexibility, understandability, completeness, generality, and usability aspects, aligning with dimension of conceptual model characteristics. Consequently, a final appraisal cycle with experts was conducted to approve the revised and redesigned LGC production model based on expert review. In summary, the experts concluded that the proposed model replicates the process of learner-generated comic production very well, visually and descriptively. Suggestion of future research is put forward

Narrative play therapy and the journey of a boy diagnosed with a learning disability: a case study

This study offers a detailed exploration of the personal narrative of a nine year old boy diagnosed with a learning disability, and explains how the nature of the therapeutic relationship facilitated shifts in his personal understandings of himself, others and the world. Children diagnosed with learning disabilities experience a range of challenges in their different life contexts, and particularly within the school context. This is often because of constant evaluation and surveillance from teachers, family members and peers, who define the child within rigid and limiting frameworks. Soon enough children diagnosed with learning disabilities develop problem-saturated narratives that can significantly influence their relationship with themselves and others. This is because the individualising effects of having a disability cause them to feel different or isolated from their peers. This study illustrates an eight session case study, facilitated by a narrative play therapy approach, between a counsellor, a child and his parents. The therapeutic encounters were intended to assist the child in moving away from problem-saturated narratives of incompetence and inferiority towards more preferred narratives that would positively influence his self esteem. Key words: learning disability, dyslexia, narrative, narrative therapy, identity, self esteem. Children Diagnosed with a Learning Disability Children who have been diagnosed with a learning disability often experience themselves and their world very differently from other children (Rodis, Garrod, & Boscardin, 2001). Within the educational system a considerable amount of pressure is placed on children to succeed. The educational discourse of achievement that professes itself to be the only direction from which a successful future can be attained, marginalizes and rejects those children whose knowledge and skills exist outside this rigid and oftentimes insensitive system of evaluation. As a result, children soon create problem saturated narratives, believing themselves to be the problem. However, in the last two decades there has been a move from reductionism to constructivism and as a result research in the field of learning disabilities has started to focus on children’s non-traditional strengths and talents, which are often misunderstood and ignored by schools. Armstrong (1987) sums it up as follows: The schools allow millions of imaginative kids to go unrecognise