The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

The 7 steps to support teaching, learning and research from Digital Libraries

Libraries are well-positioned in order to work in cross-disciplinary teams in teaching and learning as well as in research landscape. The new trends and significant challenges in education and the important developments in technology are drivers for developing and changing libraries. For instance, among others, the economic and political pressures, the evolving nature of the scholarly record and the research data management areexamples of areas that are affected by this change. The seven steps described in the following pages were selected by the authors after a thorough bibliography review, the application of previous professional knowledge and experience within the field of libraries and further discussion of the topic. These steps are intended to be a roadmap to accelerate the transformation of digital libraries aiming to support teaching, learning and research.Las bibliotecas están bien posicionadas para trabajar en equipos interdisciplinarios en la enseñanza y el aprendizaje, así como en el campo de la investigación. Las nuevas tendencias y retos importantes en la educación y los importantes desarrollos tecnológicos son motores para el desarrollo y el cambio de las bibliotecas. Por ejemplo, entre otras, las presiones económicas y políticas, la naturaleza evolutiva del registro académico y la gestión de datos de investigación son ejemplos de áreas que se ven afectadas por este cambio. Se seleccionaron los siete pasos descritos en las siguientes páginas. Los autores después de una exhaustiva revisión bibliográfica, aplicación de los conocimientos y experiencias profesionales anteriores dentro del campo de las bibliotecas y una mayor discusión del tema. Estos pasos están destinados a ser una hoja de ruta para acelerar la transformación de bibliotecas digitales con el objetivo de apoyar la enseñanza, aprendizaje e investigación.Les biblioteques estan ben posicionades per a treballar en equips interdisciplinaris en l'ensenyament i l'aprenentatge, així com en el camp de la recerca. Les noves tendències i reptes importants en l'educació i els importants desenvolupaments tecnològics són motors per al desenvolupament i el canvi de les biblioteques. Per exemple, entre unes altres, les pressions econòmiques i polítiques, la naturalesa evolutiva del registre acadèmic i la gestió de dades de recerca són exemples d'àrees que es veuen afectades per aquest canvi. Es van seleccionar els set passos descrits en les següents pàgines. Els autors després d'una exhaustiva revisió bibliogràfica, aplicació dels coneixements i experiències professionals anteriors dins del camp de les biblioteques i una major discussió del tema. Aquests passos estan destinats a ser un full de ruta per a accelerar la transformació de biblioteques digitals amb l'objectiu de recolzar l'ensenyament, aprenentatge i recerca

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

Open educational resources for all? Comparing user motivations and characteristics across The Open University’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform.

With the rise in access to mobile multimedia devices, educational institutions have exploited the iTunes U platform as an additional channel to provide free educational resources with the aim of profile-raising and breaking down barriers to education. For those prepared to invest in content preparation, it is possible to produce interactive, portable material that can be made available globally. Commentators have questioned both the financial implications for platform-specific content production, and the availability of devices for learners to access it (Osborne, 2012). The Open University (OU) makes its free educational resources available on iTunes U and via its web-based open educational resources (OER) platform, OpenLearn. The OU’s OER on iTunes U reached the 60 million download mark in 2013; its OpenLearn platform boasts 27 million unique visitors since 2006. This paper reports the results of a large-scale study of users of the OU’s iTunes U channel and OpenLearn platform. A survey of several thousand users revealed key differences in demographics between those accessing OER via the web and via iTunes U. In addition, the data allowed comparison between three groups: formal learners, informal learners and educators. The study raises questions about whether university-provided OER meet the needs of users and makes recommendations for how content can be modified to suit their needs. As the publishing of OER becomes core to business, we reflect on reasons why understanding users’ motivations and demographics is vital, allowing for needs-led resource provision and content that is adapted to best achieve learner satisfaction, and to deliver institutions’ social mission

Language learning and technology

By and large, languages, both as first, second or foreign languages remain one of the most important core subjects at every educational level. In early stages, their inclusion in the curriculum is intricately connected with (pre-)literacy practices, but also as a main driver for the successful integration of minority students learning a second language. In addition, the attainment of a certain level of a foreign language by the end of compulsory education is a common goal in most educational systems around the globe. Arguably, the key drivers of success in learning a language range from motivational to attitudinal, but ultimately they also have to do with the amount of target language use, the access to quality input, and especially language teachers' readiness to incorporate the latest educational trends effectively in the language classroom, educational technologies amongst them

Telepresence learning environments for opera singing, a case study

The present study analyzes the data obtained in the execution of the Opera eLearning project, a multidisciplinary effort to develop a solution for Opera singing distance lessons at the graduate level, using high bandwidth to deliver quality audio and video experience that has been evaluated by singing teachers, chorus and orchestra directors, singers and other professional musicians. The research work includes the phases of design, execution and evaluation of pilot tests, followed by further development and execution of several experimental exercises with the system, all of them carried out between July 2008 and April 2009. This is an empirical research, an exploratory case study that has provided enough data to arrive to a sustainable model for a telepresence learning environment. Different usability methods have been implemented in order to assure users of the quality of the product. The main objective is to prove whether the system or artifact proposed can be used to deliver a complete remote singing class at a higher education level; for that purpose, we have defined several research categories that describe the usability of the system in multiple dimensions. We have used “design as research” approaches to promote innovation in the technological area. The theoretical framework is based on a wide variety of fields; from acoustics, physics, music, professional singing to telecommunications and multimedia technology. However, the common thread and central issue under analysis is distance education, through the construction of a remote learning system. We have also included the corresponding justification of the scientific methodology employedEl presente estudio analiza los datos obtenidos en la ejecución del proyecto Opera eLearning, un esfuerzo multidisciplinario para desarrollar una solución que permita dar clases a distancia de canto lírico a nivel de educación superior, utilizando conexiones de banda ancha con el fin de proveer una experiencia de vídeo y audio de calidad, la que ha sido evaluada por profesores de canto, directores de coros y orquesta, cantantes y otros músicos profesionales. El trabajo de investigación incluye las fases de diseño, ejecución y evaluación de las pruebas piloto, seguido del posterior desarrollo y ejecución de varios ejercicios experimentales con el sistema, todos ellos efectuados entre Julio de 2008 y Abril de 2009. Esta es una investigación empírica, un caso de estudio exploratorio que ha obtenido datos suficientes como para definir un modelo sostenible de entorno de enseñanza por telepresencia. Diversos métodos de usabilidad fueron implementados con el fin de asegurar a los usuarios la calidad del producto. El objetivo principal es probar si el sistema o artefacto propuesto puede ser usado para realizar de modo remoto una clase completa de canto lírico a nivel de educación superior; con tal propósito, hemos definido varias categorías de investigación que describen la usabilidad del sistema en múltiples dimensiones. Hemos utilizado el enfoque de “diseño como investigación” para promover la innovación en el área tecnológica. El marco teórico se basa en una amplia variedad de campos; desde la acústica, la física, la música, el canto profesional hasta las telecomunicaciones y tecnología multimedia. Sin embargo, el hilo común y tema central bajo análisis es la educación a distancia, ya que se trata de la construcción de un sistema de aprendizaje remoto. También se he incluido la justificación correspondiente a la metodología científica empleada

Knowledge Communities in Online Education and (Visual) Knowledge Management: 19. Workshop GeNeMe‘16 as part of IFKAD 2016: Proceedings of 19th Conference GeNeMe

Communities in New Media started in 1998 as a workshop series at TU Dresden, and since then has annually dealt with online communities at the interface between several disciplines such as education and economics, computer science, social and communication sciences, and more. (See Köhler, Kahnwald & Schoop, 2015). The workshop is traditionally a forum for interdisciplinary dialogue between science and business and serves to share experiences and knowledge among participants from different disciplines, organisations, and institutions. In addition to the core themes of knowledge management and communities (in the chapters of the same name), the main focus of the conference is also on the support of knowledge and learning processes in the field of (media-assisted) higher education. This is complemented by an informational perspective when it comes to more functional and methodological approaches - use cases, workflows, and automation in knowledge management. In addition, systems and approaches for feedback, exchange, and ideas are presented. With the focus of knowledge media design and visual research as well as creative processes, this time there is also a highlight on visual aspects of knowledge management and mediation. For IFKAD 2016, three GeNeMe tracks were accepted which focus on the interface of knowledge communities and knowledge management as well as knowledge media design in science, business, or education. In this conference volume you will find detailed information about these three tracks: -- Knowledge Communities I: Knowledge Management -- Knowledge Communities II: Online Education -- Visual Knowledge Management [From the Preface.]:Preface IX Vorwort XIII Knowledge Communities I: Knowledge Management 1 Process Learning Environments 1 Two Steps to IT Transparency: A Practitioner’s Approach for a Knowledge Based Analysis of Existing IT Landscapes in SME 13 Social Media and Sustainable Communication. Rethinking the Role of Research and Innovation Networks 26 Consolidating eLearning in a Higher Education Institution: An Organisational Issue integrating Didactics, Technology, and People by the Means of an eLearning Strategy 39 How to treat the troll? An empirical analysis of counterproductive online behavior, personality traits and organizational behavior 51 Knowledge Communities II: Online Education 64 Sifa-Portfolio – a Continuing Education Concept for Specialists on Industrial Safety Combining Formal and Informal Learning 64 Analysing eCollaboration: Prioritisation of Monitoring Criteria for Learning Analytics in the Virtual Classroom 78 Gamifying Higher Education. Beyond Badges, Points and Leaderboards 93 Virtual International Learning Experience in Formal Higher Education – A Case Study from Jordan 105 Migration to the Flipped Classroom – Applying a Scalable Flipped Classroom Arrangement 117 MOOC@TU9 – Common MOOC Strategy of the Alliance of Nine Leading German Institutes of Technology 131 A Survey on Knowledge Management in Universities in the QS Rankings: E-learning and MOOCs 144 Visual Knowledge Media 157 Generating implications for design in practice: How different stimuli are retrieved and transformed to generate ideas 157 Behind the data – preservation of the knowledge in CH Visualisations 170 Building a Wiki resource on digital 3D reconstruction related knowledge assets 184 Visual media as a tool to acquire soft skills — cross-disciplinary teaching-learning project SUFUvet 196 Graphing Meeting Records - An Approach to Visualize Information in a Multi Meeting Context 209 HistStadt4D – A four dimensional access to history 221 Ideagrams: A digital tool for observing ideation processes 234 Adress- und Autorenverzeichnis 251Gemeinschaften in Neuen Medien hat 1998 als Workshop-Reihe an der TU Dresden begonnen und seither jährlich das Thema Online-Communities an der Schnittstelle mehrerer Disziplinen wie Informatik, Bildungs- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Informatik sowie Sozial-und Kommunikationswissenschaft u.a.m. thematisiert (vgl. Köhler, Kahnwald & Schoop, 2015). Der Workshop ist traditionell ein Forum für den interdisziplinären Dialog zwischen Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft und dient dazu, Erfahrungen und Wissen unter den Teilnehmern aus verschiedenen Disziplinen, Organisationen und Institutionen zu teilen. Die inhaltlichen Schwerpunkte der Konferenz widmen sich neben den Kernthemen Wissensmanagement und Communities (in den gleichnamigen Kapiteln) auch der Unterstützung von Wissens- und Lernprozessen im Bereich der (mediengestützten) Hochschullehre. Ergänzt wird diese eher organisationswissenschaftliche durch eine informatorische Perspektive, wenn es um stärker funktionale bzw. auch methodische Ansätze geht – Use Cases, Workflows und Automatisierung im Wissensmanagement. Darüber hinaus werden Systeme und Ansätze für Feedback, Austausch und Ideenfindung vorgestellt. Mit den Schwerpunkten der Wissensmediengestaltung und visuellen Forschungs- sowie Kreativprozessen wird diesmal auch ein Schlaglicht auf visuelle Aspekte von Wissensmanagement und -vermittlung geworfen. Für die IFKAD 2016 wurden drei GeNeMe-Tracks angenommen, die sich auf das Interface von Wissensgemeinschaften und Wissensmanagement sowie die Wissensmediengestaltung in Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft oder Bildung konzentrieren. Im vorliegenden Tagungsband finden Sie detaillierte Informationen zu diesen drei Tracks: -- Knowledge Communities I: Knowledge Management -- Knowledge Communities II: Online Education -- Visual Knowledge Management [Aus dem Vorwort.]:Preface IX Vorwort XIII Knowledge Communities I: Knowledge Management 1 Process Learning Environments 1 Two Steps to IT Transparency: A Practitioner’s Approach for a Knowledge Based Analysis of Existing IT Landscapes in SME 13 Social Media and Sustainable Communication. Rethinking the Role of Research and Innovation Networks 26 Consolidating eLearning in a Higher Education Institution: An Organisational Issue integrating Didactics, Technology, and People by the Means of an eLearning Strategy 39 How to treat the troll? An empirical analysis of counterproductive online behavior, personality traits and organizational behavior 51 Knowledge Communities II: Online Education 64 Sifa-Portfolio – a Continuing Education Concept for Specialists on Industrial Safety Combining Formal and Informal Learning 64 Analysing eCollaboration: Prioritisation of Monitoring Criteria for Learning Analytics in the Virtual Classroom 78 Gamifying Higher Education. Beyond Badges, Points and Leaderboards 93 Virtual International Learning Experience in Formal Higher Education – A Case Study from Jordan 105 Migration to the Flipped Classroom – Applying a Scalable Flipped Classroom Arrangement 117 MOOC@TU9 – Common MOOC Strategy of the Alliance of Nine Leading German Institutes of Technology 131 A Survey on Knowledge Management in Universities in the QS Rankings: E-learning and MOOCs 144 Visual Knowledge Media 157 Generating implications for design in practice: How different stimuli are retrieved and transformed to generate ideas 157 Behind the data – preservation of the knowledge in CH Visualisations 170 Building a Wiki resource on digital 3D reconstruction related knowledge assets 184 Visual media as a tool to acquire soft skills — cross-disciplinary teaching-learning project SUFUvet 196 Graphing Meeting Records - An Approach to Visualize Information in a Multi Meeting Context 209 HistStadt4D – A four dimensional access to history 221 Ideagrams: A digital tool for observing ideation processes 234 Adress- und Autorenverzeichnis 25

SumutSiana: A Framework for Applying ICT to Preserve the Cultural Heritage of Sumatera Utara Indonesia

Preservation of cultural heritage is a task given by UNESCO charter. In the information age, this task becomes a challenge due to the high level of growth and rapid changes of ICT. Additionally, complex cultural heritage has been neglected because of the stream of information global and the high cost of the legal application of ICT. In this context, SumutSiana, has been proposed as an ICT-based preservation of heritage cultural of “Sumatera Utara”. It involves people, content, processes, management, budged, facilities and infrastructure, evaluation, and result as a resource. This was the basis of the proposed framework for developing information system for preserving the cultural heritage

The State of Practice of Mobile Learning in Universitas Terbuka Indonesia

As a distance learning university, Universitas Terbuka (UT) uses mobile technology as an integral part of its online learning system. In addition to its mobile-interfacewebsite, online tutorials are also made accessible through mobile as well as handheld devices. In other words, UT students can literally study through their mobile devices from thevery first activity of registering for courses, paying the tuition fee, obtaining digital learning materials, accessing the digital library, reading online journals, as well as participating in online tutorials.With the continuous development of increasingly sophisticated smartphone technologies, it is important for UT to continuously improve its online learning system. The development of UT’s mobile learning, which was started in 2013, has gone through several phases. The first phase was the preparation of infrastructure, which includes the development of applications and frameworks. The second phase wasthe content development, which wasdone by the faculty using various media including text, audio, video, multimedia, and the utilisation of Open Education Resources (OER). The last and third phase wasthe program delivery, which involves tutors, technical/IT assistants, and other support systems to allow studentswith seamless accessto mobile learning using various mobile devices. This seems to be effective as shown by the data that demonstratesUT mobile learning is being accessed by students using different mobile devices with variousoperating systems.This chapter will give a glance on the state of practice of mobile learning in Indonesia as well as elaborate on the process and practice of mobile learning at Universitas Terbuka (The Indonesia Open University) as a dedicated distance learning university