How Do You Like Me in This: User Embodiment Preferences for Companion Agents

We investigate the relationship between the embodiment of an artificial companion and user perception and interaction with it. In a Wizard of Oz study, 42 users interacted with one of two embodiments: a physical robot or a virtual agent on a screen through a role-play of secretarial tasks in an office, with the companion providing essential assistance. Findings showed that participants in both condition groups when given the choice would prefer to interact with the robot companion, mainly for its greater physical or social presence. Subjects also found the robot less annoying and talked to it more naturally. However, this preference for the robotic embodiment is not reflected in the users’ actual rating of the companion or their interaction with it. We reflect on this contradiction and conclude that in a task-based context a user focuses much more on a companion’s behaviour than its embodiment. This underlines the feasibility of our efforts in creating companions that migrate between embodiments while maintaining a consistent identity from the user’s point of view

Towards the Use of Interactive Simulation for Effective e-Learning in University Classroom Environment

In this PhD thesis, the utilisation of interactive simulation in a higher education e-learning classroom environment was explored and its effectiveness was experimentally evaluated by engaging university students in a classroom setting. Two case studies were carried out for the experimental evaluation of the proposed novel interactive simulation e-learning tool. In the first case study, the use of interactive agent-based simulation was demonstrated in teaching complex adaptive system concepts in the area of ecology to university students and its effectiveness was measured in a classroom environment. In a lab intervention using a novel interactive agent-based simulation (built in NetLogo). For the purpose of teaching complex adaptive systems such as the concept of spatially-explicit predator prey interaction to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the University of Stirling. The effectiveness of using the interactive simulation was investigated by using the NetLogo software and compared with non-interactive simulation built using R programming language. The experimental evaluation was carried out using a total of 38 students. Results of this case study demonstrates that the students found interactive agent-based simulation to be more engaging, effective and user friendly as compare to the non-interactive simulation. In the second case study, a novel interactive simulation game was developed (in NetLogo) and its effectiveness in teaching and learning of complex concepts in the field of marine ecology was demonstrated. This case study makes a twofold contribution. Firstly, the presentation of a novel interactive simulation game, developed specifically for use in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the area of marine ecology. This novel interactive simulation game is designed to help learners to explore a mathematical model of fishery population growth and understand the principles for sustainable fisheries. Secondly, the comparison of two different methods of using the interactive simulation game within the classroom was investigated: learning from active exploration of the interactive simulation game compared with learning from an expert demonstration of the interactive simulation game. The case study demonstrated the effectiveness of learning from passive viewing of an expert demonstration of the interactive simulation game over learning from active exploration of the interactive simulation game without expert guidance, for teaching complex concepts sustainable fishery management. A mixed methods study design was used, using both quantitative and qualitative methods to compare the learning effectiveness of the two approaches, and the students’ preferences. The investigation was carried out by running interventions with a mixture of undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Stirling in a classroom environment. A total of 74 participants were recruited from undergraduate and postgraduate level for both case studies. This thesis demonstrated through two case studies effectiveness of the proposed novel interactive simulation in university e-learning classroom environment

Teacher competence development – a European perspective

This chapter provides an European perspectives on teacher competence development

In Gameplay : the invariant structures and varieties of the video game gameplay experience

This dissertation is a multidisciplinary study on video game gameplay as an autonomous form of vernacular experience. Plays and games are traditional research subjects in folkloristics, but commercial video games have not been studied yet. For this reason, methods and concepts of the folkloristic research tradition have remained unknown in contemporary games studies. This thesis combines folkloristics, game studies and phenomenological enactive cognitive science in its investigations into player–game interaction and the video game gameplay experience at large. In this dissertation, three representative survey samples (N=2,594, N=845, N=1,053) on “Rewarding gameplay experience” are analyzed using statistical analysis methods. The samples were collected in 2014–2017 from Finnish and Danish adult populations. This dissertation also analyzes data from 32 interviews, through which the survey respondents’ gameplay preferences, gaming memories, and motivations to play were further investigated. By combining statistical and qualitative data analyses, this work puts forward a mixed-methods research strategy and discusses how the findings relate to prior game research from several disciplines and schools of thought. Based on theoretical discussions, this dissertation argues that the video game gameplay experience as a cultural phenomenon consists of eight invariants in relation to which each individual gameplay experience can be interpreted: The player must demonstrate a lusory attitude (i), and a motivation to play (ii). The gameplay experience consists of explorative and coordinative practices (iii), which engender a change in the player’s self-experience (iv). This change renders the gameplay experience inherently emotional (v) and performative (vi) in relation to the gameworld (vii). The gameplay experience has the dramatic structure of a prototypical narrative (viii) although a game as an object cannot be regarded a narrative in itself. As a key result of factor analytical studies and qualitative interview analyses, a novel approach to understanding player–game interaction is put forward. An original gameplay preference research tool and a player typology are introduced. This work argues, that, although video games as commercial products would not be intuitive research subjects for folkloristics, video game gameplay, player–game interaction, and the traditions in experiencing and narrating gameplay do not differ drastically from those of traditional social games. In contrast to this, all forms of gameplay are argued to be manifestations of the same vernacular phenomenon. Indeed, folkloristic research could pay more attention to how culture is experienced, modified, varied and expressed, regardless of whether the research subject is a commercial product or not.Käsillä oleva väitöskirja on monitieteellinen tutkimus videopelien pelaamisesta itsenäisenä kansanomaisen kokemuksen muotona. Pelien ja leikkien tutkimus on perinteikäs tutkimusaihe folkloristiikassa, mutta kaupallisten videopelien tutkimusta ei ole juuri tehty. Tästä syystä folkloristiikan tutkimusmenetelmät ja -käsitteet ovat jääneet tuntemattomaksi nykyaikaisessa pelitutkimuksessa. Tutkimus yhdistää folkloristiikan ja pelitutkimuksen näkökulmien lisäksi enaktiivisen kognition fenomenologista teoriaa pelaaja–peli-vuorovaikutuksen tutkimukseen sekä pelikokemuksen analyysiin. Tutkimuksessa analysoidaan tilastotieteellisin menetelmin kolmea aikuisväestöä edustavaa ”Palkitseva pelikokemus” -kyselytutkimusaineistoa (N=2,594, N=845, N=1,053), jotka kerättiin Suomesta ja Tanskasta vuosina 2014–2017. Kyselytutkimusaineiston rinnalla analysoidaan 32 teemahaastattelun aineistoa. Haastatteluilla tuotettiin syvempää ymmärrystä kyselyyn vastanneiden henkilöiden pelimieltymyksistä, pelimuistoista ja pelimotivaatioista. Tilastoaineiston ja haastatteluaineiston analyysi tuodaan yhteen monimenetelmällisellä ja dialogisella tutkimusotteella, joka yhdistää havainnot usealla eri tutkimusalalla tehtyyn pelitutkimukseen. Teoreettisen analyysin tuloksena argumentoidaan, että videopelien pelikokemusta ilmiönä määrittää kahdeksan muuttumatonta ominaisuutta, joiden suhteen kunkin yksittäisen pelikokemuksen ainutlaatuisuutta voidaan tarkastella: Pelaajalla tulee olla leikkisä asenne (i) ja motivaatio pelaamiseen (ii). Pelaamisen kokemus rakentuu tutkivista ja suorittavista käyntänteistä (iii), jotka tuovat väliaikaisen muutoksen pelaavan henkilön minäkokemukseen (iv). Tämän muutoksen myötä pelaajuudesta muodostuu emotionaalinen (v) ja performatiivinen (vi) positio suhteessa pelimaailmaan (vii). Näin syntyvän omakohtaisen pelikokemuksen rakenne vastaa kertomuksen dramaattista perusrakennetta (viii), vaikka peliä itsessään ei voida pitää kertomuksena. Tutkimuksen empiirisenä tuloksena esitellään faktorianalyyttisiin tapaustutkimuksiin ja laadullisten aineistojen analyysiin perustuva uudenlainen näkökulma ja menetelmä pelaaja–peli-vuorovaikutuksen ja pelimieltymyksen tutkimukseen, sekä edelliseen perustuva pelaajatyyppiluokittelu. Samalla väitetään, että vaikka videopelit kaupallisina esineinä eivät olisi folkloristiikan tutkimuskohteita, videopelien pelaaminen, pelaaja–peli-vuorovaikutus ja pelien kokemisen tavat eivät eroa ratkaisevasti pihaleikeistä vaan ovat saman kansanomaisen ilmiön esiintymiä. Folkloristisen tutkimuksen soisikin kiinnittävän nykyistä painokkaampaa huomiota kulttuurin kokemisen, muokkaamisen ja ilmaisun tapoihin riippumatta siitä, onko tarkastelun kohteena kaupallinen tuote vai ei

Community-based mentoring and innovating through Web 2.0

The rise of social software, often termed Web 2.0, has resulted in heightened awareness of the opportunities for creative and innovative approaches to learning that are afforded by network technologies. Social software platforms and social networking technologies have become part of the learning landscape both for those who learn formally within institutions, and for those who learn informally via emergent web-based learning communities. As collaborative online learning becomes a reality, new skills in communication and collaboration are required in order to use new technologies effectively, develop real digital literacy and other 21st century skills

Bringing Macroeconomics into the Lab.

This paper reviews experiments in macroeconomics, pointing out the theoretical justifications, the strengths and weaknesses of this approach. We identify two broad classes of experiments: general equilibrium and partial equilibrium experiments, and emphasize the idea of theory testing that is behind these. A large number of macroeconomic issues have been analyzed in the laboratory spanning from monetary economics to fiscal policy, from international trade and finance, to growth and macroeconomic imperfections. In a large number of cases results give support to the theories tested. We also highlight that experimental macroeconomics has increased the number of tools available to experimentalists.Macroeconomics; experiments

Designing an engaging learning universe for situated interactions in virtual environments

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)Studies related to the Virtual Learning approach are conducted almost exclusively in Distance Learning contexts, and focus on the development of frameworks or taxonomies that classify the different ways of teaching and learning. Researchers may be dealing with the topic of interactivity (avatars and immersion are key components), yet they do so they mainly focusing on the interactions that take place within the virtual world. It is the virtual world that consists the primary medium for communication and interplay. However, the lines are hard to be drawn when it comes to examining and taxonomising the impact of interactions on motivation and engagement as a synergy of learners’ concurrent presence. This study covers this gap and sheds light on this lack—or, at least, inadequacy—of literature and research on the interactions that take place both in the physical and the virtual environment at the same time. In addition, it explores the impact of the instructional design decisions on increasing the learners’ incentives for interplay when trying to make sense of the virtual world, thus leading them to attain higher levels of engagement. To evaluate the potential of interactions holistically and not just unilaterally, a series of experiments were conducted in the context of different Hybrid Virtual Learning units, with the participation of Computer Science & Technology students. One of the goals was to examine the learners’ thoughts and preconceptions regarding the use of virtual worlds as an educational tool. Then, during the practical sessions, the focus was placed on monitoring students’ actions and interactions in both the physical and the virtual environment. Consequently, students were asked as a feedback to report their overall opinion on these actions and interactions undertaken. The study draws a new research direction, beyond the idea of immersion and the development of subject-specific educational interventions. The conclusions provide suggestions and guidelines to educators and instructional designers who wish to offer interactive and engaging learning activities to their students, as well as a taxonomy of the different types of interactions that take place in Hybrid Virtual Learning contexts