Active games: an examination of user engagement to define design recommendations

Active gaming is a form of video gaming that requires full body motion or varying degrees of physical activity to play a game. While active gaming has gained momentum, there is a lack of studies that provide insight on how they should be designed, specifically components of active games make them engaging. This study identifies, analyzes and categorizes specific design mechanics and features used in active games. It answers the question: Which, if any, game mechanics and features can a panel of experts in academia, health and the game industry agree on as valuable and impactful to the construction of successful and engaging active games? Using a Delphi study, nine experts answered questions related to active gaming. They reached agreement on 20 of the 21 inquiries regarding game design focused on motivation, social influences and flow. Their feedback offers recommendations on the design of future active games, and identifies emerging trends. This study shares their notes, and translates the findings into specific recommendations for developers on the design of active games

Graduate Students’ Exploration of Opportunities in a Crisis: A White Paper

The following white paper details the University of Calgary’s 2021 graduate student conference titled, ‘Opportunities in a Crisis.’ This white paper works to describe how graduate students explore the terms ‘opportunities’ and ‘crisis’ within their research interests. These research interests were interdisciplinary to various fields such as telecommunications policy, algorithmic studies, critical race theory, and video game studies to list a few. Through this conference, we observed an acute awareness of the ways in which the COVID-19 crisis has impacted research in media activism, feminist media studies, internet infrastructure, and teaching and learning, to mention a handful. This white paper is divided by panel sections, thereby allowing readers to connect with this graduate student conference and help inform future research on topics in communication and media studies, as they are framed in working through these crisis moments in our global history. Our white paper set out to achieve two goals: first, document the presentations and emerging scholarly work of graduate students; and second, reflect on how research can, and very well does, pivot in times of crises, specifically using our current global COVID-19 pandemic as an ongoing, lived experience. This white paper achieves these goals which we believe helps in the preservation of this unique moment in time to be a graduate student

The Incubation Effect Among Students Playing an Educational Game for Physics

The incubation effect (IE) is a problem-solving phenomenon composed of three phases: pre-incubation where one fails to solve a problem; incubation, a momentary break where time is spent away from the unsolved problem; and post-incubation where the unsolved problem is revisited and solved. Literature on IE was limited to experiments involving traditional classroom activities. This initial investigation showed evidence of IE instances in a computer-based learning environment. This paper consolidates the studies on IE among students playing an educational game called Physics Playground and presents further analysis to examine the incidence of post-incubation or the revisit to a previously unsolved problem. Prior work, which focused on predicting successful outcomes, includes a coarse-grained IE model developed with logistic regression on aggregated data and an improved model which leveraged long short-term memory (LSTM) combined with dimensionality reduction visualization technique and clustering on fine-grained data. The additional analysis which aims to understand factors that may trigger the post-incubation phase also used fine-grained data and LSTM to create a revisit model. Results show that time elapsed relative to the activity period and encountering a problem with a similar solution during incubation were possible factors in revisiting previously unsolved problems

The Player’s Journey: Ludology and Narratology in Modern Gaming

This thesis examines the evolution of gaming criticism (specifically ludology and narratology) and games as a medium of expression through the use of case studies. These case studies look at some of the core aspects of four major titles (The Last of Us, Horizon Zero Dawn, various BioWare games and Journey) and survey how these games work to effectively employ a narrative while maintaining an immersive, intuitive system for the player to interact with. Through these titles, the thesis suggests that in order to gain a full scope of a game’s intentions, studies should analyze more than the base story or gameplay, but rather the correlations between them as well as the ways that the visuals and audio aspects interact and enhance the narrative. Furthermore, it suggests the importance of creating gameplay that works with the story in order to ensure that the player always feels as though they have a stake in the outcome of the game, regardless of the nature of the narrative

Choosing to see: designing accessible video games for visually impaired players

As players when thinking of playing video games some memories come to mind, and those images and memories involve people playing around a screen, something very normal when performing such action. But what happens to those that can’t see properly? Or those that can see at all? How can they play? The word video game already includes “video” on it, something that involves the use of the sight. And in their origin video games were something that was created having in mind that the players would be able to use the visual feedback as a way to interact with the game itself. But technology and science have evolved in the last 50 years and nowadays it is possible for a completely blind player to play and finish a 30 h long video game. Of course this is not the case for the great majority of video games. Most video games developed in the last 20 years have little to no accessibility options, and even the ones that are currently released by big companies and studios rarely meet the expectations. Living in the 21st century in an advanced and technologic world where even VR games can be played at home, not having proper Accessibility options for the players seems wrong. As developers Accessibility is something that should be taken into account in each game and project worked on from now on. The objective of this paper is not to expose or criticize video game studios in the industry but quite the opposite. The goal of this paper is to inform and educate others and myself on a topic that must concern every developer and that should be something to take into account from the beginning of the development, how to make a video game more accessible for all players, especially for players with visual disabilitie

The story of a video game: reading the Assassin\u27s Creed universe

In the digital age, fictional narratives worthy of serious analysis are no longer confined to print. In recent years, video games have come under the eye of scholars from many fields. What can video games offer? How do they change the hature of fictional narrative? And how can we study them with a critical eye? The Assassin’s Creed universe is an ideal case study for analyzing the fictional worlds video games create using narrative. The Assassin\u27s Creed narrative is composed of two parts: a present day narrative and a memory narrative set in a stylized historical past. The present day narrative accesses the memory narrative in a similar way that a player accesses the video game narrative. In addition to mirroring the gaming experience, the Assassin\u27s Creed narrative had become a fictional world that has extended to other media. These are not just recreations of the story presented in the games, but new narratives that live within the same fictional universe

Digital curriculum resources in mathematics education: foundations for change

In this conceptual review paper we draw on recent literature with respect to digital curriculum resources (DCR); we briefly outline and explain selected theoretical frames; and we discuss issues related to the design, and the use (by teachers and students) of digital curricula and e-textbooks in mathematics education. The results of our review show the following. Firstly, whilst there are some contrasting tendencies between research on instructional technology and research on DCR, these studies are at the same time predominantly framed by socio-cultural theories. Secondly, whilst there seems to be a continuing demarcation between the design(er) and the use(r), there is at the same time an emerging/increasing understanding that design continues in use, due to the different nature and affordances of DCR (as compared to traditional text curriculum resources). Thirdly, there is an apparent weakening of traditional demarcations between pedagogy and assessment, and between summative and formative assessment techniques, due to the nature and design of the automated learning systems. Fourthly, there is an increasing need for understanding the expanded space of interaction associated with the shift from static print to dynamic/interactive DCR, a shift that has the potential to support different forms of personalised learning and interaction with resources. Hence, we claim that DCR offer opportunities for change: of understandings concerning the design and use of DCR; of their quality; and of the processes related to teacher/student interactions with DCR—they provide indeed the foundations for change

Exploring a Curriculum-Embedded, Constructivist-Inspired, Augmented Reality Game Within an Early Elementary Social Studies Curriculum and Its Influence on Student Experiences, Learning Outcomes, and Teacher Instructional Practices

Game-based learning has entered the mainstream, yet little research has examined its influence within an early elementary setting, in the subject of history, or within the context of entire curricular unit. This dissertation examines two years\u27 worth of data during which an augmented reality, geolocated mobile game was embedded within a second-grade history unit. Using a designed-based research approach, I designed and implemented this digital game using the ARIS platform and then examined impacts upon student experiences, student learning within and beyond the intended curriculum, and on teachers’ decision-making and planning. Over the course of the two years, 58 students and 3 teachers participated.Analysis indicates that early elementary students can experience flow and a magic circle while playing a constructivist-influenced game. While indicators of curriculum specified learning are inconclusive, data suggest that there may be a game-effect for learning beyond the curriculum, greater retention for some students, and a greater level of enthusiasm and sense of ownership of historical content. Findings also suggest teachers’ perceptions of curriculum-embedded games evolved over two years from that of being an ‘add-on’ to being a catalyst for learning. Their role shifted from that of direct instructor to that of facilitator, thus influencing their instructional decision-making. Implications for research, game-design, and teaching are provided

Innovative Learning Environments in STEM Higher Education

As explored in this open access book, higher education in STEM fields is influenced by many factors, including education research, government and school policies, financial considerations, technology limitations, and acceptance of innovations by faculty and students. In 2018, Drs. Ryoo and Winkelmann explored the opportunities, challenges, and future research initiatives of innovative learning environments (ILEs) in higher education STEM disciplines in their pioneering project: eXploring the Future of Innovative Learning Environments (X-FILEs). Workshop participants evaluated four main ILE categories: personalized and adaptive learning, multimodal learning formats, cross/extended reality (XR), and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This open access book gathers the perspectives expressed during the X-FILEs workshop and its follow-up activities. It is designed to help inform education policy makers, researchers, developers, and practitioners about the adoption and implementation of ILEs in higher education