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

Método para la evaluación de usabilidad de sitios web transaccionales basado en el proceso de inspección heurística

La usabilidad es considerada uno de los factores más importantes en el desarrollo de productos de software. Este atributo de calidad está referido al grado en que, usuarios específicos de un determinado aplicativo, pueden fácilmente hacer uso del software para lograr su propósito. Dada la importancia de este aspecto en el éxito de las aplicaciones informáticas, múltiples métodos de evaluación han surgido como instrumentos de medición que permiten determinar si la propuesta de diseño de la interfaz de un sistema de software es entendible, fácil de usar, atractiva y agradable al usuario. El método de evaluación heurística es uno de los métodos más utilizados en el área de Interacción Humano-Computador (HCI) para este propósito debido al bajo costo de su ejecución en comparación otras técnicas existentes. Sin embargo, a pesar de su amplio uso extensivo durante los últimos años, no existe un procedimiento formal para llevar a cabo este proceso de evaluación. Jakob Nielsen, el autor de esta técnica de inspección, ofrece únicamente lineamientos generales que, según la investigación realizada, tienden a ser interpretados de diferentes maneras por los especialistas. Por tal motivo, se ha desarrollado el presente proyecto de investigación que tiene como objetivo establecer un proceso sistemático, estructurado, organizado y formal para llevar a cabo evaluaciones heurísticas a productos de software. En base a un análisis exhaustivo realizado a aquellos estudios que reportan en la literatura el uso del método de evaluación heurística como parte del proceso de desarrollo de software, se ha formulado un nuevo método de evaluación basado en cinco fases: (1) planificación, (2) entrenamiento, (3) evaluación, (4) discusión y (5) reporte. Cada una de las fases propuestas que componen el protocolo de inspección contiene un conjunto de actividades bien definidas a ser realizadas por el equipo de evaluación como parte del proceso de inspección. Asimismo, se han establecido ciertos roles que deberán desempeñar los integrantes del equipo de inspectores para asegurar la calidad de los resultados y un apropiado desarrollo de la evaluación heurística. La nueva propuesta ha sido validada en dos escenarios académicos distintos (en Colombia, en una universidad pública, y en Perú, en dos universidades tanto en una pública como en una privada) demostrando en todos casos que es posible identificar más problemas de usabilidad altamente severos y críticos cuando un proceso estructurado de inspección es adoptado por los evaluadores. Otro aspecto favorable que muestran los resultados es que los evaluadores tienden a cometer menos errores de asociación (entre heurística que es incumplida y problemas de usabilidad identificados) y que la propuesta es percibida como fácil de usar y útil. Al validarse la nueva propuesta desarrollada por el autor de este estudio se consolida un nuevo conocimiento que aporta al bagaje cultural de la ciencia.Tesi

Authoring of Adaptive Single-Player Educational Games

Digital Educational Games, as one of the most important application areas of Serious Games, combine positive properties of digital games, such as strong motivation for players and inherent learning processes, with educational methods and technologies. Adaptive algorithms allow such games to be aligned automatically to the needs of different players, thereby increasing the learning efficacy. However, educational games are among the most complex game production endeavors, since they are often faced with small budget on the one hand and special requirements with impacts on all aspects of game development, from design through programming to asset production, on the other. Authoring tools have been successfully created and used in fields related to Serious Games and educational games, including e-Learning, multimedia, interactive storytelling and entertainment games. These tools incorporate parts of the production workflows in their respective areas and allow all authors, including non-programmers, to create applications. While it appears beneficial to create authoring tools for educational games, we find that authoring tools for educational games have to account for the higher complexity and interactivity of games compared to other forms of multimedia and that they have not been researched thoroughly in the past. These challenges are addressed in this thesis by presenting a concept for an authoring tool for adaptive educational single-player games that accounts for the specifics of educational game development. Major results are an educational game description model, concepts for adaptive control of educational games and author support mechanisms specifically for adaptive educational game authoring. These concepts are implemented in the authoring tool "StoryTec", which is validated in the course of a set of evaluation studies. The novel features of StoryTec include the specific support for adaptive educational games, a concept for structural and interaction templates shown to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the authoring tool, as well as the support for collaborative work. It builds the foundation for a number of current and future research and development projects, including the extension towards authoring of multiplayer games, and is tested and used by over 120 members of an open community

An Authoring Process For Educational Role Playing Games: From The Paper To The Web

Table-top Role Playing Games (RPGs) can be a powerful educational tool, but many teachers either aren't aware of that, or don't know how the game works. This problem could be alleviated with an authoring tool that facilitates the process of creating educational table-top RPG adventures and, at the same time, provide an introduction and computer-based support to this game genre. Literature on available authoring tools oriented to the creation of games in educational contexts is still scarce. Therefore, this article presents our efforts towards the design of a web authoring tool that aims at helping both teachers and students in the creation of educational table-top RPG adventures and also in the posterior use of these adventures in the classroom. The goal behind this work is to promote this genre of games and computers in education.600610Berlanga, A.J., García, F.J., Authoring tools for adaptive learning designs in computer-based education (2005) Proceedings of the 2005 Latin American Conference on Human-computer Interaction - CLIHC'05, pp. 190-201. , Cuernavaca, Mexico: ACM Press. doi:10.1145/1111360.1111380Bottino, R.M., Robotti, E., Transforming classroom teaching & learning through technology: Analysis of a case study (2007) Educational Technology & Society, 10 (4), pp. 174-186Carbonaro, M., Cutumisu, M., Duff, H., Gillis, S., Onuczko, C., Siegel, J., Schaeffer, J., Interactive story authoring: A viable form of creative expression for the classroom (2008) Computers & Education, 51 (2), pp. 687-707. , doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2007.07.007Hergenrader, T., Gaming, world building, and narrative: Using role-playing games to teach fiction writing (2011) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Games + Learning + Society Conference (GLS'11), pp. 103-108. , http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2206389, C. Steinkuehler, C. Martin, & A. Ochsner (Eds.), Retrieved fromKuo, Y.-H., Huang, Y.-M., MEAT: An authoring tool for generating adaptable learning resources (2009) Educational Technology & Society, 12 (2), pp. 51-68Marchiori, E.J., Torrente, J., Del Blanco, Á., Moreno-Ger, P., Sancho, P., Fernández-Manjón, B., A narrative metaphor to facilitate educational game authoring (2012) Computers & Education, 58 (1), pp. 590-599. , doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.09.017McDaniel, R., Vick, E.H., Jacobs, S., Telep, P., Cardboard semiotics: Reconfigurable symbols as a means for narrative prototyping in game design (2009) SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games Sandbox 09, 1, pp. 87-93. , http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1581087, Retrieved fromMehm, F., Göbel, S., Steinmetz, R., Authoring of serious adventure games in storytec (2012) Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Edutainment, and Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on E-Learning and Games for Training, Education, Health and Sports (Edutainment'12/GameDays'12), pp. 144-154. , Springer-VerlagNešic, S., Gaševic, D., Jazayeri, M., Landoni, M., A learning content authoring approach based on semantic technologies and social networking: An empirical study (2011) Educational Technology & Society, 14 (4), pp. 35-48Resnick, M., Maloney, J., Monroy-Hernández, A., Rusk, N., Eastmond, E., Brennan, K., Millner, A., Scratch: Programming for all (2009) Commun. ACM, 52 (11), pp. 60-67Robertson, J., Nicholson, K., Adventure author: A learning environment to support creative design (2007) 6th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 37-44. , Aalborg, DenmarkRubegni, E., Sabiescu, A., Paolini, P., Onethousandandonestories: A format for multichannel multimedia narratives (2008) Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics: The Ergonomics of Cool Interaction, , Madeira, Portugal: ACMSharda, N., Authoring educational multimedia content using learning styles and story telling principles (2007) Proceedings of the International Workshop on Educational Multimedia and Multimedia Education, pp. 93-102. , Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany: ACM. doi:10.1145/1290144.1290160Snyder, C., (2003) Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces, p. 408. , (1st ed.). Morgan KaufmannTychsen, A., Hitchens, M., Brolund, T., Kavakli, M., The game master (2005) Proceedings of the Second Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, pp. 215-222. , Sydney, AustraliaWetzel, R., Blum, L., Oppermann, L., Tidy city - A location-based game supported by in-situ and web-based authoring tools to enable user-created content (2012) Foundations of Digital Games 2012, pp. 238-241. , Raleigh, NC, USAYatim, M.H.M., Masuch, M., Gatelock - A game authoring tool for children (2007) 6th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 173-174. , Aalborg, Denmar