An Investigation of the Advantages and Disadvantages of University Students as Avatars in Virtual Learning Spaces

Authors have noted the increasing importance of avatars in Higher Education, as more teaching is conducted virtually, drawing upon gaming conventions. However, it is also recognised that little is known about how students make use of avatars (especially over an extended period) and the subsequent impact on learning experiences. For the last three years, a university module has been conducted within a persistent virtual world – where students (49 in 2020; 95 in 2021; 122 in 2022) predominantly interact with each other and teaching staff in avatar form. Observation data constitutes 60 hours of video recordings of virtual world seminars. Students have also been surveyed (average 40% response rate) and interviewed. The experience of learning on this module while in avatar form has been extremely positive, with students expressing many advantages to being an avatar – including the ability to express oneself in original/engaging ways, the ability to move freely in the environment (less restricted by social norms), increased confidence to speak up in class, reduced concern over actual physical appearance, and being praised for their avatar. Nevertheless, disadvantages were also apparent, including the distracting nature of certain avatars, inappropriate behaviours, usability challenges in designing an avatar, and lack of sense of self. An initial design framework for the use of avatars in Higher Education is proposed

The Dynamics and Frontiers of Video Game Social Research in Communication Studies-A Scientometrics Analysis Based on CiteSpace and VOSviewer

In this media-rich era, digital entertainment in the form of video games has a major impact on our social interaction and productivity in a borderless social mode. As a result, in order to comprehend the research progress of video game, CiteSpace and VOSviewer were used for scientometrics and knowledge mapping in this study. It displays the state of development, fundamental structure, and frontier areas of video game social communication. The mapping is based on 448 publications collected through Web of Science core database searches. The findings indicate that (1) video game social research has gained increasing attention over the last 23 years, with a curvilinear growth in annual publications, but a core authorship group has yet to materialize, and the United States institutions dominate the number of publications on this topic. (2) Gaming behaviors, gender studies, media effects, and gaming experiences have emerged as the four main hotspots of research in this field under the keyword co-occurrence and clustering analyses. (3) Research in this area has traditionally concentrated on violent, addictive, and other problematic gaming behaviors. The findings of this study forecast future trends in the study of video game social communication and provide the groundwork for more in-depth research

an introduction to personalized ehealth

Personalized medicine can be defined as the adaptation of medical treatments to the specific characteristics of patients. This approach allows health providers to develop therapies and interventions by taking into account the heterogeneity of illnesses and external factors such as the environment, patients' needs, and lifestyle. Technology could play an important role to achieve this new approach to medicine. An example of technology's utility regards real-time monitoring of individual well-being (subjective and objective), in order to improve disease management through data-driven personalized treatment recommendations. Another important example is an interface designed based on patient's capabilities and preferences. These could improve patient-doctor communication: on one hand, patients have the possibility to improve health decision-making; on the other hand, health providers could coordinate care services more easily, because of continual access to patient's data. This contribution deepens these technologies and related opportunities for health, as well as recommendation for successful development and implementation

Changing Avatars, Changing Selves? the Influence of Social and Contextual Expectations on Digital Rendition of Identity

Avatar creation is an interesting topic for both video game and social network studies. Research has shown that the creation of avatars is influenced by individual, contextual, and cultural features. Avatars are used to represent aspects of users' personality, but multiple avatars are used in different virtual contexts, as self-presentation strategies may vary according to the different "audiences" to be met online (say: friends, or strangers). Moreover, avatar creation is also influenced by cultural variables, such as gender, as avatars embody stereotypical aspects of being a woman or a man. This research tested whether avatars, as digital self-representations, may change depending on the above-mentioned variables. Ninety-four participants created two avatars to be used in different contexts (video game and job-themed social network). Moreover, two groups of participants were told that they would have met friends or total strangers within the two virtual contexts. Results showed that avatars changed from the game to the job context. Changes involved avatars' transient features (Clothes) more than physical (Body) and symbolic (Accessories) ones, and females changed accessories more than males. Moreover, females who expected to meet friends changed their avatars' bodies significantly more than males in both virtual contexts. The findings are discussed based on literature about computer-mediated communication and online self-disclosure. In conclusion, possible implications of the results for avatar-based interventions and the field of video games and social network design are reviewed

La identidad digital desplegada y manifiesta de los estudiantes de Educación Superior en Chile

[spa] El avance tecnológico no solo nos ha permitido acceder al conocimiento e interactuar con nuestro medio ubicuamente, sino que, además, en este accionar con otros y con uno mismo se reconstruye a diario nuestra identidad digital. Por tanto, es dable decir que la tecnología impacta continuamente a la sociedad, así como también, en el comportamiento y la forma en que las personas se relacionan, aprenden y se comunican entre sí. Instrumentalizando y digitalizando la cultura, lo cual ha afectado a todas las esferas de la vida de los individuos. Ampliando la expresión de la identidad personal analógica a la digital, lo que se traduce en una serie de transformaciones en los espacios que cohabitamos donde conceptos como online vs. offline, intimidad vs. extimidad -término acuñado por el psicoanalista Jacques Lacan- (Espín, 2015), privado vs. público o presencial (lo real para algunos) vs. virtual son sutilezas entre las que se transita hoy en día. En este escenario se visualiza una interrelación dinámica entre la identidad y el aprendizaje. Entendiendo que en la red existen múltiples herramientas y plataformas tecnológicas que permiten expresar y co-construir la identidad de las personas de cuya socialización y colaboración se nutre, también, su proceso formativo configurando su Entorno Personal de Aprendizaje (PLE). Siendo el PLE el conjunto de herramientas y estrategias utilizado para concretar el proceso formativo y enriquecer la construcción sociocultural que alimenta las identidades. Los estudiantes no escapan a esta realidad, donde su comportamiento tecnológico y su identidad digital dicen mucho acerca de sí mismos y de la forma en que aprenden. El objetivo principal de esta investigación doctoral fue describir la identidad digital desplegada y manifiesta de los estudiantes de Educación Superior en Chile. Se utilizó un instrumento híbrido, cuya primera parte se construyó y validó por expertos europeos y latinoamericanos denominado Identidad Digital y para la segunda parte se utilizó el cuestionario español CAPPLE (Castañeda y Camacho, 2012). En este estudio descriptivo, no experimental, de corte transversal, basado en el paradigma cuantitativo se contó con una muestra no probabilística de 509 estudiantes pertenecientes a 21 universidades chilenas. Para el análisis de datos, siguiendo la lógica del pragmatismo, se utilizaron estrategias cuantitativas y cualitativas. Para el análisis cuantitativo se utilizó el programa Stata Versión-14, aplicando las pruebas U de Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon y Kruskal-Wallis, para el cualitativo, asociación de palabras, el programa Atlas.TI versión 8.5. Para desarrollar las caracterizaciones, se realizó un análisis conglomerado con un método disociativo jerárquico. Entre los principales resultados, se observó que los estudiantes muestran una baja conciencia de la identidad declara y calculada, y una mediana conciencia de su identidad creada. Lo que nos lleva a concluir que los estudiantes universitarios chilenos son conscientes de la frecuencia de su actividad, pero no del impacto de esta, lo cual los sitúa en un desarrollo identitario inicial. Respecto de su PLE, parece 6 ser que los alumnos los perciben como entornos útiles para acceder a contenidos y conectar e interactuar con otros usuarios, pero no los utilizan asiduamente para la producción de contenidos que impliquen un tratamiento tecnológico más elaborado. Evidenciando que su actividad es, principalmente, propia de observadores de la producción de otros en la red que de la creación y difusión de su propio material (prosumidor). Se concluye, a partir de los datos, que los estudiantes universitarios chilenos muestran una identidad digital académica híbrida que combina las esferas presencial-digital, público-privada, formal-informal, difuminando los planos de acción entre ellas, pero manteniendo comportamientos estereotipados de género siendo altamente veraces y visibles de la información que publican. En tanto, en la configuración de sus entornos personales de aprendizaje no se visualiza influencia de género, área de formación, nivel socioeconómico ni del año cursado de estudios. Finalmente, los resultados del estudio dejan entrever que los universitarios cuentan con precarias habilidades y competencias digitales, que les permitan gestionar adecuadamente, tanto su identidad digital como su PLE. Siendo imperioso avanzar hacia una formación integral, sólida y coherente en competencias digitales; que serán, en definitiva, las que requerirán los futuros profesionales cuando se inserten en un mundo laboral altamente digitalizado.[cat] L'avenç tecnològic no només ens ha permès accedir al coneixement i interactuar amb el nostre medi ubiquament, sinó que, a més, en aquest accionar amb els altres i amb un mateix es reconstrueix diàriament la nostra identitat digital. Per tant, cal dir que la tecnologia impacta contínuament la societat, així com també, en el comportament i la manera com les persones es relacionen, aprenen i es comuniquen entre si. Instrumentalitzant i digitalitzant la cultura, cosa que ha afectat totes les esferes de la vida dels individus. Ampliant l'expressió de la identitat personal analògica a la digital, fet que es tradueix en una sèrie de transformacions en els espais que cohabitem on conceptes com online vs. offline, intimitat vs. extimitat -terme encunyat pel psicoanalista Jacques Lacan- (Espín, 2015), privat vs. públic o presencial (el real per a alguns) vs. virtual són subtileses entre les que es transita avui dia. En aquest escenari es mostra una interrelació dinàmica entre la identitat i l'aprenentatge. Entenent que a la xarxa hi ha múltiples eines i plataformes tecnològiques que permeten expressar i co-construir la identitat de les persones de la socialització i col·laboració de les quals es nodreix, també, el seu procés formatiu configurant el seu Entorn Personal d'Aprenentatge (PLE). El PLE és el conjunt d'eines i estratègies utilitzat per concretar el procés formatiu i enriquir la construcció sociocultural que alimenta les identitats. Els estudiants no escapen a aquesta realitat, on el seu comportament tecnològic i la seva identitat digital diuen molt sobre ells mateixos i de la manera com aprenen. L'objectiu principal d'aquesta investigació doctoral va ser descriure la identitat digital desplegada i manifesta dels estudiants d'Educació Superior a Xile. Es va utilitzar un instrument híbrid, la primera part del qual es va construir i validar per experts europeus i llatinoamericans denominat Identitat Digital i per a la segona part es va utilitzar el qüestionari espanyol CAPPLE (Castañeda y Camacho, 2012). En aquest estudi descriptiu, no experimental, de tall transversal, basat en el paradigma quantitatiu, es va comptar amb una mostra no probabilística de 509 estudiants pertanyents a 21 universitats xilenes. Per a l'anàlisi de dades, seguint la lògica del pragmatisme, es van utilitzar estratègies quantitatives i qualitatives. Per a l'anàlisi quantitativa es va utilitzar el programa Stata Versió-14, aplicant les proves U de Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon i Kruskal-Wallis, per al qualitatiu, associació de paraules, el programa Atlas.TI versió 8.5. Per desenvolupar les caracteritzacions, es va realitzar una anàlisi conglomerada amb un mètode dissociatiu jeràrquic. Entre els principals resultats, es va observar que els estudiants mostren una baixa consciència de la identitat declarada i calculada, i una mitjana consciència de la seva identitat creada. Això ens porta a concloure que els estudiants universitaris xilens són conscients de la freqüència de la seva activitat, però no de l'impacte d'aquesta, cosa que els situa en un desenvolupament identitari inicial. Pel que fa al seu PLE, sembla que els alumnes els perceben com a entorns útils per accedir a 8 continguts i interacció amb altres usuaris, però no els utilitzen assíduament per a la producció de continguts que impliquin un tractament tecnològic més elaborat. Evidenciant que la seva activitat és, principalment, pròpia d'observadors de la producció d'altres a la xarxa que de la creació i la difusió del seu propi material (prosumidor). Es conclou, a partir de les dades, que els estudiants universitaris xilens mostren una identitat digital acadèmica híbrida que combina les esferes presencial-digital, públic-privada, formal-informal, difuminant els plànols d'acció entre elles, però mantenint comportaments estereotipats de gènere sent altament veraços i visibles de la informació que publiquen. Mentrestant, a la configuració dels seus entorns personals d'aprenentatge no es visualitza influència de gènere, àrea de formació, nivell socioeconòmic ni de l'any cursat d'estudis. Finalment, els resultats de l'estudi deixen entreveure que els universitaris compten amb precàries habilitats i competències digitals, que els permetin gestionar adequadament, tant la identitat digital com el PLE. Sent imperiós avançar cap a una formació integral, sòlida i coherent en competències digitals; que seran, en definitiva, les que requeriran els futurs professionals quan s'insereixin en un món laboral altament digitalitzat.[eng] Technological advance has not only allowed us to access knowledge and interact with our environment ubiquitously, but also, in this action with others and with oneself, our digital identity is rebuilt on a daily basis. Therefore, it is safe to say that technology continuously impacts society, as well as behavior and the way in which people relate, learn and communicate with each other. Instrumentalizing and digitizing culture, which has affected all spheres of individual life. Expanding the expression of personal identity from analog to digital, which translates into a series of transformations in the spaces we cohabit where concepts such as online vs. offline, intimacy vs. extimacy -term coined by the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan- (Espín, 2015), private vs. public or face-to-face (the real thing for some) vs. virtual are subtleties among which it is transited nowadays. In this scenario, a dynamic interrelation between identity and learning is visualized. Understanding that in the network there are multiple tools and technological platforms that allow to express and co-construct the identity of the people whose socialization and collaboration also nourishes their training process, configuring their Personal Learning Environment (PLE). Being the PLE the set of tools and strategies used to specify the training process and enrich the sociocultural construction that feeds identities. Students do not escape this reality, where their technological behavior and their digital identity say a lot about themselves and the way they learn. The main objective of this doctoral research was to describe the displayed and manifest digital identity of Higher Education students in Chile. A hybrid instrument was used, the first part of which was built and validated by European and Latin American experts called Digital Identity and for the second part the Spanish CAPPLE questionnaire was used (Castañeda y Camacho, 2012). In this descriptive, non-experimental, cross-sectional study, based on the quantitative paradigm, there was a non-probabilistic sample of 509 students from 21 Chilean universities. For data analysis, following the logic of pragmatism, quantitative and qualitative strategies were used. For the quantitative analysis, the Stata Version-14 program was used, applying the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis U tests, for the qualitative, word association, the Atlas.TI version 8.5 program. To develop the characterizations, a conglomerate analysis was performed with a hierarchical dissociative method. Among the main results, it was observed that students show a low awareness of declared and calculated identity, and a medium awareness of their created identity. This leads us to conclude that Chilean university students are aware of the frequency of their activity, but not of its impact, which places them in an initial identity development. Regarding their PLE, it seems that students perceive them as useful environments for accessing content and interacting with other users, but they do not use them assiduously for the production of content that involves a more elaborate technological treatment. Evidence that their activity is, mainly, typical of observers 10 of the production of others in the network than of the creation and dissemination of their own material (prosumer). It is concluded, from the data, that Chilean university students show a hybrid academic digital identity that combines face-to-face-digital, public-private, formal-informal spheres, blurring the planes of action between them, but maintaining stereotyped gender behaviors being highly truthful and visible from the information they publish. Meanwhile, in the configuration of their personal learning environments, the influence of gender, training area, socioeconomic level or the year of studies is not visualized. Finally, the results of the study suggest that university students have precarious digital skills and competencies, which allow them to properly manage both their digital identity and their PLE. Being imperative to move towards a comprehensive, solid and coherent training in digital skills; which will be, in short, those that future professionals will require when they enter a highly digitized world of work

P5 eHealth: An Agenda for the Health Technologies of the Future

This open access volume focuses on the development of a P5 eHealth, or better, a methodological resource for developing the health technologies of the future, based on patients’ personal characteristics and needs as the fundamental guidelines for design. It provides practical guidelines and evidence based examples on how to design, implement, use and elevate new technologies for healthcare to support the management of incurable, chronic conditions. The volume further discusses the criticalities of eHealth, why it is difficult to employ eHealth from an organizational point of view or why patients do not always accept the technology, and how eHealth interventions can be improved in the future. By dealing with the state-of-the-art in eHealth technologies, this volume is of great interest to researchers in the field of physical and mental healthcare, psychologists, stakeholders and policymakers as well as technology developers working in the healthcare sector

Gaming disorder, anxiety, and video game features

Current theoretical models of gaming disorder implicate an association between psychopathological vulnerabilities and gaming-related factors. However, there is limited research that examines the mechanisms underlying these associations. The role of video game features in gaming disorder has also received limited research attention. This thesis uses a multidisciplinary approach to explicate how anxiety, gaming disorder, and video game features are interlaced. Study 1 is a meta-analytic review on the association between anxiety and gaming disorder that aims to identify broad categories of video game features related to gaming harms. High levels of anxiety and game features related to escapism, achievement, and socialization were correlated with gaming disorder. Study 2 explores the correlation between anxiety and gaming disorder longitudinally in young adolescents. The results indicate that this association persists over time and that certain age groups have increased vulnerability to gaming disorder. Studies 3 and 4 examine how video game features affect gaming disorder and anxiety using novel methodologies. Individuals at high risk of gaming disorder who were in an anxious state prioritised games with achievement-based features, suggesting that the structural characteristics of these features may contribute to the development or maintenance of harmful gaming behaviours. Overall, these findings indicate that vulnerabilities influence the way people engage with video games, and that the structural characteristics of video game features may contribute to gaming disorder. A deeper understanding of these relationships provides insight into the aetiology of gaming disorder and informs strategies that seek to reduce gaming harms

Eliciting information from adults: quality, quantity, and their willingness to disclose to an avatar interviewer

Avatars—digital representations of humans—may be a useful tool in a wide range of areas, such as education, advertising, communication, and health. The overarching goal of the present research was to examine the use of avatars in the context of evidential and clinical interviewing, in the hope that this novel technology could facilitate adults’ memory performance and enhance their disclosure of sensitive information. The first specific aim was to examine the effectiveness of an avatar interviewer on adults’ accounts of a witnessed event. In this context, adults were interviewed by either a digital-human avatar or a human face-to-face using both free- and directed-recall questions. Some participants also received post-event misinformation that was presented by either the digital-human avatar or the human interviewer. In addition, I examined the impact of several individual differences, including participants’ level of autism and personality traits, and their perception of the avatar’s operation. Finally, I investigated the effectiveness of avatar interviewers with varying degrees of anthropomorphism on adults’ accounts. The second specific aim was to explore the potential for avatar professionals in the context of the disclosure of sensitive information. In the present thesis, I investigated the effects of two types of avatar interviewers: a more anthropomorphic, 2D cartoon-rendered digital-human avatar, and a less anthropomorphic, speech-wave avatar. The digital-human avatar resembled the appearance of the human interviewers who were also used in the present research, but the avatar’s movement was restricted to eye blinks and head tilts. The speech-wave avatar interviewer resembled Apple’s Siri. Both types of avatar were voiced and operated by a concealed human interviewer. The digital-human avatar’s lips moved in synchrony with the human’s speech; the speech-wave avatar moved up and down, also in synchrony with the human’s speech. The avatar was displayed on a computer monitor that was placed on a table directly in front of the participant. The interviews involving the human interviewer were conducted face-to-face. Overall, differences in participants’ memory performance was not detected when they were interviewed only once by either a digital-human avatar or a human interviewer. When participants were interviewed twice, on the other hand, participants who were interviewed by the human interviewer were more talkative and provided more correct details than did participants who were interviewed by the digital-human avatar, but their reports were also less accurate during free recall. Still, the digital-human avatar did not protect the participants from the adverse effects of misleading information. Finally, relative to an interview with the digital-human avatar, participants’ memory performance was enhanced when the speech- wave avatar interviewed them. In addition to these group-level results, participants with low conscientiousness and autism traits, or who perceived the digital-human avatar as computer- operated, were more accurate in their accounts during free recall when a digital-human avatar interviewed them. With respect to disclosure, overall, participants preferred to disclose information to a human professional face-to-face rather than to avatar professionals. When I compared the digital-human avatar to the speech-wave avatar, participants preferred to disclose more embarrassing information, particularly sex-related topics, and reported more coherent details about an embarrassing personal event to a speech-wave avatar. In terms of the avatar’s characteristics, participants indicated that they would be more comfortable disclosing embarrassing information to an avatar appearing as a female around 45- to 54-years of age. Collectively, my findings provide initial insight of the potential value and pitfalls of using avatars in evidential and clinical interviewing. In this day and age, humans may have adapted to technology, treating non-human interviewers in much the same way as they treat human interviewers. Still, there is a place for avatars in specific populations, and in the context of disclosing stigmatising experiences. The results of the present research have important implications for designing and using avatars that might aid humans in performing specific tasks in help-seeking settings

Investigating the professional identity formation of international alumni: A case study approach to investigate connectedness through digital and creative ecologies

This research explores the interconnectedness and professional identity formation of international alumni in art and design. The research is situated in pre-pandemic international education policy, practice and experience. The study analyses thirteen selected Australian policy documents to examine how policy acknowledges and fosters connectedness for international alumni, identifying that innovative mobile technology is underutilised as a means to professionally connect (Lomm, Snepvangers & Rourke, 2018; Snepvangers & Rourke, 2020) and enhance employability. With the view to identify representations of online best practices, relevant multi-stream literature contributions and eight case exemplars are initially investigated. Three contrasting case studies (Cochrane & Antonczak, 2015; Lemon, 2018a; Lien & Cao, 2014) are selected for deeper analytical investigation using the ‘Ecologies of Practice’ framework (Kemmis et al., 2014). Theoretical conceptions of connectedness (Bridgstock, 2016a; Bridgstock & Tippett, 2019a; Pegrum, 2010) are extended to include psychological and intercultural viewpoints, relational and identity capital and relational network behaviours in social media perspectives. Primary data (questionnaire and reflective email interviews) relating to professional employability journeys, identities, and online connectedness of a small number of alumni (n=31) from UNSW Art and Design is also collected and analysed. The research uncovers online creative practice traditions that facilitate connectedness and digital identities in social and professional online ecologies and suggests ways to address identified gaps in policy and practice. Strengthening a sense of belonging and visibility in informal and social creative settings may increase online networked relations and employability for art and design alumni