Cross-disciplinary Teaching of both Computer Forensics Students and Law Students Using Peer-Assessment in a Simulated Expert Witness Scenario

This paper describes a novel initiative of the Computing and Information Systems (CIS) Dept in conjunction with the Law Dept at the University of Greenwich. Postgraduate CIS computer forensics students, as part of their assessment, present their findings from a forensics investigation in front of a lecturer and up to five law students in a simulated expert witness testimony scenario. The law students are permitted to ask questions of the computer forensics students and eventually to give their assessment of the student’s witness evidence and presentation. This approach was devised to encompass several pertinent pedagogic issues. Firstly, it is cross-disciplinary, combining as it does, input from two very different departments – an initiative that brings together not only students but also staff who would not otherwise meet. Secondly, it involves the use of practical social/professional skills for both sets of students, as the computer forensics students must present their findings with the skills required of an expert witness in a court setting while the law students must act as cross-examining counsel. Thirdly, this exercise involves the law students assessing the performance of the computer forensics students – an application of peer-assessment that heightens the involvement of both sets of students. Lastly, both sets of students are themselves graded, the computer students by their own forensics lecturer and the law students by their law lecturer, according to their performance in this exercise. The findings from questionnaires sent out to both computer and law students were extremely positive. Both sets felt that they had benefited from the experience and that it would aid their further studies and professional development in their respective areas. It is the opinion of the C-SAFE forensics-law collaborative team that this approach represents an educational innovation in its use of cross-disciplinary problem-solving and peer-assessment in a growing and increasingly significant domain worldwide (cyber forensics)

Serious Games in Formal Education: Discussing Some Critical Aspects

International audienceInnovation in technology together with evolution in pedagogical approaches is encouraging increased integration of technology-supported interventions in mainstream teaching practices. One area attracting particularly close attention in this respect is Serious Games (SGs), which offer considerable potential for facilitating both formal and informal learning experiences in supported and standalone contexts. Advances in technology and in technology enhanced learning are raising learners' expectations for immersive and engaging game-based experiences. This trend is underpinned by the emergence of young learners adept at using digital technologies and the internet; there is an attendant risk that, as students, they may be alienated by traditional education and its failure to engage them fully in a lifelong learning process and prepare them adequately for the challenges of the 21st Century. SGs would appear to offer an attractive solution in this regard. However, there are a number of inhibitors preventing their wider take-up in mainstream education, with the result that the considerable potential on offer has yet to be fully exploited. This situation is the background for the joint efforts of partners in the Games and Learning Alliance (GALA), an EC-funded Network of Excellence on SGs, especially the sub-group dedicated to the pedagogical dimension of SGs. In its discussions on the key challenges for more wide-scale and effective SG use, the group has focused in particular on aspects related to the central role played by the educator in formal education settings. Specifically, discussion has focused on the challenges posed when educators are called on to modify their practice, adopting the new roles and approaches demanded for effective SG deployment. This paper presents the outcome of the group's exploration. It frames the question of the educator's central role by drawing on research work that, in the view of the different authors, embodies the major references for shedding light on this multi-faceted aspect. As well as the new role that the educator assumes in games-based learning environments, particular attention is also dedicated to the innovative pedagogical approaches that can be applied to SG deployment, especially those inspired by peer collaboration

Game design for a serious game to help learn programming

Tese de mestrado. Multimédia. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

An architecture supporting the development of serious games for scenario-based training and its application to Advanced Life Support

The effectiveness of serious games for training has already been proved in several domains. A major obstacle to the mass adoption of serious games comes from the difficulties in their development, due to the lack of widely adopted architectures that could streamline their creation process. In this thesis we present an architecture supporting the development of serious games for scenario-based training, a serious games for medical training we developed exploiting the architecture and the results of a study about its effectivenes

D3.3 Serious Gaming Approach to support Usability of IOT oriented User CoCreation

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Εκπαιδευτικό Παιχνίδι για τη γλώσσα Python

Η αξιοποίηση εποικοδομητικών προσεγγίσεων συμβάλλει αποτελεσματικά στην εκμάθηση προγραμματιστικών εννοιών. Σε αυτή την κατεύθυνση η παιχνιδοκεντρική μάθηση είναι ένα είδος βιωματικής μάθησης που βασίζεται στην εμπειρία που προσφέρει ένα παιχνίδι στο οποίο ο/η παίκτης/τρια δρα ενεργά αντί να είναι παθητικός αποδέκτης γνώσης. Βασικά χαρακτηριστικά ενός παιχνιδιού είναι η πρόκληση, οι επιλογές που έχει ο/η χρήστης και η ανατροφοδότηση που παρέχεται. Όσον αφορά την εκμάθηση εννοιών προγραμματισμού και ιδιαίτερα μέσω της γλώσσας Python, τα διαθέσιμα παιχνίδια είναι περιορισμένα και επιπλέον παρουσιάζουν μειονεκτήματα για την εισαγωγή τους σε ένα τυπικό ελληνικό εκπαιδευτικό πλαίσιο. Στο πλαίσιο της παρούσας πτυχιακής προτείνεται ένα εκπαιδευτικό παιχνίδι, το DigiWorld, το οποίο βασίζεται στο πλαίσιο σχεδιασμού εκπαιδευτικών παιχνιδιών εκμάθησης προγραμματισμού CMX και στις αρχές της ψηφιακής αφήγησης, υλοποιημένο εξ’ολοκλήρου στην ελληνική γλώσσα με τη χρήση του προγράμματος δημιουργίας οπτικών νουβελών Ren’Py. Το παιχνίδι DigiWorld στοχεύει κυρίως στη δευτεροβάθμια εκπαίδευση και μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί στο πλαίσιο της εκπαιδευτικής διαδικασίας στη σχολική τάξη ή ως υποστηρικτικό εργαλείο για ατομική εκμάθηση/εξάσκηση. Το παιχνίδι εξελίσσεται βάσει ενός ολοκληρωμένου σεναρίου στο οποίο ενσωματώνονται οργανικά τα προβλήματα-προκλήσεις μέσω των οποίων πραγματώνεται η εκμάθηση της προγραμματιστικής γλώσσας Python, με απώτερο στόχο τη δημιουργία κατάστασης ροής και την εμβύθιση μέσα στον φανταστικό κόσμο του παιχνιδιού για την επίτευξη των μαθησιακών του αποτελεσμάτων. Ο/η εκπαιδευόμενος/η υποστηρίζεται από κατάλληλη ανατροφοδότηση που δίνεται υπό τη μορφή Βοήθειας και σχολιασμού των απαντήσεων που δίνει. Η φιλοσοφία του παιχνιδιού βασίζεται στον απρόσκοπτο συνδυασμό του ψυχαγωγικού με το εκπαιδευτικό τμήμα, με το δεδομένο ότι ένα παιχνίδι που δεν ψυχαγωγεί δεν παίζεται, άρα δεν εκπαιδεύει. Με την ολοκλήρωση του, έγινε πειραματική εφαρμογή σε φοιτητές του τμήματος Πληροφορικής & Τηλεπικοινωνιών του ΕΚΠΑ, με θετικά αποτελέσματα, καταδεικνύοντας την αποδοχή του σχεδιασμού, του σεναρίου και των γραφικών καθώς και την καταλληλότητα των προβλημάτων-προκλήσεων για την επίτευξη των προσδοκώμενων μαθησιακών αποτελεσμάτων.The employment of constructivist approaches contributes effectively in learning programming concepts. Along these lines, game-based learning is a type of experiential learning based on the experience provided by a game in which the player is active instead of being a passive recipient of knowledge. Basic characteristics of a game include challenge, the decisions made by the user and the feedback provided. When it comes to learning programming concepts and specifically through the Python programming language, the available games are limited and moreover present flaws concerning their introduction into a typical greek educational context. In this thesis, an educational game is suggested, DigiWorld, which is based on the CMX design framework for designing educational games to teach computer programming and the principles of digital storytelling, implemented entirely in the greek language with the aid of the Ren’Py visual novel creation toolbox. DigiWorld targets mainly secondary education and can be used in an educational context within the classroom or as a supplementary tool for personal learning/practice. The game is based on a fully-developed scenario in which the problems-challenges, through which learning Python takes place, are organically incorporated with the goal of creating a state of flow and immersion in the imaginary world of the game to achieve the learning outcomes. The student is supported by relevant feedback given through a specific Help format and commentary upon the answers given. The mentality of the game is based on the seamless combination of the recreational with the educational aspect, under the premise that a game which does not entertain is not played, therefore it does not education. Upon its completion, an experimental application was conducted on students of the Department of Informatics & Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, with positive results, establishing the approval of the design, the scenario and the graphics as well as the relevance of the problems-challenges to the achievement of the expected learning outcomes

Cross-Disciplinary Approaches for Developing Serious Games in Higher Education: Frameworks for Food Safety and Environmental Health Education

While some educators have adopted commercial off the-shelf games for use in the classroom, such games may not always meet the individual requirements of lecturers whose courses are tied to specific learning utcomes. An alternative is to capitalise on in-house expertise in Higher Education and create serious games through cross-disciplinary team projects. This paper outlines such a project within one Higher Education institution. It describes synergies created across disciplines as a result of the collaboration on game design and implementation. It looks at tensions generated between the pedagogical requirements (of lecturers), entertainment objectives (of games designers) and technical excellence (sought by developers). Additionally, this paper looks at two serious games designed within this framework. Through reflections on the process and the product, this paper examines whether the collaborative process adopted within a Higher Education context can generate a product good enough to sit beside professionally designed games