Design of a location-based augmented reality game for the development of key 21st century competences in primary education

The use of augmented reality games (ARGs) in education has gained increased attention from curriculum developers, teachers, and researchers in the past decade. Research findings show that ARGs can promote meaningful learning environments that foster key competences for the 21st century. This paper presents the design process of “EcoAegean”, an ARG for mobile devices, which was implemented in primary classroom environments to support the development of students’ key competences in the context of sustainability. The game was created using an open augmented reality software platform and its design was based on contemporary theoretical underpinnings regarding the use of such games in educational contexts. In the first section of the paper, we describe the design procedures of the learning scenario as well as the game itself. In the last section of the paper, we offer a set of critical insights on the design and implementation of mobile augmented reality games for the purpose of supporting students’ development of key 21st century competences.</p

A Learning Outcome-oriented Approach towards Classifying Pervasive Games for Learning using Game Design Patterns and Contextual Information

Schmitz, B., Klemke, R., & Specht, M. (in press). A Learning Outcome-oriented Approach towards Classifying Pervasive Games for Learning using Game Design Patterns and Contextual InformationMobile and in particular pervasive games are a strong component of future scenarios for teaching and learning. Based on results from a previous review of practical papers, this work explores the educational potential of pervasive games for learning by analysing underlying game mechanisms. In order to determine and classify cognitive and affective learning outcomes, we propose employing game design patterns for mobile games and context information. Context information, in the course of this article, is introduced as an additional characteristic feature of mobile game design patterns. With the proposed framework we aim at understanding how pervasive game content may support learning. Findings from our research indicate that context information directs the use and presentation of content within a game and thus influences learning effects of individual patterns. This work perorates with a discussion on the shortfalls and potentials, which our framework for analysis provides

Designing Digital Games to Teach Road Safety: A Study of Graduate Students’ Experiences

In this paper, we present a framework for designing digital educational games to teach road safety rules specific to Alberta. The framework is inspired by game design literature and graduate students’ prior domain experience in their respective fields of teaching. To evaluate the proposed framework a study was conducted. The study aimed at designing road safety games with the participation of six graduate students using four phases: brainstorming, design, prototyping, and implementation. Cognitive insights presented by graduate students provide an effective rationale for game design that teaches traffic rules to improve road safety in general. Students enjoyed working as a collaborative unit and designed their games by means of instructional design theories, learning theories, and game design principles. The study indicated that the proposed framework may simplify the game design process with effective and efficient collaboratory design sessions in educational settings

Cross-cultural Usability Issues in E/M-Learning

This paper gives an overview of electronic learning (E-Learning) and mobile learning (M-Learning) adoption and diffusion trends, as well as their particular traits, characteristics and issues, especially in terms of cross-cultural and universal usability. E-Learning and M-Learning models using web services and cloud computing, as well as associated security concerns are all addressed. The benefits and enhancements that accrue from using mobile and other internet devices for the purposes of learning in academia are discussed. The differences between traditional classroom-based learning, distance learning, E-Learning and M-Learning models are compared and some conclusions are drawn

Mobile Game-Based Learning (mGBL) Engineering Model

Mobile game-based learning (mGBL) is a game played on any handheld devices such as mobile phones. It is among the most recent growing research areas whereby its main aim is to use game play to enhance motivation in learning, engage in knowledge acquisition, and improve the effectiveness of learning activities through mobile environment. To fully utilize the potential of mGBL, researchers suggest looking at the most important part, which is the development methodology of mGBL. In relation to this, various game development methodologies have been introduced for different types of game genres and platforms. These methodologies propose different numbers of steps and activities; some focusing only on the learning design; some concentrating on the mobile technologies; and others on the complete life cycle. Although many game methodologies have been introduced, studies show that customized phases and steps to develop games for learning in mobile environment are substantially required. Therefore, the study discussed in this thesis addresses this gap by proposing an mGBL Engineering Model based on a number of games and learning theoretical and developmental foundations. In particular, the study identified the key steps of development methodology to be considered in developing mGBL applications which consist of phases, components, steps, and deliverables. In accomplishing this aim, a design science research methodology was adopted, comprising of five phases; (i) awareness of problem, (ii) suggestion, (iii) development, (iv) evaluation, and (v) conclusion. Subsequently, eight mGBL evaluation dimensions were put forward: visibility, complexity, compatibility, flexibility, clarity, effectiveness, manageability, and evolutionary. Model evaluation was conducted in three phases, namely; expert review, prototype development with heuristics evaluation, and experimental study. Generally, the proposed mGBL Engineering Model was well accepted by the experts contacted in this study. The model was also employed by a game company while developing an mGBL prototype. Here, the findings have implied that the model is useful to follow and it provides an easy guideline for fellow developers. In the experimental study phase, four learning or game methodologies; Analysis-Design-Development-Implementation- Evaluation, Input-Process-Output, Game Life Cycle, and mGBL Engineering Model; were studied and compared by 70 respondents. The findings have indicated that the proposed mGBL Engineering Model scored mean above 7.0 (out of 10) of all dimensions compared to the other three models (scored less than 7.0). The ANOVA results show that there are significant differences between all groups in six dimensions except complexity and compatibility. Although complexity and compatibility dimensions are not significantly different, the scores for the mGBL Engineering Model are higher than the other three models. All these results have demonstrated that the proposed mGBL Engineering Model exhibits useful development indicators for mGBL applications and is indeed a theoretical and practical contribution of the study. In addition, the other significant contributions are the eight evaluation dimensions together with the validated instrument. Furthermore, the artefact produced, which is the mGBL prototype is also a functional contribution

Developing educational content for children using augmented reality on smart phones

V magistrskem delu smo raziskovali uporabo obogatene resničnosti (ang. Augmented Reality ali AR) na pametnih telefonih kot potencialno orodje pri izobraževanju otrok z namenom določitve optimalnih tehnoloških ter predmetnih lastnosti vsebine ter primerne AR platforme za izdelavo in predvajanje teh vsebin. Cilji magistrskega dela so bili: (1) določiti otrokom všečne lastnosti mobilnih iger, (2) narediti pregled in primerjavo programske opreme za oblikovanje vsebin obogatene resničnosti, (3) analizirati obnašanje različnih multimedijskih elementov glede na lastnosti predvajanja. V ta namen smo najprej izvedli anketo med 26 učenci 2. razreda o priljubljenosti posameznih igralnih elementov. V drugem delu smo primerjali in analizirali popularne platforme za razvoj in predvajanje obogatene resničnosti. Pri analizi smo upoštevali vrste podprtih vsebin, akcij in enostavnost uporabe AR platforme. Predvajanje različnih mutimedijskih vsebin (slike, video, 3D objekti, 3D animacije) smo ovrednotili glede na kakovost, pri čemer smo spreminjali lastnosti predvajanih elementov (velikost datoteke, št. poligonov 3D modela, uporabljene teksture in materiali) ter zunanje dejavnike (svetloba, vremenske razmere). V zadnjem delu smo z izbrano AR platformo izdelali preprost primer uporabe AR vsebin, namenjene za izobraževanje otrok. Rezultati so potrdili naše hipoteze: H1 – AR igre z ugankami imajo potencial za uporabo v izobraževanju za otroke, H2 – Uporaba AR platform s spletnimi urejevalniki je primerna za razvoj izobraževalnih AR vsebin ter H3 – Kompleksnost 3D objekta vpliva na kakovost predvajanja le-tega v obogateni resničnosti.This thesis represents a research on the use of augmented reality (AR) on smart phones as a potential tool to be used in children’s education with the purpose to identify optimal technological characteristics of augmented reality elements and most suitable AR platform to be used to develop and display these elements. The main goals of this paper were: (1) to identify children’s preferred mobile game traits, (2) to review and compare different software used to develop augmented reality content, (3) to analyse the behaviour of various multimedia elements in AR based on their characteristics. For these purposes, a specific questionnaire was conducted among 26 second-grade pupils on likeability of various game elements. In the second part of this paper, we have studied widely spread augmented reality platforms to determine their compatibility with different elements, supported actions and general usability. The quality of displayed multimedia content (2D images, video, 3D models, 3D animations) in AR was evaluated based on the outside conditions (the weather, lightning) and by changing the characteristics of the displayed elements (file size, 3D polygon count, included textures and materials). In the last part we used the selected AR platform to create a simple example of AR content to be used in children\u27s education. The results confirmed H1 – AR puzzle games hold potential for usage in children\u27s educationH2 – AR platforms with online editors are suitable for designing educational content to be used in ARand H3 – The complexity of 3D objects affects the quality of their display in augmented reality

Designing Augmented Reality Games for Mobile Learning using an Instructional-Motivational Paradigm

Abstract In this paper, several Augmented Reality (AR

Exploring the Impact of Varying Levels of Augmented Reality to Teach Probability and Sampling with a Mobile Device

abstract: Statistics is taught at every level of education, yet teachers often have to assume their students have no knowledge of statistics and start from scratch each time they set out to teach statistics. The motivation for this experimental study comes from interest in exploring educational applications of augmented reality (AR) delivered via mobile technology that could potentially provide rich, contextualized learning for understanding concepts related to statistics education. This study examined the effects of AR experiences for learning basic statistical concepts. Using a 3 x 2 research design, this study compared learning gains of 252 undergraduate and graduate students from a pre- and posttest given before and after interacting with one of three types of augmented reality experiences, a high AR experience (interacting with three dimensional images coupled with movement through a physical space), a low AR experience (interacting with three dimensional images without movement), or no AR experience (two dimensional images without movement). Two levels of collaboration (pairs and no pairs) were also included. Additionally, student perceptions toward collaboration opportunities and engagement were compared across the six treatment conditions. Other demographic information collected included the students' previous statistics experience, as well as their comfort level in using mobile devices. The moderating variables included prior knowledge (high, average, and low) as measured by the student's pretest score. Taking into account prior knowledge, students with low prior knowledge assigned to either high or low AR experience had statistically significant higher learning gains than those assigned to a no AR experience. On the other hand, the results showed no statistical significance between students assigned to work individually versus in pairs. Students assigned to both high and low AR experience perceived a statistically significant higher level of engagement than their no AR counterparts. Students with low prior knowledge benefited the most from the high AR condition in learning gains. Overall, the AR application did well for providing a hands-on experience working with statistical data. Further research on AR and its relationship to spatial cognition, situated learning, high order skill development, performance support, and other classroom applications for learning is still needed.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Educational Technology 201

Security awareness of computer users: A game based learning approach

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The research reported in this thesis focuses on developing a framework for game design to protect computer users against phishing attacks. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to understand the research domain, support the proposed research work and identify the research gap to fulfil the contribution to knowledge. Two studies and one theoretical design were carried out to achieve the aim of this research reported in this thesis. A quantitative approach was used in the first study while engaging both quantitative and qualitative approaches in the second study. The first study reported in this thesis was focused to investigate the key elements that should be addressed in the game design framework to avoid phishing attacks. The proposed game design framework was aimed to enhance the user avoidance behaviour through motivation to thwart phishing attack. The results of this study revealed that perceived threat, safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, self-efficacy, perceived severity and perceived susceptibility elements should be incorporated into the game design framework for computer users to avoid phishing attacks through their motivation. The theoretical design approach was focused on designing a mobile game to educate computer users against phishing attacks. The elements of the framework were addressed in the mobile game design context. The main objective of the proposed mobile game design was to teach users how to identify phishing website addresses (URLs), which is one of many ways of identifying a phishing attack. The mobile game prototype was developed using MIT App inventor emulator. In the second study, the formulated game design framework was evaluated through the deployed mobile game prototype on a HTC One X touch screen smart phone. Then a discussion is reported in this thesis investigating the effectiveness of the developed mobile game prototype compared to traditional online learning to thwart phishing threats. Finally, the research reported in this thesis found that the mobile game is somewhat effective in enhancing the user’s phishing awareness. It also revealed that the participants who played the mobile game were better able to identify fraudulent websites compared to the participants who read the website without any training. Therefore, the research reported in this thesis determined that perceived threat, safeguard effectiveness, safeguard cost, self-efficacy, perceived threat and perceived susceptibility elements have a significant impact on avoidance behaviour through motivation to thwart phishing attacks as addressed in the game design framework

Mobile Learning using Mixed Reality Games and a Conversational, Instructional and Motivational Paradigm. Design and implementation of technical language learning mobile games for the developing world with special attention to mixed reality games for the realization of a conversational, instructional and motivational paradigm.

Mobile learning has significant potential to be very influential in further and higher education. In this research a new definition for Mobile Educational Mixed Reality Games (MEMRG) is proposed based on a mobile learning environment. A questionnaire and a quantifying scale are utilised to assist the game developers in designing a MEMRG. A ¿Conversational Framework¿ is proposed as an appropriate psycho-pedagogical approach to teaching and learning for MEMRG. This methodology is based on the theme of a ¿conversation¿ between different actors of the learning community with the objective of building the architectural framework for MEMRG. Various elements responsible for instructing and motivating learners in educational games are utilised in an instructional-motivational model. User interface design for the games incorporates an efficient navigation system that uses contextual information, and allows the players to move seamlessly between real and virtual worlds. The implementation of MEMRG using the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform iii is presented. The hardware and software specification for the MEMRG implementation and deployment are also discussed. MEMRG has produced improvements in the different cognitive processes of the learner, and also produced a deeper level of learning through enculturation, externalising ideas, and socialising. Learners¿ enjoyment, involvement, motivation, autonomy and metacognition skills have improved. This research will assist developers and teachers to gain an insight into learning paradigms which utilise mobile game environments that are formed by mixing real and virtual spaces, and provide them with a vision for effectively incorporating these games into formal and informal classroom sessions