Motivating children to learn effectively: exploring the value of intrinsic integration in educational games

The concept of intrinsic motivation lies at the heart of the user engagement created by digital games. Yet despite this, educational software has traditionally attempted to harness games as extrinsic motivation by using them as a sugar coating for learning content. This article tests the concept of intrinsic integration as a way of creating a more productive relationship between educational games and their learning content. Two studies assessed this approach by designing and evaluating an educational game called Zombie Division to teach mathematics to 7- to 11-year-olds. Study 1 examined the learning gains of 58 children who played either the intrinsic, extrinsic, or control variants of Zombie Division for 2 hr, supported by their classroom teacher. Study 2 compared time on task for the intrinsic and extrinsic variants of the game when 16 children had free choice of which game to play. The results showed that children learned more from the intrinsic version of the game under fixed time limits and spent 7 times longer playing it in free-time situations. Together, these studies offer evidence for the genuine value of an intrinsic approach for creating effective educational games. The theoretical and commercial implications of these findings are discussed

Proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET 2013)

"This book contains the proceedings of the International Workshop on EuroPLOT Persuasive Technology for Learning, Education and Teaching (IWEPLET) 2013 which was held on 16.-17.September 2013 in Paphos (Cyprus) in conjunction with the EC-TEL conference. The workshop and hence the proceedings are divided in two parts: on Day 1 the EuroPLOT project and its results are introduced, with papers about the specific case studies and their evaluation. On Day 2, peer-reviewed papers are presented which address specific topics and issues going beyond the EuroPLOT scope. This workshop is one of the deliverables (D 2.6) of the EuroPLOT project, which has been funded from November 2010 – October 2013 by the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission through the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLL) by grant #511633. The purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate Persuasive Learning Objects and Technologies (PLOTS), based on ideas of BJ Fogg. The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the findings obtained during this project and disseminate them to an interested audience. Furthermore, it shall foster discussions about the future of persuasive technology and design in the context of learning, education and teaching. The international community working in this area of research is relatively small. Nevertheless, we have received a number of high-quality submissions which went through a peer-review process before being selected for presentation and publication. We hope that the information found in this book is useful to the reader and that more interest in this novel approach of persuasive design for teaching/education/learning is stimulated. We are very grateful to the organisers of EC-TEL 2013 for allowing to host IWEPLET 2013 within their organisational facilities which helped us a lot in preparing this event. I am also very grateful to everyone in the EuroPLOT team for collaborating so effectively in these three years towards creating excellent outputs, and for being such a nice group with a very positive spirit also beyond work. And finally I would like to thank the EACEA for providing the financial resources for the EuroPLOT project and for being very helpful when needed. This funding made it possible to organise the IWEPLET workshop without charging a fee from the participants.

Learning to communicate computationally with Flip: a bi-modal programming language for game creation

Teaching basic computational concepts and skills to school children is currently a curricular focus in many countries. Running parallel to this trend are advances in programming environments and teaching methods which aim to make computer science more accessible, and more motivating. In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of Flip, a programming language that aims to help 11–15 year olds develop computational skills through creating their own 3D role-playing games. Flip has two main components: 1) a visual language (based on an interlocking blocks design common to many current visual languages), and 2) a dynamically updating natural language version of the script under creation. This programming-language/natural-language pairing is a unique feature of Flip, designed to allow learners to draw upon their familiarity with natural language to “decode the code”. Flip aims to support young people in developing an understanding of computational concepts as well as the skills to use and communicate these concepts effectively. This paper investigates the extent to which Flip can be used by young people to create working scripts, and examines improvements in their expression of computational rules and concepts after using the tool. We provide an overview of the design and implementation of Flip before describing an evaluation study carried out with 12–13 year olds in a naturalistic setting. Over the course of 8 weeks, the majority of students were able to use Flip to write small programs to bring about interactive behaviours in the games they created. Furthermore, there was a significant improvement in their computational communication after using Flip (as measured by a pre/post-test). An additional finding was that girls wrote more, and more complex, scripts than did boys, and there was a trend for girls to show greater learning gains relative to the boys

A review of contemporary techniques for measuring ergonomic wear comfort of protective and sport clothing

Protective and sport clothing is governed by protection requirements, performance, and comfort of the user. The comfort and impact performance of protective and sport clothing are typically subjectively measured, and this is a multifactorial and dynamic process. The aim of this review paper is to review the contemporary methodologies and approaches for measuring ergonomic wear comfort, including objective and subjective techniques. Special emphasis is given to the discussion of different methods, such as objective techniques, subjective techniques, and a combination of techniques, as well as a new biomechanical approach called modeling of skin. Literature indicates that there are four main techniques to measure wear comfort: subjective evaluation, objective measurements, a combination of subjective and objective techniques, and computer modeling of human–textile interaction. In objective measurement methods, the repeatability of results is excellent, and quantified results are obtained, but in some cases, such quantified results are quite different from the real perception of human comfort. Studies indicate that subjective analysis of comfort is less reliable than objective analysis because human subjects vary among themselves. Therefore, it can be concluded that a combination of objective and subjective measuring techniques could be the valid approach to model the comfort of textile materials

Cross-Platform Presentation of Interactive Volumetric Imagery

Volume data is useful across many disciplines, not just medicine. Thus, it is very important that researchers have a simple and lightweight method of sharing and reproducing such volumetric data. In this paper, we explore some of the challenges associated with volume rendering, both from a classical sense and from the context of Web3D technologies. We describe and evaluate the pro- posed X3D Volume Rendering Component and its associated styles for their suitability in the visualization of several types of image data. Additionally, we examine the ability for a minimal X3D node set to capture provenance and semantic information from outside ontologies in metadata and integrate it with the scene graph

An investigation of mobile augmented reality-based learning features in cognitive and affective environments

This research focuses on the effectiveness of using mobile Augmented Reality (mAR) for learning. Prior research has focused primarily on developing virtual contents for Augmented Reality (AR) and has largely ignored AR in the mobile context. Herein, this research primarily aims to examine the effectiveness of learning through two modes: mobile Augmented Reality (mAR) and the Current Learning Mode (CLM). This research is extended to the development stage of a theoretical model, to evaluate the ability of mAR in improving the learning outcomes that guide a further consideration of growth in learning. The first phase of this thesis is to examine the impact of how mAR influences the learning outcomes in cognitive ability and affective learning outcomes. The cognitive outcome was measured by the experimental method of using pre/ post-test performance achievement, while the affective learning outcome was measured by perceived usefulness, self-efficacy and satisfaction. This research contributes to cognitive ability and affective learning by investigating the differences in the learning outcomes and performance achievements of mAR within a self-centred learning environment, a classroom. The findings show that students’ performance achievement, learning outcomes, perceived learning effectiveness and self-efficacy were greater in the mAR group, as compared to the CLM group. Second, a theoretical model was developed and analysed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). SEM examines significant relationships between the determinants that integrate and facilitate effective mAR-based learning environments. SEM produces a feasible alternative in measuring the causal relationship amongst the constructs. This model evaluates to implement mAR as a learning aid in student-centred learning and to evaluate the motivation among students through the features of mAR, due to the absence of an in-depth understanding of the motivation of mAR-based learning from the current literature. This model also provides an insight into the causal factors amongst the dimensions of mAR. Finally, in the model, the moderating effects of students’ characteristics, which include their experience and age, are investigated to determine the factors influencing mAR. The findings of this research will help to verify the learning effectiveness of mAR, to improve the learning experiences, learning outcomes and performance achievements of students. Based on the results, it is confirmed that mAR can be leveraged upon and used as an optimum learning tool, exemplifying the use of technology within an educational context. In the aspects of information retention and learning outcome enhancement, mAR is significant in education as it facilitates students’ understanding by supporting abstract ideas throughout the course, enabling the students to learn in a limited period. Based on the results, it can be concluded that mAR is a technology that aids students with a better understanding of the subject matter and hence, resulting in greater motivation. With regards to the model fitness via the analysis of goodness-of-fit, all the results are confirmed as appropriate and good fit. Also, the model also shows a positive causal path from the mAR features’ determinant. The thesis can also assist educational administrators and educational policy makers in gauging the importance of mAR as a learning tool. This helps mainly to overcome the issue of educators being criticised for the lack of real-life experience that is being exposed to students at the university level. Furthermore, academia can use the model’s findings as appropriate groundwork to initiate other related studies, and this will help to fill the gap in the mAR learning area

Evaluation Of Information Visualization For Decision Making Support In An Emergency Department Information System.

The purpose of this dissertation is to propose an evaluation framework to assess various IV techniques in EDIS and provide recommendations for developers