Project sanitarium:playing tuberculosis to its end game

Interdisciplinary and collaborative projects between industry and academia provide exceptional opportunities for learning. Project Sanitarium is a serious game for Windows PC and Tablet which aims to embed learning about tuberculosis (TB) through the player taking on the role of a doctor and solving cases across the globe. The project developed as a collaboration between staff and undergraduate students at the School of Arts, Media and Computer Games at Abertay University working with academics and researchers from the Infection Group at the University of St Andrews. The project also engaged industry partners Microsoft and DeltaDNA. The project aimed to educate students through a workplace simulation pedagogical model, encourage public engagement at events and through news coverage and lastly to prototype whether games could be used to simulate a virtual clinical trial. The project was embedded in the Abertay undergraduate programme where students are presented with real world problems to solve through design and technology. The result was a serious game prototype that utilized game design techniques and technology to demystify and educate players about the diagnosis and treatment of one of the world’s oldest and deadliest diseases, TB. Project Sanitarium aims to not only educate the player, but allows the player to become a part of a simulated drug trial that could potentially help create new treatments in the fight against TB. The game incorporates a mathematical model that is based on data from real-world drug trials. The interdisciplinary pedagogical model provides undergraduates with workplace simulation, wider industry collaboration and access to academic expertise to solve challenging and complex problems

A Framework for Exploring and Evaluating Mechanics in Human Computation Games

Human computation games (HCGs) are a crowdsourcing approach to solving computationally-intractable tasks using games. In this paper, we describe the need for generalizable HCG design knowledge that accommodates the needs of both players and tasks. We propose a formal representation of the mechanics in HCGs, providing a structural breakdown to visualize, compare, and explore the space of HCG mechanics. We present a methodology based on small-scale design experiments using fixed tasks while varying game elements to observe effects on both the player experience and the human computation task completion. Finally we discuss applications of our framework using comparisons of prior HCGs and recent design experiments. Ultimately, we wish to enable easier exploration and development of HCGs, helping these games provide meaningful player experiences while solving difficult problems.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figure

A Phenomenological Study of Teachers\u27 Experiences with Educational Gamification and its Impact on Student Engagement in the Middle School Math and Science Classroom

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand digital gamification and its effect on student engagement based on the lived experiences of middle school math and science teachers in rural schools in the southeast region of the United States. Nick Pelling’s gamification theory guided the study herein. Gamification theory served as a tool to alter learner engagement which impacted instruction and learning. I used a criterion-based purposeful selection of 10 middle school math and science teachers with gamification experience. Participating teachers had three or more years of teaching experience and taught in regional rural schools. The hermeneutical phenomenological study resulted in the themes of gamification elements on student engagement, planning gamification lessons, and obstacles to gamification. The lived experiences of middle school math and science teachers positively addressed the gap in the correlation between gamification and enhancing student engagement

The wider context of performance analysis and it application in the football coaching process

The evolving role of PA and the associated proliferation of positions and internships within high performance sport has driven consideration for a change, or at least a broadening, of emphasis for use of PA analysis. In order to explore the evolution of PA from both an academic and practitioner perspective this paper considers the wider conceptual use of PA analysis. In establishing this, the paper has 4 key aims: (1) To establish working definitions of PA and where it sits within the contemporary sports science and coaching process continuum; (2) To consider how PA is currently used in relation to data generation; (3) To explore how PA could be used to ensure transfer of information, and; (4) To give consideration to the practical constrains potentially faced by coach and analyst when implementing PA strategies in the future

Computers in Secondary Schools: Educational Games

This entry introduces educational games in secondary schools. Educational games include three main types of educational activities with a playful learning intention supported by digital technologies: educational serious games, educational gamification, and learning through game creation. Educational serious games are digital games that support learning objectives. Gamification is defined as the use of "game design elements and game thinking in a non-gaming context" (Deterding et al. 2011, p. 13). Educational gamification is not developed through a digital game but includes game elements for supporting the learning objectives. Learning through game creation is focused on the process of designing and creating a prototype of a game to support a learning process related to the game creation process or the knowledge mobilized through the game creation process. Four modalities of educational games in secondary education are introduced in this entry to describe educational games in secondary education: educational purpose of entertainment games, serious games, gamification, and game design

Exploring the Benefits of Using Gamification and Videogames for Physical Exercise: a Review of State of Art

There is a lack of motivation in children and adolescents to do physical exercise and at the same time a worldwide obesity epidemic. Gamification and active videogames can be used to increase the motivation of young people, promoting healthy habits. In this work we explore different studies on active videogames, eSports and gamification applied to physical exercise and health promotion. Main findings include positive effects in a reduction in body weight and in the promotion to continue performing of physical exercise. It also contributes to increase the motivation in children and adolescents to practice exercise. The personalization of user experience and emerging technologies (big data, wearables, smart technologies, etc.) are presented as promising opportunities to keep the engagement in game-based program and gamification of physical exercise

A department of methodology can coordinate transdisciplinary sport science support

In the current sporting landscape, it is not uncommon for professional sport teams and organizations to employ multidisciplinary sport science support teams. In these teams and organizations, a “head of performance” may manage a number of sub-discipline specialists with the aim of enhancing athlete performance. Despite the best intentions of multidisciplinary sport science support teams, difficulties associated with integrating sub-disciplines to enhance performance preparation have become apparent. It has been suggested that the problem of integration is embedded in the traditional reductionist method of applied sport science, leading to the eagerness of individual specialists to quantify progress in isolated components. This can lead to “silo” working and decontextualized learning environments that can hinder athlete preparation. To address this challenge, we suggest that ecological dynamics is one theoretical framework that can inform common principles and language to guide the integration of sport science sub-disciplines in a Department of Methodology. The aim of a Department of Methodology would be for group members to work within a unified conceptual framework to (1) coordinate activity through shared principles and language, (2) communicate coherent ideas, and (3) collaboratively design practice landscapes rich in information (i.e., visual, acoustic, proprioceptive and haptic) and guide emergence of multi-dimensional behaviors in athlete performance