Learning computing heritage through gaming – whilst teaching digital development through history

This paper analyses the potential of computer games and interactive projects within the learning programmes for cultural heritage institutions through our experiences working in partnership between higher education and a museum. Gamification is cited as a key disruptive technology for the business and enterprise community, and developments in games technology are also driving the expansion of digital media into all different screen spaces, and various platforms. Our research aims to take these as beneficial indicators for pedagogic development, using gaming to support knowledge transfer related to a museum setting, and using the museum as a key scenario for our students to support the practice of game development. Thus gamification is applied as both a topic and a methodology for educational purposes

The Gameful Museum: Developing a Location-Based Game Design Framework for Engagement and Motivation

The popularity of location-based games, which blend digital and physical gameplay in specific real-world locations, has been rising in recent years. Research in museum studies looking into these games as engagement tools has so far been limited to individual case studies or sporadic overviews of play and games that do not explore the relationship between game design, location, gameplay and the museum experience. This practice-led thesis addresses this gap through the development of a game design framework and guidelines to create location-based games in museums, combined with a study of the impact of the designed experiences on audiences’ motivation to visit and engage with museum content. The findings and framework proposed are relevant for museum professionals and game designers who are interested in developing this practice while benefiting from guidance grounded in real-world research. Methodologically, I supplemented a study of past experiences with a first-person gameplay analysis, the results of which informed the design and examination of case studies of games for Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery (RAMM) developed in collaboration with the museum staff and external game designers. Findings suggest that location-based games benefit museums by creating added motivation to visit, attracting new and existing audiences, increasing and diversifying engagement with the museum content, and to a lesser degree, supporting knowledge acquisition. Structuring visits into games limits the possible actions of players while offering agency within those limitations, making the players part of a story and giving them challenges to complete, encouraging visitors to become more active and invested in exploring the space and the content displayed. I conclude this thesis by proposing the concept of the gameful museum as a possible path for museums as institutions of learning and entertainment, offering the location-based game design framework as an instrument to work towards audience development and engagement and highlighting the field’s future potential

CLEVER: A Trivia and Strategy Game for Enterprise Knowledge Learning

© Lennart Nacke, 2016. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in CHI PLAY Companion '16 Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts, https://doi.org/10.1145/2968120.2971805Knowledge management (KM) includes the acquisition, sharing, and dissemination of knowledge within a company. The problem with many enterprise KM systems is that they are complex and hardly used, because workers lack motivation to engage in a collaborative process of knowledge sharing and learning. To address this, we developed a gameful learning component of an enterprise KM system (KMS). Our game features an innovative combination of trivia and strategy elements, put together to afford motivation within a KMS. It can be played by employees in the same organization to foster collaborative knowledge exchange and learning.NSERC SSHRCPeer-reviewe

Sharing the stories of near novices to impact mainstream change

This case study research is designed to examine the ways in which teachers are bringing gameful practices into their classrooms as part of a STEM learning agenda. It is hypothesised that one of the best persons to inform or improve the practice of novices is a near novice; someone who was most recently themselves a novice. In many case study programs, we hold up exemplary practitioners as models, but these experts may be too far removed in their levels of expertise to impact the practice of true novices. Experts and evangelists might be useful in creating vision for change, but the actual steps toward change in practice might lie with educators ‘more like ourselves’. This research sets out to examine the work of educators starting out in various forms of gameful practices in teaching and learning. Telling the stories of these near novices has the potential to support, influence and impact the next wave of innovators, those beyond the early adopters. This is a work in progress and will report on the case studies collected and nascent feedback on their impact early in 2017