New Research and Trends in Higher Education

This book aims to discuss new research and trends on all dimensions of Higher Education, as there is a growing interest in the field of Higher Education, regarding new methodologies, contexts, and technologies. It includes investigations of diverse issues that affect the learning processes in Higher Education: innovations in learning, new pedagogical methods, and new learning contexts.In this sense, original research contributions of research papers, case studies and demonstrations that present original scientific results, methodological aspects, concepts and educational technologies, on the following topics:a) Technological Developments in Higher Education: mobile technology, virtual environments, augmented reality, automation and robotics, and other tools for universal learning, focusing on issues that are not addressed by existing research;b) Digital Higher Education: mobile learning, eLearning, Game-based Learning, social media in education, new learning models and technologies and wearable technologies for education;c) Case Studies in Higher Education: empirical studies in higher education regarding digital technologies, new methodologies, new evaluation techniques and tools, perceptions of learning processes efficiency and digital learning best practice

Haptic history : heads, hands and hearts

This thesis was prompted by the issue of widespread student disengagement in history classrooms. I argue that a key factor in student disengagement with school history is disciplinary history’s pedagogic legacy as an ocular, text-focused intellectual pursuit. This is part of a broader disjunction between public and academic history. Ordinary people primarily make sense of the past through the materiality of things—through objects, artefacts, landscapes and their bodies—but this is not reflected in the way history is usually taught in schools. My research addresses this problem by developing a materialist model of history pedagogy— ‘haptic history’—that has been derived from a close analysis of two groups who employ materiality in their history praxis: school teachers, who self-identify as employing a materialist approach in their history teaching; and historical re-enactors/living historians. These groups are the focus of this study. They have an avowed educative goal and use the materiality of the past as both source and method, to construct historical knowledge, ‘do’ historical thinking and experience historical consciousness. I explore the materialist praxis of these groups using a qualitative methodology of surveys, in-depth interviews, auto-ethnography, focus groups and case studies. In analysis, I draw on Collingwood’s idea of history, together with interdisciplinary and theoretical insights from the fields of archaeology, social anthropology, museum, performance and material culture studies, to unpick and analyse the way materiality is used in these contexts as forms of historical consciousness and historical thinking. The analysis is then used to construct a model of haptic history pedagogy, with guideposts to support teacher classroom praxis. In the process of building a haptic history model of pedagogy, my research makes broader arguments around materiality and history. I argue that materiality is a significant part of ‘historical consciousness’ and our sense of self as historical beings. I further conclude that the (co)agency of ‘things’ weave webs of entanglement and connection between people in the present and the past that are deeply connective, engaging and serve to foster kinaesthetic empathy. This conclusion warrants an expansion of current models of historical empathy beyond the cognitive and affective, to include the kinaesthetic dimension. My research makes a significant contribution to history pedagogy by demonstrating the importance of touch and embodiment as performative and experiential modes for knowing the past. I demonstrate that when the materiality of history is experienced synergistically through ‘heads, hands and hearts’, the historical sensation of ekstasis is facilitated. This research further contributes to issues of access and equity in history education; haptic history’s materialist approach engages a wide range of learners, especially (but not exclusively) those who struggle to engage with traditional, text-heavy forms of history. Beyond history pedagogy, this study advances the case for disciplinary history to embrace the possibilities and opportunities inherent in interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the past. In venturing into the field of materiality, my research also raises significant questions around the co-agency of things in history, and in doing so joins others in prompting a reconsideration of an exclusively anthropocentric view of agency in the past

Minimally Invasive Expeditionary Surgical Care Using Human-Inspired Robots

This technical report serves as an updated collection of subject matter experts on surgical care using human-inspired robotics for human exploration. It is a summary of the Blue Sky Meeting, organized by the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), Pensacola, Florida, and held on October 2-3, 2018. It contains an executive summary, the final report, all of the presentation materials, and an updated reference list

Collective Embodiment and Communal Feeling: A Critical Somatics Approach to Performance for Social Change

“Collective Embodiment and Communal Feeling: A Critical Somatics Approach to Performance for Social Change” argues for a novel approach to performance for social change that focuses on the sensory and somatic dimensions of collectivity as the basis for countering the atomizing politics of neoliberalism. It proposes a critical somatics approach to the deconstruction and reconfiguration of participants’ embodied subjectivities, emphasizing the cultivation of conditions that facilitate experiences of collective embodiment and affective interdependence. Whether in the kinesthetic awareness of bodies dancing together, the situational or proprioceptive awareness of a collective engaged in creative disruption, or the physical contact of activists’ clasped arms forming a human chain in protest, these conditions require multisensory engagement, improvisational coordination, and shared feeling. Based on ethnographic accounts of the phenomenological experience of collective embodiment, I argue that such experiences enact—rather than merely argue for—forms of collectivity through their operation on the level of the body. This approach to performance for social change builds on the experience of practitioners and artist-activists in an effort to preserve the core contributions of existing techniques while seeking avenues to overcome their susceptibility to the influence of increasingly ubiquitous neoliberal frameworks. Opening with a consideration of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed as a touchstone example, I argue that the technique’s cognitive approach to social change and its emphasis on discursive techniques contribute to the manner in which it individualizes responsibility for combating systemic oppression. Turning to Cynthia Winton-Henry and Phil Porter’s InterPlay as an example of an affective approach to performance for social change, I critique its practitioners’ culture of individualism, but identify the critical potential of its recognition of collective embodiment. Extending this analysis to protest and direct action, I explore the existential prefiguration of communities of care and the cultivation of communal feeling, an affective and collective form of embodied cognition. After offering a series of activities designed to create the conditions for experiences of collective embodiment and develop the affective bonds of communal feeling, I close with a consideration of the broader implications of positioning speculative theory at the forefront of movements’ political practice.Doctor of Philosoph

Cybersecurity and the Digital Health: An Investigation on the State of the Art and the Position of the Actors

Cybercrime is increasingly exposing the health domain to growing risk. The push towards a strong connection of citizens to health services, through digitalization, has undisputed advantages. Digital health allows remote care, the use of medical devices with a high mechatronic and IT content with strong automation, and a large interconnection of hospital networks with an increasingly effective exchange of data. However, all this requires a great cybersecurity commitment—a commitment that must start with scholars in research and then reach the stakeholders. New devices and technological solutions are increasingly breaking into healthcare, and are able to change the processes of interaction in the health domain. This requires cybersecurity to become a vital part of patient safety through changes in human behaviour, technology, and processes, as part of a complete solution. All professionals involved in cybersecurity in the health domain were invited to contribute with their experiences. This book contains contributions from various experts and different fields. Aspects of cybersecurity in healthcare relating to technological advance and emerging risks were addressed. The new boundaries of this field and the impact of COVID-19 on some sectors, such as mhealth, have also been addressed. We dedicate the book to all those with different roles involved in cybersecurity in the health domain

Collaborative behaviours and professional culture traits in real-time interprofessional clinical simulation

Interprofessional education (IPE) has been proposed as a method of creating a collaborative practice ready workforce in healthcare. Postulated benefits of the technique include improving communication between professional groups, which in turn should help to prevent serious untoward events and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Critics of the method have cited poorly designed IPE as a method of reinforcing physician power, and argued there is a paucity of data linking undergraduate IPE to tangible benefits in a patient-facing setting. Simulation has been increasingly used as a method for delivery of IPE, with positive outcomes cited by students and educators alike. Virtual Patients and avatars have been recently used as a delivery method for healthcare education, but there is a paucity of data regarding their use in IPE. Simulation is not a panacea for IPE, many simulations focus on the acute phase of care naturally excluding healthcare professions who are not involved in those situations. Findings from acute simulations may not apply to sub-acute scenarios. Method A sub-acute real-time virtual patient simulation was designed then delivered to educators (n=6) and undergraduate students (n=33) from the professions of medicine, nursing, pharmacy and physiotherapy. Qualitative data was gathered according to a constructivist paradigm using unstructured observation of in-simulation behaviour, focus groups and semi-structured interviews. Results Data was analysed according to Braun and Clarke’s method of thematic analysis. Five themes were identified: technology, education, collaboration, intrinsic behaviours and stereotyping. The simulation was educationally successful with participants citing improved recognition of the skills of other professional groups, and improved physiological and pharmacological knowledge. The real-time aspect of the simulation improved clinical reasoning and forced students to make prescribing decisions, which was cited as beneficial for future practice. The sub-acute nature of the simulation resulted in participants hyper-observing their VP to the detriment of patient care. Good levels of collaboration, team working and appropriate communication were facilitated but students were observed to subconsciously selfstereotype. Conclusions Sub-acute real-time virtual patient simulation appears to be a valid method of enabling students to learn with and from one another. It conveys benefit over traditional educational methods such as classroom-based, problem-based and experiential learning as students are given full responsibility for patient care with little supervision. Self-stereotyping amongst students suggests that students convey stereotypical messages about their own profession to others. This may aid team-building in the undergraduate setting, but if these stereotypical views are transferred to advanced practice, there may be detrimental consequences for team formation and patient care

Towards Balancing Fun and Exertion in Exergames: Exploring the Impact of Movement-Based Controller Devices, Exercise Concepts, Game Adaptivity and Player Modes on Player Experience and Training Intensity in Different Exergame Settings

Physical inactivity remains one of the biggest societal challenges of the 21st century. The gaming industry and the fitness sector have responded to this alarming fact by introducing game-based or gamified training scenarios and thus established the promising trend of exergaming. Exergames – games controlled by active (whole) body movements – have been extolled as potential attractive and effective training tools. However, the majority of the exergames do not meet the required intensity or effectiveness, nor do they induce the intended training adherence or long-term motivation. One reason for this is that the evaluated exergames were often not co-designed with the user group to meet their specific needs and preferences, nor were they co-designed with an interdisciplinary expert team of game designers (to ensure a good gaming experience) and sports scientists (for a great training experience). Accordingly, the research results from studies with these exergames are rather limited. To fully exploit the potential of these innovative movement tools and to establish them as attractive and effective training approach, it is necessary to understand and explore both the underlying interdisciplinary theories and concepts as well as possible design approaches and their impact on the game and training experience. This dissertation aims to contribute to a better understanding of well-balanced exergame design. It explores and evaluates how different movement-based control devices, exercise concepts, game adaptations, and player modes influence the attractiveness and effectiveness of exergames. The work provides theoretical and practical contributions to the problem area of effective and attractive exergames. For this purpose, a research and development (R&D) approach with iterative phases was followed. As preliminary work for the contributions of this dissertation, exergames were approached from a theoretical perspective. Underlying multidisciplinary theories and concepts of exergames from relevant fields were analyzed and a generic framework was built, which structured the findings based on three interdependent dimensions: the player, the game controller, and the virtual game scenario. Some commercially available exergames were explored to verify the theory-based assumption that the interposition of technology brings specific transformations in the coupling of perception and action that do not occur in real sports situations. Among other things, the comparative pilot study showed that two different controllers (one gesture-based and one haptic device), which allowed for different physical input, were likely to induce diverse gameplay experiences (e.g., higher feeling of flow and self-location when playing with the haptic device) with differently skilled players. However, certain design-specific differences in the two exergame conditions meant that these results could only be interpreted as a first trend. To overcome the limitations of this preliminary study approach (e.g., unequal game design of the commercial exergames and very sports-specific movement concept), Plunder Planet, an adaptive exergame environment, was iteratively designed with and for children and allowed for a single- and cooperative multiplayer experience with two different controller devices. The user-centered design was further informed by insights from the growing body of related R&D work in the field of exergames. The first study presented in this dissertation compared the subjectively experienced attractiveness and effectiveness of Plunder Planet when played with different motion-based controllers. Besides a generally great acceptance of the exergame, it was found that the haptic full-body motion controller provided physical guidance and a more cognitively and coordinatively challenging workout, which was more highly rated by experienced gamers with fewer athletic skills. The gesture-based Kinect sensor felt more natural, allowed more freedom of movement, and provided a rather physically intense but cognitively less challenging workout, which was more highly rated by athletic players with less gameplay experience. Furthermore, experiments were made with an exploratory adaptive algorithm that enabled the cognitive and the physical challenge of the exergame to be manually adapted in real-time based on the player’s fitness and gaming skills. The first and the second study also compared an adaptive with a non-adaptive single player version of Plunder Planet. It could be shown that the (well-balanced) adaptive version of the exergame was better valued than the non-adaptive version with regard to the experienced and measured attractiveness (motivation, game flow, spatial presence experience, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) and effectiveness (heart rate, physical exertion, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) by differently skilled players. Finally, and contrary to the findings from related work, the results of the third study proved that the specifically designed controller technology could be used as an “enabler”, “supporter” and “shaper” of bodily interplay in social exergaming. Based on these promising findings, the goal became to further explore the effectiveness of exergames, refine the adaptive game difficulty algorithm, and explore further attractiveness- and motivation-boosting design approaches. Therefore, the ExerCube, a physically immersive and adaptive fitness game setting, was developed. It was iteratively designed with and for adults and allowed for cooperatively and competitive exergame experiences. With its physically immersive game setup, the ExerCube combines a mixed version of the advantages of both previously tested controllers. A coordinatively and cognitively challenging functional workout protocol with scalable intensity (moderate to high) was developed and the subjective experience of the ExerCube training was compared with a conventional functional training with a personal trainer. The fourth study showed that the game-based training gave signs of reaching a similar intensity to the personal training, but was more highly rated for flow, motivation, and enjoyment. Based on this exploratory comparison of the ExerCube with a personal trainer session, valuable avenues for further design could be identified. Among other things, it could be proved that the player’s focus during the ExerCube session was more on the game than on the own body. Players experienced stronger physical exertion and social pressure with the personal trainer and a stronger cognitive exertion and involvement with the ExerCube. Furthermore, a refined version of the previously tested adaptive game difficulty algorithm was implemented and automated for the first time for purpose of this study. Again it was shown that the adaptive version had benefits with regard to subjectively experienced attractiveness (motivation, game flow, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) and effectiveness (physical exertion, balance of cognitive and physical challenge) compared to the non-adaptive version. In order to further enhance the gaming experience, experiments were also conducted with sound designs and an adaptive audio design with adaptive background music and sound feedback was implemented. It was found to be a promising and beneficial add-on for a user-centered attractive exergame design. To inform the design of a multiplayer version of the ExerCube, different social play mechanics were explored in the fifth study. This resulted in differently balanced experiences of fun, and in physical as well as cognitive exertion. As the preliminary comparative evaluation of the subjectively experienced effectiveness and attractiveness of an ExerCube session and a personal trainer session could prove the general feasibility of the concept and revealed the first indications of the intensity of the ExerCube’s training concept, the objectively measured effectiveness of a single ExerCube session with a functional high-intensity interval training (fHIIT) with a personal trainer was compared in a final sixth study, and after another design iteration. Again, the subjectively experienced attractiveness of both conditions was assessed. It could be shown that the ExerCube is a feasible training device for training at fHIIT-level. While physical exertion was slightly lower than in the conventional fHIIT condition, the ExerCube condition’s average heart rate values reached the fHIIT threshold and also yielded significantly better results for flow, enjoyment, and motivation. The ExerCube training also resulted in a subjectively experienced higher cognitive load (dual-domain training). To sum up, it can be stated that this dissertation provides valuable and fundamental research contributions to the promising field of exergames as attractive and effective training tools. Furthermore, important contributions to design questions in this field could be developed. Since this field is still relatively unexplored, the work presented creates a sound basis for future R&D work in this area