The practical and theoretical implications of flow theory and intrinsic motivation in designing and implementing exergaming in the school environment

Helping children develop a positive attitude toward being active for life is a primary objective for physical educators. The cultivation of an internal desire to participate in physical activity occurs over a prolonged period of time through a variety of positive experiences in school, at home, and in the community. Like any well thought out physical education unit, a meaningful exergaming (also known as active gaming) program must balance the needs of the students with the prescribed learning expectations. This paper is intended to bridge the theoretical aspects of intrinsic motivation and flow theory with the pragmatics of teaching active gaming programs in a school setting. The authors have established the Canadian Exergaming Research Centre (http://www.ucalgary.ca/exergaming/) in order to explore the impact of exergames in a school environment

Favouring behavioural change of household’s energy consumption through social media and cooperative play

A change in how individuals consume energy is a key step in fighting climate change since it represents a crucial contribution to a more collective and sustainable lifestyle adoption. To carry out such process, designers and scientists are seeking new ways to increase public discussion and social involvement in energy reduction issues. In relation to this, the emphasis is on raising collective awareness to enable behavioural change and to inspire people in making sustainable decisions on energy consumption. This article draws on techniques and approaches from social science, gameful design and sustainability. It defines and discusses cooperative play as a privileged path for developing energy-related mobile applications. We present here an overview of multiple perspectives, in terms of content and methodology, to contribute to elaborating design methodologies that can favour behavioural change on households’ energy consumption

How Can Information Systems Strengthen Virtual Communities? Perspective of Media Richness Theory

Media richness was known as important in designing information and communication technologies (ICTs). However, no studies have examined how the four aspects of media richness could help fuel users’ commitment to virtual communities, indicating a gap. Hence, we use media richness theory and initiate to use its key elements (i.e., message certainty and message unequivocality) to construct a research framework. We collected 1,971 responses from virtual communities in online games and used structural equation modeling for testing the hypotheses. We found that immediate feedback and personal focus are positively related to message certainty and message unequivocality that are further positively related to network convergence and interdependence, thus contributing to commitment to virtual communities. This study is the first formally incorporating and testing the key elements of media richness, i.e., message certainty and message unequivocality, and examining how media richness of information systems could fuel users’ commitment to virtual communities

Integrating Serious Games in the Educational Experience of Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Towards a Playful and Integrative Model

The purpose of this paper is to present a series of observations made by researchers and educators on the integration of serious games in the educational experience of users with intellectual disabilities (ID). Data were gathered from four different studies and different games were used, in order to identify a successful model of games based learning application. Moreover, results that highlight the motivational importance of playful integration towards the promotion of self determination in students with ID, will be presented. According to the authors’ findings, special education can be benefited from the successful integration of digital games in the educational scenario, creating a safe and personalized educational environment for the students, as well as a valuable motivational tool for the educator - especially when the educator takes a threefold role, able to support a hybrid model of digital and non digital play. Trying to assist the educational efforts of special education teachers, the authors will present the results of a series of case studies and applications, the role of the educator, as well as practical considerations that resulted in the sketch of a model of playful game-based learning integration

Adaptive and Personalized Gamification Designs: Call for Action and Future Research

Gamification refers to the use of game-like elements in non-entertainment contexts to make activities more engaging and enjoyable to improve utilitarian outcomes. The gamification literature and the use of gamification in practice suggest that gamification can be a useful tool to support behavioral and psychological changes. Recent developments show that there is potential for new waves of gamification research. Therefore, we conducted a workshop at the International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI) 2021 to discuss the future of gamification with interested scholars. The discussion with 25 gamification experts led to a research agenda that supports the need for adaptive and personalized gamification designs. Together with the experts, we identify three clusters for future research: 1) the personalization of gamification concepts, 2) theories and concepts for gamified human-computer interaction, and 3) the “dark side” of gamification (e.g., addiction). We also address what the gamification concept means. Aligned with the three clusters, we provide valuable starting points for future research inquiries to help researchers better understand the nature of gamification. We also discuss the capabilities and limits of gamification

Tailoring a Points Scoring Mechanism for Crowd-Based Knowledge Pooling

We address the design of point scoring mechanisms in games for crowds, to promote user motivations to contribute knowledge. We measure the effectiveness of the scoring mechanism on users’ performance across three types of crowd: general public, students in their field of study, general students. The conditions were: reward-free games (control group) and two reward-based systems differing in the algorithm applied (linear y=3x vs. exponential y=6ex). Results support the importance of the mathematical function of scores assignment as a motivator for knowledge contribution, and indicate that the effect of the scoring mechanism design should be tailored according to the type of crowd. These findings provide insights for designers of gamified systems on how to improve knowledge contributions in crowd-based systems

Convergence of Gamification and Machine Learning: A Systematic Literature Review

Recent developments in human–computer interaction technologies raised the attention towards gamification techniques, that can be defined as using game elements in a non-gaming context. Furthermore, advancement in machine learning (ML) methods and its potential to enhance other technologies, resulted in the inception of a new era where ML and gamification are combined. This new direction thrilled us to conduct a systematic literature review in order to investigate the current literature in the field, to explore the convergence of these two technologies, highlighting their influence on one another, and the reported benefits and challenges. The results of the study reflect the various usage of this confluence, mainly in, learning and educational activities, personalizing gamification to the users, behavioral change efforts, adapting the gamification context and optimizing the gamification tasks. Adding to that, data collection for machine learning by gamification technology and teaching machine learning with the help of gamification were identified. Finally, we point out their benefits and challenges towards streamlining future research endeavors.publishedVersio