Designing Serious Games for Education: From Pedagogical Principles to Game Mechanisms

International audienceSGs represent an important opportunity for improving education thanks to their ability to compel players and to present realistic simulations of real-life situations. The scientific community is aware that we are just at the beginning of a proper use of gaming technologies for education and training and, in particular, there is a need for scientific and engineering methods for building games not only as more realistic simulations of the physical world, but as means that provide effective learning experiences. This requires an ever closer cooperation among the various actors involved in the overall SG life- chain, putting pedagogy in a central role, given the educational target of the SGs. This paper addresses the till-now inadequate integration of educational and game design principles and proposes techniques, methods and mechanisms that allow designers with different background to dialogue among each other and to define games that are able to integrate - by design - entertainment and educational features. In particular, the paper follows a design path that starts from the definition of reference frameworks and then analyses the typical categories of design patterns, before focusing on the user-interaction modalities - seen from a pedagogical point of view - given their relevance for the end-users. In the end, we discuss the sandbox serious game model, that looks suited to implement - by design - joint pedagogical and entertainment features. We believe that the indications provided in this paper can be useful for researchers and stakeholders to understand the typical issues in SG design and to get inspiration about possible solutions that take into account the need to implement tools that are effective both as an entertainment medium and as an education tool

Optimising the information and knowledge environment within the Leicestershire Constabulary

Police forces in the UK have embarked on a recent Government initiative to implement mobile information technologies, which may be one of the most significant changes in policing history since the introduction of the two-way radio. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the impact of mobile technology on employees and existing information and knowledge intensive business processes within a UK police force, the Leicestershire Constabulary. [Continues.

Game design research: an introduction to theory & practice

Design research is an active academic field covering disciplines such as architecture, graphic, product, service, interaction, and systems design. Design research aims to understand not only the designed end products but also how design as an activity unfolds. The book demonstrates different approaches to design research in game design research

Proceedings of the 8th Workshop on Semantic Ambient Media Experiences (SAME 2016): Smart Cities for Better Living with HCI and UX - SEACHI Extended Papers

Digital and interactive technologies are becoming increasingly embedded in everyday lives of people around the world. Application of technologies such as real-time, context-aware, and interactive technologies; augmented and immersive realities; social media; and location-based services has been particularly evident in urban environments where technological and sociocultural infrastructures enable easier deployment and adoption as compared to non-urban areas. There has been growing consumer demand for new forms of experiences and services enabled through these emerging technologies. We call this ambient media, as the media is embedded in the natural human living environment. The 8th Semantic Ambient Media Workshop Experience (SAME) Proceedings where based on a collaboration between the SEACHI Workshop Smart Cities for Better Living with HCI and UX, which has been organized by UX Indonesia and was held in conjunction with Computers and Human-Computer Interaction (CHI) 2016 in San Jose, CA USA. The extended versions of the workshop papers are freely available through http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Journal under open access by the International Ambient Media Association (iAMEA). iAMEA is hosting the international open access journal entitled “International Journal on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMediaâ€, and the international open access series “International Series on Information Systems and Management in Creative eMedia†(see http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org). The International Ambient Media Association (AMEA) organizes the Semantic Ambient Media (SAME) workshop series, which took place in 2008 in conjunction with ACM Multimedia 2008 in Vancouver, Canada; in 2009 in conjunction with AmI 2009 in Salzburg, Austria; in 2010 in conjunction with AmI 2010 in Malaga, Spain; in 2011 in conjunction with Communities and Technologies 2011 in Brisbane, Australia; in 2012 in conjunction with Pervasive 2012 in Newcastle, UK; and in 2013 in conjunction with C&T 2013 in Munich, Germany; and in 2014 in conjunction with NordCHI 2014 in Helsinki, Finland. The workshop organizers present you a fascinating crossover of latest cutting edge views on the topic of ambient media, and hope you will be enjoying the reading. We also would like to thank all the contributors, as only with their enthusiasm the workshop can become a success. At least we would like to thank the lovely organizing team of CHI 2016, the SEACHI 2016 organisers, and our programme committee members

Development and evaluation of an interactive virtual audience for a public speaking training application

Einleitung: Eine der häufigsten sozialen Ängste ist die Angst vor öffentlichem Sprechen. Virtual-Reality- (VR-) Trainingsanwendungen sind ein vielversprechendes Instrument, um die Sprechangst zu reduzieren und die individuellen Sprachfähigkeiten zu verbessern. Grundvoraussetzung hierfür ist die Implementierung eines realistischen und interaktiven Sprecher-Publikum-Verhaltens. Ziel: Die Studie zielte darauf ab, ein realistisches und interaktives Publikum für eine VR-Anwendung zu entwickeln und zu bewerten, welches für die Trainingsanwendung von öffentlichem Sprechen angewendet wird. Zunächst wurde eine Beobachtungsstudie zu den Verhaltensmustern von Sprecher und Publikum durchgeführt. Anschließend wurden die identifizierten Muster in eine VR-Anwendung implementiert. Die Wahrnehmung der implementierten Interaktionsmuster wurde in einer weiteren Studie aus Sicht der Nutzer evaluiert. Beobachtungsstudie (1): Aufgrund der nicht ausreichenden Datengrundlage zum realen interaktiven Verhalten zwischen Sprecher und Publikum lautet die erste Forschungsfrage "Welche Sprecher-Publikums-Interaktionsmuster können im realen Umfeld identifiziert werden?". Es wurde eine strukturierte, nicht teilnehmende, offene Beobachtungsstudie durchgeführt. Ein reales Publikum wurde auf Video aufgezeichnet und die Inhalte analysiert. Die Stichprobe ergab N = 6484 beobachtete Interaktionsmuster. Es wurde festgestellt, dass Sprecher mehr Dialoge als das Publikum initiieren und wie die Zuschauer auf Gesichtsausdrücke und Gesten der Sprecher reagieren. Implementierungsstudie (2): Um effiziente Wege zur Implementierung der Ergebnisse der Beobachtungsstudie in die Trainingsanwendung zu finden, wurde die Forschungsfrage wie folgt formuliert: "Wie können Interaktionsmuster zwischen Sprecher und Publikum in eine virtuelle Anwendung implementiert werden?". Das Hardware-Setup bestand aus einer CAVE, Infitec-Brille und einem ART Head-Tracking. Die Software wurde mit 3D-Excite RTT DeltaGen 12.2 realisiert. Zur Beantwortung der zweiten Forschungsfrage wurden mehrere mögliche technische Lösungen systematisch untersucht, bis effiziente Lösungen gefunden wurden. Infolgedessen wurden die selbst erstellte Audioerkennung, die Kinect-Bewegungserkennung, die Affectiva-Gesichtserkennung und die selbst erstellten Fragen implementiert, um das interaktive Verhalten des Publikums in der Trainingsanwendung für öffentliches Sprechen zu realisieren. Evaluationsstudie (3): Um herauszufinden, ob die Implementierung interaktiver Verhaltensmuster den Erwartungen der Benutzer entsprach, wurde die dritte Forschungsfrage folgendermaßen formuliert: “Wie beeinflusst die Interaktivität einer virtuellen Anwendung für öffentliches Reden die Benutzererfahrung?”. Eine experimentelle Benutzer-Querschnittsstudie wurde mit N = 57 Teilnehmerinnen (65% Männer, 35% Frauen; Durchschnittsalter = 25.98, SD = 4.68) durchgeführt, die entweder der interaktiven oder nicht-interaktiven VR-Anwendung zugewiesen wurden. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass, es einen signifikanten Unterschied in der Wahrnehmung zwischen den beiden Anwendungen gab. Allgemeine Schlussfolgerungen: Interaktionsmuster zwischen Sprecher und Publikum, die im wirklichen Leben beobachtet werden können, wurden in eine VR-Anwendung integriert, die Menschen dabei hilft, Angst vor dem öffentlichen Sprechen zu überwinden und ihre öffentlichen Sprechfähigkeiten zu trainieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigten eine hohe Relevanz der VR-Anwendungen für die Simulation öffentlichen Sprechens. Obwohl die Fragen des Publikums manuell gesteuert wurden, konnte das neu gestaltete Publikum mit den Versuchspersonen interagieren. Die vorgestellte VR-Anwendung zeigt daher einen hohen potenziellen Nutzen, Menschen beim Trainieren von Sprechfähigkeiten zu unterstützen. Die Fragen des Publikums wurden immer noch manuell von einem Bediener reguliert und die Studie wurde mit Teilnehmern durchgeführt, die nicht unter einem hohen Grad an Angst vor öffentlichem Sprechen leiden. Bei zukünftigen Studien sollten fortschrittlichere Technologien eingesetzt werden, beispielsweise Spracherkennung, 3D-Aufzeichnungen oder 3D-Livestreams einer realen Person und auch Teilnehmer mit einem hohen Grad an Angst vor öffentlichen Ansprachen beziehungsweise Sprechen in der Öffentlichkeit.Introduction: Fear of public speaking is the most common social fear. Virtual reality (VR) training applications are a promising tool to improve public speaking skills. To be successful, applications should feature a high scenario fidelity. One way to improve it is to implement realistic speaker-audience interactive behavior. Objective: The study aimed to develop and evaluate a realistic and interactive audience for a VR public speaking training application. First, an observation study on real speaker-audience interactive behavior patterns was conducted. Second, identified patterns were implemented in the VR application. Finally, an evaluation study identified users’ perceptions of the training application. Observation Study (1): Because of the lack of data on real speaker-audience interactive behavior, the first research question to be answered was “What speaker-audience interaction patterns can be identified in real life?”. A structured, non-participant, overt observation study was conducted. A real audience was video recorded, and content analyzed. The sample resulted in N = 6,484 observed interaction patterns. It was found that speakers, more often than audience members, initiate dialogues and how audience members react to speakers’ facial expressions and gestures. Implementation Study (2): To find efficient ways of implementing the results of the observation study in the training application, the second research question was formulated as: “How can speaker-audience interaction patterns be implemented into the virtual public speaking application?”. The hardware setup comprised a CAVE, Infitec glasses, and ART head tracking. The software was realized with 3D-Excite RTT DeltaGen 12.2. To answer the second research question, several possible technical solutions were explored systematically, until efficient solutions were found. As a result, self-created audio recognition, Kinect motion recognition, Affectiva facial recognition, and manual question generation were implemented to provide interactive audience behavior in the public speaking training application. Evaluation Study (3): To find out if implementing interactive behavior patterns met users’ expectations, the third research question was formulated as “How does interactivity of a virtual public speaking application affect user experience?”. An experimental, cross-sectional user study was conducted with (N = 57) participants (65% men, 35% women; Mage = 25.98, SD = 4.68) who used either an interactive or a non-interactive VR application condition. Results revealed that there was a significant difference in users’ perception of the two conditions. General Conclusions: Speaker-audience interaction patterns that can be observed in real life were incorporated into a VR application that helps people to overcome the fear of public speaking and train their public speaking skills. The findings showed a high relevance of interactivity for VR public speaking applications. Although questions from the audience were still regulated manually, the newly designed audience could interact with the speakers. Thus, the presented VR application is of potential value in helping people to train their public speaking skills. The questions from the audience were still regulated manually by an operator and we conducted the study with participants not suffering from high degrees of public speaking fear. Future work may use more advanced technology, such as speech recognition, 3D-records, or live 3D-streams of an actual person and include participants with high degrees of public speaking fear

Optimal control problems solved via swarm intelligence

Questa tesi descrive come risolvere problemi di controllo ottimo tramite swarm in telligence. Grande enfasi viene posta circa la formulazione del problema di controllo ottimo, in particolare riguardo a punti fondamentali come l’identificazione delle incognite, la trascrizione numerica e la scelta del risolutore per la programmazione non lineare. L’algoritmo Particle Swarm Optimization viene preso in considerazione e la maggior parte dei problemi proposti sono risolti utilizzando una formulazione differential flatness. Quando viene usato l’approccio di dinamica inversa, il problema di ottimo relativo ai parametri di trascrizione è risolto assumendo che le traiettorie da identificare siano approssimate con curve B-splines. La tecnica Inverse-dynamics Particle Swarm Optimization, che viene impiegata nella maggior parte delle applicazioni numeriche di questa tesi, è una combinazione del Particle Swarm e della formulazione differential flatness. La tesi investiga anche altre opportunità di risolvere problemi di controllo ottimo tramite swarm intelligence, per esempio usando un approccio di dinamica diretta e imponendo a priori le condizioni necessarie di ottimalitá alla legge di controllo. Per tutti i problemi proposti, i risultati sono analizzati e confrontati con altri lavori in letteratura. Questa tesi mostra quindi the algoritmi metaeuristici possono essere usati per risolvere problemi di controllo ottimo, ma soluzioni ottime o quasi-ottime possono essere ottenute al variare della formulazione del problema.This thesis deals with solving optimal control problems via swarm intelligence. Great emphasis is given to the formulation of the optimal control problem regarding fundamental issues such as unknowns identification, numerical transcription and choice of the nonlinear programming solver. The Particle Swarm Optimization is taken into account, and most of the proposed problems are solved using a differential flatness formulation. When the inverse-dynamics approach is used, the transcribed parameter optimization problem is solved assuming that the unknown trajectories are approximated with B-spline curves. The Inverse-dynamics Particle Swarm Optimization technique, which is employed in the majority of the numerical applications in this work, is a combination of Particle Swarm and differential flatness formulation. This thesis also investigates other opportunities to solve optimal control problems with swarm intelligence, for instance using a direct dynamics approach and imposing a-priori the necessary optimality conditions to the control policy. For all the proposed problems, results are analyzed and compared with other works in the literature. This thesis shows that metaheuristic algorithms can be used to solve optimal control problems, but near-optimal or optimal solutions can be attained depending on the problem formulation

Human Factors in Agile Software Development

Through our four years experiments on students' Scrum based agile software development (ASD) process, we have gained deep understanding into the human factors of agile methodology. We designed an agile project management tool - the HASE collaboration development platform to support more than 400 students self-organized into 80 teams to practice ASD. In this thesis, Based on our experiments, simulations and analysis, we contributed a series of solutions and insights in this researches, including 1) a Goal Net based method to enhance goal and requirement management for ASD process, 2) a novel Simple Multi-Agent Real-Time (SMART) approach to enhance intelligent task allocation for ASD process, 3) a Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs) based method to enhance emotion and morale management for ASD process, 4) the first large scale in-depth empirical insights on human factors in ASD process which have not yet been well studied by existing research, and 5) the first to identify ASD process as a human-computation system that exploit human efforts to perform tasks that computers are not good at solving. On the other hand, computers can assist human decision making in the ASD process.Comment: Book Draf