A serious game architecture for green mobility

Good driving behavior is a significant factor for road safety and green mobility. A countermeasure to overcome the coarse driving behavior and a methodology to captivate optimal driving traits are discussed in this work. For which, the serious games concept was exploited to improvise the driver performance by deploying diversified game logics (scores, incentives and live game for performance evolution) on a smartphone-based user interface. The application was tested in ASTA ZERO (Active Safety Test Area) in Sweden. The tests comprised of variations (good and bad driving behavior) in driving pattern for analyzing the impact of the application on the driver performance

Educational Games in Elementary Education: Unlocking the Potentials

The advent of technology has made big strides in the development of humans’ life in different spheres. The integration of technology in education has introduced other teaching methods that could improve and emulate the traditional way of teaching. The use of educational games is a by-product of integrating technology into teaching to enhance teaching methods and students’ performance. This study, hence, aims to evaluate the effect of using educational games in teaching mathematics to second-graders in a Palestinian school using a quasi-experimental approach. Thirty male and female second-graders from Al Aqsa Integrated School, Kuala Lumpur, were the targeted sample. The sample was divided into an experimental group and a control group. A selected educational game was used to explain mathematics lessons, namely addition within 99 or 999, to the experimental group. The same content was taught to the students in the control group using the traditional method. Findings showed that teaching mathematics via educational games was significantly effective in improving students’ achievement in the experimental group compared to the achievement of their counterparts taught via the traditional method. These findings provide evidence that educational games could substantially improve primary second-grade students’ skills in mathematics compared to the traditional teaching method

Jogos Sérios Ubíquos: Um mapeamento Sistemático

O paradigma da computação ubíqua somada a concepção de jogos sérios possibilita que aplicações com fins instrucionais percebam e se adaptem ao contexto do jogador. Este artigo relata um mapeamento sistemático com o objetivo de identificar os trabalhos relacionados a jogos sérios ubíquos publicados nos últimos cinco anos, onde foi compreendido os principais dispositivos alvo, técnicas de avaliação dos jogos e tecnologias utilizadas no desenvolvimento deles

CYBERCIEGE: UMA ABORDAGEM DE JOGOS SÉRIOS NA EDUCAÇÃO DE REDES DE COMPUTADORES

Os jogos sérios vêm se destacando como ferramentas de grande potencial para a educação, pois oferecem aos estudantes a possibilidade de exercitar seus conhecimentos em cenários virtuais, permitindo maior interatividade, tentativas e erros, respeitando o tempo cognitivo do educando e enfatizando a aplicação prática de seu aprendizado. Além de serem alternativas para simulação de ambientes reais, que em sua essência são críticos ou caros. Este artigo apresenta a aplicação do jogo sério CyberCIEGE diante de uma turma de Segurança para RC. Ao mesmo tempo, discute possíveis melhorias no Design Instrucional da disciplina de acordo com os pareceres dos estudantes

Emotion recognition techniques using physiological signals and video games –Systematic review–

Emotion recognition systems from physiological signals are innovative techniques that allow studying the behavior and reaction of an individual when exposed to information that may evoke emotional reactions through multimedia tools, for example, video games. This type of approach is used to identify the behavior of an individual in different fields, such as medicine, education, psychology, etc., in order to assess the effect that the content has on the individual that is interacting with it. This article shows a systematic review of articles that report studies on emotion recognition with physiological signals and video games, between January 2010 and April 2016. We searched in eight databases, and found 15 articles that met the selection criteria. With this systematic review, we found that the use of video games as emotion stimulation tools has become an innovative field of study, due to their potential to involve stories and multimedia tools that can interact directly with the person in fields like rehabilitation. We detected clear examples where video games and physiological signal measurement became an important approach in rehabilitation processes, for example, in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) treatments

LEARNING BASED ON GAMES FOR TEACHING OBJECT ORIENTED PROGRAMMING AND MULTIMEDIA DESIGN

Traditional education tends to be monotonous or boring if the subject is not understandable or interesting to students. Therefore, teachers need to draw upon methods that capture their pupils’ attention and engage them in the teaching process. Game Based Learning is part of the Information and Communication Technologies, but has not been widely used because of the lack of know-how from the academic community. However, over the years, this teaching method has become widely used in higher education. This work gathered information from various sources and created a bibliographic review with a case study, so readers could understand what Game Based Learning is and how this technology can be applied in the creation of a serious game to help teaching a programming course to people without a computer background

Unsettling Play: Perceptions of Agonistic Games

In this paper, we propose Agonistic Games (AGs) as a serious games subcategory that can stimulate critical reflection on topics of dark heritage through multiperspectivity and unsettling play. We first discuss the emerging topic of agonism in memory studies, and then how games can be used to support its objectives. We then discuss the development of 2 original AGs: Endless Blitz and Umschlagplatz '43. We explore whether these two AGs were perceived as capable of stimulating critical reflection by collecting data from visitors to the exhibition 'Krieg. Macht. Sinn' at the Ruhr Museum in Germany where the games were installed, and from participants in an online course describing the games. From analysing data collected, we outline four factors inhibiting the capacity of AGs to stimulate critical reflection (topic, context, design, and assumptions about games) and propose strategies for overcoming these inhibitors. Our findings are valuable to scholars, game researchers, and designers, strengthening the foundations for the design and development of future AGs

Qualidade de jogos digitais e não digitais utilizados para o ensino de engenharia de software no Brasil

Educational games have been used as an innovative strategy for Software Engineering (SE) education in Brazil. However, it is essential to evaluate such games in order to obtain sound evidence on their quality. Thus, the objective of this article is to summarize empirical evidence on the quality of digital and non-digital games used for teaching SE in Brazil. The analysis is based on data collected from 41 case studies that used Meega, the most used model for the evaluation of educational games, evaluating 19 games, involving a population of 704 students. The results indicate that digital and non-digital games can have a positive effect on learning by providing a pleasant and engaging experience for students and motivating them to study. These results can guide instructors in the selection of games as instructional methods and guide game creators toward developing new educational games.Key words: quality evaluation, educational games, software engineering.Os jogos educacionais têm sido utilizados como uma estratégia inovadora para o ensino de Engenharia de Software (ES) no Brasil. No entanto, é essencial avaliar estes jogos para obter evidências sobre a sua qualidade. Diante disso, o objetivo deste artigo é sintetizar evidências empíricas sobre a qualidade dos jogos digitais e não-digitais utilizados para o ensino de ES no Brasil. A análise baseia-se em dados coletados de 41 estudos de caso que utilizam o Meega, o modelo mais utilizado para a avaliação de jogos educacionais, avaliando 19 jogos, envolvendo uma população de 704 alunos. Os resultados indicam evidências de que os jogos digitais e não-digitais podem contribuir para a aprendizagem, proporcionando uma experiência agradável e envolvente aos alunos e motivando-os ao estudo. Esses resultados podem orientar instrutores na seleção de jogos como métodos instrucionais e guiar criadores de jogos em relação ao desenvolvimento de novos jogos educacionais.Palavras-chave: avaliação da qualidade, jogos educacionais, engenharia de software

A serious game for programming in higher education

Programming is a highly difficult skill which is a constituent of many undergraduate programmes at Higher Education (HE) level. With the advancement of games technology there is an increasing opportunity for educators to provide innovative assessment tools for students on their courses which are highly immersive and graphically indicative of the times. This could potentially be in a supplementary capacity or to a greater extent inextricably linked to the learning outcomes and assessment outcomes. Notably serious games and Games-Based Learning (GBL) have received high levels of attention from educationalists due to being motivational, novel learning approaches. This paper will outline two empirical studies conducted to develop a game to teach programming at HE level. The first study will gauge the acceptability of a computer game for teaching programming and formulating content integration development requirements. The second study will outline the evaluation of the developed game being placed in a module as a formative assessment tool to assist learners to revise for their formal class test. Study one showed that acceptability of the game was high with 61 participants completing an acceptability/content integration questionnaire. The game was designed to consolidate knowledge on rudimentary and advanced programming concepts, data structures and algorithms. 48 participants evaluated the game in study two with the results generally indicating that they enjoyed playing the game as a revision alternative with 14% of participants rating it as very effective and 51% of participants as effective for allowing them to prepare for their class test. The majority of participants also believed that games could be utilised in a formative and summative assessment capacity on courses for independent study

Study Protocol of Sleep Education Tool for Children: Serious Game “Perfect Bedroom: Learn to Sleep Well”

Promoting a healthy sleep is a big challenge and becomes a strategic priority in public health, due to the severe consequences on children’s development and risk to psychiatric diseases. Interventions that promote healthy sleep, such as those that focus on the dissemination of behavioral and environmental recommendations of sleep hygiene with children, are presented as an alternative. Serious game design offers wide-reaching domains in health applications and is increasing in popularity, particularly with children and teens because of it’s potential to engage and motivate players differently from other interventions. This study aims to evaluate effects of serious game on sleep hygiene recommendations “Perfect Bedroom: learn to sleep well,” on sleep habits and sleep parameters of healthy children. This is an experimental, prospective and quantitative study. We will randomize children in experimental (n = 88) and no intervention groups (n = 88). The experiment has four stages (pre-intervention, intervention, post-intervention, and follow-up), which will count with participation of children and their parents/guardians. In the evaluation stages, the guardians will answer questionnaires and scales to assess sociodemographic and health data, sleep habits and sleep pattern of their child. The children themselves will answer the following: a scale to assess sleepiness levels, a questionnaire to evaluate the serious game and the game itself, will characterize their bedroom and the activities they perform before sleep, with strategies developed by researches. Intervention with experimental group conducted with the serious game “Perfect Bedroom” will happen twice a week, for 3 weeks in a row, resulting in six sessions of 50 min each. Inferential analysis will be conducted for comparisons between groups and intragroups to measure effect of intervention in primary outcomes (sleep habits) and secondary outcomes (sleep parameters). We expect that the intervention with this game can provide valuable evidence to a new approach in promoting healthy sleep habits, with applications in clinical, educational, and familiar settings, which could diminish future health issues and risk at psychiatric diseases, decreasing the social burden of treatments for these conditions in children