Gamification of Learning: Can Games Motivate Me to Learn History?

This article presented empirical finding of the effect of gamification for learning. Evidence in the findings of the empirical study that explores two education games that were developed earlier with a total of 64 participants was presented. The first game was a computer game with historical themes of Ken Arok and Ken Dedes of Singhasari Kingdom. The second game was an Android-based mobile game with Historicity of the Bible themes of Moses. Prior research showed that more than 50 percent of junior and senior high school students in Jakarta demonstrated their apathy to several subjects in their school. They also disclosed that they were having difficulty in following their class in particular with a difficult subject such as History subject. With the popularity of games, the gamification of learning was investigatd to enhance the interest of the students to master a particular subject. The results show that there is a statistical significance increase of the students score and interest in history subject in a group that was using the games to help them in the subject compared to a group that reading books about the particular subject alone 0.001. Furthermore, the participants also reported that playing games was helping them to remember difficult names and event timeline in the historical event

User Experience of Geocaching and Its Application to Tourism and Education

Advances in technology have provided new ways of using entertainment and game technology to foster human interaction. Games and playing with games have always been an important part of people’s everyday lives. Traditionally, human-computer interaction (HCI) research was seen as a psychological cognitive science focused on human factors, with engineering sciences as the computer science part of it. Although cognitive science has made significant progress over the past decade, the influence of people’s emotions on design networks is increasingly important, especially when the primary goal is to challenge and entertain users (Norman 2002). Game developers have explored the key issues in game design and identified that the driving force in the success of games is user experience. User-centered design integrates knowledge of users’ activity practices, needs, and preferences into the design process. Geocaching is a location-based treasure hunt game created by a community of players. Players use GPS (Global Position System) technology to find “treasures” and create their own geocaches; the game can be developed when the players invent caches and used more imagination to creations the caches. This doctoral dissertation explores user experience of geocaching and its applications in tourism and education. Globally, based on the Geocaching.com webpage, geocaching has been played about 180 countries and there are more than 10 million registered geocachers worldwide (Geocaching.com, 25.11.2014). This dissertation develops and presents an interaction model called the GameFlow Experience model that can be used to support the design of treasure hunt applications in tourism and education contexts. The GameFlow Model presents and clarifies various experiences; it provides such experiences in a real-life context, offers desirable design targets to be utilized in service design, and offers a perspective to consider when evaluating the success of adventure game concepts. User-centered game designs have adapted to human factor research in mainstream computing science. For many years, the user-centered design approach has been the most important research field in software development. Research has been focusing on user-centered design in software development such as office programs, but the same ideas and theories that will reflect the needs of a user-centered research are now also being applied to game design (Charles et al. 2005.) For several years, we have seen a growing interest in user experience design. Digital games are experience providers, and game developers need tools to better understand the user experience related to products and services they have created. This thesis aims to present what the user experience is in geocaching and treasure hunt games and how it can be used to develop new concepts for the treasure hunt. Engineers, designers, and researchers should have a clear understanding of what user experience is, what its parts are, and most importantly, how we can influence user satisfaction. In addition, we need to understand how users interact with electronic products and people, and how different elements synergize their experiences. This doctoral dissertation represents pioneering work on the user experience of geocaching and treasure hunt games in the context of tourism and education. The research also provides a model for game developers who are planning treasure hunt concepts.Teknologinen kehitys on tarjonnut uusia tapoja hyödyntää viihdettä ja peliteknologiaa ihmisten välisessä vuorovaikutuksessa. Pelit ja niiden pelaaminen on ollut aina tärkeä osa ihmisten arkipäivää. Ihmisen ja tietokoneen välisen vuorovaikutuksen tutkimus, human-computer interaction research (HCI), on perinteisesti nähty kognitiivisena psykologiana, johon kuuluvat inhimilliset tekijät, sekä insinööritieteenä, johon sisältyy tietojenkäsittelytiede. Vaikka kognitiivinen tiede on kehittynyt viime vuosina valtavasti, suunnitteluverkostoihin vaikuttavat ihmisten tunteet ovat yhä tärkeämmässä osassa, erityisesti silloin kun tavoitteena on haastaa ja viihdyttää käyttäjiä. (Norman 2002.) Pelinkehittäjät ovat selvittäneet pelisuunnittelun kannalta olennaisia tekijöitä ja tunnistaneet, että pelien menestyksen salaisuus on käyttäjäkokemus. Käyttäjäkeskeisessä suunnittelussa käyttäjien toiminnan käytäntöjen, tarpeiden ja toiveiden tuntemus tuodaan mukaan suunnitteluprosessiin. Geokätköily on paikannukseen perustuva aarteenetsintäpeli, jonka pelaajat ovat luoneet yhdessä. Pelaajat käyttävät GPS-teknologiaa "aarteiden" etsimiseen ja lisäävät omia geokätkökohteita ja peli kehittyy jatkuvasti pelaajien keksiessä kätköjä, jotka vaativat yhä enemmän mielikuvitusta. Tässäväitöskirjassa tutkitaan geokätköilyn käyttäjäkokemusta ja sen sovelluksia koulutuksen- ja matkailunaloilla. Perustuen Geocaching.com websivustoon geokätköilyä pelataan noin 180 maassa, ja rekisteröityneitä käyttäjiä on yli kymmenen miljoonaa eri puolilla maailmaa (Geocaching.com, 25.11.2014). Tässä tutkielmassa esitellään vuorovaikutusmalli nimeltään GameFlow Experience -mallia, jota voidaan käyttää aarteenetsintäsovellusten suunnittelussa koulutuksen- ja matkailualojen konteksteissa. GameFlow Experience -malli esittelee ja selventää erilaisia kokemuksia - se esittelee ne todellisessa kontekstissa, tarjoaa erilaisia suunnittelutavoitteita palvelusuunnittelua varten sekä näkökulman, joka tulisi ottaa huomioon seikkailupelien menestystä arvioitaessa. Käyttäjäkeskeisessä pelisuunnittelussa on sovellettu inhimillisten tekijöiden tutkimusta valtavirran tietojenkäsittelytieteeseen. Useiden vuosien ajan, käyttäjäkeskeisen suunnittelun lähestymistavasta on tullut tärkein tutkimusala ohjelmistokehityksessä. Tutkimus on keskittynyt ohjelmistojen kehitykseen käyttäjäkeskeisessä suunnittelussa etenkin toimisto-ohjelmistoihin, mutta samoja ideoita ja teorioita, jotka heijastavat yhteiskunnan tarpeita käyttäjäkeskeisessä tutkimuksessa sovelletaan nyt myös pelisuunnitteluun. (Charles ja ym. 2005.) Kiinnostus käyttäjäkokemuksen suunnitteluun on kasvanut jo useiden vuosien ajan. Digitaaliset pelit tarjoavat kokemuksia, ja pelisuunnittelijat tarvitsevatkin työkaluja, joiden avulla voidaan entistä paremmin ymmärtää tuotteiden ja palvelujen luomia käyttäjäkokemuksia. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on esitellä käyttäjäkokemusta ja miten sitä voidaan käyttää uusien aarteenmetsästyskonseptien kehittämiseen. Insinööreillä, suunnittelijoilla ja tutkijoilla tulisi olla selkeä käsitys siitä, mikä käyttäjäkokemus on, mitkä ovat sen osat ja mikä tärkeintä, miten voimme vaikuttaa käyttäjän tyytyväisyyteen. Lisäksi pitäisi ymmärtää, miten käyttäjät toimivat elektronisten tuotteiden kanssa sekä miten ihmiset toimivat vuorovaikutuksessa toistensa kanssa ja miten eri osat vaikuttavat yhdessä käyttäjien kokemuksiin. Väitöskirja on pioneerityö käyttäjäkokemuksesta geokätköilyssä ja aarteenetsintä peleissä matkailun ja opetuksen kontekstissa. Tutkimus antaa myös mallin pelin kehittäjille, jotka suunnittelevat aarteenetsintäkonsepteja.Siirretty Doriast

Measuring Fun: A Case Study in Adapting to the Evolving Metrics of Player Experience

The gaming industry and the concept of gamification have altered the way many developers and users approach interactive products. As social gaming demographics expand to what was previously considered “casual” audiences, more users expect an enjoyable experience from their digital applications and games. Developers now request more detailed subjective descriptions of satisfaction and the player experience from user-experience (UX) practitioners. Focusing on how fun a product is for users/players requires subjective, situationally dependent metrics rather than traditional UX efficiency metrics. The UX discipline is still constructing a comprehensive ecology of the player experience and how to measure it. This article contributes to that ecology by detailing a case in which our team conducted a usability test on a new video game peripheral. Our client’s primary concern dealt with how fun experienced gamers found the device. As our test progressed, we encountered a number of fun-related participant behaviors that led us to develop new metrics beyond our initial planned metrics. These new metrics helped us and our client better define and discuss enjoyability. Our case, in conjunction with a detailed definition and review of player experience and UX scholarship, shows the importance of adopting metrics contextually specific to the video-game product and player group when measuring fun is the primary goal

Geometry with a STEM and Gamification Approach: A Didactic Experience in Secondary Education

Recent societal changes have meant that education has had to adapt to digital natives of the 21st century. These changes have required a transformation in the current educational paradigm, where active methodologies and ICT have become vehicles for achieving this goal, designing complete teaching sequences with STEM approaches that help students to learn. Under a gamified approach, this document addresses a didactic proposal in geometry focused on STEM disciplines. This proposal combines tools such as AR, VR, manipulative materials, and social networks, with techniques such as m-learning, cooperative-learning, and flipped-learning, which make methodological transformation possible. The research was carried out during two academic years under an action research framework. It departed from a traditional methodology and, in two cycles, methodology was improved with the benefits that gamification brings to STEM proposals in Secondary Education. The data gathered in the experiment were analysed following a mixed method. Learning produced, strategies employed, successes and errors, and results of a questionnaire are presented. Evidence shows an improvement in academic performance from 50% fails to 100% pass, most of the students ended up motivated, participation was of the whole group, more than 80% showed positive emotions, and thanks to the cooperative-learning, group cohesion was improved.This study was partially funded by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) research project from the FEDER-Andalusian Regional Government grant UAL2020-SEJ-B2086 and by University of Málaga (Spain). Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga

Team Igniter: an adaptive toolkit to guide and leverage collaboration in teams seeking to problem-solve and innovate

Even though interdisciplinarity has been constantly debated and supported during faculty meetings at RIT, still, academic programs confine themselves into silos, hampering student integration. The struggle to effectively collaborate becomes evident in the existent on campus initiatives that challenge students from different disciplines to work together. The consequence is the under-utilization of the students\u27 potential which leads to mediocre outcomes. This thesis investigated main collaboration problems typical of groups seeking to problem-solve such as groupthink, production blocking, social loafing and social anxiety. These issues were studied in the academic context through a user-centered methodology that involved observations and interviews with college students. The proposed solution integrated user experience (UX) methods with social psychology’s research findings and game design dynamics into a toolkit constituted of both digital and tangible components that complemented each other to offer an interactive and immersive experience. The purpose of the toolkit was to provide a fluid framework to guide teams seeking innovation in order to leverage student collaborations and thus promote a truly academic synergy that is likely to lead to more innovative ideas and solutions

Virtual Reality in Mathematics Education (VRiME):An exploration of the integration and design of virtual reality for mathematics education

This thesis explores the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in mathematics education. Four VR prototypes were designed and developed during the PhD project to teach equations, geometry, and vectors and facilitate collaboration.Paper A investigates asymmetric VR for classroom integration and collaborative learning and presents a new taxonomy of asymmetric interfaces. Paper B proposes how VR could assist students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in learning daily living skills involving basic mathematical concepts. Paper C investigates how VR could enhance social inclusion and mathematics learning for neurodiverse students. Paper D presents a VR prototype for teaching algebra and equation-solving strategies, noting positive student responses and the potential for knowledge transfer. Paper E investigates gesture-based interaction with dynamic geometry in VR for geometry education and presents a new taxonomy of learning environments. Finally, paper F explores the use of VR to visualise and contextualise mathematical concepts to teach software engineering students.The thesis concludes that VR offers promising avenues for transforming mathematics education. It aims to broaden our understanding of VR's educational potential, paving the way for more immersive learning experiences in mathematics education

Lightup project: development of a concept for a non-profit organization

The main objective of this study is to develop a strong and coherent concept, able to sustain the added value of lightUP project. Through the development of various analysis, from the general market to the organization itself, this project is intended to represent an added value (both for society, as well as for volunteers and partners). It is an aim of the author to give the maximum focus, commitment and strength during every stage of the thesis, making sure that this will be not just a final requirement of the master, but a beginning of a community transformation. This organization will be centered on people’s well being, not focusing on material support, but on the emotional support. Being the Portuguese one of the most pessimistic people of the Europe, it is an aim to contribute to the change of this reality, starting by adults, enhancing the positivism that exists on each individual and that can be replicated to others. There are other goals to be achieved, such as finding the right practices in order to make sure that: (1) The organization will create truly impact, besides being irreverent; (2) The role of the organization is notorious, easily identified by society; (3) Volunteers will be volunteers for life (being informal volunteers in their daily lives, after passing through the project); (4) The social impact will be measured regularly and will be as accurate as possible and (5) The financial sustainability will be treated efficiently.O principal objetivo deste estudo é desenvolver um conceito forte e coerente, capaz de sustentar o valor acrescentado do projeto lightUP. Através do desenvolvimento de várias análises, desde o mercado em geral à organização em si, pretende-se que a implementação deste projeto seja uma mais valia (tanto para a sociedade, como para os voluntários e parceiros). É um objetivo do autor contribuir com o máximo foco, compromisso e força durante cada etapa da tese, garantindo que este não é apenas um requerimento final do mestrado, mas o início de uma transformação da comunidade. Esta organização centrar-se-á no bem estar das pessoas, não focando o apoio material, mas sim o apoio emocional. Sendo os Portugueses um dos povos mais pessimistas da Europa, é um objetivo contribuir para a mudança desta realidade, começando pelos adultos, realçando o positivismo que existe em cada indivíduo e que pode ser replicado para os outros. Há outros objetivos que se pretendem atingir, nomeadamente encontrar as práticas certas de forma a garantir que: (1) A organização criará verdadeiro impacto, para além da sua irreverência; (2) O papel da organização seja notório, facilmente identificado pela sociedade; (3) Os voluntários serão voluntários para a vida (sendo voluntários informais nas suas vidas diárias, após a passagem pelo projeto); (4) O impacto social será medido regularmente e será o mais preciso possível e (5) A sustentabilidade financeira será tratada de forma eficaz