How to Prepare High-Level Massive Online Open Courses for the Metaverse: Tools and Needs

The adoption of methodologies and practices from distance learning (MOOC) and gamification is a promising basis to facilitate the design of a new generation of MOOCs (massive online open courses) and well suited for XR-based immersive shared social spaces, i.e., educational metaverses. Therefore, we discuss the tools and requirements to assist teachers to acquire two levels of competence, “beginner-level creator” and “advanced-level creator”, within the current ecosystem of metaverses. The adoption of such tools and XR platforms within STEM university educational settings is discussed to introduce the novel concept of the edu-metaverse

Nourishing Multiculturalism

This thesis project explores the potential of embodied play to cultivate empathy among students in multicultural classrooms in the western educational context. In a progressively mobile and intermingled world, with greater net flow of immigration from poorer to richer countries and higher birth rate of immigrant population in their new domiciles (Grayling, 2012), I deem the questions of identity, social cohesion, assimilation have become more pressing. Students in multicultural classrooms face new challenges every day. In order to establish an environment in the classroom which is favourable for learning and growth, it is important for students to learn to function cohesively despite the cultural differences between them. This research endeavours to mitigate cultural differences using the vehicle of spices. When students in multicultural classrooms acknowledge that the flavours they enjoy are a result of someone else’s labour, then they become aware of the interdependence of people on one another. Spice growers are largely from the global south. Learning about them through sensory play with spices develops awareness of cultural differences. This can lead to higher acceptance of the many different cultural backgrounds of fellow students. The design outcome of this research are a series of artefacts that use game design as a structured tool to explore embodied play in order to cultivate imagination and empathy among students. The design is targeted towards students who study at university level in multicultural classrooms in privileged western societies. Subjects such as mindfulness, gratitude, pedagogy, sensory design and imagination were explored throughout and have contributed in the journey of this research.Embodied playSocial justiceInclusivityRelationalityCritical pedagog

Proceedings of the 1st international workshop on software process education, training and professionalism (SPETP 2015)

These Proceedings contain the papers accepted for publication and presentation at the first 1st International Workshop on Software Process Education, Training and Professionalism (SPETP 2015) held in conjunction with the 15th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (SPICE 2015), Gothenburg, Sweden, during June 15-17, 2015. During the 14th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination (SPICE 2014) held in Vilnius, Lithuania, at a post conference dinner, a group of key individuals from education and industry started to discuss the challenges faced for software process education, training and professionalism, especially with the background of the new modes of learning and teaching in higher education. Further discussions held post conference with key players in the relevant professional and personal certification fields led to a consensus that it is time for the industry to rise to the new challenges and set out in a manifesto a common vision for educators and trainers together with a set of recommendations to address the challenges faced. It was therefore agreed co-located the 1st International Workshop on Software Process Education, Training and Professionalism with the 15th International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination. This workshop focused on the new challenges for and best practices in software process education, training and professionalism. The foundation for learning of software process should be part of a university or college education however software process is often treated as ‘add one’ module to the core curriculum. In a professional context, whilst there have been a number of initiatives focused on the certification related to the software process professional these have had little success for numerous reasons. Cooperation in education between industry, academia and professional bodies is paramount, together with the recognition of how the education world is changing and how education is resourced, delivered (with online and open learning) and taken up. Over the next 10 years on-line learning is projected to grow fifteen fold, accounting for 30% of all education provision, according to the recent report to the European Commission on New modes of learning and teaching in higher education. It is a great pleasure to see the varied contributions to this 1st International Workshop on Software Process Education, Training and Professionalism and we hope that our joint dedication, passion and innovation will lead to success for the profession through the publication of the manifesto as a key outcome from the workshop. On behalf of the SPETP 2015 conference Organizing Committee, we would like to thank all participants. Firstly all the authors, whose quality work is the essence of the conference, and the members of the Program Committee, who helped us with their expertise and diligence in reviewing all of the submissions. As we all know, organizing a conference requires the effort of many individuals. We wish to thank also all the members of our Organizing Committee, whose work and commitment were invaluable

Effectiveness of “Escape Room” Educational Technology in Nurses’ Education: A Systematic Review

Escape room games are educational gamification technologies that consist of introducing a team of players into a physical or digital space in search of clues to answer puzzles, riddles or enigmas and solve a mystery or problem. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of escape room games on the training of nursing students in an international context. A systematic review was carried out in MEDLINE, WOS, SCOPUS, CINAHL and LILACS databases using the MeSH terms “Education, Nursing” and “Educational Technology”, and the free term “Escape room”, combined with Boolean operators AND/OR. Intervention studies in Spanish, English and Portuguese were included, without limitation for the year of publication. Selection and critical appraisal were conducted by two independent reviewers. A total of n = 13 interventional studies were included (n = 2 Randomized Clinical Trials and n = 11 quasi-experimental design). Escape rooms are a recent and growing educational methodology, increasingly used in academia and in the training of nurses and nursing students. However, it is necessary to expand their use and the quality of the studies in a greater number of contexts. Furthermore, it is necessary to homogenize and standardize validated instruments to evaluate the effectiveness of escape rooms in the nursing education area

Towards Advanced Interfaces for Citizen Curation

The SPICE project builds on the growing trend for museums, rather than providing an authoritative view, to present multiple voices related to their collection and exhibitions. In SPICE, an approach we term citizen curation is proposed as a way of supporting visitors to share their own interpretations of museum objects and reflect on the variety of interpretations contributed by others. In order to capture a wide range of voices, interfaces will be designed specifically to engage minority groups that tend to be under-represented in cultural activities. To achieve this goal, the interface will need to be intuitive, aesthetic and accessible for different audiences. The paper presents the challenges we face and initial proposals for engaging visitors in citizen curation

Gamified mathematics practice: Designing with e-commerce and computational concepts.

learning Mathematics: first, students who face difficulty understanding and are too shy to participate in discussions and subsequently do not manage to resolve their doubts, and second, dull e-learning websites. The many rules in Mathematics compounds the problem further. We thus aim to address these problems through a gamified-commerce oriented Mathematics learning practice system, Alzebra, for informal learning. Focusing on principles of Information Systems Analysis and Design, e-commerceoriented computational concepts are embedded in the game to motivate online practice. The system concept, design methodology and user testing outcomes are presented. Significance lies in deriving perception towards gamification and components which users liked or disliked and the efficacy of our hybrid approach in systems development

Smart Kitchens for People with Cognitive Impairments: A Qualitative Study of Design Requirements

Individuals with cognitive impairments currently leverage extensive human resources during their transitions from assisted living to independent living. In Western Europe, many government-supported volunteer organizations provide sheltered living facilities; supervised environments in which people with cognitive impairments collaboratively learn daily living skills. In this paper, we describe communal cooking practices in sheltered living facilities and identify opportunities for supporting these with interactive technology to reduce volunteer workload. We conducted two contextual observations of twelve people with cognitive impairments cooking in sheltered living facilities and supplemented this data through interviews with four employees and volunteers who supervise them. Through thematic analysis, we identified four themes to inform design requirements for communal cooking activities: Work organization, community, supervision, and practicalities. Based on these, we present five design implications for assistive systems in kitchens for people with cognitive deficiencies

Goal models for acceptance requirements analysis and gamification design

The success of software systems highly depends on user engagement. Thus, to deliver engaging systems, software has to be designed carefully taking into account Acceptance Requirements, such as “70% of users will use the system”, and the psychological factors that could influence users to use the system. Analysis can then consider mechanisms that affect these factors, such as Gamification (making a game out of system use), advertising, incentives and more. We propose a Systematic Acceptance Requirements Analysis Framework based on Gamification for supporting the requirements engineer in analyzing and designing engaging software systems. Our framework, named Agon, encompasses both a methodology and a meta-model capturing acceptance and gamification knowledge. In this paper, we describe the Agon Meta-Model and provide examples from the gamification of a decision-making platform in the context of a European Project

Goal models for acceptance requirements analysis and gamification design.

The success of software systems highly depends on user engagement. Thus, to deliver engaging systems, software has to be designed carefully taking into account Acceptance Requirements, such as '70% of users will use the system', and the psychological factors that could influence users to use the system. Analysis can then consider mechanisms that affect these factors, such as Gamification (making a game out of system use), advertising, incentives and more. We propose a Systematic Acceptance Requirements Analysis Framework based on Gamification for supporting the requirements engineer in analyzing and designing engaging software systems. Our framework, named Agon, encompasses both a methodology and a meta-model capturing acceptance and gamification knowledge. In this paper, we describe the Agon Meta-Model and provide examples from the gamification of a decision-making platform in the context of a European Project

IMPRESS: Improving Engagement in Software Engineering Courses through Gamification

Software Engineering courses play an important role for preparing students with the right knowledge and attitude for software development in practice. The implication is far reaching, as the quality of the software that we use ultimately depends on the quality of the people that make them. Educating Software Engineering, however, is quite challenging, as the subject is not considered as most exciting by students, while teachers often have to deal with exploding number of students. The EU project IMPRESS seeks to explore the use of gamification in educating software engineering at the university level to improve students' engagement and hence their appreciation for the taught subjects. This paper presents the project, its objectives, and its current progress