3,849 research outputs found
Intelligent Pedagogical Agents in Immersive Virtual Learning Environments: A Review
The concept of Intelligent Pedagogical Agents (IPA) has been an important research topic for a long time. IPA is supported by multi-agent systems research derived from AI. IPA provides personalized instruction, increase learner motivation, and act pedagogically on behalf or with the learner. On the other hand, virtual environments add value to the education process by giving new educational possibilities and computational-richness support. Combining both IPA and Virtual environments can make a promising approach for effective computer-aided learning. This paper provides a review on IPA and related topics focusing on a general overview of the topic, gives a detailed review in the application domain of virtual learning environments, and outlines a proposal for a flexible conceptual approach for the flexible application in different learning settings
The Empathy of Immersion: An Exploration of Battlefield 1 Through the Lense of Empathetic Virtual Reality
This thesis examines two works from different mediums, the short story “How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien and the video game Battlefield 1, to compare how each constructs empathy using virtual reality and mimetic communication between audience and the work. The thesis draws from both digital media studies and affect theory to construct a nuanced view of how empathy functions in the works. The body responds to empathy physically. As social creatures, humans feel the emotions of those around them, even if those around them are virtually constructed. In other words, the thesis will explore how video games have been used historically and what their effects are on gamers, especially gamers’ bodies and emotional responses to the constructed virtual reality. This work aims to show how the lines of fiction and reality become blurred to establish empathy within a narrative and virtual reality space
Enhancing Literacy Education with Narrative Richness in the Metaverse
Through an education-centric metaverse learning application, this research aims to assess the use of narrative richness to deliver media, language, and sustainability literacy education. The 21st-century learning needs require teaching and learning resources to be shared and managed more effectively across institutions. The use of metaverse features can help to manage varying narrative richness to boost learning reflection and attitude. Despite its potential, it is unclear how narrative richness in the metaverse can enhance teaching and learning. The study proposed in this research, which includes institutions from four Asian countries, is driven by this knowledge and evidence gap. Module leaders conceptualize and evaluate a purpose-built metaverse-learning application to produce rich and realistic learning experiences. We utilize narratives to enhance the realism of learning experiences and will assess the effects of narrative richness on learning reflection and attitude
"Virtual Reality Training Simulation - A Patient’s Point of View: Teaching Providers Teamwork and Empathetic Communication Skills via Immersive Perspective Taking, Interaction and Narrative Transport"
This paper will first seek to develop the pedagogical framework for message design in virtual reality, noting its potential for promoting education and empathy. I discuss relevant communications theory and practice; namely, cognitive elaboration, narrative transport, spatial presence, perspective taking and interactivity; and describe how virtual reality can uniquely combine these tools to effectively connect with and move audiences. After establishing this pedagogical foundation, this paper presents a virtual reality project that employs the tools discussed, with the goal of providing education that elicits empathy and improves providers’ empathetic communication with trauma patients.Master of Art
The Importance of Play: Identification with Video Game Characters\u27 Intersectional Effects on Bias
Video games are steadily becoming one of the largest and most influential forms of media in history. Today, video games are so popular that the Nintendo mascot Mario from the Mario Brothers video game series is more recognized than Disney\u27s Mickey Mouse. The reach and influence of video games is cause for celebration and concern. After all, just like other forms of media video games can influence audiences far beyond their play sessions. Media can influence everything from how individuals treat others, to governmental policies. With such a large scope of influence over who they reach and how they affect society it\u27s necessary to examine how video games represent real world people.
Representation in video games has the potential to influence audiences\u27 perceptions of and attitudes towards real people. Video games already come under constant scrutiny for their numerous portrayals of sexist and racist imagery. These negative portrayals can affect real world biases against disenfranchised groups. Which in some cases can even lead to an increase in violence against those groups. Many forms of passive media, such as books and television, have already been analyzed to discern how their use of diverse non-stereotypical representation can combat biases, promote empathy, and encourage tolerance among their audiences. Video games have been researched in a similar manner, but stand apart from these mediums in an important way. Video games allow participants to take an active role in their entertainment. Unlike a book or a movie a video game offers participants control over the characters and the actions those characters take within the story. Video game audiences don’t just witness the narrative, they give it form through their choices and actions.
Other researchers have examined how interactivity in video games influences real world biases. The first part of this dissertation provides background information for these past studies. We expanded on this research with three studies of our own featuring race and gender bias. The studies reveal that in video games the experience of watching a character vs playing as a character greatly affects the character’s ability to influence audience biases. Just seeing a female or black character in a video game is a very different experience from playing as them and being able to control their actions. Furthermore, in video games this experience of play via character control produces a unique psychological phenomenon called embodied identification. Embodied identification represents how much a player feels they are physically and/or mentally immersed in a playable character. The level of embodied identification a player experiences directly effects the virtual character’s influence over the player. So, it plays an important role in influencing players and is the main focus of this dissertation. There is also an examination into how embodied identification effects players\u27 attitudes toward underrepresented people. The third of the three studies in this paper includes perhaps the most prolific expansion on past research by incorporating intersectionality into the study. This study allows researchers and developers to better understand how all aspects of a player character\u27s identity influence multiple societal biases. In this way, the study is able to look beyond a singular view of identity; only focusing on race or gender for example, to gain a more complete picture of video games\u27 ability to combat biases and promote tolerance in society
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Design perspectives on diabetes management games
For decades, there has been scholarly interest in the use of serious digital games to assist individuals suffering from diabetes with the self-management of that disease. However, previous research in this area has not effectively integrated the knowledge of the expert game designer. This dissertation aims to further understandings of design approaches to serious games for diabetics by confronting both the arguments of the diabetes games literature and the diabetes games themselves with the experiences and opinions of expert game designers. The arguments of the diabetes games literature were synthesized into a design template composed of twenty-four interrelated desirable elements. This template was then used by three focus groups consisting of a total of twelve expert game designers to both evaluate six diabetes self-management games and respond to the assertions of the diabetes games literature. The findings from these three empirical studies indicate both that the diabetes games themselves are of uniformly unsuitable quality and that the diabetes games literature is rife with what the expert game designers consider to be problematic assumptions. The problems identified by the focus groups include those that fundamentally cripple the functionality of the game artifact, those that are embedded in a game’s rules and themes, and those to those that exist at superficial levels. Furthermore, the focus groups had an overall negative reaction to the arguments about games that they found to be deeply embedded in the design template’s elements. Tensions exist, however, between the reasons for the diabetes games literature’s demand for certain game features and the beliefs of the expert game designers. The findings strongly suggest that additional research is necessary and that an interdisciplinary effort, including both health care professionals and expert game designers, is necessary for the development of new, superior design scenarios for diabetes self-management games.Informatio
Teaching the Voices of History Through Primary Sources and Historical Fiction: A Case Study of Teacher and Librarian Roles
The ability to analyze alternative points of view and to empathize (understand the beliefs, attitudes and actions of another from the other\u27s perspective rather than from one\u27s own) are essential building blocks for learning in the 21st century. Empathy for the human participants of historical times has been deemed by a number of educators as important for the development of historical understanding. The classroom teacher and the school librarian both have a prominent stake in creating educational experiences that foster the development of perspective, empathy, and understanding.
This case study was designed to investigate the idea that teaching with primary sources and historical novels during historical inquiry enhances students\u27 development of cognitive and emotive empathy. The study was framed around two research questions: How do classroom teachers and school librarians design and teach historical inquiry using historical novels and primary sources? What is the impact of teaching with historical novels and primary sources on the development of historical empathy?
The case study was conducted in an English/history humanities block and the school library in a New York City secondary school. Data were collected through classroom observations, interviews with the classroom teachers and librarian, and samples of student work. On the use of primary sources and historical novels, the study found that primary sources must be surrounded by context to be useful to students in their learning, that secondary sources were necessary for providing that context, and that historical fiction provides social context, but its use must be scaffolded to help students distinguish fiction from fact. In addition, the study found that unless library linkages to primary sources are embedded in classroom instruction, they are not used by students or teachers.
In answer to the second research question, the study found that primary sources have a strong impact on the development of historical empathy if their use is mediated by a teacher or librarian and that cognitive empathy must be developed before emotive empathy. Finally, this case study showed that a school librarian\u27s effectiveness is diminished by fulfilling a resource-provider role with no integration into classroom instruction
The Effect of Story Narrative in Multimedia Learning
abstract: ELearning, distance learning, has been a fast-developing topic in educational area. In 1999, Mayer put forward “Cognitive Theory of Multimedia learning” (Moreno, & Mayer, 1999). The theory consisted of several principles. One of the principles, Modality Principle describes that when learners are presented with spoken words, their performance are better than that with on-screen texts (Mayer, R., Dow, & Mayer, S. 2003; Moreno, & Mayer, 1999).It gave an implication that learners performance can be affected by modality of learning materials. A very common tool in education in literature and language is narrative. This way of storytelling has received success in practical use. The advantages of using narrative includes (a) inherent format advantage such as simple structure and familiar language and ideas, (b) motivating learners, (c) facilitate listening, (d) oral ability and (e)provide schema for comparison in comprehension.
Although this storytelling method has been widely used in literature, language and even moral education, few studies focused it on science and technology area.
The study aims to test the effect of narrative effect in multimedia setting with science topic. A script-based story was applied. The multimedia settings include a virtual human with synthetic speech, and animation on a solar cell lesson. The experiment design is a randomized alternative- treatments design, in which participants are requested to watch a video with pedagogical agent in story format or not. Participants were collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk.
Result of transfer score and retention score showed that no significant difference between narrative and non-narrative condition. Discussion was put forward for future study.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Engineering 201
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