The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

Benign Manipulation in Education

Benign manipulation is an integral part of educational relationships and processes, yet it has received little scholarly attention to date. The goal of this thesis is to provide educators with a conceptual framework by which to assess instances and practices of benign manipulation in education. To do so, I provide a theoretical analysis of the meaning and significance of benign manipulation in education, as well as multi-faceted criteria by which to assess manipulation. I maintain that although there is no consensus regarding the nature of manipulation, for the practical purpose of assessing manipulation, it would be reasonable to consider as manipulation any attempt to influence others which involves deception, trickery, subversion of rationality, pressure or a failure to track reasons. If the motivation for such influence is to advance the interests of the manipulee, I term it benign manipulation. Assuming that manipulation, at least in the case of benign manipulation, should be understood as a non-moralised concept, I establish a framework for the assessment of benign manipulation in education. The framework consists of three criteria: A) the consequences of the manipulation, B) the effect the manipulation has on both the manipulator’s and the manipulee’s understanding of the situation, and C) whether the manipulation breaches the trust that exists between the manipulator and the manipulee. To demonstrate the practicality of the framework, in the second part of the thesis I apply it to three case studies, all of which have educational implications: benign deception, pharmacological cognitive enhancement and gamification

Examining The Implications Of Tabletop Roleplaying Games For Use In Leadership Development: An Integrative Review

Role-playing games are frequently used within the social sciences to study several aspects of the human experience and development. Existing research suggests that role-playing games encourage the development of critical and strategic decision-making, teamwork, and creative thinking, all behaviors integral to the development of lasting leadership competencies. This integrative review theorizes using TRPG roleplay games as unconventional tools for skill development and examines the implications for leadership applications. This inductive approach revealed a comprehensive picture of the importance of TRPGs integration into leadership development programs. It is at the intersection between creativity and leadership where organizational leaders have the potential to develop creativity training interventions to enhance and increase leaders’ creative potential and emotional creativity. Keywords: Dungeons and Dragons, leadership development, change management, TRPGs, creativity

The potential role of ePortfolios in the Teaching Excellence Framework

Current debates on HE policy in the UK are dominated by the evolving Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) which will soon involve the government establishing key metrics.  In this context, and seizing this valuable moment in policy formation, we here provide a brief foray into the multiple aspects of ‘teaching excellence’ (TE) as a basis to highlight both the complexity of identifying ways to measure it and the shortcomings of existing official developments.  In the absence of a clear conceptual understanding of the learning processes and the role of teaching which apparently underpins the TEF, we present a model of the learning process to which the indicators currently proposed by the authorities can be related.  We propose that ePortfolios can play a special role in the TEF in capturing the qualitative outcomes of learning processes which, importantly, reflect the student perspective in terms of goals, learning experiences and achievement.  These are both crucial yet missing elements of the proposals to date. Finally, we provide some examples of how information from ePortfolios could be used by HE institutions to enhance their institutional submissions to the TEF.

UniCraft: Exploring the impact of asynchronous multiplayer game elements in gamification

This paper describes the development and evaluation of UniCraft: a gamified mobile app designed to increase the engagement of undergraduate students with the content and delivery of their course. Gamification projects rely on extrinsic motivators to encourage participants to engage, such as compulsory participation or real-world rewards. UniCraft incorporates an asynchronous multiplayer battle game that uses constructive competition to motivate students, without using motivational levers that may reduce intrinsic motivation. The novel battle game employed by UniCraft employs Player vs Environment (Shafer, 2012) and Player Matching (Jennings, 2014) to ensure students work together in similarly ranked small groups as a team against a shared enemy. A study was undertaken which examined students' long-term engagement with UniCraft within the context of a 12-week long undergraduate programming course. The app was initially provided with the battle feature disabled, so that the effect on motivation and engagement could be studied when it was introduced during the intervention. Detailed interaction data recorded by the app was augmented by semi-structured interviews in order to provide a richer perspective on its effect at an individual and group level. The interaction data revealed convincing evidence for the increased motivational power of the battle feature, and this was supported by the interview data. Although no direct negative effects of competition were observed, interviews revealed that cheating was prevalent and this could in turn have unintended negative side-effects on motivation. Full results are presented and case studies are described for three of the participants, giving an insight into the different styles of interaction and motivation experienced by students in this study

Why so serious?:game-based learning in health profession education: state of the art and future directions

If you look around carefully, you see a lot of use of game elements that aim to motivate people towards a certain behaviour. From smileys on posts that aim to lower your driving speed, to earning stars in language learning apps. Game-based learning is the use of game elements to make learning more attractive and to encourage people to continue their learning. This is logical right? The longer you learn, the better the outcome. Or not? This doctoral thesis examines the effects of using game-based learning in medical education. Why and when should it be applied? We have investigated whether it is advisable to develop a game suitable for everyone. We discovered that there are 5 different game personas (player types): competitors, socializers, social achievers, explorers and trolls. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to social interactions and achieving goals within a game. From this we were able to develop a taxonomy, which has been tested at almost all medical universities in the Netherlands. It shows that medical students are mainly socially oriented players. While most game based learnings are not at all. This doctoral research can offer perspective in current developments, gives direction where it could go, but also has a critical note on the use of game-based learning that is should not be applied too much

Designing learning outcomes using game technologies: example of elements and processes of architectural design - I course

Introduction: This article describes the possibilities of forecasting learning outcomes after using gamification methods. The analysis of data collected within the framework of one academic discipline is given. The development of a regulating program using game technologies for the course is proposed.  Materials and Methods: The methodological part is concentrated on identifying the problem areas of the course and selecting gamification elements for specific tasks. Results and Discussion: The expected result after the implementation of the program is described. A hypothetical idea about the prospective use of individual game mechanics for educational purposes is described but requires further practical trial. The relevance of the development of complex motivational programs integrated into the educational process and solving the problem of improving the effectiveness of learning is identified. Conclusions: The use of various ways of involving students, and maintaining the balance between educational and game tasks is described.Introducción: Este artículo describe las posibilidades de pronosticar los resultados de aprendizaje después de utilizar métodos de gamificación. Se da el análisis de los datos recogidos en el marco de una disciplina académica. Se propone el desarrollo de un programa regulador utilizando tecnologías de juego para el curso. Materiales y Métodos: La parte metodológica se concentra en identificar las áreas problemáticas del curso y seleccionar elementos de gamificación para tareas específicas. Resultados y Discusión: Se describe el resultado esperado luego de la implementación del programa. Se describe una idea hipotética sobre el uso prospectivo de mecánicas de juego individuales con fines educativos, pero requiere más pruebas prácticas. Se identifica la relevancia del desarrollo de programas motivacionales complejos integrados al proceso educativo y que resuelvan el problema de mejorar la efectividad del aprendizaje. Conclusiones: Se describe el uso de diversas formas de involucrar a los estudiantes y mantener el equilibrio entre las tareas educativas y de juego