Productive organizational energy mediates the impact of organizational structure on absorptive capacity

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Narrative and aesthetics as antecedents of perceived learning in Serious Games

Purpose: This study uses a critically acclaimed digital game as an instructional tool to explore the role of emotional design elements on psychological flow and perceived learning. Design/methodology/approach: The authors employ transportation theory to generate a set of antecedents of psychological flow and the theory of flow to connect the gaming experience to positive learning outcomes. The authors investigate the subjective learning experience of players with the use of a psychometric survey, and the authors employ structural equation modelling (SEM) to unearth the direct as well as the indirect effects amongst narrative, aesthetics, flow and learning outcomes. Findings: The findings of this study demonstrate that narrative and aesthetics in serious games positively influence the perceived learning by facilitating a state of psychological flow. Research limitations/implications: This study contributes to better understanding and theorizing the role of narrative and aesthetics on learning outcomes in the context of serious games. Practical implications: The findings of this study bear valuable implications for the design of serious games as they highlight the importance of elements often disregarded as not directly related to the learning process and are typically absent from the design of serious games. Originality/value: Prior studies have identified aesthetics and narratives as design elements that contribute to the perceived enjoyment of a game; this study empirically investigates the role of narratives and aesthetics in enhancing perceived learning through psychological flow

Optimizing students' mental health and academic performance:AI-enhanced life crafting

One in three university students experiences mental health problems during their study. A similar percentage leaves higher education without obtaining the degree for which they enrolled. Research suggests that both mental health problems and academic underperformance could be caused by students lacking control and purpose while they are adjusting to tertiary education. Currently, universities are not designed to cater to all the personal needs and mental health problems of large numbers of students at the start of their studies. Within the literature aimed at preventing mental health problems among students (e.g., anxiety or depression), digital forms of therapy recently have been suggested as potentially scalable solutions to address these problems. Integrative psychological artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of a chatbot, for example, shows great potential as an evidence-based solution. At the same time, within the literature aimed at improving academic performance, the online life-crafting intervention in which students write about values and passions, goals, and goal-attainment plans has shown to improve the academic performance and retention rates of students. Because the life-crafting intervention is delivered through the curriculum and doesn't bear the stigma that is associated with therapy, it can reach larger populations of students. But life-crafting lacks the means for follow-up or the interactiveness that online AI-guided therapy can offer. In this narrative review, we propose to integrate the current literature on chatbot interventions aimed at the mental health of students with research about a life-crafting intervention that uses an inclusive curriculum-wide approach. When a chatbot asks students to prioritize both academic as well as social and health-related goals and provides personalized follow-up coaching, this can prevent -often interrelated- academic and mental health problems. Right on-time delivery, and personalized follow-up questions enhance the effects of both -originally separated- intervention types. Research on this new combination of interventions should use design principles that increase user-friendliness and monitor the technology acceptance of its participants

CO2BioPerm—Influence of Bio-geochemical CO2-Transformation Processes on the Long-Term Permeability

The RECOBIO projects (Hoth et al. in Recycling of sequestrated CO2 by microbial—biogeochemical transformation in the deep subsurface—RECOBIO 2009a; Geotechnol Sci Rep 14:58–65, 2009b; Untersuchung der biogeochemischen transformation von im tiefen Untergrund gespeichertem CO2—RECOBIO 2 2011) have shown the relevance of biogeochemical processes, related to CO2 injection. These processes represent an additional pathway for biogeochemical CO2 storage. The main result was the microbial transformation (binding) of injected CO2 (formation of organic compounds). This can also influence the pressure behaviour of the system. Furthermore the organic layers can act as nucleation sites and so catalyse the carbonate solid formation. So the main focus of the CO2BIOPERM project was now to investigate the influence of these processes on the permeability behaviour of the system. Furthermore other aquifer structures, not related to natural gas fields, were characterised by microbiological, molecular genetic investigations. The biocenosis is also often dominated, like in natural gas fields, by sulphate reducers and fermenting bacteria. The study of CO2 effects to the cultivation of microorganisms showed for deep aquifer microorganisms a strategy to survive the CO2 stress by spore forming. The proteomic analysis gave a first view how many and which proteins were down and up regulated under CO2 stress. A part of the flow experiments, which were operated in discontinuously flowed batch mode, are presented in detail. There is no strong influence of the processes on the permeability behaviour for high permeable reservoir sandstones. Nevertheless the sequential extractions on the solid materials, after the tests, underline the ongoing biogeochemical reactions