Using Serious Games in Higher Education: Reclaiming the Learning Time

Today's technology provides learners with full control of when, where and how they will access the learning material. Although the advantages are apparent , there are also some “side-effects”. One of them is that the “learning time” is not explicitly defined anymore. It is the design of the learning application that should consider for this, reclaim the learning time and create the necessary conditions for the “learning momentum”. The aim of this paper is to present a serious game that has been created for Law students at the University of Westminster, London, and to discuss the cognitive processes it activates. Serious games aim to teach students, using techniques from the game industry. Gamified elements are used alongside educational theories. The game presented here is a simulation of a tutorial that teaches the “Law of murder”. Students are presented with a case, they are asked to apply the law and decide if this is a murder or not. During the game the main principle of “learning by doing” is applied. One of the objectives of the game is to make students to focus on the topic and make the best use of the “learning momentum”

The use of a cyber campus to support teaching and collaboration: An observation approach

The research reported in this paper is work in progress describing the experiences of the authors while using a cyber campus to support online learn- ing collaborative activities and investigate if a Transactive Memory System can be developed among group members, working together within a cyber campus in several pre-set tasks

Design methodology for 360° immersive video applications: the case study of a cultural heritage virtual tour

Three hundred sixty–degree (360°) immersive video applications for Head Mounted Display (HMD) devices offer great potential in providing engaging forms of experiential media solutions especially in Cultural Heritage education. Design challenges emerge though by this new kind of immersive media due to the 2D form of resources used for their construction, the lack of depth, the limited interaction and the need to address the sense of presence. In addition, the use of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets often causes nausea, or motion sickness effects imposing further implications in moderate motion design tasks. This paper introduces a methodological categorisation of tasks and techniques for the design of 360° immersive video applications. Following the design approach presented, a testbed application has been created as an immersive interactive virtual tour at the historical centre of the city of Rethymno in Crete, Greece, which has undergone user trials. Based on the analysis of the results of this study, a set of design guidelines for the implementation of 360° immersive video virtual tours is proposed

Electronic transport within a quasi two-dimensional model for rubrene single-crystal field effect transistors

Spectral and transport properties of the quasi two-dimensional adiabatic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model are studied adjusting the parameters in order to model rubrene single-crystal field effect transistors with small but finite density of injected charge carriers. We show that, with increasing temperature $T$, the chemical potential moves into the tail of the density of states corresponding to localized states, but this is not enough to drive the system into an insulating state. The mobility along different crystallographic directions is calculated including vertex corrections which give rise to a transport lifetime one order of magnitude smaller than spectral lifetime of the states involved in the transport mechanism. With increasing temperature, the transport properties reach the Ioffe-Regel limit which is ascribed to less and less appreciable contribution of itinerant states to the conduction process. The model provides features of the mobility in close agreement with experiments: right order of magnitude, scaling as a power law $T^{-\gamma}$, with $\gamma$ close or larger than two, and correct anisotropy ratio between different in-plane directions. Due to a realistic high dimensional model, the results are not biased by uncontrolled approximations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Submitte

Spectral, optical and transport properties of the adiabatic anisotropic Holstein model: Application to slightly doped organic semiconductors

Spectral, optical and transport properties of an anisotropic three-dimensional Holstein model are studied within the adiabatic approximation. The parameter regime is appropriate for organic semiconductors used in single crystal based field effect transistors. Different approaches have been used to solve the model: self-consistent Born approximation valid for weak electron-phonon coupling, coherent potential approximation exact for infinite dimensions, and numerical diagonalization for finite lattices. With increasing temperature, the width of the spectral functions gets larger and larger making the approximation of quasi-particle less accurate. On the contrary, their peak positions are never strongly renormalized in comparison with the bare ones. As expected, the density of states is characterized by an exponential tail corresponding to localized states at low temperature. For weak electron-lattice coupling, the optical conductivity follows a Drude behavior, while, for intermediate electron-lattice coupling, a temperature dependent peak is present at low frequency. For high temperatures and low particle densities, the mobility always exhibits a power-law behavior as function of temperature. With decreasing the particle density, at low temperature, the mobility shows a transition from metallic to insulating behavior. Results are discussed in connection with available experimental data.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Using serious games for learning sign language combining video, enhanced interactivity and VR technology

One in every six persons in the UK suffers a hearing loss, either as a condition they have been born with or they disordered they acquired during their life. 900,000 people in the UK are severely or profoundly deaf and based on a study by Action On Hearing Loss UK in 2013 only 17 percent of this population, can use the British Sign Language (BSL). That leaves a massive proportion of people with a hearing impediment who do not use sign language struggling in social interaction and suffering from emotional distress, and an even larger proportion of Hearing people who cannot communicate with those of the deaf community. This paper presents a serious game (SG) that aims to close the communication gap between able hearing people and people with a hearing impediment by providing a tool that facilitates BSL learning targeting adult population. The paper presents the theoretical framework supporting adult learning based on which a SG game using Virtual Reality (VR) technology has been developed. It explains the experimental framework of the study and presents the creation of the research instruments to facilitate the study comprising of a SG that integrates video and conventional video based educational material. It reports and analyses the study results that demonstrate the advantage of the SG in effectively supporting users learning a set of BSL signs and it presents qualitative outcomes that inform the further development of the game to serve learning needs. The paper closes with conclusions, directions for further development of this educational resource and future studies

Engaging immersive video consumers: Challenges regarding 360-degree gamified video applications

360-degree videos is a new medium that has gained the attention of the research community imposing challenges for creating more interactive and engaging immersive experiences. The purpose of this study is to introduce a set of technical and design challenges for interactive, gamified 360-degree mixed reality applications that immerse and engage users. The development of gamified applications refers to the merely incorporation of game elements in the interaction design process to attract and engage the user through playful interaction with the virtual world. The study presents experiments with the incorporation of series of game elements such as time pressure challenges, badges and user levels, storytelling narrative and immediate visual feedback to the interaction design logic of a mixed reality mobile gaming application that runs in an environment composed of 360-degree video and 3D computer generated objects. In the present study, the architecture and overall process for creating such an application is being presented along with a list of design implications and constraints. The paper concludes with future directions and conclusions on improving the level of immersion and engagement of 360-degree video consumers

Mono-parametric quantum charge pumping: interplay between spatial interference and photon-assisted tunneling

We analyze quantum charge pumping in an open ring with a dot embedded in one of its arms. We show that cyclic driving of the dot levels by a \textit{single} parameter leads to a pumped current when a static magnetic flux is simultaneously applied to the ring. Based on the computation of the Floquet-Green's functions, we show that for low driving frequencies $\omega_0$, the interplay between the spatial interference through the ring plus photon-assisted tunneling gives an average direct current (dc) which is proportional to $\omega_0^{2}$. The direction of the pumped current can be reversed by changing the applied magnetic field.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev.

Localized basis sets for unbound electrons in nanoelectronics

It is shown how unbound electron wave functions can be expanded in a suitably chosen localized basis sets for any desired range of energies. In particular, we focus on the use of gaussian basis sets, commonly used in first-principles codes. The possible usefulness of these basis sets in a first-principles description of field emission or scanning tunneling microscopy at large bias is illustrated by studying a simpler related phenomenon: The lifetime of an electron in a H atom subjected to a strong electric field.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted by J. Chem. Phys. (http://jcp.aip.org/