The Distant Horizon: investigating the relationship between social sciences academic research and game development

Research in the social sciences devotes a great amount of attention to investigating the impact of video games on the individual and on society. However, results generated by this research often fail to inform game development. The present study investigated the outreach of research conducted by the academic community by interviewing 30 game developers and 14 researchers, highlighting critical aspects in the relationship between game research and game industry. Specifically, we found that the difference in priorities, speed cycles, and dissemination practices between these two contexts hinder communication. Subsequently, we carried out a focus group for a set of developers and researchers (N=6) with the aim of eliciting recommendation for improving communication between academics and developers. Among the recommendations to emerge were calls to diversify dissemination channels, promote joint conferences and develop research-production partnerships. It was felt such measures could strengthen the influence of research results outside the academic community

Ranking Meets Distance Education: Defining Relevant Criteria and Indicators for Online Universities

University ranking systems are being implemented with the aim of assessing and comparing higher education institutions at a global level. Despite their being increasingly used, rankings are often strongly criticized for their social and economic implications, as well as for limitations in their technical implementation. One of these limitations is that they do not consider the specific characteristics of online education. This study used a participatory approach to define a set of criteria and indicators suitable to reflect the specific nature of distance education. This endeavour will help evaluate and rank online higher education institutions more appropriately than in current practice, where indicators are devised for traditional universities. To this end, several stakeholders and informants were involved in a Delphi study in an attempt to reach the broader higher education institutions (HEI) community. According to the study participants, apart from students’ achievements and general quantitative measures of HEI performance, which are quite common in traditional ranking systems, teaching and student learning experience turned out to be the most important criteria. Student support, teacher support, technological infrastructure, research and organization were deemed middle ground criteria, while sustainability and reputation were regarded as the least important criteria

Comparing the comparators: How should the quality of education offered by online universities be evaluated?

Comparing universities and courses is of interest to a variety of stakeholders including potential students, policy makers, news and media organisations, ranking providers, and universities themselves. There are a range of existing university ranking schemes that provide comparisons (e.g. Academic Ranking of World Universities) but typically these are designed with face‐to‐face teaching and learning in mind. There is also a growing number of quality assurance tools and approaches aimed at ensuring the quality of online education This article reports on an analysis of a range of quality assurance systems for online higher education institutions and courses, together with variety of ranking systems targeting conventional universities—with the aim of establishing what they measure, and the metrics used to assess quality. The findings from this analytical study were compared with a meta‐analysis of the literature about how students choose their university in order to understand how these instruments influence current student opinion and can be used more proactively by universities themselves. The findings reveal: (1) current ranking systems are of limited value for most potential undergraduate students, particularly with reference to online education, (2) comparison systems that can be of value to students from a variety of different backgrounds are likely to be complex to set up and run, and (3) quality indicators that promote both formative and summative evaluation may be beneficial to both institutions and students

Advancing nursing in Italy through the development and evaluation of an innovative postgraduate programme in Family and Community Nursing - A pilot study

Introduction Due to the impact on the public health systems of the ageing and the increasing frailty of the population, the European Union and the World Health Organisation have emphasised how family and community nurses (FCNs) could play an important in supporting the ageing process through prevention, promotion, and protection in the territory. Methods This study describes the first experience in Italy of a one-year postgraduate course divided into 5 modules for FCNs piloted as part of the EuropeaN curriculum for fAmily aNd Community nursE (ENhANCE) 2018-2020 project, funded by the European Commission. Participants included a total of 45 students and 23 lecturers and a team of clinical tutors. Results The Italian pilot course for the FCNs proved to be a successful example of innovative teaching methods using blended didactic methods, which enabled participants to achieve high-standard learning outcomes and competencies in the field of family and community nursing. Conclusions The pilot course described in this paper is well suited to preparing highly skilled family and community nurses to meet the growing healthcare needs of the population. Therefore, we have planned to replicate this course to increase the workforce of family and community nurses, who through their healthcare services aimed at prevention, promotion and protection, will be able to ensure high quality services to the public and consequently relieve the burden on acute hospitals

Formalization of social knowledge through a personal learning environment approach

La “conoscenza sociale" è un aspetto importante dell’esperienza dello studente, ed è fondamentale per la creazione collaborativa di artefatti sociali. Poiché la conoscenza sociale è di solito dinamica, tacita/non dichiarativa, e costruita, individuarla e condividerla con riguardo ad un particolare contesto può diventare problematico per studenti che partecipano come novizi in una comunità o in una rete. Questa ricerca ha lo scopo di definire una metodologia efficace per la formalizzazione della conoscenza sociale, facendo leva sulle reti sociali e sulla semantica del web che caratterizzano online l’esperienza di apprendimento dello studente. L’attenzione si concentra su un approccio del tipo Personal Learning Environment da adottarsi come ambiente dinamico in grado di sostenere lo studente nella gestione della conoscenza sociale tramite strumenti espliciti e impliciti di adattabilità e personalizzazione. La metodologia prende in considerazione quattro dimensioni di progettazione: 1) un formato pedagogico centrato sullo studente per definire le corrette strategie di apprendimento, 2) un sistema semantico in grado di descrivere gli elementi del contesto di conoscenza; 3) un sistema semantico in grado di fornire efficaci rappresentazioni e descrizioni delle reti sociali dello studente in questione; 4) un ambiente personale per l’apprendimento e la gestione della conoscenza caratterizzato in modo dinamico per mezzo di strumenti espliciti ed impliciti, i quali permettono di abbinare in modo intelligente contenuti di apprendimento, persone e servizi. A livello pedagogico, viene presentato un modello definito “la metafora del novizio”. Il modello utilizza le opportunità offerte dalle tecnologie di rete per migliorare l’apprendimento degli studenti. Come caso di studio, la ricerca presenta un modello di formazione integrato, testato con successo negli ultimi anni presso l’Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona (Italia). Un esame del modello pedagogico illustra importanti caratteristiche che l’architettura tecnologica deve implementare al fine di supportarlo. Come implementazione tecnologica del modello pedagogico, viene presentata e discussa una prima bozza di progettazione di un “Personal Knowledge Space”. Gli aspetti innovativi del modello proposto, da un punto di vista pedagogico, possono essere attribuiti alle competenze acquisite dagli studenti e l’adozione da parte degli insegnanti di metodi di insegnamento che promuovono l’empowerment degli studenti. Dal punto di vista della tecnologia, l’architettura proposta permette di promuovere attività di apprendimento quali teamwork, di costruire comunità di pratica, di introdurre e integrare sia strumenti di social networking sia componenti che consentano di soddisfare le esigenze di sicurezza e il controllo delle interazioni. I risultati ottenuti consentono di definire possibili scenari di esperienze di formazione iterabili

Collaborative Learning: A Design Challenge for Teachers

This study, focused on collaborative learning approaches, aims to contribute to our understanding of whether and how teachers propose these kinds of activities in their daily practice. Particularly, this study aims to explore teachers’ behaviour when designing such activities for their learners with respect to different learning settings (i.e., face-to-face and/or blended settings vs. fully online settings). With reference to fully online settings, the Emergency Remote Teaching that took place during the COVID-19 outbreak is used as a reference case. The results of a self-reported survey of Italian teachers (N = 268) are presented. Our conclusions indicate that Italian teachers do propose collaborative learning activities to some extent in face-to-face and/or blended settings as well as in fully online settings, with statistically significant differences both in reference to the approaches adopted and to the (technological) tools used. Nonetheless, the data also indicate that teachers’ design decisions are not always in line with recommendations widely proposed by the collaborative learning research community

PKS: An Ontology-based Learning Construct for Lifelong Learners

This paper addresses adult lifelong learners, i.e., persons interested in learning or compelled to learn during their working life but not able to, or not interested in participating in formal learning. These learners are motivated and self-aware enough to self-direct their learning, are presumed to be novices with respect to the needed knowledge and have a limited technological uptake. This paper will outline their main differences from regular learners, in particular, for the use of social media to improve learning skills. The reference pedagogical model is andragogy. A Service-Oriented Architecture, named Personal Knowledge Space (PKS), is proposed to support our lifelong learners in selecting, organizing, and retrieving information; in streamlining interaction processes among learners, services and resources and finally in empowering control and trust of personal relationships born during the learning processes. The PKS is mainly based on the exploitation of semantic tools (ontologies) and web services. Use cases describing the PKS architecture and one scenario of PKS use are presented

Game-Based STEM Education Trends: 2013-2023 Dataset Analysis

This dataset was used to encompass a comprehensive quantitative textual analysis of scholarly publications from 2013 to 2023, focusing on the application of gamified approaches to STEM education in secondary schools. The study scrutinizes the evolution of game-based educational methodologies, pinpointing main research trends, shifts in educational priorities, and technological advancements in the teaching and learning of STEM subjects. Initiated with a systematic collection from Web of Science and Scopus databases in March 2023, the dataset includes titles and abstracts of peer-reviewed papers and reviews, filtered through meticulously designed selection criteria to highlight relevant research in game-based learning, serious gaming, and edutainment within STEM disciplines. The final compilation, after rigorous screening for duplicates and relevance, presents 287 eligible abstracts, offering invaluable insights into the dynamic landscape of gamified STEM education research over the past decade.</p

TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING IN NURSE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING: THE CASE OF THE ENHANCE GREEK PILOT COURSE

Technology-enhanced learning is being used in nurse education and training to promote active development of professional knowledge and skills among university students as well as among professional nurses. Although many studies have focused on enablers and barriers to e-learning in nursing education, there is still little knowledge regarding the specific functionalities that allow to instantiate flexible and effective learning activities as well as the user satisfaction of these functionalities. This study examines the students’ opinions about the ease of use and usefulness of the functionalities of the Open Online Tool (OOT) platform that was implemented and used for an online initiative for professional training on Family and Community Nursing (FCN) in Greece. The results of the research showed that most of the features of the OOT were considered by the participants to be easy to use and at the same time useful in contributing consistently to their training