Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

This paper is an account of the Theatre VCU mainstage production of Pride & Prejudice, in which I played the roles of Mrs. Bennet and of the vocal coach. In order to address the various skill levels of the cast, I planned to coach the production in a manner inspired by immersion language learning programs, with the cast speaking in dialect throughout the rehearsal process so as to learn the necessary vocal skills and to grow together as a theatrical ensemble. When the director of Pride & Prejudice was not receptive to this plan, I had to compromise and adapt while fulfilling my duties as actor and coach. The paper includes my initial ideas, a detailed account of pre-production, rehearsals, and performances, and an analysis of the many lessons I learned about artistic collaboration and the art of dialect coaching for the stage.

In this dissertation I propose the use of a new media composition of narrative hypertext, performances in a virtual world, and a dialogic process of writing to provide a continuum of learning opportunities in social work education. I suggest that the structure of the hypertext narrative, embedded with hypermedia, mirrors the dissociative aspects of traumatic memory. I argue that work with the multivocality and multisequentiality of narrative hypertext emulates the process of discovery in the clinical interview. The immersive component of work in a virtual world deepens the realism and affective impact of simulations and creates opportunities to practice and demonstrate engagement, assessment, and intervention skills. The writing component of the new media composition actively engages students in a dialogic process that hones the development of self-reflexive practice and a professional social work identity. In developing the project, I enlisted the input of two groups of key informants. Content experts provided background that informed the narrative and scripts. A second group of faculty, students, and practitioners provided input on project design and identified potential barriers to success and anticipated outcomes. Informants suggest that the continuum of media engages students with a variety of learning styles, offers safe ways to practice skills as a precursor to interviews with actual clients, and allows for exploration of diverse identities as an avatar. Potential barriers include the time and resources required to learn new technologies and the potential for students to be triggered by trauma content. Informants offered recommendations to address the barriers. Three changes were immediately incorporated into the structure and content of the project to address these concerns.

Title: The influence of water temperature on the rate of recovery during repeated isometric exercise. Objectives: The aim of this thesis is to assess the effect of water temperature on immersion of forearm to water for the sake of speeding up the recovery process during repeated isometric performance. Methods: Five male subjects from the students of FTVS (average age 22 ± 3 years) underwent three meaurements with repeated exercise to exhaustion with various kinds of rest periods. The exercise was represented by three series of intermittent isometric contraction of the finger flexors until exhaustion with 20 minutes rest period. The rest period was represented by the immersion of forearm into cold water (8řC; 15řC;) as well as by a passive rest. Sturation O2 of saturated hemoglobin (SmO2) was monitored by the spectrometer throughout the entire measurements at flexor digitorum profundus. Results: The reliability of measurements was rel=0,79 with standard deviation SD= 27,3s and standard measurement error SEM= 12,5s. The least effective method of recovery was passive recovery. Decrease in the time between the first, second and third contraction respectively was 35s, 34s respectively. Immersion in 15 ř C water under recovery phase led to improvement in the second contraction by 43s and by 27s in the...

The purpose of this research is to explore the academic and social experiences of English learners (ELs) in a Spanish immersion program. The researcher is specifically interested in learning about both the English and Spanish language acquisition of these ELs, as well as their social interactions as this pertains to their academic development. The participants were a sample of 12 Spanish native speakers who were working towards acquiring both social and academic English. Additionally, the researcher interviewed five other students who were in the Spanish immersion program, but who were not included in the ESOL class. These 17 students represented a wide range of English language proficiencies, ranging from emergent to advanced, and were in the ninth grade during the period of data collection. The researcher also interviewed five of these students' teachers, so as to gain a better understanding of the experiences of these heritage speakers. Data were collected over the course of the 2009-2010 school year through observations, interviews, sociograms, and ongoing assessments. These assessments were collected from several sources, including an English language assessment that was administered by the ESOL coordinator, an ongoing school-wide assessment of lexile scores, and an English and Spanish informal reading inventory. The findings of this study were divided into two meta themes of the academic and social experiences of the student participants. In investigating these students' academic experiences, the researcher found that the 22 participants placed a considerable emphasis on language development, particularly in the maintenance of the Spanish native speakers' heritage language. A sizeable need existed, however, for instruction that was better differentiated to the wide range xv of proficiencies that these students demonstrated in both English and Spanish. Through the analysis of the participants' social experiences, the researcher also discovered that a strong sense of community existed amongst the participants in the ESOL and immersion programs. This interconnectedness, however, led to an insular behavior amongst the Spanish native speakers, which further exacerbated the racial tension that existed at Greenwood High. Greenwood as a whole would greatly benefit from the fostering of intercultural sensitivity amongst this multicultural and multilingual student body.

Background. Eye tracking has been evaluated and tried in different 2D settings for research purposes. Most commercial games that are using eye tracking use it as an assistive extra input method and are focused around third or first person. There are few 2D games developed with eye tracking as an input method. This thesis aims to test the use of eye tracking as a replacement input method with a chosen set of mechanics for the purpose of playing a 2D top-down game with eye tracking as the main input method. Objectives. To test eye tracking in a 2D top-down game and use it as a replacement input method for the mouse in a novel effort to evaluate immersion and enjoyment. Method. To conduct this study the Tobii 4C eye tracker is used as the replacement peripheral in a 2D game prototype developed for the study. The game prototype is developed with the Unity game engine which the participants played through twice with a different input mode each time. Once with a keyboard and mouse and a second time with a keyboard and an eye tracker. The participants played different modes in alternating order to not sway the results. For the game prototype three different mechanics were implemented, to aim, search for hidden items and remove shadows. To measure immersion and enjoyment an experiment was carried out in a controlled manner, letting participants play through the game prototype and evaluating their experience. To evaluate the experience the participants answered a questionnaire with 12 questions relating to their perceived immersion and a small interview with 5 questions about their experience and perceived enjoyment. The study had a total of 12 participants. Results. The results from the data collected through the experiment indicate that the participants enjoyed and felt more involvement in the game, 10 out of 12 participants answering that they felt more involved with the game using eye tracking compared to the mouse. Analyzing the interviews, the participants stated that eye tracking made the game more difficult and less natural to control compared to the mouse. There is a potential problem that might sway the results toward eye tracking, most participants stated that eye tracking is a new experience and none of the participants had used it to play video games before. Conclusions. The results from the questionnaire prove the hypothesis with statistics, with a p-value of 0.02 < 5% for both increased involvement and enjoyment using eye tracking. Although the result might be biased due to the participant's inexperience with eye tracking in video games. Most of the participants reacted positively towards eye tracking with the most common reason being that it was a new experience to them.

The aim of the study was to determine if interactivity would affect how immersed and aroused the participants would become when exposed to horror media with different levels of interactivity. Two groups of participants were asked to either play or watch a virtual scenario. The participants had their heart rate measured using an activity bracelet and eyes tracked using a Tobii 4C eye tracker. The study found that as interactivity increased, so did arousal, whilst immersion did not. The results indicated that cutscenes may result in significantly lower levels of arousal, compared to interactive gameplay. / Målet med studien var att fastställa om interaktivitet skulle påverka hur inlevelsefulla och upphetsade studiedeltagarna skulle bli inför skräckmedia med olika nivåer av interaktivitet. Två grupper studiedeltagare blev tillfrågade att antingen spela eller titta på ett virtuellt scenario. Studiedeltagarnas hjärtrytm mättes sedan med ett aktivitetsarmband med inbyggd hjärtmonitor. Studiedeltagarnas ögonrörelser spelades in med hjälp av en Tobii 4C eye tracker. Studien fann att upphetsning ökade när interaktivitet ökade. Inlevelse ökade inte när interaktivitet ökade. Resultaten indikerade att cutscenes kan ha signifikant lägre nivåer av upphetsning, jämfört med interaktiv gameplay.

As more and more people get in to video games. We look at what makes for a good experience. Psychological factors which enriches gameplay like flow and immersion. And Game design factors which provides conditions for flow and immersion. We gather knowledge and use these factors to implement a video game prototype with two versions for testing a scenario. In this scenario the player is set out in the world to fight terrorists in a top-down shooter. Version 1 keeps top-down shooter throughout the entire level while version 2 changes the combat system to a Japanese Role-Playing Game style on the end boss. We then sent out both versions to testers to measure their experience with both versions. Measurement is done with the Game Experience Questionnaire and interviews were held with the testers. The results from this study indicates that the experience is largely unaffected. This may however be due to many causes as, sample size, the scenario itself and more.

Thesis advisor: Celeste Wells / This essay investigates the experience of Latin American international students at Boston College (BC) and how their preconceived notions impact both their experience pre and post arrival to college. Boston College culture, language barriers, academic pressure, housing arrangements and American norms are all factors that fuel the identity crisis that Latin American students experience at Boston College. These factors either drive Latin American students to engage in Boston College culture or, on the contrary, impel students to isolate themselves from American culture and from befriending other Americans. As seen through the conversations with students, the latter experience can often lead to dissatisfied outlooks and the longing to return to the students’ host countries. This study highlights the thoughts and experiences of Latin American students at Boston College while also providing solutions on how to improve the International Assistant Program (IAP) at Boston College. The solutions put forward in this study aim to encourage other universities across the globe to improve their immersion programs so that the needs of international students can be met. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Arts and Sciences Honors Program. / Discipline: Communication.

Background To be able to push game standards further and further, different graphics techniques have to be implemented by game developers. By utilizing some of those techniques, comes cost in the form of performance issues. Level of detail (LOD) is an optimization technique which uses several different variations of a model and distance from the viewer to determine which model should be rendered. Shadow mapping is, on the contrary from level of detail, a costly technique which aims to create as realistically looking shadows as possible. Objectives The aim of this thesis is to examine whether a novel LOD technique and shadow map technique called LOD-SM can achieve less render time versus using a standard implementation of shadow mapping. This is achieved by using the Unity game engine in which the LOD-SM technique is implemented. With Unity, measurements will be taken to determine if the technique is a viable optimization option in future game development. Methods The methods used to answer the paper’s research question were a pilot user study and a performance study. 20 participants were part of the pilot study, and were asked to rate their perception of shadows shown on a screen in front of them. This yielded results of which shadows the participants noticed differences for. The results were then implemented into Unity and measured with the LOD-SM technique. Results The pilot study showed that user does not notice any differences in 30% decreased polycount-shadows when in a multiple building environment. The gathered results from the performance experiment showed that the LOD-SM technique saved between ∼17% up to ∼70% in render time, compared to a regular implementation of shadow mapping. Conclusions In conclusion, a viable optimization option was found which is to lower a shadow maps appearance based on buildings LODs because as the results has shown, users does not notice the lowering of LODs up to 30% when in a multiple building area. It was discovered that by measuring the LOD-SM technique, clear evidence of optimization was found when using the technique versus using a normal implementation of shadow mapping. Developers would have to consider the size of project and its models before implementing the LOD-SM technique, as it might not be viable for projects with a total polycount of less than 100 000 polygons.