This dissertation consists of three journal articles that explored the effectiveness of a digital game, called EnerCities, in producing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors by using a mixed-methods study approach. The first study was conducted as a quasi-experimental study among undergraduate students in the United States. Based on the Attitudinal Learning Instrument (ALI), this study found that the attitudinal learning gained from EnerCities influenced participants’ pro-environmental behavioral intentions significantly. This learning was retained until five weeks after game play according to the qualitative results of the study. The second study, conducted in India, used EnerCities to study the differences in attitudinal learning among high school students who played the game collaboratively or individually, using the ALI and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Results showed that the attitudinal learning and its effect on pro-environmental behavioral intentions between collaborative and individual players was similar. This study also showed that EnerCities had significantly impacted the environmental attitudes and behaviors of the game players when compared to students who did not play any game, although all students had studied environmental studies through traditional instructional methods since elementary school. The third study, conducted among high school students in India, compared the environmental attitudes between game players and students who did not play any game based on the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. Both the unidimensional and multi-dimensional properties of the NEP were considered. It was found that EnerCities had impacted game players’ environmental attitudes significantly. All the three studies showed that digital games are more effective in promoting attitudinal (cognitive, affective, behavioral and social) learning compared to traditional instructional methods. This supports the implementation of digital games as a pedagogical tool in influencing environmental attitudes and behaviors.

Digital games are a common interest today and research has shown that digital games affect English vocabulary building in a positive way. This study aims to examine the attitudes of teachers in grade four to six towards the use of digital games for vocabulary building in the classroom and how they are used to do that. There is a lack of research about this subject in a Swedish context which is why this study is important. The study used a mixed method approach where online surveys and interviews were conducted with certified English teachers of grade four to six in Sweden. The attitudes of teachers were found to be generally positive towards using digital games to build vocabulary and the most common use of them is to both practice words and phrases the students already know and to teach new words and phrases. However, insufficient time to prepare digital games for use in the classroom seems to be the biggest challenge teachers face when implementing them. The potential digital games have for enhancing vocabulary building and motivating students is why this study is relevant.

Vi è un ampio e diffuso consenso che suggerisce che il tirocinio (internship), come forma di apprendimento esperienziale, può essere uno strumento efficace per lo sviluppo delle competenze tecniche e trasferibili degli studenti e quindi come strumento di rafforzamento dell'occupabilità (employabiltiy) dei laureati. Numerosi studi hanno anche scoperto che le esperienze internazionali possono sviluppare le competenze più apprezzate dai datori di lavoro. Questa ricerca affronta una lacuna all'intersezione di questi due campi di studio. La maggior parte degli studi analizza le esperienze internazionali con un focus distintivo sull'aspetto internazionale e non sui diversi tipi di esperienze, ad es. studiare all’estero rispetto a fare un tirocinio (internship) all’estero. La domanda a cui questo studio si propone di rispondere è se il tirocinio (internship) e il contesto internazionale abbinati estendono l'esperienza di apprendimento oltre a quella sviluppata attraverso un tirocinio domestico da solo. Quando la progettazione di questo studio è stata inizialmente pianificata, è stato fatto un grande sforzo per identificare uno strumento per misurare l'occupabilità (employability) nel modo più obiettivo possibile. Le misurazioni basate sull’utilizzo di giochi digitali (digital game-based assessments) sono state identificate come lo strumento più appropriato per farlo in modo obiettivo. In questo studio i comportamenti che definiscono l’occupabilita’ (employability) degli studenti risultato in oltre 30 indicatori quantitativi. Questi indicatori convergono con le competenze trasferibili che sono state identificate come quelle richieste dal mercato del lavoro e ampiamente analizzate nella letteratura sull'occupabilità (employability). I dati per questo studio sono stati raccolti nel triennio 2017-19 e sono stati coinvolti un totale di 1315 studenti italiani. L'analisi fattoriale esplorativa ha esaminato la struttura alla base degli indicatori di occupabilità (employability) generati dalle valutazioni basate sul gioco digitale (digital game-based assessments). I risultati rivelano diversi temi significativi che contribuiscono ulteriormente alla conoscenza e comprensione di ciò che influenza l'occupabilità (employability) dei laureati. Il primo risultato che emerge dalle analisi di questo studio risponde alla domanda di ricerca. Quando un tirocinio (internship) si svolge all’estero, c'è un apprendimento esperienziale aggiuntivo dato dal contesto internazionale, che contribuisce ulteriormente all'apprendimento esperienziale e trasformativo già sviluppato attraverso un tirocinio (internship) domestico. Inoltre, risulta anche che questo elemento aggiuntivo sia associato a comportamenti di occupabilità (employability) legati a fattori cognitivi e non sociali. Ciò contrasta con gli studi precedenti sull'impatto delle esperienze internazionali, che generalmente associano questo tipo di esperienze allo sviluppo di competenze di tipo sociale e interpersonale. Questo studio rileva infine che quando sembra esserci una superiorità degli studenti maschi nei comportamenti di occupabilità (employability) legati dalle capacità cognitive, questa superiorità scompare quando associata a stage internazionali. / There is a large and widespread consensus suggesting that internships, as one form of experiential learning, can be an effective instrument for the development of students’ technical and transferable skills and therefore as enhancing graduate employability. Separately, studies have found that international experiences can develop the skills most valued by employers. This research addresses a gap at the intersection of these two fields of study. Most studies analyze international experiences with a distinctive focus on the international and not on the different types of experiences, e.g. study abroad versus internships. The question this study aims to answer is whether an internship and an international context combine to extend the learning experience beyond that developed through a domestic internship alone. When the design of this study was initially planned, much effort was put into identifying a tool to measure employability in the most objective way possible. Digital game-based assessments were identified as the most appropriate tool to do this objectively. Insights into behaviors in this study result in over 30 quantitative descriptors of employability, which converge with the lists of transferable skills that have been identified as those demanded by the labor market and extensively analyzed in the employability literature. The data for this study was collected over three years 2017-19, and a total of 1315 Italian students were involved. Exploratory factor analysis examined the structure underlying the employability descriptors generated by the digital game-based assessments. The findings reveal several significant themes that further contribute to our current knowledge and understanding of what influences graduates’ employability. The first finding answers the research question. When an internship takes place in a country different from that of the student’s home, there is additional experiential learning from the international context, which contributes further to the experiential and transformative learning already developed through the internship. It also appears that this additional element is associated with employability behaviors predicted by Cognitive and not Social factors. This contrasts with earlier studies on the impact of international experiences, which generally find that social and interpersonal skills are developed. This study also finds that when there appears to be a gender bias toward male students in employability behaviors predicted by cognitive abilities, this bias disappears when associated with international internships.

The possible benefits of digital games for English language learning and teaching have received increasing attention in recent years as more research shows that digital games can affect students’ learning and motivation within formal education. A great deal of the integration of digital games in school contexts depends on the attitude of teachers and students. The aim of this study is to investigate upper-secondary teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward digital games in the English language classroom in a Swedish context. Additionally, this study will also examine teachers’ and students’ views regarding the effects of using digital games for learning English. This is a mixed-method study, where semi-structured interviews and online surveys were conducted by participants from Uppsala, Gävleborg and Dalarna. 106 students and 11 teachers responded to the online survey, and 3 teachers participated in the semi-structured interview. The results found in this study confirm the findings from the majority of previous studies. Teachers and students are generally positive toward digital games in English language learning, and they see potential effects of using games in class. However, teachers find it difficult to implement digital games due to different obstacles, such as preparation time, lack of knowledge, and finding quality games.

The diploma thesis is concerned with the subject of video game education. The goal of this thesis is to confirm or to disprove the following research hypothesis: "Using new media in formal education has positive or at least neutral impact on student's motivation for learning in comparsion to conventional educative methods" by using both qualitative and quantitative empirical methods. For practical research within the thesis I have chosen Czech educational digital game Europe 2045. The theoretical part introduces current use of new media in education, interactive learning and digital game-based learning and theories of motivations for learning as well as analysis of current digital game-based learning research.

This master's thesis describes the use of microtransactions in video games and their influence over the game design, player experience, and virtual goods presentation. The goal was to compare the titles that use different monetization methods (paid and free to play games) and different types of microtransactions (functional and cosmetic), and to identify which parts of those games could be influenced by microtransactions and how. The research focuses on five titles - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, Anthem, Warframe a Path of Exile. The first part of the thesis summarises the historical evolution of monetization models used in video games and defines the terms microtransaction, micropayment, virtual goods, or loot box. It also contains a typology of microtransactions, describes their implementation methods, and possible consequences tied to their use. The second part focuses on the analysis of the chosen five games. The research used the following methods - analysis of my own gameplay and mutual comparison of each game. Each game was examined over the course of ten hours, in sessions about 45-60 minutes long - the gameplay was accompanied by video recordings of the gameplay, screenshots, and a journal that contained detailed information about each gaming session. The research...

Digital games are being increasingly implemented in the educational sector to improvevarious skills. Among these the effectiveness of digital game-based learning (DGBL) on the socio-emotional ability of individuals have been investigated with overall positive results. However, a limited number of studies have investigated the effectiveness of DGBL on this ability in children with intellectual disability and no studies have researched whether DGBL could be effective on the socio-emotional skills of children with this form of disability. Thus, the current study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of DGBL on the specific socio-emotional skill of emotion recognition in children with intellectual disability in the educational sector. The following research question was formulated: Does DGBL increase the socio-emotional skill of emotion recognition in children with intellectual disability. To answer this question a quasiexperimental one-group pretest-posttest design was adopted where participants engaged in a DGBL-intervention where they played a game aimed at improving their emotion recognition ability. Participants were selected via purposive sampling and the final sample consisted of N=7. The sample consisted of children with intellectual disability between the age span of six and nine of both male and female gender. The experiment consisted of three parts: a pretest where data in terms of the socio-emotional skill of emotion recognition was collected, the actual intervention where the participants engaged inplaying a digital game, and lastly, a posttest where the skill of emotion recognition was measured again. The data was subsequently analyzed via a paired sample t-test. The results of the study showed that DGBL did not significantly increase the socio-emotional skill of emotion recognition in children with intellectual disability. This result in part contradicts earlier research on DGBL and intellectual disability as well as DGBL andsocio-emotional skill where significant effects have been identified. However, since no previous research has investigated whether DGBL could be effective in increasing the socio-emotional skill of children with intellectual disability, future research is needed to confirm or reject the present results. In summary, the current research has extended on current knowledge and provided important implications for the field of special education.

The topic of the diploma thesis is the creation of a computer game of the platform genre called "Nav". The work examines the stages of game creation and the position of games in contemporary art. The purpose of this work is to create a game based on Slavic, especially Ukrainian, mythology.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第24301号 / 人博第1057号 / 新制||人||248(附属図書館) / 2022||人博||1057(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)准教授 PETERSON Mark, 准教授 中森 誉之, 教授 勝又 直也, 教授 FIELD Malcolm Henry / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

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