The research objective is to demonstrate that a game-implementation process can serve as a means of solving some key implementation problems and for integrating the components associated with developing a quantitative based system. Thus, the study has the following objectives: 1. To demonstrate by means of a case study example that gaming can be successfully employed as a systems implementation tool. 2. To identify a game-implementation approach which would be useful in developing and implementing a quantitative based system.

The aim of the present study is to examine two pupils’ interaction when playing the language learning game Sweet City together on tablet. The game is used for teaching Swedish as a second language and it is designed as an adventure game. Special interest is focused on how the pupils use the opportunities for translating labels into other languages, a function built into the game. Translanguaging, that is, how the pupils’ assembled linguistic resources benefit them in the game, is another focus of the study. The method used was observation, with filming of the pupils´ playing. The material was then analysed with the aid of the Exchange Structure Model. The result showed that playing video games leads to a context-linked conversation with many short exchanges. The pupils are engaged in the game and the cooperation that is required to make progress in it. The pupils take advantage of the potential to translate the game dialogue, but the concrete consequences of that are not clearly detectable.

Gamification as an educational tool has been explored extensively in traditional academic contexts such as universities and schools. There is however a lack of research on the usage of games for educational purposes in organizations, and even less research has evaluated games’ potential in creating organizational awareness. To understand if companies could benefit from gamification, this study looked at how employees’ professional backgrounds, social interaction and context during a game experience can influence employees’ awareness of the organization. In order to do that, a digital game that portrayed the supply chain process of an industrial company and focused on specific key aspects was built and tested with 17 employees in a large international organization. The results show that digital games can further both awareness of the organization by letting employees play and experience key aspects of the delivery process. The most noticeable increase in awareness were with the participants whose work is not directly involved in the supply chain.

A field of research that is quickly becoming more prominent is the one related to embodied cognition, which states there is an important association between physical activity and cognition. However, research on the application of embodied cognition to education is still at its infancy. More research needs to be done to understand how motion can contribute to student learning, and even further, research is needed on how learning technologies might support physical activity while learning. This research sits at the intersection of embodied cognition, learning technologies, mobile devices, and mathematics education. It implements a novel learning technology platform created at WPI, called the Wearable Learning Cloud Platform (WLCP). Thanks to a child friendly app thats connect to the central web based system, the experience of elementary school children playing physically active games might be improved. This research also analyzes the importance of motor action in students’ math learning: By using three different conditions of a game called the Tangrams Race requiring different levels of physical activity (i.e. embodiment), we compared differences between fine and gross motor actions in regards to learning. Results indicated that physically active mobile games can and do improve math learning. Results also show marginal significant effect in favor of the physically active mobile games (p<0.1, Partial Eta Sq.=0.1) over traditional tutoring systems on a computer.

As new introductory block-based coding applications for young students to learn basic computer science concepts, such as, loops and conditionals, continue to increase in popularity, it is necessary to consider the best method of teaching students these skills. Many of these products continue to exhibit programmatic misconceptions of these concepts and many students struggle with how to apply what they learn to a text-based format due to the difficulties with learning the syntactic structure not present in block-based programming languages. If the goal of teaching young students how to program is meant to develop a set of skills they may apply when learning more complex programming languages, then discerning how they are introduced to those practices is imperative. However, few studies have examined how the specific modality in which students are taught to program effects how they learn and what skills they develop. More specifically, research has yet to effectively investigate modality in the context of an educational coding game where the modality feature is controlled, and content is consistent throughout game-play. This is mainly due to the lack of available games with this feature designed into the application. This dissertation explores whether programming modality effects how well students can learn and transfer computer science concepts and practices from an educational programming game. I proposed that by being guided from a blocks-based to text-based programming language would instill a deeper understanding of basic computer science concepts and would support learning and improve transfer and performance on new challenging tasks. Two experimental studies facilitated game-play sessions on the developed application for this project. The first study was a 2x2 between subjects design comparing educational module (game versus basic) and programming modality (guided versus free choice). The findings from Study 1 informed the final version design for the module used in the second study where only the game module was used in order to focus the comparison between programming modality. Findings showed that students who coded using the game module performed better on a learning test. Study 2 results showed that students who are transitioned from blocks-based to text-based programming language learn basic computer science concepts with greater success than those with the free choice modality. A comparative study was conducted using quantitative data from learning measures and qualitative video data from the interviews during the challenge task of the second study. This study examined how students at the extreme levels of performance utilized the toggle switch feature during game-play and how the absence of the feature impacted how they completed the challenge task. This analysis showed two different methods of toggle switch usage being implemented by a high and low performing student. The high performing student utilized the resources more often during the challenge tasks in lieu of leveraging the toggle switch and were still able to submit high level code. Results suggest that a free choice student who uses the feature as a tool to check their prewritten code rather than a as short cut for piecing code together as blocks and submitting the text upon the final attempt. This practice leads to a shallower understanding of the basic concepts and make it extremely difficult to expand and apply that knowledge to a more difficult task. This dissertation includes five chapters: an introduction and theoretical framework, a game design framework and implementation description, two experimental investigations, and a quantitative and qualitative comparative analysis. Chapter one provides the conceptual and theoretical framework for the two experimental investigations. Chapter two describes the theory and design structure for the game developed for this dissertation work. Chapter three and four will discuss the effects of programming modality on learning outcomes. Specifically, chapter 3 focuses on implications of programming modality when determining how to implement changes for the design of the game for Study 2. Chapter five discusses a comparative analysis that investigated differing work flow patterns within the free choice condition between high and low performing students. Results from these three chapters illustrate the importance of examining this component of the computer science education process in supplemental games for middle and high school students. Additionally, this work contributes in furthering the investigation of these educational games and discusses implications for design of similar applications.

This dissertation research focuses on investigating the incidence of student self-regulated learning behavior, and examines patterns in student affective states that accompany such self-regulated behavior. This dissertation leverages prediction models of student affective states in the Physics Playground educational game platform to identify common patterns in student affective states during use of self-regulated learning behavior. In Study 1, prediction models of student affective states are developed in the context of the educational game environment Physics Playground, using affective state observations and computer log data that had already been collected as part of a larger project. The performances of student affective state prediction models generated using a combination of the computer log and observational data are then compared against those of similar prediction models generated using video data collected at the same time. In Study 2, I apply these affective state prediction models to generate predictions of student affective states on a broader set of data collected from students participants playing Physics Playground. In parallel, I define aggregated behavioral features that represent the self-observation and strategic planning components of self-regulated learning. Affective state predictions are then mapped to playground level attempts that contain these self-regulated learning behavioral features, and sequential pattern mining is applied to the affective state predictions to identify the most common patterns in student emotions. Findings from Study 1 demonstrate that both video data and interaction log data can be used to predict student affective states with significant accuracy. Since the video data is a direct measure of student emotions, it shows better performance across most affective states. However, the interaction log data can be collected natively by Physics Playground and is able to be generalized more easily to other learning environments. Findings from Study 2 suggest that self-regulatory behavior is closely associated with sustained periods of engaged concentration and .self-regulated learning behaviors are associated with transitions from negative affective states (confusion, frustration, and boredom) to the positive engaged concentration state. The results of this dissertation project demonstrate the power of measuring student affective states in real time and examining the temporal relationship to self-regulated learning behavior within an unstructured educational game platform. These results thus provide a building block for future research on the real-time assessment of student emotions and its relationship with self-regulated learning behaviors, particularly within online student-centered and self-directed learning contexts.

Serious games can be used for a vast amount of different purposes and they change the way we think, learn, and entertain ourselves. The focus of this paper will be more about learning or educational games and how the adaptation of content through personalized preferences can be of an importance for capturing the user’s interest and retaining their motivation. The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of the content adaptation of a serious game target group in order to maintain their motivation to achieve the learning outcome. The players of serious games usually have a goal or motivation prior to begin playing a game. Those goals may include the learning of a new language or increasing one's geography or math skills. By adapting the content of a serious game to the level of knowledge of a player or giving the player the opportunity to choose in what field they would like to increase their knowledge in, could be a factor to maintain the player motivation up until the goal of the player is achieved. In this paper, an adaptive educational game has been developed to examine whether a target group with personalized content will indicate a higher motivation to play the game than another group which will be playing the direct version of the game without any personalized content.

O teste de software é considerado uma importante atividade na garantia da qualidade de produtos de software. No entanto, há uma carência de profissionais qualificados nessa área. Isso pode ser ocasionado pela dificuldade de ensinar teste de software por meio de abordagens que utilizem apenas aulas teóricas e ferramentas de teste tradicionais. Além disso, há uma desmotivação decorrente do ambiente de trabalho e das estratégias de alocação e responsabilidade desses profissionais nas equipes de desenvolvimento e teste. Para amenizar esses problemas, têm sido utilizado outras abordagens de apoio ao ensino de teste de software, tais como: jogos educacionais, ensino de teste com programação, módulos educacionais, entre outras. O objetivo deste projeto de mestrado foi desenvolver um jogo educacional, denominado Testing Game, para auxiliar o ensino de teste de software, especificamente: teste funcional, teste estrutural e teste de mutação. Para auxiliar o desenvolvimento do Testing Game, foi realizado um mapeamento sistemático para selecionar um motor de jogos. Na primeira versão do jogo foi utilizado o motor de jogos Cocos2D e na segunda versão foi utilizado o Construct 2. Para avaliar a eficiência do Testing Game, realizou-se um estudo de viabilidade com o intuito de avaliar a qualidade com relação à motivação, experiência do usuário e aprendizagem sob o ponto de vista dos estudantes. Além disso, avaliou-se a usabilidade do Testing Game. Aproximadamente 85,64% das pessoas que participaram do estudo avaliaram a qualidade do jogo de forma positiva com relação à motivação, experiência do usuário e aprendizagem sob o ponto de vista dos estudantes. Quanto à usabilidade do jogo, foram identificados poucos problemas, o que possibilita a liberação do jogo. Por meio deste trabalho, percebeu-se que o jogo Testing Game poderia ser utilizado como um recurso complementar de apoio ao ensino de teste de software, e sua efetividade ser avaliada. / Software testing is a relevant activity to provide evidences of qualifty of software products. However, there is a lack of qualified professionals in this area. This can be caused due to difficulty in teaching software testing through approaches that use only theoretical classes traditional tools. In addition, there is a lack of motivation due to the work environment and the strategies of allocation and responsibility of these professionals in development and testing teams. To mitigate these problems, approaches have been used to support software testing education, such as: educational games, integrated teaching of software testing with programming, educational modules, among others. The objective of this masters thesis was to develop an educational game named Testing Game, addressing the following topics: functional testing, structural testing and mutation testing. To support the development of the Testing Game, we performed a systematic mapping aiming at selecting a game engine. In the first game version, we used Cocos2D and in the second one we used Construct 2. To evaluate the efficiency of the game, we conducted a feasibility study to evaluate the quality regarding motivation, user experience and learning from the point of view of the students. Moreover, we also evaluate the usability of the Testing Game. Approximately 85.64% of people who participated in the study assessed the quality of the game in a positive perspective regarding motivation, user experience and learning from the point of view of the students. Regarding the usability of the game, students identified minor problems were identified, which allows the release of the game. Through this work, we realize that the game Testing Game can be used as a complementary resource to support software testing education, and its effectiveness be evaluated.

Este trabalho se propõe a refletir historicamente sobre jogos de tabuleiro de percurso, mais especificamente, dois jogos denominados Jogo da Vida. O primeiro Jogo localizado no MEB/FEUSP, concebido pela Congregação das Missionárias Reparadoras do Sagrado Coração de Jesus, de 1945. O segundo, comercializado pela indústria nacional de brinquedos Estrela, de 1980. Tomando-se tais jogos como objetos da história, discutiu-se a concepção de jogo, de jogo educativo, de cultura lúdica e sua relação com a educação, a materialidade e a imaterialidade destes objetos, e a sua presença ao longo da história. O Jogo da Vida da Congregação Católica gerou a busca por informações sobre a sua origem, criação e usos junto aos acervos do LABRIMP/MEB FEUSP, Real Gabinete Português de Leitura, Arquivo Escolar Caetano de Campos, Instituto Teológico Pio XI. Outro caminho adotado para compor esta história foi a localização da doadora do Jogo da Vida Católica ao MEB, professora Heloisa Prestes Monzoni. Nesse percurso dois outros objetos, utilizados na educação protestante foram incorporados à pesquisa: o quadro dos Dois Caminhos e o livro O Peregrino. Estes objetos nos levaram ao acervo da Igreja Metodista de Guaratinguetá com o objetivo de recuperar brevemente a origem, a presença e o uso dos mesmos na educação de crianças, tendo como pano de fundo a discussão sobre a possibilidade de terem inspirado a criação de jogos educativos. Os objetos lúdicos estudados abriram o diálogo com a educação religiosa da primeira metade do século XX e a adoção do brincar, do brinquedo e do jogo como estratégias pedagógicas neste contexto. O jogo da Vida da Estrela se apresenta como um ramo secundário para contrapor as práticas e a produção que envolvem os jogos educativos no século XX.. Foram nossos companheiros no percurso deste jogo/pesquisa: Kishimoto, Brougère, Rabecq-Mallaird, Pennick, Bell, Mehl, Ginzburg, Hilsdorf, Callois, Huizinga, Manson, Baktin e outros. O percurso deste trabalho nos fez refletir sobre a relação do adulto, da criança com os jogos educativos, a cultura lúdica e a aprendizagem desta pelas crianças, o papel do adulto de inserir e implementar a ludicidade infantil. / This dissertation proposes a historical reflection on board games, more specifically two games named \"Game of Life\". The first game is located in the MEB/FEUSP (Museum of Education and Toys / College of Education at the University of São Paulo) and was conceived by the Congregação das Missionárias Reparadoras do Sagrado Coração de Jesus (Catholic Congregation of the Repairing Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) in 1945. The second was commercialized by the national toy factory Estrela in 1980. Taking both games as objects of history, the conception of game, educational game, ludic culture and their relation with education, materiality and immateriality of these objects and their presence along the history were discussed. The Game of Life of the Catholic Congregation led to the search of its origin, creation and usage, by the heritage of LABRIMP/MEB FEUSP (Toy Laboratory at the University of São Paulo), the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, the School Archive Caetano de Campos and the Theological Institute Pio XI. Another way to compose this story was to find the donor of the Catholic Game of Life to MEB, the teacher Heloisa Prestes Monzonni. On this way, two further objects used in the protestant education were incorporated to the research: the picture The Broad and the Narrow Way and the book The Pilgrim. These objects led us to the heritage of the Methodist Church of Guaratinguetá with the purpose of recovering briefly their origin, presence and usage in the children education. The background is the discussion about the possibility that they inspired the creation of the educational games. The ludic objects studied opened the dialog with the religious education of the first half of the XX century and the adoption of playing, of toys and games as pedagogical strategies in this context. The Game of Life of Estrela is a secondary branch to contrapose the practices and production that involve the educational games in the XX century. Our partners on the way of this game/research were: Kishimoto, Brougère, Rabecq-Mallaird, Pennick, Bell, Mehl, Ginzburg, Hilsdorf, Callois, Huizinga, Manson, Bakhtin, among others. The journey through this work made us reflect about the relationship of adults and children with the educational games, the ludic culture, the learning of the referred culture by the children, and about the role of adults in inserting and implementing the children ludicity.

by Paulita S. Y. Man. / Bibliography: leaves 297-306 / Thesis (M.Phil.) -- Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1983