This study intented to investigate the effects of activities based on role-play on ninth grade students&rsquo / achievement and attitudes at simple electric circuits. In this study, Physics Achievement Test was developed to evaluate students&rsquo / achievement on simple electric circuits and role-play activities about simple electric circuits were prepared. In addition, Physics Attitude Scale was administered to explore students&rsquo / attitude towards physics. The present study was conducted at one of the high schools in Acipayam during 2003-2004 Spring Semester with a total number of 104 (51 female and 53 male) 9th students from four classes of two physics teachers. One class of each physics teacher was assigned as experimental and instructed by role-play activities on the other hand the other classes of each physics teacher was as control group and instructed by traditional method. The teachers were trained for how to implement role-play activities in the class before the study began. Physics Attitude Scale and Physics Achievement Tests were applied twice as a pre-test and after a three-week treatment period as a post-test to both groups to assess and compare the effectiveness of two different types of teaching / role-play versus traditional teaching method. Data were collected utilizing Physics Achievement Test and Physics Attitude Scale. Data of this study were analyzed utilizing descriptive and inferential statistics. The scores of the post-tests were analyzed by statistical techniques of Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA). Experimental group compared to control group tended to favor a significant difference in the achievement. However the statistical analysis failed to show any significant differences between the experimental and control groups&rsquo / attitude towards physics at simple electric circuits.

This research has undertaken two key mandates. One was to develop modifications to the African Catchment Game (ACG), a role playing simulation game, in order to simulate rainfall and water management processes representative of the southern African context. The other was to understand what, if any, learning associated with water management issues had taken place as a result of playing the ACG. The modification process took the form of an action research process. The initial modifications were trialed with South African students as part of their undergraduate Geography course offered at Rhodes University, South Africa. Subsequent modifications were implemented over a five month period with three diverse participant groups, namely Finnish, American and South African participants. An interpretive research orientation was employed in order to analyse both the qualitative and quantitative data that was generated. Pre- and Post-Game Questionnaires were used in order to identify the learning and understanding which the participants constructed as a result of playing the ACG. The Chi-Square Test was also applied to each of the pre- and post- questions to establish statistical significance. Subsequent analysis of these questions identified and traced patters and trends associated with learning and understanding across the three game runs. This research study draws on social constructivism and experiential learning as the dominant education theory that underpins it. Results revealed that for all three game runs learning took place. Participants identified dominant themes and environmental dimensions both before and after playing the ACG. The analysis of these responses indicated a deeper awareness of water as a contributing factor for sustainable economic development while the game runs enabled the researcher to adjust the water availability within each game run until rainfall and water management processes representative of a southern African context were successfully simulated in the last game run.

Submitted by Georgia Vaz (georgia.vaz@mackenzie.br) on 2016-07-06T19:39:07Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) ARI FREUND.pdf: 2856706 bytes, checksum: 6960d4d721335f7152a54ba441237d9e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-06T19:39:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) ARI FREUND.pdf: 2856706 bytes, checksum: 6960d4d721335f7152a54ba441237d9e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-16 / Considering the games eficiency for learning business this research proposes the development of a simulation game as an education tool for sales executives on financial techniques to sell. These techniques helps to maximize solution value by differentiating the way sales are performed. Initially a literature review has been held on the corporate universities evolution, epistemological and business games, adaptability and business financial structure. Then the SGDD (Serious Game Development Document) has been elaborated and the artificial intelligence technics required for the development of the game PHABRIKA have been defined. Developed in Game Maker Studio, the game is made up of two levels: on the first level the player learns about game dynamics, and on the second level the player is challenged to a series of strategic decisions-making into a competitive market environment. Finally, an observation session with sales executives (of electronic components for industry segment) has been held to validate the education of financial techniques to sell methodology through usage of the game PHABRIKA. Using observation session prior and subsequent questionnaires it was possible to compare participants' knowledge evolution and conclude that the game PHABRIKA is effective as education tool on financial techniques to sell. / Considerando a eficiência da utilização de jogos para aprendizagem de negócios, este projeto propõe o desenvolvimento de um jogo de simulação como instrumento para ensino de técnicas financeiras de venda para executivos de vendas. Estas técnicas auxiliam a maximizar o valor agregado da solução por meio da diferenciação da forma com que a venda é realizada. Em um primeiro momento, foi realizada uma revisão literária a respeito da evolução das universidades corporativas, jogos epistemológicos, jogos de empresas, adaptatividade e estrutura financeira de empresas. Em seguida foi elaborado o SGDD (Serious Game Development Document - Documento para desenvolvimento de serious games) e definidas as técnicas de inteligência artificial necessárias para o desenvolvimento do jogo PHABRIKA. O jogo, desenvolvido na plataforma Game Maker, é composto por dois níveis, sendo o primeiro para que o jogador entenda sua dinâmica e o segundo para que tenha desafio de tomar decisões estratégicas atuando em um mercado competitivo. Por fim, a metodologia de ensino de técnicas financeiras de vendas utilizando o jogo PHABRIKA foi validada por meio de uma sessão de observação com um grupo de executivos de vendas de componentes eletrônicos para segmento industrial. Utilizando-se de questionários anteriores e posteriores à observação foi possível comparar a evolução dos participantes, e concluir que o jogo PHABRIKA foi eficiente como instrumento de ensino de técnicas financeiras de vendas.

The Global Village Playground (GVP) was a capstone learning experience designed to address institutional assessment needs while providing an integrated, contextualized, and authentic learning experience for students. In the GVP, students work on simulated and real-world problems as a design team tasked with developing an alternate reality game that makes an impact on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the design of the GVP as a capstone experience. The research design follows a qualitative case study approach to gather and analyze data collected from the instructors and students participating in the pilot implementation of the GVP. Results of the study show predominantly favorable reactions to various aspects of the course and its design. Students reported to have learned the most through interactions with peers and through applying and integrating knowledge in developing the alternate reality game that was the central problem scenario for the course. What students demonstrated to have learned included knowledge construction, social responsibility, open-mindedness, big picture thinking, and an understanding of their relationship to the larger society and world in which they live. Challenges that resulted from the design included the amount of necessary to build consensus and then develop an overarching game concept, the tension between guided and directed instruction, and the need to foster greater interdependence among students while encouraging them to become more self-directed.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The humble Pong arcade game at the corner store ignited a fundamental culture shift in the 1970s and it is increasingly gaining momentum. A generation of gamers is already permeating organisations. The socio-cultural phenomenon of digital gaming has become pervasive. The intersection point of the three trends, Ubiquitous Computing, Ubiquitous Gaming and Social Networking, is the focus point of this study. It is at this intersection point that both social online gaming and cutting-edge leadership competencies co-exist and have the potential to flourish when implemented with caution and circumspection. Leadership is frequently touted as an almost mystical holy grail in modern business. Leadership :pevelopment is therefore often recognised as a critical pivot for business success. If business leaders can successfully utilise game-based learning to maximise their return on investment in Leadership Development initiatives, this may not only increase business metrics, but also enable business leaders to leave a lasting legacy by sculpting new generations of leaders who are ready and able to face the future. Social Online Simulation Gaming (SOSG) as a learning design and learning technology can prove particularly valuable as a leadership and skills development tool within the "digimodem" world. Current literature, however, does not provide a clearly focused framework for the implementation of ICT supported game-based Leadership Development technologies within the information economy. Current literature fails to integrate and take into account aspects critical to the successful utilisation of SOSG, such as the principles of "Flow Design", the often "Puppet Master" role and the interrelatedness, even interdependence, of the required utilisation competencies There is currently not a clear and specific framework for evaluating the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) competencies, knowledge, skills and attitudes required to successfully use Socia1 ·bnline Simulation Games software within the context of Organisational Leaden;hip Development. This study aimed to create and refine a framework for evaluating the ICT competencies required to successfully implement SOSG as Leadership Development tool.

Film produced by Nazi Germany has been a classic that has drawn scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines as well as innumerable cineastes from various cultural backgrounds. The simultaneous rise in the number of players acting as observers and operators in digital games with a WWII theme has drawn recent scholarly attention since it is thought that this pattern is contributing to players' hazy understanding of historical events. In order to close the gap from earlier studies that there is no future perspective for these concepts refined from Nazi films, nor relevance to films in the field of Game Studies, I proposed a new connection between Nazi films and WWII games based on the conceptual relocation of Fascist Aesthetic, Futuristic Utopianism, and Steel-like Romanticism. In this relocation, Fascist Aesthetic has kept its elements from Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda films but expanded to the pursuit of death and violence in the Wolfenstein series (WWII FPS games), Futuristic Utopianism in Piel's science fiction trilogy derived from the passion for technology of the Weimar period, his original designs in the Sci-fi trilogy have proved to be an inspiration for WWII games. In Walter Ruttmann's industrial films, steel-like romanticism was portrayed as a romantic sensation from the production of large-scale, intricate weapons by dedicated German workers to achieve the reactionary modernism, but in WWII simulation games, it evolved into a nostalgia for the weapons built by the Reich. As a result of this change, a trustworthy commemoration of the Third Reich is vanishing from visual culture and its grim past has been changed by simulation.

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Submitted in fulfilment of requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Technology: Operations and Quality Management, Durban University of Technology, 2014. / The need for alternative teaching practices in the face of poor retention and student throughput rates has changed the context of higher education in South Africa. This study interrogates one alternative teaching practice: the use of a board game and a multimedia game. Arguments for the potential benefits of games in higher education have generated a growing body of literature, but the general focus of these studies has been empirical with little theorisation about the associated pedagogy. Using a mixed methods sequential explanatory research design, this thesis aimed to determine the quality of pedagogy through games in providing epistemological access to the subjects Tooth Morphology and Oral Anatomy in a Dental Technology Diploma at a selected University of Technology. The thesis also developed a framework for the design of games to enable quality teaching and learning of vocational subjects. Preliminary and pilot studies were conducted. The preliminary study was conducted over a five-year period from 2003 to 2006. The total sample size for the Tooth Morphology board game was n=128 and for Oral Anatomy multimedia game was n=30. Academic experts validated the study by reviewing the contents of the game. The findings suggested that games assisted students to actively learn. The pilot study was conducted in 2007 and 2008. The total sample size for the Tooth Morphology board game was n=62 and for the Oral Anatomy multimedia game was n=22. Dental technology experts validated the contents of the game. Cronbach’s alpha index was used to assess the reliability of the study and was α=0.45 and α=0.757 for the Tooth Morphology board game and the Oral Anatomy multimedia game, respectively. The low alpha score obtained for the Tooth Morphology board game prompted improvements to be made to the survey for the main study. The main study was conducted in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The total population size for the Tooth Morphology board game was n=83 and for the Oral Anatomy multimedia game was n=82. Surveys and pre- and post-tests were analysed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, factor analysis and cross tabulations. Content validity ensured that the survey focused on concepts and constructs that emerged from the review of literature on games. Cronbach’s alpha index was used to assess the reliability of the surveys and was α=0.794 and α=0.868 for the Tooth Morphology board game and Oral Anatomy multimedia game, respectively. Qualitative analyses entailed focus groups with students who used the games. The data generated was analysed using the conceptual frameworks of Bernstein’s knowledge codes and Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory of Specialisation. Trustworthiness of the data was achieved using methodological triangulation, data triangulation and peer debriefing. Quantitative results revealed that an integrated game design with an appropriate mix of instructional content and applicable game features and mechanisms facilitates the provision of epistemological access to Tooth Morphology and Oral Anatomy. By placing a sociological lens on knowledge in the games, a major finding in the qualitative analyses was that epistemological access using games provided access to particular knowledge-knower structures of the target subjects or disciplines. An LCT (Specialisation) analysis revealed that the games in this study represented a knowledge code as specialist knowledge and skills were valued over the possession of personal attributes and dispositions. This knowledge code was in turn aligned to the knowledge code of the target programme. In synthesising the results there were three recurring issues that emerged from the data as being key, namely: (1) access to knowledge; (2) instructional design of the games; and (3) technical design of the games. The thesis concluded by proposing the KITE framework, a guideline for lecturers to consider when designing games for higher education. / DAAD, NRF In-Country Scholarship

In economic games the facial attributes of counterparts bias decisions to trust and decisions to enter play. We report research supporting hypotheses that trust and reciprocation decisions in trust games are biased by mechanisms of sexual selection. Hypotheses that trust game behaviour is modulated by inter-sexual competition were supported. 1) Attractive individuals elicit more cooperation. 2) Male participants display trust and reciprocation toward attractive female counterparts in excess of perceived trustworthiness (and this display is modulated by male self-reported physical dominance). 3) Female participants appear to respond to male trust as a signal of sexual interest and are therefore more likely to exploit the trust of attractive males. 4) In explicitly dating contexts females are more likely to prefer attractive males to pay for the meal. These results indicate that participants are biased by mate choice and mating display considerations while playing economic games in the lab. Hypotheses that trust game behaviour is modulated by intra-sexual competition for resources were also somewhat supported. 1) Male participants reporting an ability to win fights with same-sex peers are more exploitative of other males. 2) Cues to current circulating testosterone level in counterpart’s faces are less trusted but elicit more reciprocation. 3) The male sexually dimorphic trait facial width-to-height ratio (a trait which is related to both aggression and dominance) is related to an increased proportion of decisions to exploit others in the trust game while also being used by others as a cue to untrustworthiness. We conclude that trusting and trustworthy behaviour in both sexes is biased by mating market considerations predicted by intra- and inter-sexual selection.

In this PhD thesis, the utilisation of interactive simulation in a higher education e-learning classroom environment was explored and its effectiveness was experimentally evaluated by engaging university students in a classroom setting. Two case studies were carried out for the experimental evaluation of the proposed novel interactive simulation e-learning tool. In the first case study, the use of interactive agent-based simulation was demonstrated in teaching complex adaptive system concepts in the area of ecology to university students and its effectiveness was measured in a classroom environment. In a lab intervention using a novel interactive agent-based simulation (built in NetLogo). For the purpose of teaching complex adaptive systems such as the concept of spatially-explicit predator prey interaction to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the University of Stirling. The effectiveness of using the interactive simulation was investigated by using the NetLogo software and compared with non-interactive simulation built using R programming language. The experimental evaluation was carried out using a total of 38 students. Results of this case study demonstrates that the students found interactive agent-based simulation to be more engaging, effective and user friendly as compare to the non-interactive simulation. In the second case study, a novel interactive simulation game was developed (in NetLogo) and its effectiveness in teaching and learning of complex concepts in the field of marine ecology was demonstrated. This case study makes a twofold contribution. Firstly, the presentation of a novel interactive simulation game, developed specifically for use in undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the area of marine ecology. This novel interactive simulation game is designed to help learners to explore a mathematical model of fishery population growth and understand the principles for sustainable fisheries. Secondly, the comparison of two different methods of using the interactive simulation game within the classroom was investigated: learning from active exploration of the interactive simulation game compared with learning from an expert demonstration of the interactive simulation game. The case study demonstrated the effectiveness of learning from passive viewing of an expert demonstration of the interactive simulation game over learning from active exploration of the interactive simulation game without expert guidance, for teaching complex concepts sustainable fishery management. A mixed methods study design was used, using both quantitative and qualitative methods to compare the learning effectiveness of the two approaches, and the students’ preferences. The investigation was carried out by running interventions with a mixture of undergraduate and postgraduate students from the University of Stirling in a classroom environment. A total of 74 participants were recruited from undergraduate and postgraduate level for both case studies. This thesis demonstrated through two case studies effectiveness of the proposed novel interactive simulation in university e-learning classroom environment.