The overall theme of this thesis is the study of incorporating gamification design approaches in the creation of mobile educational software. The research presented in this thesis focuses on the design and testing of software created to teach introductory computer science and literacy concepts to postsecondary and adult learners. A study testing the relative effectiveness and subjective user enjoyment of different interfaces for a mobile game is also included in this thesis, as the results of the study led to the primary research objectives investigated in further studies. Our primary research objective was to investigate whether using gamification design approaches to mobile educational software could result in student engagement and learning. Our central hypothesis is that gamification design approaches can be used to create engaging and educationally effective mobile educational software. Our secondary research objective is to determine how mobile educational software can be made more or less engaging and educationally effective through gamification design approaches, by trying different approaches, testing the resulting applications, and reporting the findings. Three studies were conducted based on these objectives, one study to teach various computer science concepts to students in a first year computer science course with iPad applications, and two studies which used iPad applications to teach punctuation and homonyms, and improve reading comprehension. The studies document the design of the applications, and provide analysis and conclusions based on the results of testing. Through the results of these studies we affirm our hypothesis. We make design suggestions for software creators, such as providing corrective feedback to the user. We discuss common themes that emerged across the studies, including how to best use educational software. Finally, as avenues for future work, we suggest investigating the impromptu social effects of using tablet software in a classroom, and the development of a usability testing platform. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The overall theme of this thesis is the study of how gamification can be used to make mobile educational software engaging and effective as a learning tool. The research presented in this thesis focuses on the design and testing of software intended to teach introductory computer science and literacy concepts. The hypothesis guiding this work is that mobile educational software can be made engaging and educationally effective by incorporating game design elements. Through four studies we affirm our hypothesis, and document the relative success of various gamification techniques in different contexts. We make design suggestions for software creators, such as providing corrective feedback to the user. We discuss common themes that emerged across the studies, including how to best use educational software. Finally, as avenues for future work, we suggest investigating the impromptu social effects of using tablet software in a classroom, and the development of a usability testing platform.

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Surgical procedures that require general anesthesia can be stressful and create needless anxiety for school-age children. Interventions aimed at reducing preoperative anxiety can improve cooperation and enhance postoperative outcomes by lowering anxiety levels prior to induction of general anesthesia. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of behavioral interventions versus drug therapy in reducing pre-operative anxiety in children. The secondary purpose was to compare methods used to integrate anxiety reduction interventions into pre-operative care and to evaluate the most widely used and effective strategy for clinical practice. A literature review exploring behavioral based stress reduction interventions and drug therapy targeted at reducing preoperative anxiety was conducted from various online databases. Peer reviewed articles, published in the English-language between 2006 and 2015 that focused on postoperative outcomes in which preoperative interventions to reduce anxiety in children age two years and older, as well as the parent’s perspective of the outcome, were included for synthesis. Results from 9 randomized controlled trials that used behavioral based interventions implemented on the day of surgery, prior to anesthesia induction were compared for effectiveness at anxiety reduction versus the use of drug therapy prior to surgery. The studies suggest more successful post-surgical outcomes related to shorter length of stay and post-operative delirium for behavioral interventions to reduce anxiety prior to surgery and demonstrated even greater optimal outcomes for combined behavioral interventions. Drug therapy alone to decrease anxiety prior to anesthesia induction showed mixed results in reduction of physiologic and general outcomes following surgery. No significant difference between behavioral based interventions versus drug therapy was shown in any of the reviewed studies to have a significant effect on post-surgical outcomes. However, potentially promising behavioral based interventions such as clowns, electronic devices, parental presence and music over drug therapy prior to surgery, require further evaluation for their use in decreasing pre-operative anxiety in school-age children and having a positive impact on post-operative outcomes.

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The skill of cooking a meal from start to end is becoming a stressful every day activity in many homes in Denmark. Less and less parents focus on including their children in preparing dinner because they see it as a time-consuming activity that the child would rather be left out of. In this paper we examine the importance of teaching children how to cook from a young age as well as we investigate in why it can seem like such a big task for them to actually get started with cooking. The study focuses on how to develop an interactive tablet and smartphone application that provides children with an explorative platform for them to develop their cooking skills on. The detailed process of developing a simple tablet/smartphone application is explored in order to arrive at an understand of the challenges children face when cooking, how we encourage them to cook and how we facilitate them with the best possible options for this. By doing several explorative workshops and studying previous research about how children learn, understand and explore their creativity, we arrive at an understanding of the challenges, limits and benefits there would be with an application like this.

Det papperslösa samhället har varit ett begrepp i över trettio år, men än läser vi tidskrifter och magasin i pappersform. Vi konsumerar dock dagligen allt mer information och mycket av denna är i digital form. Tidskriften är en produkt som liksom CD-skivan är möjlig att helt och hållet digitalisera. Kanske är det en anledning till att upplagorna minskar för många tidskrifter i Sverige? Denna rapport syftar till att nå en fördjupad förståelse för hur svenska tidskrifter möter den digitala utvecklingen i fyra kanaler; webbplats, Twitter, Facebook och applikation för iPad (digital utgåva). Med deduktivt angreppsätt gjordes en innehållsanalys av information som publicerats i de fyra kanalerna. Observationerna kompletterades med sekundäranalys av offentlig statistik. 20 olika tidskrifter undersöktes, 10 stycken med ökande tryckt upplaga och 10 stycken med minskande tryckt upplaga.Resultaten visar inget tydligt samband mellan hög aktivitet/närvaro i digitala medier och enminskande upplaga. Det är vanligare att tidskrifter med minskande upplaga finns på Twitter.Att ha ett Facebook-konto är lika vanligt i båda urvalsgrupperna. Att publicera en digital utgåva av en i huvudsak tryckt tidskrift är relativt ovanligt förekommande. / The paperless society has been a concept for more than 30 years now, yet we still readmagazines in printed form today. But we also consume a lot more information today than weused to, and this information is increasingly in digital form. The magazine is a physical product that just like the CD is possible to turn completely digital. Maybe this is a reason for the rapid decline of printed circulation among Swedish magazine publishers? This report aim to increase the knowledge of how Swedish publishers meet the digital development in four different channels, website, Twitter, Facebook and digital edition for iPad.A content analysis of the information in the four different channels was conducted on 20different magazines, 10 with an increasing printed circulation and 10 with a declining printedcirculation.The results show no clear indication that there is a connection between high digitalpresence/activity and declining printed circulation. It is however more common amongmagazines with a declining circulation to be present at Twitter. Publishing a digital edition of a printed magazine is still relatively uncommon among Swedish magazines.