The purpose of this study was to experiment with the possibility of using ludonarrative techniques present in games to communicate the socio-communicative impairments common in individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Through extensive research, there is a pronounced lack of Autism representation in the form of diagnosed characters and their behaviors in games that there is little research made in this area. To explore this hypothetical quandary, an experiment was performed to test the effectiveness of how games may be used to convey concepts of Autism Spectrum Disorder to neurotypical individuals to enrich their understanding of the disorder and towards those who have it, through the creation and usage of a language based puzzle game prototype. The results concluded that disguising ASD symptoms and concepts as ludonarrative gameplay metaphors was effective in increasing awareness and interest towards the disorder.

The primary purpose in this case study was to explore the use of three-dimensional virtual spaces via the use of the game Minecraft as a teaching tool. The case study examined the effectiveness, self-efficacy, and social interaction of students when using such a tool in the teaching and learning process. The research analyzed knowledge acquisition through various deliverables such as benchmark pre and post exams, student discourse, and tangible objects created from the lessons by the students. Students were enrolled and participated in a summer camp offered from Arts and Technology Institute in North Texas. The camp utilized Minecraft to teach architecture types. Students learned about pyramids (Egyptian and Aztec), Roman/Greek architecture, Gothic architecture, and Post-Modern Architecture. Each day students were exposed to a different them of architecture and were tasked with building a world that was in the theme of an assigned type of architecture. Fifty-nine school age students ranging in ages from eight to twelve years old participated fully in the study. The students were not grouped by age, but instead self-selected partners with which to work during the course of their creations. Results show that students who participated in the Minecraft driven course were highly engaged and reported a positive experience during the course of learning. Participants worked cohesively to achieve common goals and problem solve during the course of project completion. Participants freely participated in discourse that was on the topic of the lesson, as well as, offered suggestions for improvement and solicited ideas from other participants. Pre and posttest results yielded an improvement in knowledge acquisition regarding general knowledge of architecture types. Many students frequently used the word “Fun” to describe their learning experience as cited in their daily blog entries. The research strived to show that using Minecraft as a teaching tool can create an environment in which students are highly engaged and are afforded an opportunity to learn material in a way that students can see as an applicable reason for learning. Results of this research evidence Minecraft as a tool in learning yields an atmosphere in which students take ownership of their learning and work in concert with other members of the classroom to yield positive learning outcomes.

This thesis examines the use of gamification principles in education, specifically where tablets are being used in the classroom. Individual chapters deal with explaining the concepts related to gamification, educational games and the specifics of implementing tablets into education. Their specific usage was examined through conversations with the teachers and students of Year 2 of a primary school, with the results being recorded in the research section. Research questions examined the theoretical concepts introduced in the first part of the thesis and centred around the theme of education via tablets. The types of tablet applications used were also investigated. When possible this thesis compares the views of teachers and students on the areas examined.

Over the history of interaction design, concepts and methods of prototyping have been significantly developed to address new challenges faced by the field and the ever-going advancement of new technologies. Some of the important developments are related to the notions of mixed-fidelity prototyping, experience prototyping, and prototypes as filters. Building upon these developments, this study explores a multiple-fidelity prototyping approach, that is, using progressively higher fidelity prototypes in iteration. The study focused particularly on the design of user engagement. It documented, and contributed to, an actual design process of Xplore, an augmented reality game-based learning application. Three participatory design-style workshops employing low-, mixed-, and high-fidelity prototypes were conducted respectively. Thematic analyses of participants’ interactions revealed sets of themes in the workshops, which reflected the changing focus and scope of the design space. The implications of the results obtained in the study highlighted the role of prototypes of each fidelity level in engaging users in a design process, as well as the potential benefits of combining multiple fidelity prototypes when designing for user engagement.

Genuine Forschungsdesigns zum Thema Social Presence in spielbasierten Lernumgebungen lagen bisher noch nicht im Fokus der Wissenschaft oder entsprechenden Forschungs‐ und Entwicklungsabteilungen der Hersteller von Game-Based-Learning-Software. Die vorhandenen Untersuchungen zu diesem Themenkomplex bezogen sich bislang entweder auf Social Presence in Computerspielen oder auf Social Presence in virtuellen Lernumgebungen, die nicht als Spiel umgesetzt worden sind. Spiel und Lernen wurden also bereits getrennt voneinander auf Social Presence untersucht, aber beide Konzepte empirisch noch nicht hinreichend zusammengebracht. Zukünftige Projekte müssen versuchen, diese Aspekte zu integrieren, um die Bedeutung von Social Presence im Kontext des spielbasierten Lernens valide einordnen zu können. Nachfolgend werden als Einführung zunächst Konzepte und Ergebnisse aus den Bereichen Social Presence im Videospiel und Social Presence beim Lernen vorgestellt, um im Anschluss daran erste Implikationen für die Gestaltung von GBL-Umgebungen abzuleiten.

The research reported here is a qualitative case study aimed to identify the position of digital game-based learning (DGBL) in the public and private preschools of Stockholm. The research is placed within the broader framework of digital game-based learning and the practical implementation of digital games in education, while the emphasis of the study is given to the role of the teachers in the practical implementation of digital games into the classroom. The research examines the attitude of the teachers towards digital games and investigates the role of these attitudes in the implementation of DGBL. The empirical findings of the study are analyzed and discussed through the prism of the existing literature on the field.The study shows that the perception of teachers on digital games and on the use of technology in early childhood education is the main factor that influences the implementation of digital games in preschools. The attitudes of the teachers can be distinguished in two categories: the positive teachers and the sceptical teachers. Furthermore, there are several other barriers that prevent the spreading of DGBL in the education institutions. Regardless of the teachers’ stance and the existing barriers, teachers are aware of the existence of digital games applicable to the early childhood education and many of them do make use of them. In this study, the ways of implementation of the digital games are also presented. However, teachers do not discuss digital games with the parents, while the discussion among colleagues is limited. The lack of information and appropriate training reveal a gap between the research community and the educational practice of DGBL.

L'intégration des tablettes numériques à écran tactile dans l'éducation de la petite enfance est prometteuse, mais difficile. Les trois principaux acteurs impliqués dans cette intégration sont l'enfant, le parent et l'enseignant. Cette thèse porte sur la manipulation des tablettes par le jeune enfant, les attitudes des parents et l'acceptation de ces dispositifs par l'enseignante ou par l'enseignant, afin de répondre à la question de l'efficacité de l'intégration des tablettes à écran tactile dans l'éducation de la petite enfance. Dans la partie sur l'enfant, deux études ont été menées. La première étude explore les comportements de manipulation numérique des enfants sur des tablettes à écran tactile et a conclu que la difficulté technologique d'une application de jeu dans les tablettes importe plus que la difficulté du contenu. La deuxième étude porte sur l'efficacité de l'ajustement des difficultés d'adaptation dans l'apprentissage basé sur le jeu pour ce qui est de l'acquisition des habiletés cognitives et du plaisir de l'enfant. De plus, les résultats indiquent que la conception du jeu a des répercussions importantes sur la compréhension de l'enfant et la manipulation numérique, et que l'adaptation aux difficultés d'adaptation a eu une influence positive sur le rendement cognitif de l'enfant en littératie, en mathématiques de base et en dessin, alors qu'aucune différence significative n' a été constatée dans l'expérience de plaisir de l'enfant entre le groupe expérimental et le groupe témoin. Dans la partie parents et enseignants, basée sur les résultats de l'enquête et des entretiens, les parents ont une attitude positive à l'égard des tablettes à écran tactile intégrés dans l'éducation de la petite enfance et ils croient fermement que les tablettes peuvent améliorer l'apprentissage des enfants. Pour les enseignants, il a été constaté que l'âge est l'élément clé qui influe sur leur acceptation de l'utilisation des tablettes numériques dans leur pédagogie, et les enseignants s'attendaient à recevoir des instructions plus pratiques sur l'utilisation de ces outils. / Integrating touch screen tablets in early childhood education is promising but challenging. The main three subjects involved in this integration are child, parent and teacher. This dissertation investigated child manipulation, parent attitudes and teacher acceptance respective to answer the question of the effectiveness of integrating touch screen tablets in early childhood education. In the Child part, two studies were conducted. The first study explored child digital manipulation behaviors on a touch screen tablets and made a conclusion that technology difficulty in a game app in the tablets matters more than content difficulty. The second study investigated the effectiveness of the adaptive difficulty adjustment in game-based learning in child cognitive skills achievement and enjoyment experience. And the results indicated that the game design significantly impacts on child comprehension and digital manipulation and the adaptive difficulty adjustment positively influenced child cognitive skills achievement in literacy, basic mathematics and basic drawing while no significant difference was found in child enjoyment experience between the experiment and control group. In the Parent and Teacher part, based on the survey and interview results, parents hold positive attitude towards touch screen tablets integrated in early childhood education and they strongly believed the potential of tablets to improve children learning. For teachers, it was found that the age is the key element impacting their acceptance of using tablets in their pedagogy, and teachers expected more practical instruction of using tablet in their teaching.

The goal of this study is to observe if having more interactivity and media richness in teaching will lead to more meaningful learning and remembering information longer, compared to more traditional teaching such as books and slideshow presentations. It has been revealed that using multimedia tools such as video games, which use different cognitive load-reducing methods, can help the learner use less irrelevant cognitive process. This will lead to more cognitive load being assigned to more relevant materials. Two groups of participants were compared to each other, where one group was asked to play a video game containing historical information about the city of Skövde, while the second group was presented with a slideshow containing the historical information but only as simple text. The results from the experiment suggested that there is a significant difference between the two groups, meaning the participants who were asked to play the video game has less difficulty in recalling information after 7 days compared to the group who only read the slideshow presentation.

Games are increasingly becoming a powerful and effective tool for training. The use of games as a training tool increase intrinsic motivation which enhances learning. This study concerns why people play and why they continue play. The study consists of two parts; a focus group and a web questionnaire. The results suggest that people prefer playing together with others, and that they play mainly because of entertainment, fellowship and pastime. Results also show that the participants come to an agreement of five different characteristics a game must have in order for the participants to play; a pleasant game feeling  i.e.- effects like sounds, characters and environments, variation in tasks, successively increased difficulty, a exciting story and that the game must be understandable. These findings are important because these are factors that game designers must take into consider when designing training games. After all, entertainment and intrinsic motivation in games is some of the general reasons why people play and why they learn, and therefore, a game only designed for training is doomed to fail.

Inledning: Att utbilda röntgensjuksköterskestudenter att ta bilder med i första hand konventionell röntgen har alltid varit svårt då man har varit hänvisad till fantomer eller rollspel på grund av strålningen. Med utvecklingen av VR uppkommer dock frågan om det kan bidra som komplement till utbildningen. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen var att beskriva om VR kan användas i röntgensjuksköterskeutbildningen. Metod: Studien utfördes som en allmän litteraturöversikt där en kvalitativ och nio kvantitativa vetenskapliga artiklar ingick i analysen efter sökningar i 3 databaser. Resultat: Det mesta pekade på att VR kan vara ett bra komplement i röntgensjuksköterskeutbildningen då studenterna uppvisade större säkerhet i positionering och ökat självförtroende vid bildtagning. Dock upplevdes inlärningskurvan av VR som tidskrävande och behov av mer forskning inom området finns. Resultatet visade även att utbildningsanordnaren måste anpassa och utveckla hur de lär ut. Slutsats: Många studenter är efter avslutade studier osäkra på röntgenbildtagning när de kommer till sin första arbetsplats. Kan användandet av VR i röntgensjuksköterskeutbildningen leda till en högre nivå av självsäkerhet och potentiellt ökad kunskap om positionering får det anses vara fördelaktigt. / Introduction: Teaching radiography students to be able to take good quality x-ray images has always been a problem since they have been referred to phantoms or roleplay given the radiation. With the development of VR, the question has been raised if that could serve as a complement. Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe if VR could be used during radiography education. Method: The study was conducted as a literature review where one qualitative and nine quantitative scientific articles were analysed after searching 3 databases. Result: Most findings point to that VR might be a good compliment to regular radiography education since the students exhibit improved patient positioning and enhanced self-confidence while taking x-ray images. The learning curve with VR was however deemed as somewhat time consuming and more research seems necessary. The result also shows that the provider of the education must adapt and develop the way they teach. Conclusion: Many students feel insecure about x-ray imaging upon starting at their first place of work. If the use of VR in radiography education might raise the level of self-confidence as well as potentially increase the knowledge of positioning it might be considered beneficial.