Rita Kuo

Department of Computer Science and Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, USA // rita.mcsl@gmail.com

Maiga Chang

School of Computing and Information Systems, Athabasca University, Edmonton, Canada // Department of M-Commerce and Multimedia Applications, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan // maiga.chang@gmail.com

Luiz Valério Neto

Department of Computing – Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil // luizvneto@gmail.com

Paulo H. F. Fontoura Junior

Department of Computing – Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil // paulojunior.fontoura@gmail.com

Rogério A. Bordini

Art Institute – University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil // rogerio.bordini@sead.ufscar.br

Joice L. Otsuka

Department of Computing – Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil // joice@ufscar.br

Delano M. Beder

Department of Computing – Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar), São Carlos, SP, Brazil // delano@ufscar.br

ABSTRACT

In the last decade many studies have stated that learning based on digital games emerges as an effective way to combine teaching and learning processes with the attractiveness of digital technologies, because they are dynamic and playful. However, the vast majority of these digital resources – such as educational games – are still essentially visual, which prevents access to people with visual impairments. It is the duty of designers and developers not only to develop visually appealing games, but to take advantage of today’s sound technologies to adapt and create inclusive solutions for non-sighted players. This paper, therefore, describes the design and evaluation processes of three new inclusive levels for Em Busca do Santo Grau, an educational, modular and customisable PC game. In addition to stating the related works, the literature review and the process of adapting a visual game to be played only by sound feedback, the design and evaluation procedures based on the EduGameAccess set of recommendations will also be described.

Keywords

Educational game, Accessibility, Open educational resources, Inclusive design

Matheus V. Valenza 

LARVA – Laboratory for Research on Visual Applications, DCC – Computer Science Department, UDESC – State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil // matheusvvalenza@gmail.com 

Isabela Gasparini 

LARVA – Laboratory for Research on Visual Applications, DCC – Computer Science Department, UDESC – State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil // isabela.gasparini@udesc.br 

Marcelo da S. Hounsell

LARVA – Laboratory for Research on Visual Applications, DCC – Computer Science Department, UDESC – State University of Santa Catarina, Brazil // marcelo.hounsell@udesc.br

ABSTRACT

Digital games can be used as allies to support and motivate the learning process. Many researchers focus their studies on the so-called Serious Games (SG), which are games whose primary objective is not solely entertainment. What happens, however, is that these games end up being far from children´s expectations, especially when compared to entertainment-only games. Thus, this work reviewed the literature in search for positive experiences of developing and using SG for children. Afterward, they were compiled together as a set of guidelines that can be followed by designers and developers of SG for children, guiding the design decisions so that the final product would be better suitable to children. The set of guidelines was obtained through SG analysis of child-oriented and child technology recommendations, leading to a total of forty guidelines that are divided into four groups: input, output/interface, content, and control. They have been assessed by 59 experts which concluded that they were all worth attention when designing SG for children.

Keywords

Serious Game, Game Design, Children, Guidelines 

Pérez-Colado Víctor Manuel

Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Department, Faculty of Informatics, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain // victormp@ucm.es

Pérez-Colado Iván José

Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Department, Faculty of Informatics, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain // ivanjper@ucm.es 

Freire-Morán Manuel

Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Department, Faculty of Informatics, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain // manuel.freire@fdi.ucm.es 

Martínez-Ortiz Iván 

Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Department, Faculty of Informatics, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain // imartinez@fdi.ucm.es

Fernández-Manjón Baltasar

Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence Department, Faculty of Informatics, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain // balta@fdi.ucm.es

ABSTRACT 

Developer-friendly professional authoring tools have greatly simplified entertainment videogame development. However, this simplification had a limited impact on serious games, which require the active collaboration of developers with educators and other stakeholders. To address this issue, we present uAdventure, an easy-to-use game development environment for narrative “point-and-click” graphic adventure games. uAdventure started as a re-implementation of the previously validated eAdventure authoring tool, now built on top of the Unity game platform. The idea is to enjoy the advantages of the Unity professional environment while reducing its complexity to allow non-developers to author serious games. uAdventure is designed to simplify the creation of serious games that include educational-oriented capabilities such as learning analytics without requiring programming knowledge and has been formatively tested with different types of users and in different settings. Initial testing was carried out with a group of heterogeneous users with different computer usage profiles in a vocational environment. In the second round of testing, it was used by students of two different university courses to develop serious games that include educational features such as location-based mechanics and learning analytics. The results of these formative evaluations show that uAdventure can be used as a serious game teaching tool and that it simplifies the creation of serious games with educational features by non-expert authors.

Keywords

Serious game development, Authoring tool, Narrative games, Learning analytics, Location-based games

Armando M. Toda

Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of São Paulo, Brazil // Department of Computer Science, University of Durham, United Kingdom // armando.toda@usp.br

Paula T. Palomino

Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of São Paulo, Brazil // paulatpalomino@usp.br

Wilk Oliveira

Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of São Paulo, Brazil // wilk.oliveira@usp.br

Luiz Rodrigues

Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of São Paulo, Brazil // lalrodrigues@usp.br

Ana C. T. Klock

Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil // actklock@inf.ufrgs.br

Isabela Gasparini

Department of Computer Science, Santa Catarina State University, Brazil // isabela.gasparini@udesc.br

Alexandra I. Cristea

Department of Computer Science, University of Durham, United Kingdom // alexandra.i.cristea@durham.ac.uk

Seiji Isotani

Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of São Paulo, Brazil // sisotani@icmc.usp.br

ABSTRACT

One of the main goals of gamification in educational settings is to increase student motivation and engagement. To facilitate the design of gamified educational systems, in recent years, studies have proposed various approaches (e.g., methodologies, frameworks and models). One of the main problems, however, is that most of these approaches are theoretical, and do not provide a proof-of-concept. This paper advances the state of the art by providing a practical way to help implement this kind of system. In this study, we present, for the first time, how one can apply gamification elements in a learning system using the Design Sprint method, to guide designers and developers on replicating this process. Additionally, as starting point, we use a taxonomy composed of 21 game elements, proposed to be used within learning environments, organised into five game element categories, according to their goal/usage. Our main contribution is to present how to systematically implement the gamification elements focused on educational ends, which is of special value to practitioners, designers and developers.

Keywords

Gamification, Design Sprint, Taxonomy, Design, Education

Ching Sing Chai

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China // cschai@cuhk.edu.hk

Morris Siu-Yung Jong 

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China // mjong@cuhk.edu.hk 

Hong-biao Yin

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China // yinhb@cuhk.edu.hk 

Mengyuan Chen

Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China // ChenMY@link.cuhk.edu.hk

Wenye Zhou

School of Education Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China // zhouwenye163@163.com

ABSTRACT 

The integrative approach of teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has been advocated as a pedagogical means to advance education for the 21st century. However, there is a lack of validated instruments that are theoretically grounded to account for the various forms of knowledge that teachers need in order to effectively implement STEM education. This study adopts the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework to develop the Technological Pedagogical STEM Knowledge Survey to assess teachers’ self-efficacies of the proposed dimensions of knowledge. It also investigates the interrelationships of the four knowledge dimensions (i.e., technological pedagogical science knowledge [TPSK], technological pedagogical mathematics knowledge [TPMK], technological pedagogical engineering knowledge [TPEK] and integrative STEM) proposed in this paper. A total of 314 science, mathematics and technology teachers from China responded to the online survey. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated adequate validity and reliability of the survey for measuring teachers’ self-efficacies for STEM from the TPACK perspective. The structural equational model indicates that the teachers’ efficacies of integrating technology into science, mathematics and engineering subject predict their efficacy of integrative STEM teaching. Moreover, teachers’ TPEK is the strongest predictor of their efficacy for teaching integrative STEM. Overall, the findings support that the TPACK framework could be theoretically useful for promoting teachers’ efficacies for STEM education. Practical implications were discussed in this study.

Keywords:

STEM, TPACK, Questionnaire, Teacher education

Hsin Huang

Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan // Department of Nursing, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taiwan // jhshing1029@gmail.com 

Gwo-Jen Hwang

Graduate Institute of Digital Learning and Education, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan // gjhwang.academic@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT

Educating inpatients and their family members regarding patient safety and protection is an important and challenging task for nursing staff. However, the effects of the conventional patient instruction with printed materials are usually not as good as expected owing to the learners’ low learning engagement. In this study, a learning engagement-promoting model is proposed for developing interactive e-book systems for patient education. To evaluate the proposed approach, an experiment was conducted to explore the effects of the system on the learning outcomes and perceptions of inpatients’ family members. The results show that the proposed approach significantly improved their learning performance as well as their learning attitudes, motivation, and satisfaction when compared to the conventional paper-based instruction. On the other hand, it was found that their state anxiety was not significantly affected by the approach. It is concluded that the interactive e-book-based learning approach can facilitate the inpatients’ family members to well prepare for taking care of the patients without affecting their state anxiety.

Keywords

Learning engagement, Interactive e-book, Patient education, Mobile technology

Hui-Chin Yeh

Department of Applied Foreign Languages, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Yunlin, Taiwan // hyeh@gemail.yuntech.edu.tw

Sheng-Shiang Tseng

Graduate Institute of Curriculum and Instruction, Tamkang University, New Taipei city, Taiwan // u9241346@gmail.com 

ABSTRACT

Although teacher training programs can deliver knowledge of ways to integrate technology into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lessons, teachers may not achieve sustainable improvement in their Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) professional knowledge as they cannot not reflect on the effectiveness of their lessons through actual practice. This study contributes to the literature by illustrating how the integration of the ADDIE model with teachers’ lesson design influenced their CALL professional knowledge. Six EFL teachers participated in an 18-week course in which they designed, delivered, and revised a CALL lesson based on the ADDIE model. Results showed that the teachers demonstrated significant improvement in their CALL professional knowledge. The contextual analysis facilitated the teachers’ development of pedagogical knowledge by re-examining the current English teaching and learning issues. Through lesson design, the teachers reported that they could move away from traditional printed textbook instruction and paper-and-pencil tests to the computer-assisted language instruction, thus sharpening their online searching skills using open educational resource tools for English teaching. The implementation and evaluation of the lessons was valuable for teachers to evaluate their lessons by observing students’ learning behaviors and performance, which elevated teachers’ confidence in the use of computer-assisted language instruction for English teaching.

Keywords

ADDIE model, EFL, Teacher training, Teacher professional development