Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

Online learning readiness and attitudes towards gaming in gamified online learning – a mixed methods case study

Gamification has gained a lot of attention in recent years as a possible way to foster students’ motivation and learning behavior. As a high drop-out rate is associated with distance learning, in particular with students often struggling to engage with the material, the implementation of gamification may support and enhance more successful online learning. A […]

Gaming the Performance: Massively Multiplayer Online Games and Performance Outcomes in English and Business Courses

The push for technology integration in classrooms calls for examinations of available options, particularly those that have not yet been used to their full potential for various reasons. One such technology is digital commercial games which, though designed for entertainment, may have potential educational benefits. Although there have been several discussions in the literature about […]

What’s New in EDU: Minecraft: Education Edition expands to iPad

We’ve spent our summer building innovative tools to help students of all ages and levels get the most out of learning, the minute they walk back into your classroom.  In this latest edition of What’s New in EDU, we’re excited to share a new batch of features and enhancements to help you encourage independent learning […]

A Playful Approach to Fostering Motivation in a Distance Education Computer Programming Course: Behaviour Change and Student Perceptions

The central role of motivation to learn in distance education has been noted, and gamification has been proposed as one approach to promote student motivation. This study explores promoting motivation in a distance education, third-year computer programming course via a gamified approach to improve coursework participation and student experience. Motivation was examined from a Self-Determination […]

Serious Games for Training and Faculty Development: A Review of the Current Literature

This article is a review of the current literature involving the use of serious games (SG) as a tool for training and faculty development. Noted in the review is the dearth of research into the adoption of SG for use specifically in higher education faculty development. The review looks at the viability of SG as […]

Reading Signals from the Future: EDUCAUSE in 2038

In 1992, I was in a meeting at Apple Computer and was asked if I wanted to see the next “killer technology” the company would soon release. My Apple colleague left the conference room and came back to unveil the Apple Newton, a handheld device (sort of) that Apple was calling a “Personal Digital Assistant” […]

Download: Proceedings of the European Distance and E-Learning Network Conference , Genoa, Italy, June 2018

Introduction The demand for people with new, enhanced skills is growing. The volume of information produced and shared in all fields is overwhelming. Building the data economy became part of the EU Digital Single Market. Powerful and sophisticated ICT is part of everyday life, and the world of learning is not an exception. Pressure is […]

Game mechanics and why they are employed: What we know about gamification so far

This literature review addresses the research surrounding gamification in online learning, focusing on the game mechanics studied in conjunction with the pedagogical aspirations they were employed to support. Findings include frequencies of game mechanics studied, showing a continuum from most studied, badges closely followed by leaderboards, to the least studied, storylines. Pedagogical aspirations fell into […]

Game On! Students’ Perceptions of Gamified Learning

 Gamification is presented in the literature as a pedagogical innovation that may increase student engagement and enhance learning. This study explores students’ perceptions of a gamified learning intervention deployed in a large undergraduate module and a small postgraduate module. Given the dearth of previous empirical work, an exploratory approach was used. Focus groups were carried […]

An Approach to Scoring Collaboration in Online Game Environments

 With technological advances, it is now possible to use games to capture information-rich behaviours that reveal processes by which players interact and solve problems. Recent problem-based games have been designed to assess and record detailed interactions between the problem solver and the game environment, and thereby capture salient solution processes in an unobtrusive way (Zoanetti, 2010; Bennett et […]