Game-like Environment Research Articles

Rimigs: the impact of gamification on students’ motivation and performance in programming class

Gamification is described as the art of changing human activity to a game-like environment to gain user engagement. Rimigs is a developed gamification system discussed in this research and was built based on Octalysis framework. This research aims to design and identify the impact of using a gamification system on students’ motivation and performance, especially in programming classes. Through Rimigs, students’ engagement and performance can be enhanced by freely choosing tasks or quests according to the rank points, completing these tasks or quests, getting experience points, getting rewards, avoiding punishment at certain times, and competing with others friends. The proposed research was done by using the iterative methodologies and consists of four phases, starting from i) literature review, which identifies the Octalysis’ core, ii) design, which identifies the game elements used in the system and designing the unified modeling language (UML) diagram of the system, iii) testing, which involve the user in the using of the system, and iv) implementation, which is the analysis step for the impact of Rimigs in students’ performance and engagement. This research finds that Rimigs as a gamification system can positively impact both students’ motivation and performance.

Enhancing student understanding of networks using experiential learning

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an experiential learning exercise that develops student understanding of social networks within organizations. Understanding these networks can foster complete access to information and inclusive decision-making that translates into career success. Design/methodology/approach This experiential learning classroom exercise supports all student learning styles using a puzzle to teach students to apply social network theory toward real-world decision-making. This exercise is best used in small and medium-sized classrooms with ideally 15–40 students. This simulation could be used during 50 up through 120-min class sessions. Findings The game-like environment created by this exercise helps extend real-world understanding that may traditionally be lost with a lecture. Components within this simulation provide balanced consideration for many different learning styles. This exercise has been used successfully within a graduate-level leadership and decision-making course in at least ten sessions over 5 years. Practical implications This is a real-time theory to practice application exercise where an experiential activity is deployed for students to understand the practical implications and application of a theoretical concept. Social implications Organizations have internal social networks connecting employees. These connections are how information is dispersed and knowledge is shared. When these networks are understood and effectively used, it can result in more comprehensive problem-solving, valuable collaboration and the maximization of subject matter expertise within the organization. Originality/value This is a “how-to” teaching and pedagogical exercise. It is original with the benefit of its flexibility and adaptability in the classroom.

Video game-based and conventional therapies in patients of neurological deficits: an experimental study

Purpose In the past few years, medicine has upgraded its therapeutic techniques and practices, with the use of various modern methods that are due to advancement in technology and sciences. It is recognized that the physical health of the patients is significantly associated to their mental state, their motivation and engagement in overcoming the illness. This paper presents experimental comparison between virtual reality (VR) technology and conventional mode of therapy for physical rehabilitation among patients of neurological deficits. The objective was to explore the effectiveness of VR during physical interactions with different game-like virtual environment and potentially leading to increased mental health (i.e., lower depression, anxiety and stress), self-esteem, social support and intrinsic motivation (task-based competence, choice and interest). Method The study sample consisted of thirty-four subjects with Cerebral palsy (CP), Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Spinal cord injury, Stroke and Parkinson’s disease; divided into two experimental groups virtual reality exercise group (n = 17), and conventional therapy group (n = 17); who have upper- or lower-limb impairment. Results The outcome measures revealed significant differences across pretest and post-test conditions of both the experimental groups. Findings emerged from the study showed noticeable effectiveness of virtual-reality based rehabilitation in TBI, stroke and CP patients. Relationships between study variables and demographic variables (age and gender) were also presented. Conclusion This study opens the way for future researchers, psychologists, physiotherapist and other practitioners to do more extensive work in the domain of virtual reality with different sample, constructs and approaches. Implications for rehabilitation It has become increasing important to introduce new state-to-art technologies in domain of rehabilitation. People are reluctant to use all the traditional modes of treatment. As these conventional ways of treatment are least motivating and interesting to indulge the patients without force and burden. It is evident in the present study that addition of virtual reality-based exercise increases the self-motivated balance during functional task in contrast to conventional and task-dependent training participants. This study opens the way for future researchers to do more extensive work in this domain.

Classroom Interaction in Oral Language Learning Events Created by EFL Storytelling-based Games

The paper aims at discussing some examples of classroom interaction in the context of playing “One Word/Sentence at a Time” and “Story Cubes” games by Polish secondary school students of English. First, it gives an overview of definitions and major types of classroom interaction. Second, it presents the opportunities for classroom interaction offered by a game-like environment. Then, the action research study conducted with a group of EFL learners is presented. The participants were recorded in the course of storytelling-oriented lessons and their stories were transcribed. Summing up the data gathered throughout the study, it is evident that the games offer a highly interactive FL classroom environment in which various categories of student-talk intertwine with teacher-talk.

Tools to Help Burnout, Attention Problems Among Winners at 2019 APA Innovation Lab

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article APA & MeetingsFull AccessTools to Help Burnout, Attention Problems Among Winners at 2019 APA Innovation LabNick ZagorskiNick ZagorskiSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:11 Jul 2019https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2019.7b6AbstractDigital platforms aimed at improving memories and helping children build emotional resilience also received prizes at APA’s annual competition recognizing innovative and disruptive ideas in mental health care delivery.Medimmunity, a digital platform aimed at preventing burnout among medical trainees, was awarded the Grand Prize at this year’s Mental Health Innovation Lab, the annual “Shark Tank”–style competition held in the Innovation Zone at APA’s Annual Meeting.Psychiatry Innovation Lab judge Debbie Profit, Ph.D., vice president at Otsuka Information Technologies (center), chats with the Grand Prize winners, who are from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. From left are Murad Khan, M.D., Annie Hart, M.D., Isobel Rosenthal, M.D., M.B.A., and Jordyn Feingold, M.A.P.P. and M.D./M.S.C.R. candidate.David HathcoxConceived by Jordyn Feingold, M.A.P.P. (M.D./M.S.C.R. candidate), Annie Hart, M.D., Murad Khan, M.D., and Isobel Rosenthal, M.D., M.B.A., when they were medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Medimmunity will provide structured support groups, online resources to help build resilience, and a forum to enable students and residents to connect with colleagues. Their idea is based on an in-person, support program available at Mount Sinai co-founded by Feingold and Hart known as PEERS (Practice Enhancement, Engagement, Resilience, and Support).“When we heard about the competition, it inspired us to do something more with PEERS, to try and bring it to a national level,” Feingold told Psychiatric News. The team had hoped to use the opportunity at the Innovation Lab to refine their nascent idea; winning the prize was a welcome surprise.“I don’t think any of us thought we would win at any point during the event; we were impressed by the quality of everyone’s presentations,” Feingold said. “But it was a wonderful experience, and everyone we talked with was so supportive of the idea.”With the award (and accompanying $10,000) in hand, the Medimmunity team is now turning concept into product and is focused on getting a web-based program up and running.Other winners of this year’s Innovation Lab include:Alumni Award: Sean Christensen, M.D., for CogNova. This award is given to the 2018 Innovation Lab team that has made the most progress with their project in the past year.CogNova is a digital platform that offers reminiscence training to patients with dementia in a game-like environment. The adaptive platform uses machine learning to identify the music, photos, videos, and other content that provide the most emotional impact for patients. Caregivers can use the platform on a smartphone, tablet, or computer to help strengthen their connections with their loved ones. This digital product was just an idea at the 2018 Innovation Lab, but with the exposure offered by that experience, Christensen and his colleagues are pilot testing an early version. Learn more here.Impact Award: Patrina Mack for YouROK. This award is given to the project that offers the greatest impact in terms of reach or access.YouROK has developed an emotional resiliency app that is shared by children and parents. The children play engaging games that help them identify their feelings and develop relationship skills. Meanwhile, the parents receive weekly reports that provide insights on emotional areas where their child is doing well and where they might need improvement (while keeping details private) to help facilitate family engagement and discussions. Learn more here.Audience Choice Award: Alex Barty for TALI Health. TALI is developing a series of gamified cognitive modules to help children aged 3 to 8 years with autism or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder develop better attention skills. Using touchscreen-based games, the five-week TALI program targets all four core areas of attention: selection, control, inhibition, and focus. Learn more here.Stay tuned to a future issue of Psychiatric News to learn more about some of this year’s winners and their plans for the future. ■More information about the Mental Health Innovation Zone is posted here. ISSUES NewArchived

Cultural educating of Palestinian youth through collaborative digital storytelling

Youth reliance on social media platforms as their main source of media consumption presents an opportunity to increase their cultural knowledge through engaging them in digital storytelling of their village oral history. This paper examines the results of a pilot study conducted in Palestinian villages with youth who were trained on local interviewing village elders to create digital stories. The process was designed in a collaborative game-like environment to obtain maximum engagement, thus creating a state of flow as stipulated by Csikszentmihalyi’s flow theory. The surveys conducted at the beginning and end of the project, combined with ethnographic action research, demonstrate that it is possible for the youths’ level of interest in the creation of the digital stories attains a state of flow when the process can be immersive and engaging such that a multi-phase plan that includes skilling then challenges at each phase – not unlike a game.

Music meets robotics: a prospective randomized study on motivation during robot aided therapy

BackgroundRobots have been successfully applied in motor training during neurorehabilitation. As music is known to improve motor function and motivation in neurorehabilitation training, we aimed at integrating music creation into robotic-assisted motor therapy. We developed a virtual game-like environment with music for the arm therapy robot ARMin, containing four different motion training conditions: a condition promoting creativity (C+) and one not promoting creativity (C–), each in a condition with (V+) and without (V–) a visual display (i.e., a monitor). The visual display was presenting the game workspace but not contributing to the creative process itself. In all four conditions the therapy robot haptically displayed the game workspace. Our aim was to asses the effects of creativity and visual display on motivation.MethodsIn a prospective randomized single-center study, healthy participants were randomly assigned to play two of the four training conditions, either with (V+) or without visual display (V–). In the third round, the participants played a repetition of the preferred condition of the two first rounds, this time with a new V condition (i.e., with or without visual display). For each of the three rounds, motivation was measured with the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) in the subscales interest/enjoyment, perceived choice, value/usefulness, and man-machine-relation. We recorded the actual training time, the time of free movement, and the velocity profile and administered a questionnaire to measure perceived training time and perceived effort. All measures were analysed using linear mixed models. Furthermore, we asked if the participants would like to receive the created music piece.ResultsSixteen healthy subjects (ten males, six females, mean age: 27.2 years, standard deviation: 4.1 years) with no known motor or cognitive deficit participated. Promotion of creativity (i.e., C+ instead of C–) significantly increased the IMI-item interest/enjoyment (p=0.001) and the IMI-item perceived choice (p=0.010). We found no significant effects in the IMI-items man-machine relation and value/usefulness. Conditions promoting creativity (with or without visual display) were preferred compared to the ones not promoting creativity. An interaction effect of promotion of creativity and omission of visual display was present for training time (p=0.013) and training intensity (p<0.001). No differences in relative perceived training time, perceived effort, and perceived value among the four training conditions were found.ConclusionsPromoting creativity in a visuo-audio-haptic or audio-haptic environment increases motivation in robot-assisted therapy. We demonstrated the feasibility of performing an audio-haptic music creation task and recommend to try the system on patients with neuromuscular disorders.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02720341. Registered 25 March 2016, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02720341

Syntax, predicates, idioms — what really affects code complexity?

Program comprehension concerns the ability to understand code written by others. But not all code is the same. We use an experimental platform fashioned as an online game-like environment to measure how quickly and accurately 220 professional programmers can interpret code snippets with similar functionality but different structures; snippets that take longer to understand or produce more errors are considered harder. The results indicate, inter alia, that for loops are significantly harder than if s, that some but not all negations make a predicate harder, and that loops counting down are slightly harder than loops counting up. This demonstrates how the effect of syntactic structures, different ways to express predicates, and the use of known idioms can be measured empirically, and that syntactic structures are not necessarily the most important factor. We also found that the metrics of time to understanding and errors made are not necessarily equivalent. Thus loops counting down took slightly longer, but loops with unusual bounds caused many more errors. By amassing many more empirical results like these it may be possible to derive better code complexity metrics than we have today, and also to better appreciate their limitations.

Flow as a Framework to Engage Youth in Participatory Politics on Social Media Platforms

Recent studies indicate that youth's increased exposure to political content on social media platforms does not correlate positively with an increased interest in politics. This seemingly contradictory high exposure versus low interest indicates a certain level of apathy towards political participation. This article proposes that in order for youth to experience a stronger engagement in participatory politics, they need to feel challenged and skilled enough to be able to make an impact. This article draws on Csikszentmihalyi's flow theory premise that a state of total absorption, or “flow,” can be attained in a game-like environment in which the actors are highly skilled and the challenges match their skills. The author proposes a framework that relies on combining memes' viral properties—their ability to transmit political content—and the strength of engagement in a game-like environment to create politically provocative memes able to improve youth participation in politics.

Technical exercise practice: Can piano students be motivated through gamification?

Abstract Gamification is a process whereby game design and game mechanics are applied in non-game contexts to influence behaviour. This research study explores the effects of gamification on young piano students’ practice of technical elements such as scales, chords and arpeggios in the context of independent practice between private lessons. A control and a treatment group of ten piano students each were formed across two different private piano studios. A game-like environment was introduced for the treatment group, in which the players experienced game elements such as avatars and rewards, including points, badges and level achievements. Gamification was found to have a positive effect on the number of technical elements students mastered and a modest effect on their attitude towards practicing technical elements. The educational implications for these findings are discussed.

An exploration of interrelationships among presence indicators of a community of inquiry in a 3D game-like environment for high school programming courses

ABSTRACTThe combination of Open Sim and Scratch4OS can be a worthwhile innovation for introductory programming courses, using a Community of Inquiry (CoI) model as a theoretical instructional design framework. This empirical study had a threefold purpose to present: (a) an instructional design framework for the beneficial formalization of a virtual community, by utilizing a CoI model which consisted of 81 high school students and (b) the results of linear correlations to amplify the interrelationships among presence indicators (cognitive, social, and teaching) of a CoI model to learn basic programming concepts via a 3D multi-user game-like environment underpinned by Papert‘s theory of constructionism. The findings indicated that social presence (communication and cohesiveness of a group) had not only a direct correlation with the cognitive presence (learning process for the construction of knowledge), but also had a positive association with teaching presence (organization, planning, and guidance of learning activities), reinforcing them as well.

Designing a Virtual-Reality-Based, Gamelike Math Learning Environment

ABSTRACTThis exploratory study examined the design issues related to a virtual-reality-based, gamelike learning environment (VRGLE) developed via OpenSimulator, an open-source virtual reality server. The researchers collected qualitative data to examine the VRGLE’s usability, playability, and content integration for math learning. They found it important to design an intuitive game-control and interaction interface, plot playability via the combination of enjoyable virtual reality features and the rewarding mechanism, create intrinsic and balanced content-gameplay integration, and adapt to different gameplay styles. Participants found the VRGLE engaging and instructive in teaching fractions.

Gaming in Second Life via Scratch4SL

While pedagogical and technological affordances of three-dimensional (3D) multiuser virtual worlds in various educational disciplines are largely well-known, a study about their effect on high school students’ engagement in introductory programming courses is still lacking. This case study presents students’ opinions about their participation in a 3D multiuser game-like environment, by harnessing Second Life in combination with the two-dimensional (2D) programming environment of Scratch4SL. Following a blended instructional format (face-to-face in a computer laboratory and supplementary online courses), 56 students utilizing Scratch4SL participated in this study, with a view to reduce the “steep learning curve” created during their first-time entrance into Second Life. This study identifies Papert’s theory of Constructionism as a potentially appropriate theoretical foundation for the development of an instructional framework, in order to assist students to coordinate and manage learning materials with other teammates, using their computational thinking skills in collaborative problem-based programming tasks. The study findings based on a mixed-method research (a close-ended questionnaire and an open-ended interview) indicated the effectiveness of this “constructionist-oriented” instructional process for students’ engagement to acquire or empower social, cognitive, higher-order, and computational thinking skills. Educational implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

A Comparison of Team-Based Learning Formats: Can We Minimize Stress While Maximizing Results?

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a collaborative teaching method in which students utilize course content to solvechallenging problems. A modified version of TBL is used at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.Students complete questions on the Individual Readiness Assurance Test (iRAT) then gather in pre-assigned groupsto retake the quiz, given time to utilize their learning resources and discuss each of the questions (Team ReadinessAssurance Test-tRAT). Following this discussion, students take an Individual Summative Assessment Test (iSAT)with new questions at a similar cognitive level and content focus. While educational gains of TBL have been shown,student evaluations negatively assessed the teaching method with complaints regarding question difficulty and stresslevels. Thus, during implementation of TBL in the School of Dentistry, three main changes were made: (1) Thecontribution of TBL to the overall grade was reduced (2) TBL questions were cognitively aligned with unit examquestions, and (3) Scratch-off, lottery response cards were used to create a fun, game-like environment. This revisedTBL format, compared to the original format, resulted in similar student performance during iRAT and tRATsessions. However, the revised, low-stress format had significantly higher scores on the iSAT (n=119-161, p <.05).Furthermore, students participating in the revised TBL format reported higher effectiveness of the learning format,higher levels of perceived fairness, and lower stress levels. These results suggest that the qualitative experience ofstudents may be an important consideration that should be carefully evaluated during implementation of a newteaching technique.

A Comparison of Team‐Based Learning Formats: Can We Minimize Stress While Maximizing Results

Team‐Based Learning (TBL) is used at the University of Louisville School of Medicine as a collaborative teaching method in which students solve challenging physiology problems. Students take an Individual Readiness Assessment Test (iRAT), Team Readiness Assessment Test (tRAT), and Individual Summative Assessment Test (iSAT). While educational gains of TBL have been shown, some student evaluations negatively assessed the teaching method with complaints regarding question difficulty and stress levels. Thus, during implementation of TBL in the School of Dentistry, two changes were made: (1) TBL questions were cognitively aligned with unit exam questions (2) Scratch‐off, lottery response cards were used to create a fun, game‐like environment. This revised TBL format, compared to the original TBL format, resulted in similar student performance during iRAT and tRAT sessions. However, the revised, low‐stress format had significantly higher scores on the iSAT (n=119‐161, p&lt;.05). Furthermore, on Likert‐scale surveys, students participating in the revised TBL format subjectively reported higher effectiveness of the learning format, higher levels of perceived fairness, and lower stress levels. These results suggest that the qualitative experience of students, when using a new teaching format such as TBL, may be an important consideration that should be carefully evaluated during implementation.

Training network administrators in a game-like environment

Management and automated configuration of large-scale networks is one of the crucial issues for Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Since incorrect configurations may lead to loss of an enormous amount of customer traffic, highly experienced network administrators are typically the ones who are trusted for the management and configuration of a running ISP network. In this paper, we present an online management and experimentation system with a “game” interface to train network administrators and explore what-if scenarios without having to risk the large-scale network operation. The interactive environment treats the trainee network administrators as players of a game and tests them with various failures or dynamics for real-time management and configuration of large-scale networks. To prototype the concept of “network management as a game”, we modified NS-2 to establish an interactive simulation engine and connected the modified engine to a graphical user interface for traffic animation and interactivity with the player. We also conducted two user experiments using different learning methods and observed sizable improvement in the capabilities of trainees on the problem of interior gateway protocol link weight setting.

Interpreting Natural Language Instructions Using Language, Vision, and Behavior

We define the problem of automatic instruction interpretation as follows. Given a natural language instruction, can we automatically predict what an instruction follower, such as a robot, should do in the environment to follow that instruction? Previous approaches to automatic instruction interpretation have required either extensive domain-dependent rule writing or extensive manually annotated corpora. This article presents a novel approach that leverages a large amount of unannotated, easy-to-collect data from humans interacting in a game-like environment. Our approach uses an automatic annotation phase based on artificial intelligence planning, for which two different annotation strategies are compared: one based on behavioral information and the other based on visibility information. The resulting annotations are used as training data for different automatic classifiers. This algorithm is based on the intuition that the problem of interpreting a situated instruction can be cast as a classification problem of choosing among the actions that are possible in the situation. Classification is done by combining language, vision, and behavior information. Our empirical analysis shows that machine learning classifiers achieve 77% accuracy on this task on available English corpora and 74% on similar German corpora. Finally, the inclusion of human feedback in the interpretation process is shown to boost performance to 92% for the English corpus and 90% for the German corpus.

TuinLEC, an intelligent tutoring system to improve reading literacy skills / TuinLEC, un tutor inteligente para mejorar la competencia lectora

This study describes an intelligent tutoring system to improve reading literacy skills called TuinLEC and it presents the results of its application to a group of sixth grade students. TuinLEC adopts the reading literacy theoretical framework of PISA (Program for International Students Assessment, OECD, 2009). TuinLEC includes eight lessons distributed in two phases, one for modeling and guided practice, and the second for independent practice. TuinLEC interacts with every student and it provides help and feedback for the task in a game-like environment. Half of the students were taught with TuinLEC, whereas the other half served as the control group. Children in both groups were paired according to reading comprehension scores. We measured students’ reading literacy skills after intervention, which showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group. Students who were taught with TuinLEC were also given a questionnaire measuring satisfaction, usability, and self-efficacy; TuinLEC scored positively in all these measurements. We discuss how TuinLEC can improve the reading literacy skills of sixth-graders as well as the contribution of intelligent tutoring systems to instructional interventions.

Cognitive anatomy of tutor learning: Lessons learned with SimStudent.

This article describes an advanced learning technology used to investigate hypotheses about learning by teaching. The proposed technology is an instance of a teachable agent, called SimStudent, that learns skills (e.g., for solving linear equations) from examples and from feedback on performance. SimStudent has been integrated into an online, gamelike environment in which students act as “tutors” and can interactively teach SimStudent by providing it with examples and feedback. We conducted 3 classroom “in vivo” studies to better understand how and when students learn (or fail to learn) by teaching. One of the strengths of interactive technologies is their ability to collect detailed process data on the nature and timing of student activities. The primary purpose of this article is to provide an in-depth analysis across 3 studies to understand the underlying cognitive and social factors that contribute to tutor learning by making connections between outcome and process data. The results show several key cognitive and social factors that are correlated with tutor learning. The accuracy of students’ responses (i.e., feedback and hints), the quality of students’ explanations during tutoring, and the appropriateness of tutoring strategy (i.e., problem selection) all positively affected SimStudent’s learning, which further positively affected students’ learning. The results suggest that implementing adaptive help for students on how to tutor and solve problems is a crucial component for successful learning by teaching.

Research on a Community-based Platform for Promoting Health and Physical Fitness in the Elderly Community

This study aims to assess the acceptability of a fitness testing platform (iFit) for installation in an assisted living community with the aim of promoting fitness and slowing the onset of frailty. The iFit platform develops a means of testing Bureau of Health Promotion mandated health assessment items for the elderly (including flexibility tests, grip strength tests, balance tests, and reaction time tests) and integrates wireless remote sensors in a game-like environment to capture and store subject response data, thus providing individuals in elderly care contexts with a greater awareness of their own physical condition. In this study, we specifically evaluated the users’ intention of using the iFit using a technology acceptance model (TAM). A total of 101 elderly subjects (27 males and 74 females) were recruited. A survey was conducted to measure technology acceptance, to verify that the platform could be used as intended to promote fitness among the elderly. Results indicate that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and usage attitude positively impact behavioral intention to use the platform. The iFit platform can offer user-friendly solutions for a community-based fitness care and monitoring of elderly subjects. In summary, iFit was determined by three key drivers and discussed as follows: risk factors among the frail elderly, mechanism for slowing the advance frailty, and technology acceptance and support for promoting physical fitness.