Creativity is an important part of education. Teachers need to be able to understand and develop creativity to be able to successfully model it for their students. They can achieve this through pre-service training. Past research has provided implications in pre-service training that helped pre-service teachers develop creativity, albeit from a…

This dissertation examines the affective qualities of non-player character motion in a Virtual Reality (VR) cognitive training game, their impact on players' core affective experiences, game performance, and cognitive training outcomes. How do the movements of game characters in a VR environment affect players' experienced emotions, gameplay…

This qualitative study aimed to examine ways young children practice social skills and use language while playing the digital game Roblox in pairs, using a single electronic device, as framed through Vygotsky's Socio-cultural theory of learning. Roblox is a sandbox-style game comprising several mini-games, such as hide-and-seek simulators and…

Executive functions (EF) are important cognitive processing skills required for planning, reasoning, problem solving and self-monitoring. It is vital to various aspects of human development from behavioral, social-emotional to academic. There is an increasing interest in identifying and developing cognitive skills training interventions. Results…

This study encompasses my attempt to understand the lived experience of students in a higher education art appreciation course when a traditional textbook was replaced by a computer game. The methodology uses a mixture of phenomenological interviews and games as well as game machines to interpret these lived experiences. The process of allowing…

Digital educational games have been a part of the educational landscape since the early 1970s. Since then, there has been a proliferation in the quantity, format, type, and quality of digital educational games available to classroom teachers. Despite this, the body of literature surrounding the effectiveness of these digital educational games…

This dissertation is a phenomenological study exploring the lived experiences of industry video game writers. The findings of the study highlight the areas of competence necessary for game writing in the workplace, including writing and storytelling, communication and collaboration, understanding systems and dynamics, tool proficiency, and…

Slow vocabulary development and poor comprehension among English Language learners (ELLs) (August, Carlo, & Snow, 2005) have resulted in an academic achievement gap between ELLs and native English-speaking learners in the United States (Klingner, Artiles, & Barletta, 2006; Wilde, 2010). This mixed-methods sequential explanatory research…

A major challenge for senior leaders throughout the world is to inspire people to share knowledge (Akgun, Keskin, Ayar, & Okunakol, 2017; Razak et al., 2016). The study was a pilot trial of a specially designed knowledge sharing (KS) training intervention program that involved two versions of a digital game, with one version based on teamwork…

Many of the digital tools teachers currently implement in their courses are still embedded within the hierarchical banking principles that humanities instructors have long abandoned in favor of problem-posing and collaborative models. The institutional learning management system (LMS) is in need of a redesign if humanities educators, especially…

The study investigated the use of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) in English and Business classrooms in Higher Education from the context of learners' performance outcomes, as well as stakeholders' (learners, administrators, and faculty) perceptions pertaining to their experiences when using an MMOG based curriculum. The findings…

Game designers and researchers agree that the main motivation for starting playing a game is challenge. It is only a small step to say that when the game becomes too difficult, players can become frustrated and quit. While extensive work shows that challenge is central in player enjoyment, its influence on player retention has received little…

This dissertation explores and describes the in-character and out-of-character information worlds and digital literacy practices of role-players, those that create and enact their characters' or avatars' stories, both within and outside of WildStar, a Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) (Carbine Studios, 2015). Utilizing Jaeger…

Communication is a key component in learning a second language (L2). As important as the "ability" to communicate in the L2 is the willingness to use the L2 or, what has been identified in the literature as "Willingness to Communicate" (WTC). Language is best learned when situated in, and based on, real-life experiences.…

Enrollment in online higher education programs has been climbing for the past decade but research suggests that online courses exhibit significantly higher attrition rates than their face-to-face counterparts. Consequently, while significantly more students are enrolling in higher education programs, far too few are graduating. Self-determination…