This dissertation provides an in-depth linguistic description and analysis of the discourse in a target domain of digital games, a domain referred to as "single player offline role-playing games." Gaming discourse from this domain is represented by a 4.8-million-word corpus of spoken and written language extracted from the digital files…

We are witnessing an excitement about digital games and related immersive media as these become ever more prevalent in the world. Governments, private companies, and research institutes are investing in these technologies in hopes of transforming education. However, while scholarship on digital game-based learning has been steadily growing over…

This dissertation detailed the ways by which stakeholder interactions affected interdisciplinary curriculum development in the novel field of esports at Mideast State University. Due to the prevalence of esports in higher education, the sudden popularity of the esports field, and the role of esports in an already overloaded curriculum space, this…

This study explores the experience of Generation X women who play casual video games on mobile devices (e. g., smartphones and tablets), and draws connections to learning and literacy, particularly in the areas of New Literacies, the New Literacy Studies, and semiotic literacy. Data was gathered from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with five…

Interest development is a topic that has fascinated and puzzled educators since the 20th century. Despite decades of research and important advances in the field, questions remain about interest and its relationship to learning. In particular, given the pervasiveness of technology in our daily lives, it is essential to understand how interest…

The focus of this pragmatic quasi-experimental quantitative case intervention study was to explore the impact of complex video games on academic fatigue on community college Calculus 1 students. The research study was driven by one question. What impact, if any, does the use of complex video games have on academic fatigue from pretest to posttest…

The research underlying this dissertation consisted of a mixed-methods approach seeking to observe any changes in an adult learner's leadership behavior scores after participating in an online collaborative leadership exercise in the game Minecraft. After measuring the quantitative differences, it was discovered that participation in the online…

Engagement is a worthwhile psychological construct to examine in the context of online training and video games. In this context, previous research suggests that the more engaged a person is, the more likely they are to experience overall positive affect while performing at a high level. This research builds on theories of engagement, Flow Theory,…

Although digital technologies have become commonplace among people who grew up around them, little is known about the effect that such technology will have on learners or its impact on traditional methods of educational delivery. This dissertation examines how certain technologies affect digital natives and seeks to understand specific…