At the present time, the use of video games goes beyond mere amusement or entertainment due to its potential for developing capacities, dexterity and skills. Thus, video games have extended to environments like that of education, serving as didactic resources within dynamics that respond to the interests and necessities of the 21st century…

Drawing on a participatory study of the Perplex City alternate reality game, this paper considers the data obtained through participation and a detailed survey of the most engaged players, in order to determine the most engaging features and suggest methods for their transfer to educational contexts. Originally presented at a conference in 2008,…

This research applies multimedia technology to design a dynamic item generation method that can adaptively adjust the difficulty level of items according to the level of the testee. The method is based on interactive testing software developed by Flash Actionscript, and provides a testing solution for users by automatically distributing items of…

This paper presents our recent experiences with the design of game-like applications in 3-D virtual environments as well as its impact on student motivation and learning. Therefore our paper starts with a brief analysis of the motivational aspects of videogames and virtual worlds (VWs). We then go on to explore the possible benefits of both in the…

In this invited autobiography, the author describes the impact that educational gaming and simulation has had on his professional career. He begins by reviewing his early life and education in Aberdeen and his subsequent work as a research scientist, schoolteacher, and physics lecturer. He then shows how he changed disciplines from physics to…

Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems can make data accessible in an easily digestible textual form; but using such systems requires sophisticated linguistic and sometimes even programming knowledge. We have designed and implemented an environment for creating and modifying NLG templates that requires no programming knowledge, and can operate…

This study investigated outsourcing of the development of visual, animated and interactive learning objects for mathematics education by a Norwegian university to software vendors in China. It sought to understand the challenges in this outsourcing engagement and competences needed to meet the challenges. The authors tested outsourcing strategies…

Debates in forums such as "Educational Technology" and the National Academies of Science (National Research Council, 2011) emphasize the promise (and indeed recent successes) of digital game-based learning programs, but also the need for research-driven approaches that carefully delineate learning goals. This article introduces one such…

Multiuser immersive learning scenarios hold strong potential for lifelong learning as they can support the acquisition of higher order skills in an effective, efficient, and attractive way. Existing virtual worlds, game development platforms, and game engines only partly cater for the proliferation of such learning scenarios as they are often…

In recent times, the role of entrepreneurs has been recognized to be of great significance in accelerating the pace of growth of economic development of any country. Internet-enabled technologies have also challenged existing business models in numerous market sectors and offered innovation opportunities to a variety of stakeholders--not least…

In the field of electricity markets, the development of training tools for engineers has been extremely useful. A novel experimental economics approach based on a computational Web platform of an electricity market is proposed here for the practical teaching of electrical engineering students. The approach is designed to diminish the gap that…

Tutorial Dialog Systems that employ Conversational Agents (CAs) to deliver instructional content to learners in one-on-one tutoring settings have been shown to be effective in multiple learning domains by multiple research groups. Our work focuses on extending this successful learning technology to collaborative learning settings involving two or…

Distance education has experienced profound changes due to the introduction of new technologies, especially mobile devices of different types. It is necessary to define new learning techniques which are able to capture students' attention and to engage them in their learning activities, reducing problems like distraction generated by the use of…

A highly important part of software engineering education is requirements collection and analysis, one of the initial stages of the Software Development Lifecycle. No other conceptual work is as difficult to rectify at a later stage or as damaging to the overall system if performed incorrectly. As software engineering is a field with a reputation…

Learning to write Chinese characters is often thought to be a very challenging and laborious task. However, new learning tools are being designed that might reduce learners' tedium. This study explores one such tool, an online program in which learners can learn Chinese characters through vision-based motion games. The learner's gestures are…