Christothea Herodotou

An Iterative, Multidisciplinary Approach to Studying Digital Play Motivation The Model of Game Motivation

The aim of this article is to present the methodological approach adopted for the development and iteration of the Model of Game Motivation (MGM), a conceptual model explaining digital play motivation. A multidisciplinary, mixed-methods research design was deployed for the empirical iteration of the model. This choice was reinforced by the critical review of related literature, which revealed that a combination of evidence from multiple disciplines (psychology, sociology, and technology) could contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of play motivation. An iterative, hypothesis-testing research design was the strategy used to conduct multidisciplinary, mixed-methods research. The initial, theoretical version of the MGM was iterated twice, resulting in a thoroughly developed, empirically grounded version that requires future validation. The value of this approach lies in the fact that it provides to game design stakeholders a methodological tool for understanding play motivation as a multifaceted activity, which could inform their practices.

The Design and Evaluation of a Sensor-Based Mobile Application for Citizen Inquiry Science Investigations

Despite their advantages of portability and ease of use, mobile devices have not yet been used in their full potential in education to measure and investigate real world phenomena. While some existing applications exploit individual sensors on mobile devices, there is no current toolkit that combines and customises data from the full range of sensors, and makes these data available for import to citizen inquiry science projects. This paper presents such a toolkit, called the Sense-it app, which gives access to all sensors on Android smartphones and tablets and connects to new or existing citizen science projects. We describe the design and formative evaluation of the toolkit in collaboration with students and teachers from a city technology college.

Social Praxis Within and Around Online Gaming: The Case of World of Warcraft

Games change their form as technology changes its forms: from early single player or multiplayer co-located games, many games are now online, real-time, massively multi-player experiences. A current research challenge is to understand gamers’ persistent involvement with games by considering their social practices within and around the game. This is important as it may have an impact on how we design successful technology-enhanced learning experiences. A Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), World of Warcraft was investigated. Data were collected from a large-scale online survey (1051 responses) as well as in-depth interviews. Findings revealed a range of collaborative and competitive relationships developed during gameplay. What motivates ongoing long-term participation was found to be social praxis along with significant others i.e., online and real-life friends as well as family members. Gaming becomes habitual when overcoming the boundaries of virtuality to become blurred with reality.

The Sense-it App: A Smartphone Sensor Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning

The authors describe the design and formative evaluation of a sensor toolkit for Android smartphones and tablets that supports inquiry-based science learning. The Sense-it app enables a user to access all the motion, environmental and position sensors available on a device, linking these to a website for shared crowd-sourced investigations. The authors describe the four investigations with the toolkit: environmental noise, sunlight levels, air pressure and rainfall, and the speed of lifts elevators. These show a variety of methods to initiate, orchestrate and conclude inquiry-based science learning. Two of the missions are in the context of a study to develop a community of inquiry around weather and meteorology. The others are intended to engage members of the public in practical science activities. Analysis of the missions and the associated online discussions reveals that the Sense-it toolkit can be adopted for engaging science investigations, though the practical issue of calibrating sensors on personal devices needs to be addressed.

Reviewing three case-studies of learning analytics interventions at the open university UK

This study provides a conceptual framework how organizations may adopt evidence-based interventions at scale, and how institutions may evaluate the costs and benefits of such interventions. Building on a new conceptual model developed by the Open University UK (OU), we will analyse three case-studies of evidence-based interventions. By working with 90+ large-scale modules for a period of two years across the five faculties and disciplines within the OU, Analytics4Action provides a bottom-up-approach for working together with key stakeholders within their respective contexts. Using principles of embedded case-study approaches by Yin [1], by comparing the learning behavior, satisfaction and performance of 11079 learners the findings indicated that each of the three learning designs led to satisfied students and average to good student retention. In the second part we highlighted that the three module teams made in-presentation interventions based upon real-time analytics, whereby initial user data indicated VLE behaviour in line with expectations. In 2-5 years, we hope that a rich, robust evidence-base will be presented to show how learning analytics can help teachers to make informed, timely and successful interventions that will help learners to achieve their learning outcomes.

Adapting Web-Based Inquiry Learning Environments from One Country to Another: The CoReflect Experience

This chapter discusses the process of adapting inquiry learning environments (LEs) from one national context to another, drawing from the collaboration of eight partners from Europe and Israel, all participating in the European project “Digital Support for Inquiry, Collaboration, and Reflection on Socio-scientific Debates” (CoReflect, http://www.coreflect.org). Each national Local Working Group (LWG), which was comprised of researchers, practicing teachers, and science experts, used a common theoretical framework to design, enact, and investigate web-based inquiry LEs on socio-scientific issues. Following design-based research and iterative improvements of the LEs through local enactments, the LWGs translated each learning environment in English and one other language. The LEs were adapted and used in authentic classroom environments in a different country. Four of the seven adaptations are reported here and implications for educational praxis are discussed.

Implementing randomised control trials in open and distance learning: a feasibility study

ABSTRACT Randomised control trials (RCTs) are an evidence-based research approach which has not yet been adopted and widely used in open and distance education to inform educational policy and practice. Despite the challenges entailed in their application, RCTs hold the power to robustly evaluate the effects of educational interventions in distance learning and conclude on whether (or not) these interventions should be adopted and used extensively. The aim of this paper is to spark discussions around the use of RCTs in distance learning by illustrating their benefits and drawbacks including challenges in adopting RCTs in education. To achieve this aim, a RCT was implemented to examine whether a small-scale intervention in four language modules could improve attendance at an end-of-module speaking assessment, and in consequence, performance, completion and pass rates. Results raise the need for further research in order to identify what type of interventions should be designed and put into practice to elicit a positive impact on learners. The paper concludes with a discussion on why RCTs should be brought to the forefront as a viable method for the effective evaluation of the impact of open learning analytic interventions.

Sense-it: A Smartphone Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning

We describe a toolkit for Android smartphones and tablets that enables a user to access all the sensors available on the device. Data from individual sensors can be viewed as dynamic graphs. Output from one or more sensors can be recorded to a spreadsheet, with the sampling rate set by the learner. As a tool for inquiry learning, the sensors can be linked to ‘missions’ on the nQuire-it website, allowing learners to sample and share data for collaborative crowd-sourced investigations.

Designing citizen science tools for learning: lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire

This paper reports on a 4-year research and development case study about the design of citizen science tools for inquiry learning. It details the process of iterative pedagogy-led design and evaluation of the nQuire toolkit, a set of web-based and mobile tools scaffolding the creation of online citizen science investigations. The design involved an expert review of inquiry learning and citizen science, combined with user experience studies involving more than 200 users. These have informed a concept that we have termed ‘citizen inquiry’, which engages members of the public alongside scientists in setting up, running, managing or contributing to citizen science projects with a main aim of learning about the scientific method through doing science by interaction with others. A design-based research (DBR) methodology was adopted for the iterative design and evaluation of citizen science tools. DBR was focused on the refinement of a central concept, ‘citizen inquiry’, by exploring how it can be instantiated in educational technologies and interventions. The empirical evaluation and iteration of technologies involved three design experiments with end users, user interviews, and insights from pedagogy and user experience experts. Evidence from the iterative development of nQuire led to the production of a set of interaction design principles that aim to guide the development of online, learning-centred, citizen science projects. Eight design guidelines are proposed: users as producers of knowledge, topics before tools, mobile affordances, scaffolds to the process of scientific inquiry, learning by doing as key message, being part of a community as key message, every visit brings a reward, and value users and their time.