Guillaume Loup

Immersion and Persistence: Improving Learners’ Engagement in Authentic Learning Situations

According to the recent technological advances, a new type of digital learning games has emerged. These games integrate virtual worlds persistence and immersion devices allowing the learners to experience more authentic and rich situations. Several studies highlighted their pedagogical value, knowledge transfer and learners’ engaged-behaviors. In this paper, we draw the characteristics of these learning games based on the integration of new technologies according to two characteristics: immersion and persistence. To investigate the impact of such technological components, we developed a game and evaluated it in ecological conditions. Four groups of fifteen high school students played the game through two testing conditions: two groups used a prototype allowing only classical interactions limited on usual devices, while the two other groups used a prototype integrating persistent and immersive interactions using Oculus Rift vision. All the interactions were recorded and their analysis suggests more engaged behaviors from students using the immersive and persistent prototype.

User-Centred BCI Videogame Design

This chapter aims to offer a user-centred methodological framework to guide the design and evaluation of Brain-Computer Interface videogames. This framework is based on the contributions of ergonomics to ensure these games are well suited for their users (i.e., players). It provides methods, criteria and metrics to complete the different phases required by ae human-centred design process. This aims to understand the context of use, specify the user needs and evaluate the solutions in order to define design choices. Several ergonomic methods (e.g., interviews, longitudinal studies, user based testing), objective metrics (e.g., task success, number of errors) and subjective metrics (e.g., mark assigned to an item) are suggested to define and measure the usefulness, usability, acceptability, hedonic qualities, appealingness, emotions related to user experience, immersion and presence to be respected. The benefits and contributions of the user centred framework for the ergonomic design of these Brain-Computer Interface Videogames are discussed.

Effects of Travel Modes on Performances and User Comfort: A Comparison between ArmSwinger and Teleporting

ABSTRACT The commercialization of Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) aimed at the general public has led several videogame and virtual reality companies to offer new modes for continuous travel, in addition to commonly implemented instantaneous travel modes such as the Teleporting metaphor. These new modes include the ArmSwinger metaphor, seen as “more natural.” Yet unlike Teleporting mode, ArmSwinger mode has so far not been studied. Our study was designed to fill this gap, by comparing the effects of these two travel modes implemented on an HTC Vive in terms of performance and user comfort. We collected two measures of performance (effectiveness and efficiency) and three measures of user comfort (cybersickness, user experience, and cognitive load). Results showed that (1) no significant difference was found in completion time between ArmSwinger mode and Teleporting mode, even if ArmSwinger mode seems more effective; (2) ArmSwinger mode caused more cybersickness than Teleporting mode in terms of nausea; (3) ArmSwinger mode produced a more negative user experience than the Teleporting mode in relation to appealingness qualities; and (4) ArmSwinger mode created a higher cognitive load than Teleporting mode in relation to the physical demand, effort, and frustration dimensions.

Towards a Model of User Experience in Immersive Virtual Environments

There are increasing new advances in virtual reality technologies as well as a rise in learning virtual environments for which several studies highlighted the pedagogical value, knowledge transfer, and learners’ engaged-behaviors. Moreover, the notion of user experience is now abundant in the scientific literature without the fact that there are specific models for immersive environments. This paper aims at proposing and validating a model of User eXperience in Immersive Virtual Environment, including virtual learning environments. The model is composed of 10 components extracted from existing models (i.e., presence, engagement, immersion, flow, usability, skill, emotion, experience consequence, judgement, and technology adoption). It was validated in a user study involving 152 participants who were asked to use the edutainment application Think and Shoot and to complete an immersive virtual environment questionnaire. The findings lead us to a modified user experience model questioning new paths between user experience components (e.g., the influence of experience consequence on flow).