Kimmo Oksanen

Designing and analyzing collaboration in a scripted game for vocational education

This study attempts to combine the technological possibilities of 3D-game environments and collaborative learning scripts. The study is a design experiment (N=64) with multiple data collection and analysis (quantitative and qualitative) methods. The aims were twofold: The aim was to develop a game environment to simulate issues of work safety in a vocational context and to answer the following questions on the basis of an empirical study: (1) What kind of activities did the scripted game environment generate among the players? (2) How did the least and the most successful groups differ in this respect despite the same scripted game environment? Findings indicated that scripted game environment enriched the learning activities by enabling aspects that would not have been possible in traditional classroom settings. The scripted game environment also helped the players proceed in the different phases. However, the groups differed in terms of results in the test, collaboration processes, and the type and quantity of discussion. Especially discussion differed between the groups with highest and lowest test scores.

Subjective Experience and Sociability in a Collaborative Serious Game

The meaning of social dimension of gaming for enjoyable and engaging game experiences is supported by an increasing amount of research. Nonetheless, this issue has rarely been studied in the context of serious games. This study attempts to narrow the knowledge gap in the understanding of collaborative serious game experiences and the relationship between the social dimension of gaming and core game experiences. The aim of this study is to empirically investigate what kinds of game experiences are generated when playing collaborative serious game and how the sense of social presence and the sociability of the environment are connected to the core game experience. Findings reinforce the idea that social presence is an essential part of game experience in multiplayer games. Results also showed that the sociability of the game and a sense of social presence are strongly connected to the various dimensions of the core game experience, including engagement, in the forms of flow and immersion. Thus, results indicate that the sociability of the game and sense of social presence seem to be potential factors in the emergence of positive and engaging game experiences, at least in the context of collaborative games.

Collaborative 3D learning games for future learning: teachers’ instructional practices to enhance shared knowledge construction among students

Collaborative games will enable new kinds of possibilities for learning. In the future, the goal of game-based learning should be to introduce new ideas and deepen learners’ in-depth understanding. However, studies have shown that shared high-level knowledge construction is a challenging process. Moreover, thus far, few empirical studies have examined what constitutes the teacher’s role in games. The focus of this paper is to investigate teachers’ real-time instructional activities in a scripted 3D game setting. The authors’ hypothesis is that groups with real-time teacher instruction will come up with more shared knowledge construction that can be considered productive than groups studying without real-time teacher instruction. Thus, content analysis was conducted to compare collaboration processes between different learning conditions. This study indicates that the teacher has a special role in empowering collaborative knowledge construction in the 3D game context in vocational education. The authors’ findings show that the teacher’s participation in collaborative work helps groups to develop productive ways of providing knowledge and asking contextual questions. In addition, they illustrate the teacher’s ability to involve students in formulating hypotheses, interpreting context, providing explanations and describing observations.

Game Mechanics in the Design of a Collaborative 3D Serious Game

Background This article investigates the potential of utilizing game mechanics in designing 3D serious games for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and attempt to produce new information about designing collaborative serious games. Aim This article has two aims: First, to clarify how theoretical knowledge of collaborative learning was related to game design in previous studies; and, second, to design a collaborative serious game based on theoretical knowledge of collaborative learning and game design. Results The reviewed studies revealed the potential of using collaborative games in education. However, they showed that collaborative learning games were typically designed only from pedagogical perspective. Thus, integrating educational theory and game design perspectives was rare. Therefore, we argue that collaborative serious games do not necessarily take full advantage of their potential. Conclusion The main contribution of this article is to present seven ways to utilize game mechanics in order to create favorable conditions for collaborative learning and to structure players’ actions to boost social interaction and collaborative activities. This article concludes with an example of taking advantage of game mechanics in the design of a collaborative serious game. This article also uses event-charts to demonstrate the practical implementation of game mechanics in three multiplayer puzzles.

Assessing game experience: Heart rate variability, in-game behavior and self-report measures

Assessing game experience by means of recordings of physiological reactions elicited during game play is a technique that has gained popularity in recent years in the field of digital games research. However, since physiological signals are typically linked to several psychological processes, the use of some measures such as cardiac activity or heart rate (HR) remains problematic. The goal of the present study is to investigate to what extent game logs and self-report measures of game experience have a predictive value for heart rate variability during game play. Our results showed that the accurate registration of in-game behaviors by means of game logs carries the potential of providing richer information for the interpretation of variations in cardiac activity than only post-hoc self-report measures.

How to Raise Different Game Collaboration Activities: The Association Between Game Mechanics, Players’ Roles and Collaboration Processes

Background. Designing collaborative three-dimensional (3D) learning games is one way to enhance the quality of learning and respond to the needs of working life. However, there is little research on how to apply different game mechanics to support different educational aims. Aim. This study determines how game mechanics implemented within computer-supported collaboration roles (scripted vs. emergent) are associated with the emergence of collaboration. Method. The research at hand applies both qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The target group consisted of 15 vocational school students. The data were gathered by recording the groups’ discussions and saving the game logs. A total of 8,128 transcribed utterances were eligible for content analysis to shed light on the characteristics in knowledge construction under scripted and emergent role situations. Results. We found differences between the players’ utterances in tasks with scripted and emergent roles. At the scripted-role level, providing knowledge was the most dominant type of utterance. Further, students with similar roles performed actions and applied similar activities. In the level based on emerging collaboration processes, shared problem solving was the most actively used speech activity. Conclusions. Emphasizing and applying different game mechanics with different collaboration roles (scripted vs. emergent) can be used to support different educational aims of games. Recommendation. Collaboration is needed among professionals from technological and educational sites of game research to fully understand how to apply game mechanics in educational games.