P. Kathrani

A dynamic role-playing platform for simulations in legal and political education

One big challenge in deploying games-based learning, is the high cost and specialised skills associated with customised development. In this paper we present a serious games platform that offers tools that allow educators without special programming or artistic skills to dynamically create three dimensional (3D) scenes and verbal and non-verbal interaction with fully embodied conversational agents (ECAs) that can be used to simulate numerous educational scenarios. We present evaluation results based on the use of the platform to create two educational scenarios for politics and law in higher education. We conclude with a discussion of directions for the further work.

An ‘existential’ shift? Technology and some questions for the legal profession

ABSTRACT Technology is changing the world in which we live and this includes the legal profession. This change has been remarked from many different standpoints. However, as technology is increasingly integrated into the fabric of legal practice, the very act of lawyering is likely to change and this will give rise to very important ethical questions.

Object or Subject? The Ongoing 'Objectification' of Asylum Seekers

This article considers how over time asylum seekers have been ‘objectivised’ by the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 1951. International law is predominantly instrumental in nature. Whilst it may often contain ethical aspects and sometimes be underpinned by liberal objectives, these are usually secondary in nature, with the purpose of regularising the relationship of states around some common aims usually being the paramount goal. In this way, the focus of international law often turns from the ethical components of the law to terms, procedures and mechanisms. This arguably applies to Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 1951. Whilst originally conceived for Second World War refugees, it placed at the pinnacle of its preamble the moral impulse, ‘…to assure refugees the widest possible exercise of these fundamental rights and freedoms…’ The Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees 1967 removed the temporal and other limitations, however, arguably this moral impulse has waned as the words of the 1951 Convention have been used to control asylum seekers. This article argues that this has objectivised asylum seekers.

REVRLaw: An Immersive Way for Teaching Criminal Law Using Virtual Reality

Computer games have now been around for over three decades and the term serious games has been attributed to the use of computer games that are thought to have educational value. Game-based learning (GBL) has been applied in a number of different fields such as medicine, languages and software engineering. Furthermore, serious games can be a very effective as an instructional tool and can assist learning by providing an alternative way of presenting instructions and content on a supplementary level, and can promote student motivation and interest in subject matter resulting in enhanced learning effectiveness. REVRLaw (REal and Virtual Reality Law) is a research project that the departments of Law and Computer Science of Westminster University have proposed as a new framework in which law students can explore a real case scenario using Virtual Reality (VR) technology to discover important pieces of evidence from a real-given scenario and make up their mind over the crime case if this is a murder or not. REVRLaw integrates the immersion into VR as the perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The paper presents the prototype game and the mechanics used to make students focus on the crime case and make the best use of this immersive learning approach.

Westminster Serious Games Platform (wmin-SGP) a tool for real-time authoring of roleplay simulations for learning

The use of serious games in education and their pedagogical benefit is being widely recognized. However, effective integration of serious games in education depends on addressing two big challenges: the successful incorporation of motivation and engagement that can lead to learning; and the highly specialised skills associated with customised development to meet the required pedagogical objectives. This paper presents the Westminster Serious Games Platform (wmin-SGP) an authoring tool that allows educators/domain experts without games design and development technical skills to create bespoke roleplay simulations in three dimensional scenes featuring fully embodied virtual humans capable of verbal and non-verbal interaction with users fit for specific educational objectives. The paper presents the wmin-SGP system architecture and it evaluates its effectiveness in fulfilling its purpose via the implementation of two roleplay simulations, one for Politics and one for Law. In addition, it presents the results of two types of evaluation that address how successfully the wmin-SGP combines usability principles and game core drives based on the Octalysis gamification framework that lead to motivating games experiences. The evaluation results shows that the wmin-SGP: provides an intuitive environment and tools that support users without advanced technical skills to create in real-time bespoke roleplay simulations in advanced graphical interfaces; satisfies most of the usability principles; and provides balanced simulations based on the Octalysis framework core drives. The paper concludes with a discussion of future extension of this real time authoring tool and directions for further development of the Octalysis framework to address learning.

“Gamification” and legal education: A game based application for teaching university law students

The aim of this paper is to present a game based application constructed for the School of Law at the University of Westminster, London. The application is to be used for teaching purposes and is based on a hypothetical scenario. The paper discusses the challenges of designing game based applications for teaching Law and proposes some design solutions. The `Articulate Storyline e-learning authoring software was used for the implementation. The application can be accessed in any internet connected device and it is offered as an offline app for ipads via the `Articulate Mobile Player.

Quality circles and human rights: tackling the universalism and cultural relativism divide

The implementation of international human rights law has traditionally been undermined by the dichotomy between universalism and cultural relativism. Some groups regard human rights as more reflective of other culture’s and are unwilling to subscribe to them. One response to this is to enable groups to take co-ownership of human rights. Quality Circles based on institutions and technology, and the collaboration they encourage, provide one such means for doing so. What is required is for states to facilitate rather than undermine and censor these processes. Human Rights Quality Circles at different levels represent one way in which the cultural relativism and universalism division can be addressed, particularly in an ever-globalising world.