Verona Leendertz

Hypercontextualized Learning Games: Fantasy, Motivation, and Engagement in Reality

A Hypercontextualized Game (HCG) is a locally designed game that supports its players in gathering context-specific information and in-depth understanding and knowledge regarding the context of a site. LIEKSAMYST, an exciting mobile application, with which visitors can play various games based on stories, was originally developed for the open-air section of the Pielinen Museum and is an example of such a hypercontextualized game. Each individual game (which together make up LIEKSAMYST) was developed in, for and with the co-operation of the Pielinen Museum. In its design, LIEKSAMYST purposefully attempts to connect users to the local history and thus promote affective engagement. With the co-operation of both a local school (Lieksan Keskuskoulu) and the museum authorities, we set out to discover how LIEKSAMYST guides the informal learning experience of Grade 7 pupils. We gathered information from 101 pupils on-site (through questionnaires) and used this data, as well as the pupils’ academic grades, to elucidate our study by investigating the relationship between engagement and motivation. The data were analyzed using a quantitative method guided by a qualitative interpretational approach and we found a significant correlation between (a) fantasy and (b) affective and cognitive engagement. The study highlighted the importance of evoking and harnessing both affective and cognitive engagement, through the fundamental element of fantasy, in the game narrative.

Success factors for serious games to enhance learning: a systematic review

There is no doubt that an abundance of factors exists that makes learning with serious games successful. Research articles reporting on these factors, however, tend to focus on select serious game elements and do not combine all salient factors for successful learning with serious games. Addressing this gap is a necessity for the success of serious games and may even alleviate long-standing debates about pedagogy over enjoyment, how much realism is enough or whether artificial intelligence is worth the cost. This article examines existing academic literature from 2000 to 2015, extracting shared serious game success factors that have had an encouraging impact on gameful learning experiences. As such, we subsequently aim to withdraw the field from a perpetual spiral of does-my-game-work research toward more worthwhile why-does-my-game-not-work research. Qualitative content analysis through the constant comparison method (CCM) analyzed a total of 63 articles from a variety of recognized electronic libraries and databases. Through this analysis, we reveal five central serious game themes: backstory and production; realism; artificial intelligence and adaptivity; interaction; and feedback and debriefing, all of which require deliberate intertwining with pedagogical content to ensure successful learning. This review unravels each of the five themes into their constituent factors and consequently presents the factors as practical guidelines that serious games producers should strive to include in their game productions. Applying these recommendations whenever serious games are considered will provide a foundation for effective gameful learning experiences.

The Ship Has Left the Harbour, but the Captain is MIA: Mobile Adoption within Higher Education Institutes

Mobile technology enables access to information through a variety of transmission media, like voice, text, video, and two-dimensional barcodes, anywhere, anytime. Therefore the current students expect mobile integration for teaching and learning to be the norm at Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). The purpose of this paper was to explore students’ adoption of mobile devices for programme delivery versus the lecturers’ acceptance or resistance to investigate the use of and potential for integrating mobile technologies for authentic teaching and learning in HEIs. The study used a multi-mode research design and methodology. Data collection strategies included: (i) a survey distributed in 2014 to 207 first and second year students from the Faculties of Humanities and Economic Sciences and Information Technology at the Vaal Triangle Campus (VTC) of the North-West University, and (ii) two individual interviews with lecturers from the two faculties. The quantitative and qualitative data were analysed with the use of the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) framework and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to predict whether the students and lecturers adopt the use of SMARTguides on tablets/iPads for authentic teaching and learning at VTC. Results indicate that students adopt mobile technologies for programme delivery; however, even though lecturers should steer the integration of mobile technologies for authentic teaching and learning, lecturers are reluctant to use SMARTguides as a teaching and learning tool due to institutional constraints, and have mixed feelings on the use of and the potential for integrating mobile technologies for programme delivery.