Creating Educational Immersive Environments Using a Computer Game Engine: Case Studies and Design Theory

This paper aims to crystallize recent research performed at the University of Worcester to investigate the feasibility of using the commercial game engine ‘Unreal Tournament 2004’ (UT2004) to produce ‘Educational Immersive Environments’ (EIEs) suitable for education and training. Our research has been supported by the UK Higher Education Academy. We discuss both practical and theoretical aspects of EIEs. The practical aspects include the production of EIEs to support high school physics education, the education of architects, and the learning of literacy by primary school children. This research is based on the development of our novel instructional medium, ‘UnrealPowerPoint’. Our fundamental guiding principles are that, first, pedagogy must inform technology, and second, that both teachers and pupils should be empowered to produce educational materials. Our work is informed by current educational theories such as constructivism, experiential learning and socio-cultural approaches as well as elements of instructional design and game principles.

ILS and RTP: Support to Researchers Provided by Information and Learning Services as Part of the Research Training Programme at the University of Worcester, Past, Present and Future.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the involvement of Information and Learning Services staff in the delivery of the Research Training Programme at the University of Worcester, UK with a focus on researcher receptivity. I believe that by constantly reflecting on the development of that part of the programme delivered by ILS and by examining feedback from the sessions, it is possible to improve and increase the level of researcher receptivity. It is hoped that such examination and reflection will be of value and relevance to the IL community since by reflecting on success and failure in a local context and by mapping this reflection to existing research enables librarians to improve the support provided to researchers within their institutions. This article outlines the support given to research students at the University of Worcester in the past, examines the changes leading to present programme delivery and reflects on considerations for future support. The article is underpinned by reference to current research undertaken in international (albeit Western-centric) contexts. I note that the rationale behind changes is embedded in current adult learning and teaching theory. In an increasingly competitive research environment where funding is dependent on a statistically monitored research output, the aim of such support is to integrate any IL contribution into the wider research training programme. Thus resource discovery becomes part of the reflexive research cycle. Implicit in this investigative reflection is the desire of the IL community to constantly strive towards the positive reception of IL into research support programmes which are perceived by researchers as highly valuable to the process and progress of their work.