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.

Scenes of provincial life: an online video sequence and commentary

I present here a sequence of short videos, Scenes of Provincial Life, forming a unified, ongoing online work. In my written commentary I discuss the work‘s context, genesis and facture and presentation and thereby demonstrate its claim to originality as art work. I go on to suggest one possible interpretive framework for it. I then discuss the nature of art works as candidates for the generation of new knowledge and conclude that art works in general fulfil this function, in a very carefully defined way, as a necessary condition of being art works. I further connect the success of any work as art work with the richness of its knowledge generating capacity, inseparably allied to its aesthetic force. I conclude that if Scenes of Provincial Life is seen to have value as artwork it will therefore by definition be a creator of new knowledge.