Viable Health Games: Elements for Success

The main purpose of this study is to identify the elements of children's health games that have a positive impact on children’s health. The investigation is done by evaluating previous health game studies concentrating on children and five health affairs (such as asthma, cancer, diabetes, nutrition and obesity). In order to do so, firstly the topic of children’s health games is explained through its roots, as it is an interdisciplinary topic pertinent with many other fields. For this reason, the topics regarding the children’s health games as games, video games, children’s gameplay, and serious games along with health, relevant health affairs, and health promotion were covered. Secondly, the meta-study was conducted with the 56 articles on children’s health games. These 56 articles were analyzed with the coding technique defined by Charmaz’s Grounded Theory Method (Charmaz, 2006) for finding out which elements of children’s health games have a positive impact on children’s health promotion. The main result suggests that, although there are 24 different elements found and listed which all positive in their nature, their positive impact is a matter of how they are used or implemented through the consumption cycle of children’s health games and how all these elements interact with each other. In addition to this, a pragmatic proposal is formulated for possibly better or more successful health games. The study concludes with the declaration of the limitations encountered through the research and the recommendations for future research.

Viable Health Games: Elements for Success

The main purpose of this study is to identify the elements of children's health games that have a positive impact on children’s health. The investigation is done by evaluating previous health game studies concentrating on children and five health affairs (such as asthma, cancer, diabetes, nutrition and obesity). In order to do so, firstly the topic of children’s health games is explained through its roots, as it is an interdisciplinary topic pertinent with many other fields. For this reason, the topics regarding the children’s health games as games, video games, children’s gameplay, and serious games along with health, relevant health affairs, and health promotion were covered. Secondly, the meta-study was conducted with the 56 articles on children’s health games. These 56 articles were analyzed with the coding technique defined by Charmaz’s Grounded Theory Method (Charmaz, 2006) for finding out which elements of children’s health games have a positive impact on children’s health promotion. The main result suggests that, although there are 24 different elements found and listed which all positive in their nature, their positive impact is a matter of how they are used or implemented through the consumption cycle of children’s health games and how all these elements interact with each other. In addition to this, a pragmatic proposal is formulated for possibly better or more successful health games. The study concludes with the declaration of the limitations encountered through the research and the recommendations for future research.

Desarrollo de las competencias de colaboraci??n con el uso del Serious Game MetaVals

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Behavioral economics, wearable devices, and cooperative games: results from a population-based intervention to increase physical activity

Background: Health care literature supports the development of accessible interventions that integrate behavioral economics, wearable devices, principles of evidence-based behavior change, and community support. However, there are limited real-world examples of large scale, population-based, member-driven reward platforms. Subsequently, a paucity of outcome data exists and health economic effects remain largely theoretical. To complicate matters, an emerging area of research is defining the role of Superusers, the small percentage of unusually engaged digital health participants who may influence other members. Objective: The objective of this preliminary study is to analyze descriptive data from GOODcoins, a self-guided, free-to-consumer engagement and rewards platform incentivizing walking, running and cycling. Registered members accessed the GOODcoins platform through PCs, tablets or mobile devices, and had the opportunity to sync wearables to track activity. Following registration, members were encouraged to join gamified group challenges and compare their progress with that of others. As members met challenge targets, they were rewarded with GOODcoins, which could be redeemed for planet- or people-friendly products. Methods: Outcome data were obtained from the GOODcoins custom SQL database. The reporting period was December 1, 2014 to May 1, 2015. Descriptive self-report data were analyzed using MySQL and MS Excel. Results: The study period includes data from 1298 users who were connected to an exercise tracking device. Females consisted of 52.6% (n=683) of the study population, 33.7% (n=438) were between the ages of 20-29, and 24.8% (n=322) were between the ages of 30-39. 77.5% (n=1006) of connected and active members met daily-recommended physical activity guidelines of 30 minutes, with a total daily average activity of 107 minutes (95% CI 90, 124). Of all connected and active users, 96.1% (n=1248) listed walking as their primary activity. For members who exchanged GOODcoins, the mean balance was 4,000 (95% CI 3850, 4150) at time of redemption, and 50.4% (n=61) of exchanges were for fitness or outdoor products, while 4.1% (n=5) were for food-related items. Participants were most likely to complete challenges when rewards were between 201-300 GOODcoins. Conclusions: The purpose of this study is to form a baseline for future research. Overall, results indicate that challenges and incentives may be effective for connected and active members, and may play a role in achieving daily-recommended activity guidelines. Registrants were typically younger, walking was the primary activity, and rewards were mainly exchanged for fitness or outdoor products. Remaining to be determined is whether members were already physically active at time of registration and are representative of healthy adherers, or were previously inactive and were incentivized to change their behavior. As challenges are gamified, there is an opportunity to investigate the role of superusers and healthy adherers, impacts on behavioral norms, and how cooperative games and incentives can be leveraged across stratified populations. Study limitations and future research agendas are discussed.

A Serious Gaming Approach For Serious Stakeholder Participation

Serious games are a category of games which are designed for a specific purpose other than for pure entertainment. It is not a new concept but serious games using real data, coupled with real time modelling and combining model results with social and economic factors opens up a new paradigm for active stakeholder participation. DHI and UNEP-DHI Centre initiated a project called Aqua Republica where a virtual world is developed which allows participants to develop a river basin and visualise the consequences of their decisions. The aim of this project is to raise awareness of the interconnectivity of water and educate on integrated water resources management. Aqua Republica combines a game layer with a water allocation model, MIKE BASIN, to create an interactive, realistic virtual environment where players play the role of a catchment manager of an undeveloped river catchment. Their main objective is to develop the river catchment to be as prosperous as it can be. To achieve that, they will need to generate a good economy in the catchment to provide the funds needed for development, have a steady food supply for their population and enough energy and water for the catchment. Through these actions by the player, a meaningful play is established to engage players and to educate them about the complex relationships between developmental actions in a river basin and the natural environment as well as their consequences. The game layer also consists of a reward system to encourage learning. People can play and replay the game, get rewarded from performing the right principles and penalised from failures in the game. This abstract will explain the concept of the game and how it has been used in a stakeholder participation environment.

Estimating Gesture Accuracy in Motion-Based Health Games

This manuscript details a technique for estimating gesture accuracy within the context of motion-based health video games using the MICROSOFT KINECT. We created a physical therapy game that requires players to imitate clinically significant reference gestures. Player performance is represented by the degree of similarity between the performed and reference gestures and is quantified by collecting the Euler angles of the player's gestures, converting them to a three-dimensional vector, and comparing the magnitude between the vectors. Lower difference values represent greater gestural correspondence and therefore greater player performance. A group of thirty-one subjects was tested. Subjects achieved gestural correspondence sufficient to complete the game's objectives while also improving their ability to perform reference gestures accurately.

Mobile Games for Learning

Today, pupils at the age of 15 have spent their entire life surrounded by and interacting with diverse forms of computers. It is a routine part of their day-to-day life and by now computer-literacy is common at very early age. Over the past five years, technology for teens has become predominantly mobile and ubiquitous within every aspect of their lives. To them, being online is an implicitness. In Germany, 88% of youth aged between 12-19 years own a smartphone and about 20% use the Internet via tablets. Meanwhile, more and more young learners bring their devices into the classroom and pupils increasingly demand for innovative and motivating learning scenarios that strongly respond to their habits of using media. With this development, a shift of paradigm is slowly under way with regard to the use of mobile technology in education. By now, a large body of literature exists, that reports concepts, use-cases and practical studies for effectively using technology in education. Within this field, a steadily growing body of research has developed that especially examines the use of digital games as instructional strategy. The core concern of this thesis is the design of mobile games for learning. The conditions and requirements that are vital in order to make mobile games suitable and effective for learning environments are investigated. The base for exploration is the pattern approach as an established form of templates that provide solutions for recurrent problems. Building on this acknowledged form of exchanging and re-using knowledge, patterns for game design are used to classify the many gameplay rules and mechanisms in existence. This research draws upon pattern descriptions to analyze learning game concepts and to abstract possible relationships between gameplay patterns and learning outcomes. The linkages that surface are the starting bases for a series of game design concepts and their implementations are subsequently evaluated with regard to learning outcomes. The findings and resulting knowledge from this research is made accessible by way of implications and recommendations for future design decisions.

Educational Games for Learning Programming Languages

A concept of educational game for learning programming languages is presented. The idea of learning programming languages and improving programming skills through programming game characters’ behavior is described. The learning course description rules for using in games are suggested. The concept is implemented in a game for learning C# programming language. A common game architecture is modified for using in the educational game. The game engine is built on the base of the graphical engine Ogre3D and extended with game logic. The game has been developed as an industry level commercial product and is planned for sale to educational institutions.

State of the art in business games

The use of digital games and gamification has demonstrated potential to improve many aspects of how businesses provide training to staff, and communicate with consumers. However, there is still a need for better understanding of how the adoption of games and gasification would influence the process of decision-making in organisations across different industry. This article provides a structured review of existing literature on the use of games in the business environment, and seeks to consolidate findings to address research questions regarding their perception, proven efficacy, and identifies key areas for future work. The findings highlight that serious games can have positive and effective impacts in multiple areas of a business, including training, decision-support, and consumer outreach. They also emphasise the challenges and pitfalls of applying serious games and gamification principles within a business context, and discuss the implications of development and evaluation methodologies on the success of a game-based solution.

For the win (FTW)! Contribuições de um serious game para o ensino-aprendizagem de argumentação

This is a qualitative and reflexive research with focus on digital literacy. Among the digital media that could support the teaching of argumentation in the Science & Technology and Information Technology undergraduate courses of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, we chose a serious game as object of research. Given the object of study in the discipline of reading and writing II – argumentation and genre from the order of argumentative writing -, common to the undergraduate courses mentioned, we invest on the development of a serious game, named ArgumentACTION, because we believe that it may, in fact, become a promising didactic instrument. Therefore we intend to understand whether and how this game can help students develop their reading and writing skills more independently, specifically towards an argumentative order genre: the opinion piece. With this research, we intend to contribute to the teaching of the Portuguese language on three bases: extending theoretical scope, in order to generate greater intelligibility on the teaching-learning process of argumenting; proposing a new methodological possibility, with the incorporation of a serious games to teaching; perfecting the game with which we are working, in order to build – and make available – a more refined digital tool to subsidize the teaching and learning of reading and writing of opinion pieces. To do so, we use the following as theoretical-methodological: Studies of Literacy (KLEIMAN, 2012b; TINOCO, 2008; OLIVEIRA, 2010; GEE, 2009; 2010; ROJO, 2012), The Applied Linguistics (KLEIMAN, 1998; BUSH-LEE, 2009), The Philosophy of Language (BAKHTIN, VOLOSHINOV, 2012) and Critical Pedagogy (DEWEY, 2010). A group of students from the upper mentioned undergraduate courses collaborated with this research by playing and analyzing the game. They were also interviewed about their experience in this matter. From the data generated, we established the categories of analysis: decollection, interest, multimodality/multisemiosis and interactivity, agent of literacy, learning principles. The conclusions we obtained show that the investment in applications, especially games, can bring real benefits to the teaching/learning of the Portuguese language; moreover they reveal that the work on argumenting has much to gain with the incorporation of serious games; however the possible advantages depend on a focused teaching practice and constant improvements and updates of this type of interactive tool, as well as the pedagogical practice from those who use and develop the games.

Serious gaming: wondermiddel of luchtkasteel?

Games voor onderwijs en training worden een serieuze zaak. Marktprognoses melden een jaarlijkse groei van 18% tot een wereldwijd volume van meer dan 5 miljard Euro in 2020. Games bieden leerlingen een virtuele praktijk, waarin ze actief kunnen oefenen. Studietaken worden levensechte uitdagingen die tot indringende leerervaringen leiden. Dat schept nieuwe mogelijkheden juist in het MBO, waar praktische ervaring vaak belangrijker is dan theoretische kennis. Deze sessie geeft een snelle update over serious games. Diverse game-mechanismen worden besproken aan de hand van actuele voorbeelden.

Software Components for Serious Game Development

The large upfront investments required for game development pose a severe barrier for the wider uptake of serious games in education and training. Also, there is a lack of well-established methods and tools that support game developers at preserving and enhancing the games’ pedagogical effectiveness. The RAGE project, which is a Horizon 2020 funded research project on serious games, addresses these issues by making available reusable software components that aim to support the pedagogical qualities of serious games. In order to easily deploy and integrate these game components in a multitude of game engines, platforms and programming languages, RAGE has developed and validated a hybrid component-based software architecture that preserves component portability and interoperability. While a first set of software components is being developed, this paper presents selected examples to explain the overall system’s concept and its practical benefits. First, the Emotion Detection component uses the learners’ webcams for capturing their emotional states from facial expressions. Second, the Performance Statistics component is an add-on for learning analytics data processing, which allows instructors to track and inspect learners’ progress without bothering about the required statistics computations. Third, a set of language processing components accommodate the analysis of textual inputs of learners, facilitating comprehension assessment and prediction. Fourth, the Shared Data Storage component provides a technical solution for data storage - e.g. for player data or game world data - across multiple software components. The presented components are exemplary for the anticipated RAGE library, which will include up to forty reusable software components for serious gaming, addressing diverse pedagogical dimensions.

"The X in balance", a serious game to learn how to solve mathematical equations

(Prefácio) This dissertation is submitted for the degree of Masters (Engenharia Informática) at University of Évora. Under the supervision of Professor Francisco Manuel Gonçalves Coelho, i have selected to work on game design. With the specific period of time and resources, an attempt has been made to make a serious educational game. While writing this thesis, the objective was to describe a math game for solving mathematical equations. Injecting learning factor in a game, is a main concern of this project. The document is about the description of ‘X in Balance’ game. This game provides a platform for school aged students to solve the equations by playing game. It also gives a unique dimension of putting fun and math in a same platform. The document describes full detail on the project. The first chapter gives an introduction about the problem faced by students in doing maths and the learning behavior of a game. It also points out the opportunities that this game might brings and the motivation behind doing this work. It describes the game concept and its genre too. Besides, the second chapter tells state of an art of serous educational game. It defines the concept of serious game and its types. Furthermore, it justifies the flexibility of serious games to adapt all learning styles. The impact of serious games on learning is also mentioned. It also includes the related work of other researchers.

Practical, appropriate, empirically-validated guidelines for designing educational games

There has recently been a great deal of interest in the potential of computer games to function as innovative educational tools. However, there is very little evidence of games fulfilling that potential. Indeed, the process of merging the disparate goals of education and games design appears problematic, and there are currently no practical guidelines for how to do so in a coherent manner. In this paper, we describe the successful, empirically validated teaching methods developed by behavioural psychologists and point out how they are uniquely suited to take advantage of the benefits that games offer to education. We conclude by proposing some practical steps for designing educational games, based on the techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis. It is intended that this paper can both focus educational games designers on the features of games that are genuinely useful for education, and also introduce a successful form of teaching that this audience may not yet be familiar with.

A laparoscopic surgery training interface

Laparoscopy is a surgical procedure on which operations in the abdomen are performed through small incisions using several specialized instruments. The laparoscopic surgery success greatly depends on surgeon skills and training. To achieve these technical high-standards, different apprenticeship methods have been developed, many based on in vivo training, an approach that involves high costs and complex setup procedures. This paper explores Virtual Reality (VR) simulation as an alternative for novice surgeons training. Even though several simulators are available on the market claiming successful training experiences, their use is extremely limited due to the economic costs involved. In this work, we present a low-cost laparoscopy simulator able to monitor and assist the trainee’s surgical movements. The developed prototype consists of a set of inexpensive sensors, namely an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer and a flex sensor, attached to specific laparoscopic instruments. Our approach allows repeated assisted training of an exercise, without time constraints or additional costs, since no human artificial model is needed. A case study of our simulator applied to instrument manipulation practice (hand-eye coordination) is also presented.