Systematic Observation of Ice Hockey Referees During Games

A study analyzed the behaviors of eight youth ice hockey referees during 15 different games. The results support the potential educational role that referees can have during games.

A Review on Repeated Games and Reputations with Incomplete Information

In this project we review the effects of reputation within the context of game theory. This is done through a study of two key papers. First, we examine a paper from Fudenberg and Levine: Reputation and Equilibrium Selection in Games with a Patient Player (1989). We add to this a review Gossner’s Simple Bounds on the Value of a Reputation (2011). We look specifically at scenarios in which a long-run player faces a series of short-run opponents, and how the former may develop a reputation. In turn, we show how reputation leads directly to both lower and upper bounds on the long-run player’s payoffs.

Youth sport coaches’ reflections on leadership behaviours during games and practices

Youth sport coaches shape the developmental sporting experience for their athletes (Camiré, Trudel, & Forneris, 2014). Specifically, coaches who form individualized, supportive relationships with their athletes can increase the development of personal and social skills (Fraser-Thomas, Côté, & Deakin, 2005). In light of the value of these relationships, increasing evidence is prompting the application of leadership theories, such as Transformational Leadership (TFL), in youth sport (Vella et al., 2013). The aim of this study was to explore coach perceptions of how and why leadership behaviours are applied in the youth sport context. Eleven coaches (Mage= 42.3, SD= 15.2) were recruited from competitive youth soccer and volleyball clubs (athletes’ Mage= 15.8, SD= 1.9) in Eastern Ontario and participated in a stimulated recall interview. During the interviews, coaches reflected upon their own coaching behaviours and provided insight into the application of leadership behaviours in youth sport. Responses were prompted by relevant video sequences from recorded practice and game sessions. A thematic content analysis revealed that; i) coaches use a variety of leadership behaviours in youth sport, ii) the use of leadership behaviours vary across sport contexts or settings, and iii) contrasting leadership styles (e.g., transactional vs. transformational) are associated with distinctive coach objectives (e.g., promoting confidence vs. establishing respect). These findings have helped identify gaps within coach education, and provide theoretical insight for applying leadership theories, and more specifically TFL, to help improve the sport experiences of young athletes.

A Meaner, More Callous Digital World for Youth? The Relationship Between Violent Digital Games, Motivation, Bullying and Civic Behavior amongst Children

The relationship between violent digital games and youth behavior remains contested in the scholarly literature. To date considerable scholarship has focused on university students with fewer studies of adolescents or children. The current study examines correlational relationships between violent game exposure and bullying behaviors, antisocial attitudes, civic attitudes and civic behaviors in a sample of 304 children from the United Kingdom (Mean age = 12.81). The paper also considered motivational influences on use of violent digital games. Results indicated that violent game exposure did not correlate meaningfully with either antisocial or civic behaviors or attitudes. These results are discussed in a motivational and developmental context.

The Informational Commons at Risk (Working Paper 8)

Conventional wisdom says that we are on the cusp of a Global Information Society, in which new technologies will provide citizens with unprecedented access to information. This is an appealing but flawed vision of the future. Governments are still reluctant to disclose information about core functions. At the same time, neoliberal reforms have caused a diffusion of power across sectors and borders, confounding efforts to promote governmental openness. Economic liberalization has also made it more difficult to enforce corporate disclosure requirements. Meanwhile, technological change has spurred efforts by businesses and citizens to strengthen their control over corporate and personal information. Efforts to defend the borders of the “informational commons” — the domain of publicly-accessible information — will be also be complicated by problems of policy design and political mobilization. Imposing transparency requirements was easier when authority was closely held by national and sub-national governments. The task is more difficult when power is widely diffused.

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.

Applying standards to systematize learning analytics in serious games

Learning Analytics is an emerging field focused on analyzing learners’ interactions with educational content. One of the key open issues in learning analytics is the standardization of the data collected. This is a particularly challenging issue in serious games, which generate a diverse range of data. This paper reviews the current state of learning analytics, data standards and serious games, studying how serious games are tracking the interactions from their players and the metrics that can be distilled from them. Based on this review, we propose an interaction model that establishes a basis for applying Learning Analytics into serious games. This paper then analyzes the current standards and specifications used in the field. Finally, it presents an implementation of the model with one of the most promising specifications: Experience API (xAPI). The Experience API relies on Communities of Practice developing profiles that cover different use cases in specific domains. This paper presents the Serious Games xAPI Profile: a profile developed to align with the most common use cases in the serious games domain. The profile is applied to a case study (a demo game), which explores the technical practicalities of standardizing data acquisition in serious games. In summary, the paper presents a new interaction model to track serious games and their implementation with the xAPI specification.

Game Learning Analytics: Learning Analytics for Serious Games

Video games have become one of the largest entertainment industries, and their power to capture the attention of players worldwide soon prompted the idea of using games to improve education. However, these educational games, commonly referred to as serious games, face different challenges when brought into the classroom, ranging from pragmatic issues (e.g. a high development cost) to deeper educational issues, including a lack of understanding of how the students interact with the games and how the learning process actually occurs. This chapter explores the potential of data-driven approaches to improve the practical applicability of serious games. Existing work done by the entertainment and learning industries helps to build a conceptual model of the tasks required to analyze player interactions in serious games (gaming learning analytics or GLA). The chapter also describes the main ongoing initiatives to create reference GLA infrastructures and their connection to new emerging specifications from the educational technology field. Finally, it explores how this data-driven GLA will help in the development of a new generation of more effective educational games and new business models that will support their expansion. This results in additional ethical implications, which are discussed at the end of the chapter.

Location decision-making of 'creative' industries: the media and computer games sectors in Dublin, Ireland

There has been significant research undertaken examining the “creative class” thesis within the context of the locational preferences of creative workers. However, relatively little attention has been given to the locational preferences of creative companies within the same context. This paper reports on research conducted to qualitatively analyse the location decision making of companies in two creative sectors: media and computer games. We address the role of the so-called “hard” and “soft” factors in company location decision making within the context of the creative class thesis, which suggests that company location is primarily determined by “soft” factors rather than “hard” factors. The study focuses upon “core” creative industries in the media and computer game sectors and utilises interview data with company managers and key elite actors in the sector to investigate the foregoing questions. The results show that “hard” factors are of primary importance for the location decision making in the sectors analysed, but that “soft” factors play quite an important role when “hard” factors are satisfactory in more than one competing city-region.

The Feasibility of Applying EU Data Protection Law to Biological Materials: Challenging ‘Data’ as Exclusively Informational

Though controversial the question of applying data protection laws to biological materials has only gotten a little attention in data privacy discourse. This article aims to contribute to this dearth by arguing that despite absence of positive intention from the architects to apply the EU Data privacy law to biological materials, a range of developments in Molecular Biology and nano-technology—usually mediated by advances in ICT—may provide persuasive grounds to do so. In addition, paucity of sufficient explication of key terms like ‘data/information’ in these legislations may fuel such tendency whereby laws originally intended for the informational world may end up applying to the biological world. The article also analyzes various predicaments that may arise from applying data privacy laws to biological materials. A focus is made on legislative sources at the EU level though national laws are relied on when pertinent.

An Investigation into the Use of Computer-based Simulation Games for Learning and Teaching in Business Management Courses

Computer-based simulation games (CSG) are a form of innovation in learning and teaching. CGS are used more pervasively in various ways such as a class activity (formative exercises) and as part of summative assessments (Leemkuil and De Jong, 2012; Zantow et al., 2005). This study investigates the current and potential use of CGS in Worcester Business School’s (WBS) Business Management undergraduate programmes. The initial survey of off-the-shelf simulation reveals that there are various categories of simulations, with each offering varying levels of complexity and learning opportunities depending on the field of study. The findings suggest that whilst there is marginal adoption of the use CSG in learning and teaching, there is significant opportunity to increase the use of CSG in enhancing learning and learner achievement, especially in Level 5 modules. The use of CSG is situational and its adoption should be undertaken on a case-by-case basis. WBS can play a major role by creating an environment that encourages and supports the use of CSG as well as other forms of innovative learning and teaching methods. Thus the key recommendation involves providing module teams further support in embedding and integrating CSG into their modules.

Affect-Based Effects of Simulation Games on Learning

Empirical evidence has demonstrated the benefits of using simulation games in enhancing learning especially in terms of cognitive gains. This is to be expected as the dynamism and non-linearity of simulation games are more cognitively demanding. However, the other effects of simulation games, specifically in terms of learners’ emotions, have not been given much attention and are under-investigated. This study aims to demonstrate that simulation games stimulate positive emotions from learners that help to enhance learning. The study finds that the affect-based constructs of interest, engagement and appreciation are positively correlated to learning. A stepwise multiple regression analysis shows that a model involving interest and engagement are significantly associated with learning. The emotions of learners should be considered in the development of curriculum, and the delivery of learning and teaching as positive emotions enhances learning.

The Influence of Informational and Emotional Advertising Appeals on Advertising Effectiveness – Consumers’ Perspective on the Over-the-Counter Product Advertisements in Finland

Consumers face enormous amounts of promotional messages daily whereas the pharmaceutical companies among other industries spend considerable time and money developing effective advertising strategies. There are multiple possible ways to appeal the target customer in order to increase the effectiveness of the advertisement. In spite of the various possibilities to categorize persuasive communication, the informational and the emotional appeals are the typical approaches. This study assesses the influence of the informational and emotional advertising appeals on the advertising effectiveness in the context of OTCs in Finland. The research method applied in this study is a quantitative survey. The data consists of 461 responses from the target population of 18–80 years old Finnish speaking consumers. The results from the marketing research indicate that the positive correlations of the emotional appeals are much stronger than the positive correlations of the informational appeals relating to the advertising effectiveness. However, on average the Finnish consumers experience the OTC advertisements relying on the informational appeals more effective than the OTC advertisements relying on the emotional appeals. Furthermore, within emotional appeals there is a much greater variety in the experienced advertising effectiveness not providing as stabile and consistent experienced advertising effectiveness compared to the informational appeals. Thus, the OTC advertisement relying more on the emotional appeals are much more risky in terms of advertising effectiveness. There are also differences with the experienced advertising effectiveness between the Finnish consumer groups and the information can be utilised when designing tailored OTC advertisements. The Finnish men consider humorous advertisements more effective than the Finnish women. In addition, the people living outside Uusimaa Region experience higher advertising effectiveness with the advertisements relying more on the informational advertisements compared to the people living in Uusimaa Region. In similar vein, the people with lower education experience higher advertising effectiveness with the advertisements relying more on the informational advertisements compared to the people with high education. Additionally, the older generation perceive an OTC advertisement with a middle-aged celebrity more effective than the younger consumers