A Conceptual Framework for Road Safety Education using Serious Games with a Gesture-based Interaction Approach

Road accidents among children are one of the factors that cause mortality. An interactive manual has been developed to solve the problem. However, reports show that most road safety programs are displayed conventionally and unsuitable for almost all target users. In order to minimise the negative effect of road accidents on primary school students, early prevention programs need to be set up to overcome the problem. The natural user interface is a current technology that could be implemented in road safety education. Thus, this research aims to develop a conceptual framework by integrating gesture-based interaction and serious games towards road safety education, which will hopefully meet the road safety syllabus to tackle primary school students. All the proposed conceptual framework elements are identified through a systematic literature review and existing theories and model analysis supported by the experts’ review. This research’s main finding will be a conceptual framework of user engagement in road safety education through serious games with a gesture-based interaction technology approach. This conceptual framework would be a reference for road safety designers or developers to build an application for road safety by considering user engagement through gesture-based interaction, learning theory, and serious games at the same time.

The Impact of Serious Games in Economic and Business Education: A Case of ERP Business Simulation

Digitalisation nowadays impacts business environments significantly. Therefore, if higher education wants to educate students properly for a successful career path, the business and economics curriculum must be enriched with innovative teaching approaches covering actual topics, such as, for example, the implementation of the ERPsim business simulation, a representative of serious games. The ERPsim business simulation is based on SAP ERP, and is aimed at teaching ERP concepts. It covers different business processes, and allows students to learn using a hands-on approach, simulating real-life scenarios. The presented research focuses on using an ERPsim business simulation as the introduction to the course. The simulation was implemented to ease the introduction of ERP and IT concepts to the business and economic oriented students. Considering the positive effects of serious games and gamification, our research was formed and focused on knowledge acquisition and future student engagement. We researched whether participation in the introductory simulation results in significant knowledge gain and impacts students’ future course engagement. The data were gathered using a self-assessment questionnaire before and after an introductory simulation. The results were highly positive, confirming many positive aspects of business simulation, among others, significant knowledge increase in the domains of business process and ERP transactions, and in the domain of technical knowledge for SAP ERP. The results confirmed that the introductory simulation is appropriate for introducing ERP concepts to newcomers, and, nevertheless, confirmed the positive impact on their intent on future course engagement.

The effectiveness of serious games in improving executive functions among elderly people with cognitive impairment: A systematic review and meta-analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Executive functions are one of the known cognitive abilities that decline by age. They are the high-order cognitive processes that enable an individual to concentrate, plan, and take action. Serious games, which are games developed for specific purposes other than entertainment, could play a positive role in improving executive functions. Several systematic reviews have pooled the evidence about the effectiveness of serious games in improving executive functions; however, they are limited by some weaknesses. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of serious games in improving executive functions among elderly people with cognitive impairment. METHODS A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted. To retrieve relevant studies, 8 electronic databases were searched. Further, reference lists of the included studies and relevant reviews were screened, and we checked studies that cited our included studies. Two reviewers independently checked the eligibility of the studies, extracted data from the included studies, assessed the risk of bias, and appraised the quality of the evidence. We used a narrative and statistical approach, as appropriate, to synthesize results of the included studies. RESULTS Out of 548 publications identified, 16 RCTs were eventually included in this review. Our meta-analyses showed that serious games are as effective as no or passive interventions in improving executive functions (P=0.29). Surprisingly, conventional exercises were more effective than serious games in improving executive functions (P=0.03). Our subgroup analysis showed that both types of serious games (cognitive training games (P=0.08) and exergames (P=0.16)) are as effective as conventional exercises in improving executive functions. No difference was found between adaptive serious games and non-adaptive serious games in improving executive functions (P=0.59). CONCLUSIONS Serious games are not superior to no or passive interventions and conventional exercises in improving executive functions among older adults with cognitive impairment. However, our findings remain inconclusive due to the low quality of the evidence, the small sample size in most included studies, and the paucity of studies included in the meta-analyses. Accordingly, until more robust evidence is available, serious games should not be offered by healthcare providers nor used by patients for improving executive functions among older adults with cognitive functions. Further reviews are needed to assess the long-term effect of serious games on specific executive functions or other cognitive abilities among people from different age groups with or without cognitive impairment.

Indigenous Languages Learning Through Serious Games Based on Second Language Acquisition Theories

When new educational games are developed for teaching languages, a set of ideas or intuitions about how students can gain more knowledge are used; however, few of them are based on a solid theory or substantiated with linguistic research. This chapter presents a brief review about second language acquisition theories; describes the importance of recovering, maintaining, and transmitting indigenous languages; and analyzes efforts made for enhancing bilingual education. Serious games are presented as an alternative for learning indigenous languages, and guidelines to develop serious games implementing second language acquisition theories are proposed. Finally, a discussion about challenges and future trends in recovering, maintaining, and transmitting indigenous languages is presented.

Intersection of Serious Games and Learning Motivation for Medical Education

Educational scholars are implementing technologies into the educational process. They use virtual reality, simulations, augmented reality and other immersive technologies that provide entertainment and an interesting, immersive environment as well as engage and motivate students. The aim of this research is to understand the scope and the nature of studies where serious games for medical education are prospective research subjects for the development of learning motivation. There are specific research questions that are of interest to the authors: (1) how many studies are devoted to exploring how serious games and simulations develop learning motivation; (2) how many studies are devoted to medical education, especially continuing professional education; and (3) which professional fields are most reflected in the search results, and is interdisciplinary learning observed? To answer the research questions, a systematic analysis of publications was chosen as the research method. Altogether, 132 articles published from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2018 were selected for the review.

The Evaluation of Learner Experience in Serious Games

In this chapter, the topic of evaluating learner experience in serious games is discussed with respect to four different dimensions: gaming, learning, using and context with a special focus on using multimodal data. After reviewing relevant research fields, the steps involved in a serious games evaluation process is investigated and relevant evaluation studies are reviewed with emphasis on the use of different modalities for recording and assessing in-game interactions. Finally, a theoretical framework (LeGUC) is proposed defining parameters related to the four dimensions discussed which can be observed during evaluation studies of serious games and how they relate to logged in-game interactions. The framework is based on relevant literature as well as a conducted observational user study.

Evaluating the Quality of Serious Games as Modern E-Learning Environments

This chapter focuses on aspects of the integration of serious games in the field of education by examining the quality of serious games intended to be integrated into education. This review process must take into account the coherence between all the aspects constituting the serious games as they are characterized by their diversity in terms of content and quality. By conducting a comparative study based on the various studies of evaluation and classification of serious games already carried out, the authors have focused their research effort in this chapter on the design of a tool for the evaluation of serious games quality intended to be used in the field of education. A tool that determines if the learning methods related to games are correlated with pedagogical aspects and contributes to the knowledge of serious games and promote their use in the educational sphere. The study offers two levels of evaluation, global and specific; the overall level allows a global judgment unlike the specific evaluation that ensures that there is always a balance between different aspects of serious games.