Search

The purpose of the chapter is to provide a state of the art survey addressing research and development aspects for the control of multiplayer Serious Games for collaborative learning scenarios. Hereby, several facets of multiplayer scenarios are addressed: synchronous and asynchronous gameplay and the role of an instructor as Game Master, supervisor, and provider of individual feedback as well as individual feedback among learners in the process of continuous adaptation of the on-going gameplay. Existing approaches and best-practice examples focus on digital educational games for pupils and collaborative learning environments for students. The theoretical foundations of instructional support as well as the implications and technical approaches are discussed. They include some aspects of authoring Serious Games (as already covered in chapter “Authoring Serious Games”).

Bridging the gap between diagnosis and learning in the classroom is the focus of our software tool PEDALE. It allows the usage of open-format questions, knowledge sharing and peer review of other students' solutions through the exchange of hand-written notes. A pilot study with teacher educators proved the potential for diagnostic support for teachers and at the same time promoting adaptive individual learning and exchange among students. The results indicate crucial design issues and future improvements, as well as the requirement of a teacher panel, providing a supervision of the learning scenario.

The basis for individual students' instructional support by teachers is an individual diagnosis of one's learning advances and difficulties. Even though sophisticated diagnostic tools exist, it remains an open question how diagnosis and learning can be merged into a consistent pedagogical method to support both teachers and students with feedback about the learning process. We propose a model for integration of peer assessment functionality for learning into a computer-based Adaptive Diagnostic Learning Environment to solve central problems of classroom diagnostic assessment, adaptive learning and knowledge transfer between peers in a classroom environment. The addressed issues, the approach and our evaluation setup are explained.

Research in learning and competence development shows the benefits of peer support and access to peers' solutions for learning and understanding. We propose a concept for task-focused knowledge exchange in a learner network using a digital learning environment that supports creation of ad-hoc (sub)communities by matching learning opportunities. Structural results from Social Network Analysis (SNA) are incorporated in the derived models of community-based learning in (sub)communities. The approach, research questions and the planned evaluation setup are described.

Ecosystem services (ES) is a valuable concept to be used in the planning and management of social–ecological landscapes. However, the understanding of the determinant factors affecting the interaction between services in the form of synergies or trade-offs is still limited. We assessed the production of 16 ES across 62 municipalities in the Norrström drainage basin in Sweden. We combined GIS data with publically available information for quantifying and mapping the distribution of services. Additionally, we calculated the diversity of ES for each municipality and used correlations and k-means clustering analyses to assess the existence of ES bundles. We found five distinct types of bundles of ES spatially agglomerated in the landscape that could be explained by regional social and ecological gradients. Human-dominated landscapes were highly multifunctional in our study area and urban densely populated areas were hotspots of cultural services. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13280-014-0601-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.