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This thesis provides an analysis of gaming elements of engagement that influence learning of curriculum-based content, from data gathered through a systematic review, survey research, and a series of classroom observations. It discusses the implications of elements of engagement in games becoming such a critical component of game-based learning (GBL) for the successful delivery of curriculum-based content for classroom and extended learning. The thesis is divided into five chapters: introduction, literature review, pupil survey, case study, and discussion and conclusion. Systematic review data were gathered from a sample of 91 papers that studied GBL in primary education to analyse gaming elements of engagement that influence learning. This research adopted a mixed-methods design. Survey data were gathered from a convenience sample of 465 pupils across a school in the Republic of Ireland, and two schools in the Turks and Caicos Islands, regarding the pupils’ engagement with learning resources, which included reading materials (i.e. digital and paper-based materials) and classroom, online, and gaming activities. Case study data were gathered from a convenience sample of two teachers of the same school, who completed a set of teacher self-report questionnaires from a series of classroom observations of GBL implementation as planned by them within a period of three to four months. Thus, the findings were not generalizable, as the data analysis was to a great extent limited by the disadvantages of convenience sampling strategies and by the collection of observational data of teacher self-reports of their GBL plans and implementation. Nonetheless, the findings suggest that GBL environments for engagement and learning of curriculum content are best designed by considering gaming elements and features that provide opportunities for the participating pupils to explore and develop a sense of excitement and interest (i.e. promoting engagement) at the beginning of GBL, to get involved in tasks and activities that challenge their abilities (i.e. motivating engagement) during the gameplay, and to gain suitable feedback and reward for task completion (i.e. supporting engagement) during and probably after the gameplay. Primarily, an engagement strategy for the successful design and implementation of GBL in classrooms includes providing meaningful gaming and creating challenges to sustain engagement. Gaming components garnering top attention from pupils to become engaged learners within a GBL environment include a variety of interesting materials and guided activities, opportunities to perform, and task-relevant guidance and feedback. Ultimately, the thesis provides a useful source of information for best practices for teachers, game designers and developers, and other education stakeholders who are considering the use of GBL for classroom teaching/learning and extended learning. This thesis synthesizes the vast literature related to GBL, presents original materials related to gameplay and learning engagement within GBL environments, and offers several recommendations for best practices of game-based instructional design for engagement and learning.

This handbook has been written in the framework of European Schoolnet's Games in Schools project which began in January 2008 and ended in June 2009. The project's aim was to analyse the current situation in eight countries (Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain and UK) with regard to games based learning. It is composed of various elements, including a synthesis and final report based on the results of a Europe-wide teachers' survey, case studies and interviews with relevant national policy makers, researchers and experts, as well as an online community of practice and finally the present teachers' handbook. The Games in Schools blog provides more information regarding European Schoolnet's project, and also provides links to the study's reports (http://games.eun.org). This handbook is intended for teachers interested in using digital games in their lessons. It provides the necessary information to understand the educational benefits of digital games and to learn how to use them as educational and motivational resources. After reading this handbook, you should be able to make informed decisions on the choice and use of digital games in the classroom, and obtain all the benefits digital games can offer. This handbook is a practical guide aimed at providing you with theoretical and practical information. It is an introduction to the educational use of digital games and it provides references to useful resources such as articles, websites and books where you can find additional information.

This short paper charts why potential participants decide not to participate in game jams. Specifically, we aim at finding reasons for adolescents, specifically Finnish general upper secondary school students, for not attending game jam events. In November 2018, we arranged a game jam in Tampere, at the University of Tampere, where the participants were students from three schools. From the possible pool of over 800 pupils, we had measly twelve registrations and due to cancellations, we only had eight participants, aged 17 and 18, in the jam. Although the jam event itself was successful, we wanted to know why only a fraction of invitees participated. Furthermore, we wanted to map the possible barriers to entry that prevented students from getting involved. To address this we conducted an online survey of all invitees in December 2018. Of the all possible participants 218 replied. This paper analyzes those results and discusses the implications of the results to future educational use of game jamming in formal education. Educators have in recent years tried to better teach the so called 21st century skills and competencies, which have been deemed essential for the new era (see e.g. Dede, 2007; Ananiadou & Claro, 2009). An increasing number of studies has shown that the skills acquired in game jam events closely resemble the 21st century skills: STEAM/STEM related and inter- and intrapersonal skills. Thus, it is also important to see if the game jam method could be applied to formal learning in schools. With this end in mind, we have organized several game jams in Finnish schools, namely in general upper secondary schools. The results are promising, showing that the benefits of game jams can indeed be transferred to formal learning. The number of the involved students has been small, which affects both the research and the goal we are trying to reach: spreading the benefits of game jamming to a larger audience. In this article, we aim at finding reasons for non-attendance. publishedVersion

The goal of this study was to examine interaction designs and devices for natural gesture-based interaction for a 3D serious game for surgical training. The 3D input devices used in the experiment consisted of a 5DT Data Glove and a Leap Motion sensor. The 3D model used for interaction was a particle-based deformable object using NVIDIA Flex. The interface was constructed in C++ using Unreal Engine 4 as the game engine and was designed to measure the movement of the wrist around a virtual object. A user study was conducted to compare the usability of contact based (5DT Glove) and non-contact based (the Leap) gesture-based input devices for use in the system. Eleven right-handed adult volunteers were recruited. Each volunteer was asked to perform four tasks on the deformable model. These tasks involved pushing and pulling certain points and faces on the 3D model. To account for possible learning bias, subjects were randomly assigned their first device. After each device, the subjects were asked to complete a System Usability Scale questionnaire. The experiment collected information on the (a) accuracy, (b) discoverability, and (c) ease of use of the two devices. Accuracy was measured based on the distance between the user’s selected location and a predetermined target point. Discoverability was based on the time taken to reach the selection point. Ease of use was determined by survey. Standard descriptive statistics are employed (mainly means and standard deviations). The results indicate that while non-contact based devices might be perceived as having greater ease of use due to the lack of restrictions and cabling when compared to the glove, the glove was more accurate. The favourability of the glove among those who preferred the glove was higher than the favourability of the Leap among those who preferred the Leap. The significance of this is dependant upon the type of learning scenario employed in the serious game. If the emphasis within the serious game is on task training, e.g. dexterous tasks associated with surgical instrument manipulation, then the results suggest the use of the Glove is more appropriate due its higher accuracy count. However, if the focus in the serious game is on naturalness of interaction then the Leap is more highly preferred. These insights may help serious game designers and educational content creators in adopting the appropriate input device for natural gesture-based interaction.

For decades, the development of digital interactive storytelling in games has been of interest to many researchers. Some scholars have studied the expert system which dynamically creates plots for players, while other scholars investigate the story structure. However, the latter mostly focuses on the micro story level of storytelling structure (Begin-Middle-End). This paper describes the framework for a games writer in MMORPGs as a non-linear narrative, in which a gameplayer takes the role of a digital story writer in a magic cycle. It proposes an extended storytelling framework to a games writer. The framework is developed based on 3 prior theoretical notions: the Story structure, Dramatic structure (Freytag's Pyramid), and Hero’s Journey model (Campbell). The story structure is founded by Aristotle in his Poetics (c. 335 BC), but is now considered the basis of digital narrative. Hero’s Journey model is the basic of three structure story proposed by Cambel. Developing the framework, the study investigated forty Quests (quest stories) from players during gameplay in World of Warcraft, and employed the plot analysis to deconstruct game storylines. This framework is deeply focusing on the plot point of game-story and develops further to the multi-plot point structure. To analyze the gameplay data in this study, the emotional experience and learning content are considered for the plot investigation. This study is sets out to examine the assumption that, when players play games in a semiotic domain of visual grammar, they simultaneously interpret meaning and produce the storyline per se. The result shows that (1) gameplayers create distinctive story plots which are shown by the story graphs in a freedom of Ludic space, (2) each quest has the different of story plot patterns; although, it has likewise a storyline pattern. To summarize, from the results, the paper proposes the multi-plot point framework which creates the concept of the game story movement for applying in game-story design for learning purposes.