scholarly journals Gamification of Professional Development for First Year Engineering Students

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Bazylak
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Grade System ◽  
First Year ◽  
Point System ◽  
Oral Presentations ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Standard Grade

Approximately 1.23 billion people play video games. Gamification is the study of what motivates gamers to invest thousands of hours into these games, and more importantly attempts to derive principles of gamification that can be applied to motivate people to participate in non-video game tasks with equal zeal. Education is one area where gamification is being explored.One gamification principle is to give participants a clear indication of their progress. In video games this is often depicted as ‘points’. The typical grade system could be interpreted as a type of point system, but one without much flexibility. Implementation of a bonus point system as an overlay to the standard grade system may allow for more flexibility.In this study this gamification principle was used to motivate students in a first year design course to participate in optional professional development activities and to foster an active online peer feedback and instruction community. With relatively minor modifications and repackaging of an existing evaluation methods students were motivated to give optional oral presentations, attend optional skill development workshops, and to contribute extensively to an online learning community.This implementation of gamification was found to have a net positive effect on student participation in Professional Development activities. Where it succeeded and where it failed will be explored.

scholarly journals Can a video game with a fictional minority group decrease intergroup biases towards non-fictional minorities? A social neuroscience study.

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Pech ◽  
Emilie A. Caspar
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Cognitive Conflict ◽  
Social Neuroscience ◽  
Intergroup Biases ◽  
Societal Challenge ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Support Evidence

A critical scientific and societal challenge consists in developing and evaluating interventions that reduce prejudice towards outgroups. Video games appear to be a promising method but a number of falls in the current scientific literature prevents to fully understand the potential sizeable impact of video games on reducing prejudice. The present study investigated to what extent a video game designed to reduce prejudice towards minorities in a fictional society has the potential to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities. Participants played either a recently developed game (Horns of Justice, HoJ) designed to reduce prejudice towards non-fictional minorities or a control game. After playing at home, participants performed two tasks in a lab context. We observed an overall positive effect of playing HoJ compared to the control game on attenuating prejudice towards an outgroup individual. We indeed observed that players of the control game had more midfrontal theta activity, reflecting more cognitive conflict, when they acted prosociality towards the outgroup participant and a lower neural response to the pain of the outgroup participant compared to the ingroup participant. These effects were attenuated for players of HoJ. We also observed that players of HoJ had a higher sense of agency when they decided to help the outgroup participant compared to when they did not help the outgroup participant, an effect not observable in players of the control game. These results are promising as they support evidence that using fictional characters in video game may induce positive changes on non-fictional individuals.

scholarly journals DO CARROTS MAKE YOU STRONG? MOTIVATIONAL AND TEAMWORK EFFECTS OF GAMIFICATION OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR FIRST YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Klassen ◽  
Jason Bazylak ◽  
Patricia K. Sheridan ◽  
Albert Huynh
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Team Member ◽  
Leadership Capacity ◽  
First Year ◽  
Team Leaders ◽  
First Year Students

Abstract – There is an increasing interest in developing leadership capacity among engineering students, but these efforts are often split between curricular and cocurricular initiatives. This paper reports on an attempt to bridge these two worlds by using in-class incentives for first-year students to participate in leadership workshops.  Findings are that team leaders participate at higher than average rates, that students surveyed had attended a large number of workshops and gave on average more detailed feedback than previous cohorts. However, there was no major evidence of greater team-member effectiveness among those who participated in workshops.  

scholarly journals Visual Novel Genre as a Method of the Sociability Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 196-206
Author(s):  
D.Kh. Alimova ◽  
N.V. Bogdanovich
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Psychological Counseling ◽  
Research Results ◽  
Research Techniques ◽  
Positive Effect

Nowadays the time for direct contacts between people is getting shorter, communication is increasingly going online, requiring special skills from those participating in it. And so there is a need for methods of developing one's sociability, both real and virtual as a response to digitalization. The work presents the results of experimental and empirical examinations of a visual novel genre video game seen as a method of the sociability development. We have employed the following research techniques: ‘forming’ experiment, self-observation, testing and surveying. The research was conducted remotely, with 654 male participants aged 14-35. The research results indicate no positive effect of using visual novel genre video games in order to increase the sociability level. However, there is a possibility for a visual novel genre game to be used in order to develop skills of online communication. The research gives details of the videogame progressing process as well as the dynamics of the subjects' emotional state. The results can be used both for further research and for online psychological counseling.

scholarly journals Designing a New Video Game App as an aid for Introduction to Programming classes that use C Programming Language

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Pantoja
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Performance Testing ◽  
First Year ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Engineering Majors ◽  
Game Based Learning ◽  
C Programming Language ◽  
C Programming ◽  
Games For Learning

This paper describes the use and development of a mobile application as an aid for an introduction to programming class in C, for first year engineering students. One of the biggest problems in teaching programming, and in particular in C is the concept of memory allocation and pointers. To help visualizing these concepts we developed an application in the form of a video game that works on both Android and iOS devices. The paper is inspired  Digital Game Based Learning (DGBL) pedagogical theory, studying the kind of learning that happens when playing computer and video games, how to use this medium as a tool for learning, and how to design games for learning. Research has shown benefits in using mobile applications to better engage students and help them learn at their own pace and levelWe did some preliminary performance testing on students from two different groups. One group of computer engineering students and another one of non-engineering majors, both groups learning to program, with no previous knowledge of programming, to evaluate the benefits of the application. The results of this test show that there is an improvement in the students understanding in C, and we also noted a very positive attitude of students toward using something as familiar to them as mobile phones to help them understand the material.

Frustration and Violence in Mobile Video Games

2020 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-70
Author(s):  
Petr Květon ◽  
Martin Jelínek
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Implicit Association Test ◽  
Self Determination Theory ◽  
Psychological Needs ◽  
Basic Psychological Needs ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Mobile Video ◽  
Violent Content ◽  
Before And After

Abstract. This study tests two competing hypotheses, one based on the general aggression model (GAM), the other on the self-determination theory (SDT). GAM suggests that the crucial factor in video games leading to increased aggressiveness is their violent content; SDT contends that gaming is associated with aggression because of the frustration of basic psychological needs. We used a 2×2 between-subject experimental design with a sample of 128 undergraduates. We assigned each participant randomly to one experimental condition defined by a particular video game, using four mobile video games differing in the degree of violence and in the level of their frustration-invoking gameplay. Aggressiveness was measured using the implicit association test (IAT), administered before and after the playing of a video game. We found no evidence of an association between implicit aggressiveness and violent content or frustrating gameplay.

REVERSE ENGINEERING: TENSION RATCHET DISSECTION PROJECT

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Vanderlaan ◽  
Josh Richert ◽  
James Morrison ◽  
Thomas Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Engineering ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
First Year ◽  
Stepping Stones ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Final Project ◽  
Undergraduate Study ◽  
Solid Edge ◽  
Part Modeling

We are a group of engineering students, in our first year of undergraduate study. We have been selected from one thousand first year students and have competed and won the PACE competition. All engineers share a common general first year, but we have been accepted into Civil and Mechanical engineering. This project was assigned as the final project in the Design and Graphics course. The project we are tasked with, called the Cornerstone Design Project, is to first dissect a product, discover how it works, dimension each part and create a fully assembled model using CAD software (Solid Edge V20 in our case). As part of discovering how it works we must benchmark it so the device can be compared with competing products. The goal of the project is to develop a full understanding of part modeling and assembly in Solid Edge, learn proper measurement techniques, and learn the process of reverse engineering and product dissection. All of these tasks were stepping stones to help us fully understand how the device, and all its components, work.

Implementation of the Second-year course in an Engineering Professional Spine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umar Iqbal ◽  
Deena Salem ◽  
David Strong
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Research University ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Core Courses ◽  
Second Year ◽  
First Time ◽  
Academic Year

The objective of this paper is to document the experience of developing and implementing a second-year course in an engineering professional spine that was developed in a first-tier research university and relies on project-based core courses. The main objective of this spine is to develop the students’ cognitive and employability skills that will allow them to stand out from the crowd of other engineering graduates.The spine was developed and delivered for the first time in the academic year 2010-2011 for first-year general engineering students. In the year 2011-2012, those students joined different programs, and accordingly the second-year course was tailored to align with the different programs’ learning outcomes. This paper discusses the development and implementation of the course in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department.

First-Year Engineering Computing Courses in Canadian Engineering Programs

1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Maw ◽  
Janice Miller Young ◽  
Alexis Morris
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Expected Value ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
First Year ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Digital Computation ◽  
Pedagogical Philosophies ◽  
Introductory Computing

Most Canadian engineering students take a computing course in their first year that introduces them to digital computation. The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board does not specify the language(s) that can or should be used for instruction. As a result, a variety of languages are used across Canada. This study examines which languages are used in degree-granting institutions, currently and in the recent past. It also examines why institutions have chosen the languages that they currently use. In addition to the language used in instruction, the types and hours of instruction are also analyzed. Methods of instruction and evaluation are compared, as well as the pedagogical philosophies of the different programs with respect to introductory computing. Finally, a comparison of the expected value of this course to graduates is also presented. We found a more diverse landscape for introductory computing courses than anticipated, in most respects. The guiding ethos at most institutions is skill and knowledge development, especially around problem solving in an engineering context. The methods to achieve this are quite varied, and so are the languages employed in such courses. Most programs currently use C/C++, Matlab, VB and/or Python.

Only problem gamblers spend less money when loot boxes are removed from a game: A before and after study of Heroes of the Storm

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Zendle
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Problem Gambling ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
Complex Pattern ◽  
Problem Gamblers ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Gambling Severity ◽  
Reliable Correlation ◽  
Before And After Study

Loot boxes are items in video games that may be paid for with real-world money, but which contain randomised contents. There is a reliable correlation between loot box spending and problem gambling severity: The more money gamers spend on loot boxes, the more severe their problem gambling tends to be. However, it is unclear whether this link represents a case in which loot box spending causes problem gambling; a case in which the gambling-like nature of loot boxes cause problem gamblers to spend more money; or whether it simply represents a case in which there is a general dysregulation in in-game spending amongst problem gamblers, nonspecific to loot boxes.The multiplayer video game Heroes of the Storm recently removed loot boxes. In order to better understand links between loot boxes and problem gambling, we conducted an analysis of players of Heroes of the Storm (n=112) both before and after the removal of loot boxes.There were a complex pattern of results. In general, when loot boxes were removed from Heroes of the Storm, problem gamblers appeared to spend significantly less money in-game in contrast to other groups. These results suggest that the presence of loot boxes in a game may lead to problem gamblers spending more money in-game. It therefore seems possible that links between loot box spending and problem gambling are not due to a general dysregulation in in-game spending amongst problem gamblers, but rather are to do with specific features of loot boxes themselves.

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