Factors Contributing to Collaborative Game-Based Learning (CGBL) Effectiveness

In facing the Covid-19 pandemic, the teaching and learning landscape in Malaysian schools has also changed accordingly. The Ministry of Education has introduced Teaching and Learning at Home to take over the previous methods. Conventional teaching methods are unfitting during the ‘new norm’. Therefore, teachers need to diversify their instructional strategies and search for various resources in the digital environment - learning in this mode should create a fun digital learning environment. Digital Game-based Learning (DGBL) is a teaching aid that is capable of promoting enjoyment in learning. This article focused on DGBL as a learning method in a collaborative environment called Collaborative Game-based Learning (CGBL). There is a shortage of insight on the factors that support DGBL’s efficiency in the digital environment, specifically in CGBL in educational settings. This article employed a systematic Thematic Review (TR) approach to synthesise the literature published from 2016 until 2021 on CGBL in the digital environment. A keyword search was conducted, followed by a filtering process using inclusion criteria from the Scopus, Lens, and Mendeley databases. The author identified 65 peer-reviewed journal papers. Only 34 articles were used to be reviewed after the inclusion and exclusion processes. A TR of these articles identified 95 initial codes, later grouped into 32 codes, and created ten categories from three themes. From the TR results, it is found that the factors contributing to CGBL effectiveness are learning environment, learning motivation and learning strategies. This work provides insight on various parties in considering the implementation of CGBL in Teaching and Learning at Home as one of the appropriate alternative resources and methods.

Development and Testing of a Roleplaying Gamification Module to Enhance Deeper Learning of Case Studies in an Accelerated Online Management Theory Course

Research has established that “cognitive rehearsal,” (CR) or the visualization of application of a behavioral response to a situation, can increase self-efficacy through vicarious experience, but is challenging to induce online. Online higher education curricula can include collaborative game-based learning (GBL) in the form or roleplaying, which can facilitate CR. The purpose of this study was to develop an online GBL module to facilitate CR in online business graduate students learning management theory case studies, and to evaluate its ability to induce CR. A convenience sample of students voluntarily participated in a proof-of-conduct study using a mixed-methods design to gauge whether use of the module facilitated CR, a descriptive and thematic analysis was conducted. Data were collected from 106 students within two course sections in an online Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. The module was used as an optional supplement to a management case study assignment and approximately 50% of students used it. Scores on the assignment were compared between students who used the module and students who did not, and those who did scored statistically significantly higher (p = 0.0003). Students reported in a survey that the module induced CR about applying management theory. Students also expressed satisfaction with the module and provided feedback for its improvement in the areas of format and content. Our findings suggest that collaborative roleplaying GBL and other methods to induce CR in online higher education should be explored and formally studied.

Playing in the water: an exquisite corpse and found river and underwater poems

This article shares and reflects on Underwater Haiku Exquisite Corpse – a playful approach to writing and enquiry about rivers and their underwater environments. The Underwater Haiku Exquisite Corpse was an adaptation of the Surrealist exquisite corpse concept – a collaborative game in which each participant wrote or drew in response to a prompt and kept their contribution concealed until the end, when the full corpse was revealed to all contributors. We consider how our approach to exquisite corpse fostered playful co-creation and community and contributed to better understanding people’s experiences with and intuitive responses to river environments. This article blends academic writing and found poems (existing words or phrases reframed into a poem) from Underwater Haiku Exquisite Corpse, in response to calls for more creative and entangled ways to write about the world. We applied this technique, using lines of text by different Underwater Haiku Exquisite Corpse contributors and reordering lines into poems that illustrated how contributors intertwined notions of humans, rivers, and what lies below the surface. We hope that by sharing our experiences with the Underwater Haiku Exquisite Corpse, we encourage more playful approaches to geopoetics, to foster conversations across disciplines, as well as within and outside the academy.

Hurry Up, We Need to Find the Key! How Regulatory Focus Design Affects Children’s Trust in a Social Robot

In educational scenarios involving social robots, understanding the way robot behaviors affect children’s motivation to achieve their learning goals is of vital importance. It is crucial for the formation of a trust relationship between the child and the robot so that the robot can effectively fulfill its role as a learning companion. In this study, we investigate the effect of a regulatory focus design scenario on the way children interact with a social robot. Regulatory focus theory is a type of self-regulation that involves specific strategies in pursuit of goals. It provides insights into how a person achieves a particular goal, either through a strategy focused on “promotion” that aims to achieve positive outcomes or through one focused on “prevention” that aims to avoid negative outcomes. In a user study, 69 children (7–9 years old) played a regulatory focus design goal-oriented collaborative game with the EMYS robot. We assessed children’s perception of likability and competence and their trust in the robot, as well as their willingness to follow the robot’s suggestions when pursuing a goal. Results showed that children perceived the prevention-focused robot as being more likable than the promotion-focused robot. We observed that a regulatory focus design did not directly affect trust. However, the perception of likability and competence was positively correlated with children’s trust but negatively correlated with children’s acceptance of the robot’s suggestions.

The Impact of Self-Representation and Consistency in Collaborative Virtual Environments

This paper explores the impact of self-representation (full body Self Avatar vs. Just Controllers) in a Collaborate Virtual Environment (CVE) and the consistency of self-representation between the users. We conducted two studies: Study 1 between a confederate and a participant, Study 2 between two participants. In both studies, participants were asked to play a collaborative game, and we investigated the effect on trust with a questionnaire, money invested in a trust game, and performance data. Study 1 suggested that having a Self Avatar made the participant give more positive marks to the confederate and that when the confederate was without an avatar, they received more trust (measured by money). Study 2 showed that consistency led to more trust and better productivity. Overall, results imply consistency improves trust only when in an equal social dynamic in CVE, and that the use of confederate could shift the social dynamics.