Knowledge forms an important asset in modern organisations. In order to gain and sustain competitive advantage knowledge has to be managed. One aspect of doing this is to build knowledge repositories. In this paper we extend the strategic knowledge management framework to betters suit the process of constructing knowledge repositories. The extended framework highlights, for example, the impact of organizational culture and the importance of distinguishing between the individual and organizational knowledge processes and relating them to each other. The application of the extended framework to analyze a case in the public health care sector revealed a number of important aspects in the preparation and implementation of a knowledge management project. In particular we highlight the importance of having a strategic vision and making the dual relationship between usage and design explicit when implementing a knowledge repository.
Knowledge forms an important asset in modern organizations. In order to gain and sustain competitive advantage knowledge has to be managed. One aspect of this is to use Electronic Knowledge Repositories (EKR) to enhance knowledge sharing, reuse and learning. The success of an EKR is dependent on the quality of its content. For knowledge to be stored in an EKR, it has to be captured. One crucial part of the capture process is to evaluate whether the identified knowledge should be incorporated in the EKR or not. Therefore, to increase quality in an EKR, the evaluation stage of the capture process must be successfully carried out. Based on an interpretive field study and an extensive literature review, this paper identifies and characterizes Critical Success Factors (CSF) in the evaluation stage and presents guidance aiming to support implementation of the evaluation stage with the purpose to increase the quality of an EKR. In particular, the guidance supports the decision whether identified knowledge should be stored or not and it highlights the importance of performing evaluation addressing correctness, relevance, protection and redundancy. The characterization of the capture process contributes mainly to KM theory, and the guidance to KM practice.
Knowledge forms an important asset in modern organisations. In order to gain and sustain competitive advantage knowledge has to be managed. One aspect of this is to use Electronic Knowledge Repositories (EKRs) in order to enhance knowledge sharing, reuse and learning. The success of an EKR is dependent on the quality of its content. For knowledge to be stored in an EKR, it has to be captured. One crucial part of the capture process is to evaluate whether the identified knowledge should be incorporated in the EKR or not. Therefore, to increase information quality in an EKR, the evaluation stage of the capture process must be successfully performed. This paper characterizes Critical Success Factors (CSF) for knowledge evaluation and presents six evaluation criteria to guide the evaluation stage in order to increase information quality in EKR:s. In particular we highlight the importance of performing evaluation addressing correctness, relevance, protection and redundancy.
In this paper we describe four player roles in game-based learning and training, namely student player, student author, teacher player and teacher author. By this, we want to emphasise the creative and collaborative nature of gameplay, such as in-game feedback, scenario creation and “puckstering“, that put students and teachers, not on opposite sides of a spectrum, but as members of a community of practice with varying degrees of expertise. Using these four player roles as a basis for analysis, we have observed training sessions for vocational education within military and rescue contexts. The result is multifaceted insights into both the strengths and draw-backs of incorporating these roles into a serious game.
Denna rapport är en avrapportering av projektet Spelbaserad simulering för insatsutbildning. Projektet syftar till att:
Serious games och spelbaserad simulatorträning ses som en möjlighet att vidareutveckla undervisnings- och träningsmiljön inom räddningstjänst. Begreppet serious games definieras som att använda spel och spelteknik för att uppnå syften utöver ren underhållning. För att utnyttja områdets potential i största möjliga mån krävs en kombination av att utveckla och anpassa teknik så att den passar för ändamålet, detta kan till exempel innebära att utnyttja de möjligheter som modern spelteknik ger för att logga användarbeteende och resultat. Dessutom innefattar serious games en komponent av speldesign, det vill säga att utnyttja möjligheter som spel ger för att skapa en motiverande och engagerande lärandemiljö. Detta kan till exempel innebära att skapa tävlingsmoment och poängsystem som sporrar till upprepad användning. I projektet har vi utnyttjat såväl teknik- som speldesignskomponenten.
Projektets syften har uppnåtts genom att producera och utvärdera ett prototypspel för insatsträning samt en modell för hur serious games kan användas i träning och utbildning. De huvudsakliga resultaten består av en spelprototyp av ett webbaserat spel för att träna beslutsfattande på taktisk nivå samt en pedagogisk modell för spelbaserad träning. Prototypen och modellen har testats på en distanskurs för Räddningsledarutbildning i regi av Myndigheten för samhällsskydd och beredskap (MSB). Utvärderingen visar på goda resultat vad gäller systemets användbarhet. Den pedagogiska potentialen har inte kunnat utvärderas fullt ut då prototypen inte blev en tillräckligt integrerad del i kursen där den utvärderades.
Projektet visar att spelbaserad träning kan vara en möjlighet för pedagogisk utveckling med avseende på både teknik och pedagogisk kontext. I detta sammanhang är det viktigt att poängtera vikten av att genomföra och utvärdera pedagogiska anpassningar i samband med spelbaserad träning. Vidare har projektet har samarbetat med olika konstellationer av lärare och kursdeltagare vid MSB. En viktig lärdom är att tydliga resurser och organisatoriskt engagemang finns på plats i den här typen av samproducerande forskningsprojekt.
Game-based tools for rehabilitation of different types of physical and cognitive impairments are becoming more and more popular. By introducing an element of fun, these systems aim at increasing patients' motivation to train and, from a further perspective, improve recovery rates. There is, however, a question whether such tools will be fully accepted by the intended target group. Earlier work on user acceptance has mainly focused on utility systems, i.e. systems used mainly in the work place. However, people use systems for different reasons and that makes it difficult to apply the same principles on systems with the main purpose to entertain. Serious games have characteristics from both utility and entertainment systems, which makes it interesting to study the acceptance of these kinds of systems. In this study, we have developed a home-based entertainment system for stroke rehabilitation, with focus on rehabilitation of motor impairments. By analysing the gaming behaviour and interview responses of five stroke patients, we investigate factors influencing user acceptance of this specific type of system. The results show that current models of acceptance are not sufficient to fully explain acceptance of serious games in general and serious games for rehabilitation in particular. Besides well-known factors, such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease-of-use and perceived enjoyment, other, more specific, factors also play a vital role in the acceptance of the system.
The goal of the project presented in this paper is to enable motor rehabilitation to stroke patients in their home environment and to utilise game enjoyment to achieve frequent training. Stroke patients have an average age above 70 years, which implies that they typically do not belong to a gaming generation. In addition, these patients suffer from motor, and many times cognitive impairments, which make traditional games extremely difficult to use. Nearly all work in this area has been conducted in a clinic environment where it is possible to overcome some of these difficulties by letting professionals assist and guide patients.
In this paper, we present the challenges faced, the system itself and the result from a study where five patients were equipped with a game console in their homes for five weeks. The focus of this paper is on analysing the gaming behaviour of patients, which includes the amount of time they spent, the type of games they selected and their comments on the gaming experience. The conclusion from this analysis is that their behaviour resembles that of gamers. They spent significant voluntary time, and it has been possible for patients, with no prior experience of computer games, to enjoy gaming in their homes where they had no professional assistance.
Elinor is a game based tool for rehabilitation of stroke patients to be used in their home environment. The application is the result of a creative and exploratory development project in which researchers in the serious games area and experts in stroke rehabilitation collaborated in order to develop a motivating, easy to use and relatively inexpensive tool for relearning functions lost due to a stroke. Elinor can be viewed as an integrated system for stroke rehabilitation in that it is both a system, controlled by movements, for training of its primary user group and a system for monitoring the training by medical expertise. In this paper, we will describe the Elinor application itself, the development process and the initial evaluation of it in order to identify implications for serious games.
Military organizations have a long history of using simulations, role-play, and games for training. This also encompasses good practices concerning how instructors utilize games and gaming behavior. Unfortunately, the work of instructors is rarely described explicitly in research relating to serious gaming. Decision makers also tend to have overconfidence in the pedagogical power of games and simulations, particularly where the instructor is taken out of the gaming loop. The authors propose a framework, the coaching cycle, that focuses on the roles of instructors. The roles include instructors acting as game players. The fact that the instructors take a more active part in all training activities will further improve learning. The coaching cycle integrates theories of experiential learning (where action precedes theory) and deliberate practice (where the trainee's skill is constantly challenged by a coach). Incorporating a coaching-by-gaming perspective complicates, but also strengthens, the player-centered design approach to game development in that we need to take into account two different types of players: trainees and instructor. Furthermore, the authors argue that the coaching cycle allows for a shift of focus to a more thorough debriefing, because it implies that learning of theoretical material before simulation/game playing is kept to a minimum. This shift will increase the transfer of knowledge.
Background
Immersion is important for simulation-based education; however, questionnaire-based instruments to measure immersion have some limitations. The aim of the present work is to develop a new instrument to measure immersion among participants in healthcare simulation scenarios.
Methods
The instrument was developed in four phases: trigger identification, content validity scores, inter-rater reliability analysis and comparison with an existing immersion measure instrument. A modified Delphi process was used to develop the instrument and to establish validity and reliability. The expert panel consisted of 10 researchers. All the researchers in the team had previous experience of simulation in the health and/or fire and rescue services as researchers and/or educators and simulation designers. To identify triggers, the panel members independently screened video recordings from simulation scenarios. Here, a trigger is an event in a simulation that is considered a sign of reduced or enhanced immersion among simulation participants.
Results
The result consists of the Immersion Score Rating Instrument (ISRI). It contains 10 triggers, of which seven indicate reduced and three enhanced immersion. When using ISRI, a rater identifies trigger occurrences and assigns them strength between 1 and 3. The content validity analysis shows that all the 10 triggers meet an acceptable content validity index for items (I-CVI) standard. The inter-rater reliability (IRR) among raters was assessed using a two-way mixed, consistency, average-measures intra-class correlation (ICC). The ICC for the difference between weighted positive and negative triggers was 0.92, which indicates that the raters are in agreement. Comparison with results from an immersion questionnaire mirrors the ISRI results.
Conclusions
In conclusion, we present a novel and non-intrusive instrument for identifying and rating the level of immersion among participants in healthcare simulation scenarios.
There are many reports on how Information Systems Development (ISD) methods are adapted before they are used. The need to customise methods is explained by the variety of systems that are developed and the various situations in which information systems can be developed. This means that the development process knowledge embedded in an ISD method can be used in different ways in different situations. The study presented in this paper is a follow up of a study of how a widespread ISD method was adapted and introduced in an organisation. In this paper we focus on how the development method was actually used in a project. The paper extends an earlier model of analysis for characterising information systems development in terms of knowledge work. The model recognises four classes of knowledge work: routine, craft-like, professional, and creative knowledge work. We use that particular model to elaborate on how the various kinds of knowledge work presented interact in an actual development situation. The main contributions of the paper are the application of the analysis model on an empirical case and the extension of the analysis model to comprise the interactions between the different types of knowledge work.
There are many reports on how Information Systems Development ISD) methods are adapted before they are used. The need to customise methods is explained by the variety of systems that are developed and the various situations in which information systems can be developed. This means that the development process knowledge embedded in an ISD method can be used in different ways in different situations. The study presented in this paper is a follow up of a study of how a widespread ISD method was adapted and introduced in an organisation. In this paper we focus on how the development method was actually used in a project. The paper extends an earlier model of analysis for characterising information systems development in terms of knowledge work. The model recognises four classes of knowledge work: routine, craft-like, professional, and creative knowledge work. We use that particular model to elaborate on how the various kinds of knowledge work presented interact in an actual development situation. The main contributions of the paper are the application of the analysis model on an empirical case and the extension of the analysis model to comprise the interactions between the different types of knowledge work.
Denna förstudie presenterar förutsättningar och vision för ett ambulansträningscenter i Skövde. Förstudien är genomförd i samarbete mellan Högskolan i Skövde (Institutionen för kommunikation och information och Institutionen för vård och natur) och Ambulanssjukvårdens stabsenhet vid Skaraborgs sjukhus. Visionen för Ambulansträningscenter Skövde är ett simulatorträningscenter med inriktning mot prehospital sjukvård. Träningskonceptet integrerar vårdkedjan från omhändertagande på olycksplats till avlämning på akutmottagning så att hela processen tränas. Dessutom integreras flera aspekter av insatsen så att utryckningskörning, kommunikation, medicinskt omhändertagande, omvårdnad och teamsamarbete tränas samtidigt.
Information Systems Engineering (ISE) is an interdisciplinary approach to enable the realisation of successful information systems in a broad sense. ISE comprises a number of areas of expertise that must be integrated and managed in order to build information systems. Since ISE is becoming progressively more complex there is an increasing need to codify and manage knowledge within and about the ISE process.
From a knowledge perspective the different model types created in an ISE project are examples of codified knowledge about the future system. The descriptions of how work should proceed are examples of codified knowledge of the process of creating the system. In summary, one of the main concerns in the ISE process is to manage the substantial amount of knowledge associated with the process as such as well as with the target domain of the actual development project and the developed software.
In the thesis I recognise three areas of knowledge in ISE: development process knowledge, target domain knowledge, and software knowledge. Furthermore, I use a set of knowledge perspectives in order to describe and analyse ISE from a knowledge perspective. Finally, I introduce three aspects: organisation, artefact, and individual in order to be able to discuss and analyse how methods are actually used in organisations and how they affect the work situation.
The results are presented in the form of a framework for knowledge transfer in ISE that comprises the knowledge perspective, the knowledge area, and the aspect of knowledge transfer. The framework is thus used to analyse the results from the six papers enclosed in the thesis. The results also comprise an empirical characterisation of a method in use which is based on data collected during an ethnographical study. Finally the results are made concrete in the form of a pattern collection for method introduction and method use.
There are a large number of Information Systems Engineering methods available. The aim of these methods is to support the development process. In doing so, they become subject to the forces, which have an impact on the development process. The paper applies the method-in-action framework on four different cases in order to describe the adaptations, which are made when utilising a method. The situational factors and methodological issues identified in this project show that the method-in-action framework may be used in order to extend the area of use for situational factors. We have also identified some factors, which supplement the characteristics of the sets of factors in the method-in-action framework.
The increasing complexity of information systems development (ISD) projects calls for improved project management practices. This, together with an endeavor to improve the success rate of ISD projects, has served as drivers for various efforts in process improvement such as the introduction of new development methods. An ISD method may be perceived as a means for managing projects. Commercial development methods are typically combined with in-house methods for managing parts of the development process. In this paper we investigate in what way in-house methods and commercial methods are combined and used in an ISD project. In order to get a better understanding for how these issues are actually dealt with in the daily work, we have followed a project with a focus on how the group and the individuals implement the managerial decision to introduce a new development method.
European Information Systems research is reflected in the papers presented at the European Conference for Information Systems (ECIS). It seems that we employ a number of different approaches for research in the IS community. There has been a debate on methodological appropriateness and choice of research approach over the years. This paper adds to that debate by presenting a snapshot of what research approaches have been employed at recent ECIS. This paper presents a classification scheme for discussing research approaches and applies that scheme to analyse the papers presented at the three most recent ECIS. The results show that the proportion of studies employing qualitative interviews in combination with document studies has increased. The proportion of studies employing prolonged organisational engagement is relatively stable, while experimental studies where artefacts are constructed and/or tested are decreasing.
This paper presents an online training game for incident commanders to enact and create incident scenarios. The incident commander is the person in command on site when a rescue team is dispatched to a fire emergency. The challenge we are addressing in this work is to design a game and a game-based training process which can be used to support the change of work practice of fire fighters to become incident commanders (i.e. taking on a new professional role). The incident commander training game consists of two integrated parts: the IT artifact and the usage process. The two are integrated to provide necessary support for incident commander training via distance learning. The game is online and comprises three modules: The scenario player; the scenario creator, and; the log tool. The game and its pedagogical usage procedure are based on the theories of communities of practice and experiential learning. The novelty of this application lies in the combination of pedagogical theory and a specifically designed game. In comparison to other games for accident management training, the possibility for domain experts lacking of game design skills to create scenarios is an essential feature. Furthermore, the underlying fire simulation renders better "replayability" than a strictly branched scenario as the scenario creation is actually more of a process of setting conditions for the scenario than predicting each action of the player.
Virtual rehabilitation has emerged as a promising tool over the last decade. However the field is diverse and there is no unified understanding of the concept and in which situations it should be used. The most common usage context is a rehabilitation clinic but there is an urge to offer motivating virtual rehabilitation to be used in the homes of patients. The main drive for using such systems is to enhance motivation by introducing an interesting challenge and an element of fun. This paper describes and evaluates the feasibility of Elinor, a gamebased system for stroke rehabilitation in the home.
The Elinor prototype has been positively evaluated with respect to its usability, user acceptance and motivational factors. This paper reports on the initial findings concerning the rehabilitation effect of Elinor. No persons suffered any serious adverse effects from training. We had positive results with respect to the assessment of motor and process skills (AMPS). Even though these improvements were not significant they are still positive enough to motivate future work. The self-reported improvements in the motor activity logs (MAL) also motivate future work.
This paper reports the feasibility of Elinor, a game-based system for stroke rehabilitation in the home. The Elinor prototype has been positively evaluated with respect to its usability, user acceptance and motivational factors as well as its rehabilitation effect. This paper reports the findings from the whole project. To summarize the results, we find that game factors can be used to enhance motivation for rehabilitation. We had positive results with respect to many of the rehabilitation measurements employed. For example, the assessment of motor and process skills was positive as were also the self-reported improvements in daily activities. Furthermore, it seems that an increased self-efficacy with respect to the belief that the treatment can have an effect is positive and expected to increase motivation to undergo necessary rehabilitation. The usability and perceived usefulness of the system were also positively evaluated and the subjects expressed a positive attitude towards the system as well as a belief in its usefulness. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
Games for health is one of the most prominent areas for serious games, i.e. games with a purpose beyond only entertainment. The purpose of a health game may be to inform about health related issues; promote healthy lifestyles and even to drive behavioral change. This paper outlines the initial game design considerations and some future research directions for a game focusing on cardiovascular health. As the overall aim of the project is to promote a healthy lifestyle through diet and physical activity to prevent future cardiovascular disease, we focused on “taking care of your heart” as the basis for the game. Hence we call the game Happy Heart and use a heart symbol as a non-playable character (NPC) that the player needs to take care of. To some extent we are inspired by the electronic Tamagochi toys (Bandai) where players need to take care of a digital pet. The heart symbol is universal and is also an ideograph that expresses the concept of love and as such it transcends language barriers.
The burden of non-communicable diseases (NCD) is rapidly increasing across the world. Today they are the main drivers of morbidity, disability, and mortality in low- and middle income countries (LMICs), and are expected to increase due to unhealthy lifestyles in the wake of ongoing societal changes [1]. Among the major risk factors in many LMICs are poor diet, insufficient physical activity, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and exposure to hazardous substances, e.g. from air pollution. LMICs currently contribute three quarters of the deaths from NCD.
Among the NCD, cardiovascular diseases are the most common cause of hospitalization in Nepal [1]. Digitalization and collaboration with the education sector (e.g. community schools) in health promotion interventions could further improve children’s behavior by targeting factors that affect their lifestyle outside the family environment [4]. Hence, the Digital Game Based Learning approach.
The use of games in non-leisure contexts is referred to as serious games. The tradition of using games for purposes beyond entertainment goes back a long time before digital games. However, with the advent of digital games, serious games development has become an issue of both game design and technology development in various combinations. This paper presents a literature review of what types of topics are studied in the realm of serious games development, and contrasts the results with challenges and problems expressed by a panel of developers and researchers in serious games and gamification to identify research gaps. Our findings indicate a lack of research on the actual usage situations of serious games. It seems that the phase of organizational deployment and use is most often overseen. Furthermore, we identified a lack of client/customer perspective in most research on the development of gamified solutions.
Game-based simulators, sometimes referred to as "lightweight" simulators, have benefits such as flexible technology and economic feasibility. In this article, we extend the notion of a game-based simulator by introducing multiple screen view and physical interaction. These features are expected to enhance immersion and fidelity. By utilizing these concepts we have constructed a training simulator for breathing apparatus entry. Game hardware and software have been used to produce the application. More important, the application itself is deliberately designed to be a game. Indeed, one important design goal is to create an entertaining and motivating experience combined with learning goals in order to create a serious game. The system has been evaluated in cooperation with the Swedish Rescue Services Agency to see which architectural features contribute to perceived fidelity. The modes of visualization and interaction as well as level design contribute to the usefulness of the system.
This paper presents Sidh - a game based firefighter training simulator developed in cooperation between the University of Sk¨ovde and the Swedish Rescue Services Agency. Sidh is based on computer game hardware and software solutions but adds a novel interaction model and gameplay specifically developed for the purpose of training firefighters. The simulator environment is a Cave where the player is interacting with the game through a set of sensors. Players move in the virtual world by movements in the physical world and a substantial physical effort is required to accomplish game tasks. Sidh has been used in a feasibility study where 31 firefighter students have been playing the game and the performance of these students as well as their reflections from using the game have been analyzed. Results from this study show that Sidh is a useful complement to traditional training methods and that the subjects give very high grades on the entertainment value of the game which indicate that this form of training may be self-motivating which is an important issue for voluntary, after-hours training.
This study investigates the learning effects of playing racing, action, and sports computer games. In particular we focus on traffic school students’ driving behavior. A survey conducted at three driving schools, questioned driving students about their gaming habits. The driving instructors evaluated their students’ driving skills and traffic safety attitudes. The results indicate that experience in computer games can have a positive effect on driving performance. Experienced gamers were ranked significantly higher by their instructors regarding their overall driving skills compared to students with low experience in computer games. However, no evidence was found to indicate that experienced gamers have a worse attitude towards fellow road-users or traffic safety. Experiments conducted in a driving simulator, using a game developed purposely to enhance certain traffic safety variables, reveals that it is possible to provide an entertaining game with serious content. Preliminary results, however, indicate that the version of the game where the explicit game goals are hidden was found to be the most entertaining one. The results of the investigation warrant further review into the development and utilization of computer games for traffic safety and education purposes.
In this paper we report results from an experimental study of games and traffic safety performed in an advanced gaming environment. During car simulator-sessions we collected data over different traffic safety variables, such as speed, headway distance and lane change behavior, from 70 subjects. The data was analyzed in order to investigate possible individual learning effects and differences between groupings of subjects. The experiment shows clear positive individual learning effects for all traffic safety variables analyzed. Hence we conclude that game based simulations can be used to enhance learning in driving education.
In this article, the authors report on the construction and evaluation of a game-based driving simulator using a real car as a joystick. The simulator is constructed from off-the-shelf hardware and the simulation runs on open-source software. The feasibility of the simulator as a learning tool has been experimentally evaluated. Results are reported from an experimental study of games and traffic safety performed in an advanced gaming environment. During car simulator sessions, the authors collected data about different traffic safety variables, such as speed, headway distance, and lane change behavior, from 70 participants. The data were analyzed to investigate possible individual learning effects and differences between groupings of participants. The experiment shows clear, positive, individual learning effects for all traffic safety variables analyzed. The authors also made a qualitative analysis of the participants’ perception of the simulator as a learning tool. From the results, it is concluded that a game-based simulation can be used to enhance learning in driving education.
Denna delrapport presenterar Sp&Ts-projektets aktiviteter och resultat. Projektet har tre huvuddelar: ett spelutvecklingsprojekt, en spelvaneundersökning bland elever på ett antal trafikskolor och experiment i Högskolan i Skövdes körsimulator. Projektet har delredovisats i två lägesrapporter (hösten 2005 och våren 2006). Denna rapport sammanfattar hela projektet och de resultat som föreligger vid projektavslutet. Samtidigt utgör slutrapporten startskottet för Sp&Ts2 som kommer att bli en fortsättning på detta arbete. I Sp&Ts utvecklas ett bilspel med fokus på säker bilköring, realistiska situationer och en rolig spelupplevelse där spelaren, i en "cave-miljö” och med ett fullt realistiskt gränssnitt, får köra bil i ett antal olika scenarier. Scenarierna är tänkta att testa olika aspekter av bilkörning och på olika sätt utmana spelaren. Under utvecklingsprojektet har vi fört diskussioner med Länsförsäkringar Skaraborg, trafikskolor och Statens Väg och Transportforskningsinstitut (VTI) för att få in trafiksäkerhetsaspekter i arbetet. Under projektet har en enkätundersökning bland elever och lärare på tre trafikskolor (Thorells i Falköping; Anderssons i Mariestad; PO:s i Skövde) genomförts, detta för att undersöka sambandet mellan spelvanor och bedömd körskicklighet. Resultaten från analysen av enkätsvaren redovisades även i lägesrapport 2, våren 2006. I projektets avslutande fas har vi knutit ihop spelutvecklingsprojektet med enkätundersökningen i ett experiment som genomförts i den körsimulator som byggts i samband med projektet. I denna rapport redogörs för genomförandet av dessa experiment. Vi ger även en inledande dataanalys som ligger till grund för det publiceringsarbete som kommer att fortgå.
Rapporten beskriver projektets genomförande (Kapitel 2), genomförande av experiment och initial dataanalys (Kapitel 3) samt exponering av arbete och resultat (Kapitel 4).
This report contains a technical description of the result of the S.A.R.E.K (Simulation – Ambulance – Research – Education - Kinship) collaboration project and the Sim2020 project. The projects are collaborations between researchers in healthcare and IT, and prehospital care practitioners, with the aim to design, develop and test a contextualized simulation environment for prehospital care. We built a simulation environment representing the full depth and width of a prehospital care process. Breadth refers to including all phases of a prehospital mission, from dispatch to handover; while depth refers to detailed representations and recreation of artefacts, information and context for each of these phases. This report outlines the details of the overall design, all equipment and practical solutions used to create this.
Apart from the installation which is described in this report we have also developed methods and carried out a variety of tests and experiments which are reported elsewhere. The focus of this report is the system and its components.
This paper presents the results of an experimental study on designing for self-efficacy in a game based driving simulator. Self-efficacy refers to how people´s beliefs in their capabilities affect their actions. The results show that the design of the feedback system can be used to increae self-efficacy measures thus affecting performance in a driving simulator environment. Self-efficacy has consequences not only for the performance of the particular task, but also for what activities he/she chooses to engage in and the persistence invested in them. Hence we find the results from this study relevant to various aspects of serious games design.
Rapporten bygger på tre delstudier med olika datainsamlingstekniker:
Bibliometristudiens ansats har varit bred. Materialet inkluderar därmed även poster som endast har en perifer koppling till spel, men returnerar i fallet SwePub färre än 3000 poster. Spelforskning bedrivs på många lärosäten i Sverige och publiceras inom många ämnesområden. Totalt 95 forskare har en publicering som omfattar 10 eller fler spelpublikationer1. Det finns starka lokala kluster av forskare som sampublicerar men sampubliceringen mellan svenska och nordiska lärosäten är inte så omfattande. Jämfört med Finland har Sverige färre publikationer med ett tydligt fokus på spelforskning.
Enkätstudien visar att spelforskarmiljöerna oftast består av ett antal forskare med olika ämnesmässig bakgrund där de själva definierar sig som spelforskare snarare än att organisationen som sådan gör det. Miljöerna har sammantaget och högt räknat runt 30 aktiva doktorander men siffran är osäker. 94% av respondenterna anger att deras forskning ligger inom ”spel för andra områden än underhållning” och endast 6% anger ”spelteknikfokus”. 44% anger ”spelbranschen”. Det är tydligt att spel för just underhållning inte ligger fokus för svensk spelforskning. Detta är remarkabelt då den svenska datorspelsindustrin är en multimiljardindustri fokuserad på just spel som underhållning. Det finns alltså en mycket stor diskrepans mellan industri och svensk spelforskning.
Intervjustudien ger en bild av att spelforskningen bedrivs inom splittrade miljöer, av forskare med olika ämnesmässig bakgrund. Det finns en tydlig upplevd brist på forskningsfinansiering inom adekvata områden och det finns brister i de finansieringsinstrument som finns idag. Detta påverkar såväl vilken typ av forskning som kan bedrivas inom spel och rekryteringen av forskarstuderande. Respondenterna är överlag mycket positivt inställda till idén om en nationell forskarskola. Flera ser också Svenska Spelforskarrådet som en viktig aktör för att stärka svensk spelforskning både nationellt och internationellt.
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Gamification is the application of game design elements in non-gaming contexts to reach some purposes. It has been proposed as a solution in several domains, such as teaching, corporate training and healthy living. This paper presents the design and evaluation of the skill tree method which is a part of a gamified approach to motivate and support NEET-youth (Not in Education, Employment or Training) to leave their isolation and take steps towards better inclusion in society. The overall approach is based on two principles: 1) it targets adolescents with an interest in games 2); it utilizes their interest in games as the starting point for the intervention. Part of the intervention is based on a skill tree which maps in-game skills to out-of-game skills and visualizes the output so that the participant can become better aware of how their interest can drive personal development towards societal participation. The paper presents an evaluation of the skill tree method from the project staff perspective. The findings are positive but some need for improvements in the method as well as the tool were identified.
Knowledge transfer is one of the key problem areas in knowledge management. This paper focuses on the transfer of knowledge about the software development process. There is an aim to improve process knowledge and one way of doing it is to introduce commercial development methods. However, doing this is not an easy task. We present a study of how such an introduction of a widespread method was carried out in two large software development organisations. We conclude that a new method has to be adapted and implemented in the organisation in order to make it a part of the organisation specific knowledge base. The new method has to become an integrated part of the existing development process knowledge of the organisation, meaning that it has to be adapted to fit with other organisation specific processes. The ability to do so is the absorptive capacity: the capability to identify and recognise the value of new external knowledge, assimilate it, and apply it.
Training actors from public safety agencies (PSA), e.g. emergency medical services, fire departments, police departments involves different technologies and communication and collaboration activities. New technologies promise better support, not only for training, but also for logging relevant information for future analysis and learning. However, choosing the right technologies, defining proper set-ups for the training activities, and identifying premises for long-term use of technical facilities is both difficult and time consuming. Applying earlier lessons from evaluating work in Virtual Environments (VEs) [1], our aim is to develop a better understanding of the impact of new technologies by identifying collaboration patterns influencing training. Collaboration is examined via social, technical, and task related interaction, distinguishable in the different phases of training, from starting an alarm to ending the emergency activities. Our main results illustrate the benefits of (1) building scenarios, and training whole activity chains for certain rescue or other emergency activities, (2) using simulations for better understanding physical places, the task, and (3) distinguishing technical, social and task focused characteristics for factors influencing emergency focused collaboration. Moreover, the results also contribute to understanding the benefits of considering specific simulation technologies when training for emergency and rescue activities.
Over the last decade educational games have become more and more popular. There are many games specifically designed as educational games, as well as a number of entertainment games that have been successfully used for educational purposes. The EduGameLab project aims to stimulate the use of games in the classroom. This paper presents a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of game-based learning and focuses specifically on empirical evidence on the effectiveness of using games in education in the last decade. Moreover, the study focuses on usage in formalized school contexts, i.e. pre-school, elementary school, secondary school, high school and higher education. As secondary aims we also assess whether there are any clear methodological trends and whether a link could be found between the outcome of empirical studies and the evaluator being a stakeholder in the game development.
Distribution is a multifaceted concept and one aspect concerns the adoption of ideas from a combination of methods for project management. Such distribution imposes new demands on project management and coordination since the project management aspect is an integral part of information systems development methods. This paper reports from a case study of coordinating project management practices in a commercial development method and an in-house method for project management. In order to conduct the study of how methods are combined and utilized, one of the researchers followed a development project for six months. The general aim of the project under study is to replace the numerous system registers in use with one general register, which will aid in making system maintenance more efficient. The project also has two organisational goals: to give the team members an opportunity to use RUP in a real project setting; and to introduce new technology and a new development tool. The study highlights the importance of taking a start in current work practice as opposed to focusing on the new method as such. In summary, we stress the importance of taking a start in the work practice in terms of a method in use as opposed to method proponents’ push for new methods. Any long term change in work practices has to be internalised by the stakeholders in the practical context of method use. Hence, the case study presented here adds to the body of knowledge which distinguishes between the method as used and the method as prescribed by its proponents.
Computer games and virtual worlds are increasingly used throughout our society with people playing on the bus, at home and at work. Computer games thus affect larger and larger number of people and areas in the society of today. There are even scholars who advocate that games or virtual environments create better environments for learning than traditional classrooms. This situation motivates the use of games and game technology for additional purposes, e.g. education, training, health care or marketing.
Computer games are increasingly used throughout our society with people playing on the bus, at home and at work. Computer games thus affect larger and larger number of people and areas in the society of today. There are even scholars who advocate that games create better environments for learning than traditional classrooms. This situation motivates the use of games and game technology for additional purposes, e.g. education, training, health care or marketing.
Objective. Simulation based training with full-size mannequins is a prominent means of training within the healthcare sector. Prehospital missions include all parts of the healthcare process which take place before a patient is handed over to the receiving hospital. This implies that the context for prehospital care is varied and potentially challenging or dangerous in several ways. In this article we present a study which explores immersion and performance by emergency medical services (EMS) professionals in in a training situation which takes the specifics of prehospital interventions into account.
Methods. The study was carried out as a field experiment at an ambulance unit. The experiment was designed to compare the differences between two types of medical scenarios: basic and contextualized. We analyzed the levels of immersion throughout the scenarios and then team performance was evaluated by independent experts. Both analyses were made by observing video recordings from multiple camera angles with a custom made analysis tool.
Results. Our results show that the contextualization of a medical scenario increases both immersion as measured by the Immersion Score Rating Instrument (ISRI) and team performance as measured by the Global Rating Scale (GRS). The overall ISRI score was higher in the contextualized condition as compared to the basic condition, with an average team wise difference of 2.94 (sd = 1.45). This difference is significant using a paired, two-tailed t-test (p<.001). The GRS score was higher for overall clinical performance in the contextualized scenario with an average team wise difference of 0.83 (sd = 0.83, p=.005).
Conclusions. Full-size mannequin simulation based training for EMS professionals may be enhanced by contextualizing the medical scenarios. The main benefits are that the contextualized scenarios better take prehospital medical challenges into account and allow participants to perform better.
The competitiveness and efficiency of an enterprise is dependent on its ability to interact with other enterprises and organisations. In this context interoperability is defined as the ability of business processes as well as enterprise software and applications to interact. Interoperability remains a problem and there are numerous issues to be resolved in different situations. We propose method engineering as an approach to organise interoperability knowledge in a method chunk repository. In order to organise the knowledge repository we need an interoperability classification framework associated to it. In this paper we propose a generic architecture for a method chunk repository, elaborate on a classification framework and associate it to some existing bodies of knowledge. We also show how the proposed framework can be applied in a working example.
An important factor for success in project-based learning (PBL) is that the involved project groups establish an atmosphere of social interaction in their working environment. In PBL-scenarios situated in distributed environments, most of a group's work-processes are mediated through the use of production-focused tools that are unconcerned with the important informal and social aspects of a project. On the other hand, there are plenty of tools and platforms that focus on doing the opposite and mainly support informal bonding (e.g., Facebook), but these types of environments can be obtrusive and contain distractions that can be detrimental to a group's productivity and are thus often excluded from working environments. The aim of this paper is to examine how a game-based multi-user environment (MUVE) can be designed to support project-based learning by bridging the gap between productivity-focused and social software. To explore this, the authors developed a game-based MUVE which was evaluated in a PBL-scenario. The result of the study revealed several crucial design elements that are needed to make such a MUVE work effectively, and that the acceptance towards game-based MUVEs is high, even with a rudimentary execution.