ESTGV - DI - Artigo em ata de evento científico internacional
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Browsing ESTGV - DI - Artigo em ata de evento científico internacional by Author "Alves, Valter"
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- Connecting Students with Research through Active Participation in Projects: An Experience in a Design and Multimedia DegreePublication . Alves, Valter; P. Duarte, Rui; Sousa, Catarina; Abrantes, Steven LopesThe relationship between students and the higher education institutions has been perceived differently in the literature and policy documents, including a variety of terms such as “consumers,” “active participants,” “community of learning,” “students as change agents,” “students as partners,” and “students as co-creators of learning and teaching” (Bovill et al., 2016; Cook-Sather et al., 2014; Dunne & Zandstra, 2011; Matthews et al., 2018). In recent years, higher education has seen a growth in research and practice focused on students becoming active partners in the processes of learning and teaching. For example, inquiry and research-based learning, as well as problem and project-based learning, have assumed greater importance. Engagement in research and collaborative forms of pedagogical relationships between academics and students are considered important elements to improving teaching and learning (Sousa, Lopes, & Boyd, 2020). By involving students in research projects, the teaching staff opens opportunities for problem-based and student-centered approaches where the role of the academic/ teacher is to facilitate learning and to provide guidance and information (Willcoxson et al., 2011). Students and academics work in a more horizontal and collaborative way. Therefore, the importance of explicitly inviting students to connect with researchers and research as an integral part of their learning journey has been highlighted (Fung, 2017). This paper presents the experience of the Multimedia Technologies and Design degree of involving students in research projects developed by the teaching staff. In four different funded research projects, with several partners from different external institutions, students were invited to participate as members of the research teams. The involvement was not part of any assignment and therefore constituted an extracurricular activity that students volunteered for. This year, four students are engaged, participating in the work that is connected to all four projects. The initiative is underpinned by the concept of a “community of practice” developed by Wenger (1998), who advocated the idea that learning is social. A community of practice is organized around groups of people who share common interests or concerns and who are able to deepen their knowledge about a specific subject by interacting regularly (Wenger, 1998, 2007). In the paper, the process of involvement of the students in the projects is analyzed. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the projects have been developed without in-person meetings. The technological solutions that were implemented will be analyzed in terms of limitations and advantages for the active participation of the students and contributions for collaboration. Through the description of the workflow implemented, specific challenges of involving students in research projects from the field of Design and Multimedia will be substantiated.
- Learning with a Newborn Bee - Design and Development of a VideogamePublication . Alves, Valter; Carapito, Nuno; Sousa, Catarina; P. Duarte, Rui; Braguez, Joana Rita Cerieira; Fonseca, F.; Pereira Cardoso, José Carlos; Lamelas, Bruno; Costa, Cristina Amaro DaIn Europe, there are several challenges for beekeeping, such as low level of professionalism and the general public unfamiliarity with bees. Given the importance of beekeeping for rural development and of bees themselves for the preservation of biodiversity and the sustainability of the planet, knowledge promotion about bees and beekeeping is of utmost importance. The project “beeB – Foster for beekeeping bridges through innovative and participative training” (2019-1-PT01-KA202-60782) was developed with the contribution of six countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Norway, and Estonia) and created tools to allow family beekeepers, or any other non-professional beekeepers, to acquire skills in this area by using innovative and adaptive forms of training that are based on ecological and good practices. The project also set out to create innovative ways of disseminating knowledge associated with the world of bees and its wonders, raising a general interest that might contribute to value the beekeeping sector and to stimulate novel beekeeping pathways. One of the outputs of the project was Ba-Bee-Bee, a videogame that develops as an interactive narrative. The plot is based on the discoveries of a newborn bee inside the hive. The bee can move through scenarios and trigger conversations with other characters. Along the dialogues, when some key concepts are introduced, the game unlocks collectible cards that can be revisited at any moment via the game inventory. In the back of each card, players can find a short paragraph systematizing or adding some more information on the topic. Players can roam freely through the world game, making it possible to repeat interactions and unlock cards that they might have missed. The game runs in desktop computers and mobile devices. All the text presented, in the dialogues, cards, and interface was localized for the partner languages. The process of developing the game was a combination between game design decisions and integration of scientific knowledge targeting the intended public. It implied to distil pieces of information about bees and beehives and translate them into a narrative that led the game environment, the plot and character actions, and the gameplay itself. Developing games that promote learning but are not strictly didactical is a challenge for interdisciplinary teams. The paper intends to contribute with the analysis of the experience of Ba-Bee-Bee, starting with the description of its design and development, followed by a critical discussion of the solutions found for combining playfulness, flow, and learning
- Playfulness and communication for children with autism spectrum disorder: guidelines for a videogamePublication . Alves, Valter; P. Duarte, Rui; Fonseca, F.; Bernardo, Marco V.; Barreto, Pedro; Silva, C.E.; Felizardo, Sara; Videira, I.; Matos, A.; Henriques, C.Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects sensory processing and conditions the development of communication skills and social interaction. Literature shows that children with ASD are fond of technologies and videogames in particular. The predictable and constant behaviour of technological components, the visual appeal, and the challenges are often highly appreciated (Zakari et al., 2014). Besides, videogames typically allow users to play alone, which is adequate to the profile of such an audience. The use of videogames by autistic children has shown to be relevant, and studies are evidencing gains in several areas (Malinverni et al., 2017; Hedges et al., 2018; Ng & Pera, 2018; Valencia et al., 2019; Baldassarri et al., 2020). Even so, existing solutions that were specifically developed for this audience have assumedly pedagogical goals, which systematically compromises their ludic dimension (Hirsh-Pasek et al., 2015). A study is being developed to design and implement a videogame that focuses on pure playfulness and provides an advantage to players who adopt specific strategies that rely on communicating with other players. This videogame is conceived for both intervention and research. The game mechanics explores the flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 2011), in order to dynamically adapt the challenges to the skills shown by the players, trying not to let them reach states of anxiety (due to lack of skills) or boredom (due to lack of challenge). This reasoning is extended to motor skills, as autistic people may have difficulties. In this context, it is important to clarify that the study is limited to children with ASD without associated intellectual development disorders that compromise the viability of the very act of playing. Also instrumental to the project, different scenarios are designed so that researchers can observe and collect scientific data, aiming at better understanding the related issues. Such scenarios support the analysis of the influence of physical proximity between the players, their prior level of familiarity, and their relative communicational abilities. Also under analysis is the impact of repeating the experience, both in terms of in-game performance and regarding a possible contribution to the relationship between participants and, eventually, with third parties. The core of this paper is the presentation of the design guidelines that were created to support the videogame. The guidelines result from the contributions of experts, organised according to a Delphi technique (Green, 2014). The set of experts cover the fields of ASD, game design, special education, occupational therapy, rehabilitation, and educational research. Also included is the description of the videogame development, which resorts to agile methodologies, allowing for an incremental and iterative production, supported by recurrent tests and consistently validated according to the intended objectives.
- Progressive Sophistication of Communication and Interaction in Videogames for Children and Young People with Autism Spectrum DisorderPublication . Alves, Valter; P. Duarte, RuiChildren and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often struggle with communication and social interaction skills (Hyman et al., 2020). Studies show benefits for people with ASD from playing videogames (Baldassarri et al., 2020; Malinverni et al., 2017). Still, current solutions targeting this audience tend to assume and expose educational goals (e.g., Zakari et al., 2014). We’ve been researching and developing guidance on how to design videogames with the potential to improve those skills while providing experiences that players can perceived as purely ludic. Previously, we distilled a set of six guidelines (Alves et al., 2021) that we were able to put into practice in specific games. However, the guideline that suggests to “focus level design on the progressive sophistication of communication and interaction” has been more challenging. To a certain extent this can be attributed to the scale of the projects in which we were able to experiment with that guideline, so far, which did not allow the team to reach its full implementation. We realised that while the other guidelines can be applied right from early stages and in small developments, this guideline, consistently with what it suggests, implies more complexity, at least to include alternate ways to perform some game actions. The acknowledgement of this disparity and the desire to provide tangible instantiations of that “sophistication”, led us to dedicate even more attention to this aspect and to systematize some major ideas so that we can share them while we are also working in their application. A key point of our proposal is that the introduction of more complex ways to communicate and interact is meant to allow players to engage in new strategies (more challenging but also more advantageous), if/when they are willing to try them, but previous alternatives should remain as usable. The specificities of the target users demand a cautious approach to changes and to the anxiety implied by risking and possibly failing. Players should be able to mix the alternatives and go back and forth in complexity, according to what they are prepared to invest in each specific circumstance. Another important aspect is that the unfolding of new alternatives, regarding communication and interaction, should be triggered by each player’s behaviour patterns and not directly by the game levels common to all players. This implies to rethink or complement conventional patterns for game level design. Currently, we are working on ways to enrich the tools for players to communicate and interact. The underlaying ideas are not innovative per se, in the sense that we can reference games (for the general public) that integrate them in some way or context. Our argument is that it is relevant to assemble and redesign them, considering the specific purpose of this research. For instance, in previous experiments we understood that it would be relevant that a player (playing character) could signal other players an interest in their collaboration or proximity. This would support that kind of proactivity (should it emerge) while influencing others to interact. We also consider very worth integrating mechanisms that allow expressing empathy towards other characters, or other emotional displays. Again, many games embed solutions that include predefined messages and/or graphics (e.g. emojis), but the specificities of our target audience require that the system is tailored in a way that is suitable and may contribute to developing this type of externalization of one’s feelings. Ultimately, it would be relevant to test a message system closer to an in-game chat, for more advanced levels of communication. Finally, we are also very interested in further integrating trading systems, common to many games, as a way to entice players to interact.