Search results

This paper aims to describe a pilot project investigating the use of alternate reality game/treasure‐hunt formats to provide an alternative to existing mechanisms for introducing new students to university information and services.

An alternate reality game was designed to be played online and offline, which aimed to be fun, intriguing and engaging through task design and storyline. The university's social network was used as a platform for players to support one another in solving each task as well as for fictional characters in the story to interact with the players.

Logistical problems are identified with the campus environment, and successes are highlighted where tasks were particularly effective or enjoyable. The game format also provided students with something special to “feel part of” and to provide a break from their formal course.

It was found that the game format did not appeal to all students, but was very effective for those that liked it.

The author believes the alternate reality game/treasure‐hunt format can provide an interesting alternative to existing mechanisms for introducing students to certain types of information or services.

Teaching students/library patrons twenty-first century literacies (such as information and library literacies) is important within a library setting. As such, finding an appropriate manner to teach these skills in a practical manner at tertiary level is important. As vehicles for constructivist learning, games provide a unique opportunity to teach these twenty-first century literacies in an engaging, practical, format. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of an alternate reality game (ARG) to teach these literacies through gameplay.

An ARG was designed and developed where the core gameplay tasks taught and exercised twenty-first century literacies. The game, once completed, was then analysed as a case study to determine the effectiveness of the game-based approach to literacy learning.

Throughout the play of the game, players spent increasingly more time in the library, often using it as a common meeting point during play. Players reported that they learnt or exercised the skills that each game task focussed on, additionally noting that the game-based context made the process of learning and exercising these skills more enjoyable.

The findings suggest that the creation of games, whether real world or digital, may be useful in engaging students/patrons with twenty-first century literacies as well as with their local library. The documentation of a successful ARG to teach twenty-first century literacies provides a model for future research to follow when designing engaging library-oriented games.

The purpose of this paper is to present the gathering, integration and analysis of digital information sources for the creation of a conceptual framework for alternate reality games (ARGs). ARGs hold potential for libraries, education, healthcare and many other sectors.

Case studies were performed on three previously played ARGs to create case reports. The various digital information sources for each game, sourced from multiple media, are compiled into a chronologically ordered game narrative which formed the case reports. The focus of the paper is on the analysis of the case reports using constant comparative analysis to identify categories and subcategories. Relationships are established, based on each game, between the categories and subcategories to inform the creation of game diagrams. The game diagrams are then combined to create a conceptual framework that describes the functioning and components of an ARG.

The conceptual framework effectively described the types of information found within an ARG as well as how these different categories of information interact and link to one another. The framework also provides an abstract description of the components of ARGs, namely narrative, game actions and community.

The conceptual framework produced by the analysis enables an understanding of ARGs and how they are played and designed. Insight into how to analyse ARGs based on the information generated for the play of the game by both the players and the game designers is gained. Where other studies have provided insight into the phenomena of ARGs, this study focuses on constructing a conceptual framework of ARGs using the information generated by the game.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which players and producers of promotional alternate reality games (ARGs) negotiate their commercial status, similar to the way in which Matt Hills (2002) argues fan communities negotiate their position within a commercial media industry.

In-depth interviews with game designers is combined with the results of an online player survey and qualitative analysis of discussion on player forums. This provides a strong platform from which to discuss player and producer attitudes towards the status of promotional ARGs as marketing materials.

Both players and producers use various strategies which allow them to negotiate their relationship to the commercial nature of promotional ARGs. These include a focus on the immersive nature of the games (also known as the “This Is Not a Game” philosophy), defining their creative interests strongly against the perceived commercial interests of corporate media companies and an emphasis on the personal, emotional or affective impact of the games.

In the very slim body of academic work on promotional ARGs, few scholars have considered the status of the games as marketing from the perspective of the audience. The paper provides original audience research which is of value and interest to scholars in a diverse variety of disciplines, and to anyone involved in the production or consumption of ARGs.

The purpose of this guest editorial is to provide the introduction and context of the Special Issue on Games for Learning and Dialogue on Humanitarian Work. The Special Issue aims to promote the development, deployment, and analysis of games for the humanitarian sector: it investigates how games can meaningfully engage people and organizations in experiencing, understanding and improving complex systems.

The editorial describes the need and motivation for building a body of knowledge on the use of games in the humanitarian sector. It further gives an overview of the three papers included in this Special Issue and how they contribute to building such a body of knowledge.

Games enable participants to experience the complexity of humanitarian systems, linking decisions with consequences. Even though game-like approaches have been used for decades in disaster management, there is little written about it. The papers included in this Special Issue provide insights and frameworks to learn from, ranging from online tools that reveal inefficiencies in supply chains, to simulated emergency response exercises, to applied improvisation. In addition, the current papers highlight the need for more empirical study of the impact of games.

The Special Issue describes three unique cases, which by no means cover the entire practice of games in the humanitarian sector. However, they do provide insight into the diversity of game-like approaches and signal the current state of practice and research of games for learning and dialogue on humanitarian work.

This editorial gives an overview of how games could be used in practice and why they are relevant for humanitarian work. It further highlights how the contributions in the Special Issue may help in improving humanitarian work.

Although review papers and Special Issues have appeared on particular topics such as climate change, to our knowledge no significant academic attention has been given to humanitarian work with regards to games.

The purpose of this research is to elaborate on the game strategies of technology parks and innovation networks that influence the provision of sustainable development of countries.

The method of formalisation, statistical method and the game theory of alternate reality are used in this research.

The study of the main characteristics of the influence of integration structures (technology parks and innovation networks) of the leading countries in the sphere of sustainable development (Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany) and identification of their game strategies of development allow stating that the selected directions of strategic management and interaction are efficient, ensuring the business interests and supporting the social sector and ecologisation of the country. There is an effect of the use of the development strategies of the leading integration structures on the economic component of countries, since, despite the influence of the global crisis and domestic problems, they demonstrate high economic indicators of development.

The scientific novelty and value of this research consist in the elaboration of the theoretical framework on the strategic directions of the development of integration structures (technology parks and innovation networks) and their influence on the achievement of the SDGs.

This paper aims to address the limitations in designing educational approaches that apply critical approaches to data literacy, given the obscure nature of digital platforms, which leave youth unable to develop discourses that challenge dominant narratives about the role of data in their lives. The purpose of this study is to propose and evaluate a critical data literacy approach that empowers youth to engage with data from a sociocultural perspective using a speculative participatory research approach that affords opportunities to develop alternative discourses.

This is a multiple-case study that involves five alternative schools in Uruguay which implemented the Nayah-Irú curriculum over ten weeks leading to the development of six distinct research projects about the materialization of data in youth lives. The curriculum incorporates an alternate reality game (ARG) to engage youth in critical data literacy, based on the principles of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) epistemology and Speculative Civic Literacies.

The findings of this study highlight the integration of speculative storytelling and real-life experiences in developing alternative discourses about datafication. The analysis revealed instances of discursive closure among the youth, but through the curriculum's speculative fiction elements, such as the narrative of Nayah-Irú, emotional connections were formed, leading to increased engagement, critical inquiry, and problem framing.

The study conducted on the Nayah-Irú curriculum shows its effectiveness in engaging youth and educators in critical data literacy by affording opportunities for youth to engage in the analysis of their personal data literacies in an alternative world. Bringing speculative approaches to data literacy can open new avenues for exploring data literacy with youth in ways that center their voices and help them overcome different forms of discursive closure.

This study offers new insights into critical data literacy education blending youth participatory action research epistemologies with a speculative literacies framework to support youth in developing alternative discourses regarding the role of data in their lives.

A makerspace has recently been identified as an essential learning field for cultivating students’ creative and thinking abilities. Creating a makerspace service within a university library is vital, as it fosters innovation, interdisciplinary learning, practical skills, entrepreneurship and career readiness while transforming the library into a dynamic centre for hands-on education and collaboration. Nevertheless, the wide-ranging functions and uses of makerspace equipment can potentially lead to a situation where librarians are overwhelmed by their duties due to manpower constraints. Therefore, this study aims to develop a novel game-based augmented reality navigation system (GARNS) based on the Octalysis gamification framework and scaffolding theory to support makerspace user education, hoping to promote learners’ learning motivation and their immersive experience and to enhance the learning performance of makerspace user education.

With a true experimental research method, 24 grade 11 students from a high school in Keelung City, Taiwan, were recruited to participate in the experiment on makerspace user education. Among them, ten students were randomly assigned to the experimental group using the GARNS and the other seven students were randomly assigned to a control group using the Web navigation system. The remaining seven students were assigned to a second control group using the narrative guided tour with a librarian to conduct makerspace user education.

Analytical results show that learners can achieve significant learning effectiveness using the GARNS, Web navigation system or traditional narrative guided tour with a librarian for makerspace user education. There were no significant differences in learning effectiveness and motivation neither between the GARNS group and the narrative guided tour with a librarian group nor between the Web navigation system group and the narrative guided tour with a librarian group. However, there were significant differences in learning effectiveness and motivation in terms of the value and expectation dimensions of learning motivation between the GARNS group and the Web navigation system group, and the GARNS group was significantly better than the Web navigation system group.

The study’s practical implication on makerspace user education is to reduce the manpower of a university library with makerspace services by the proposed GARNS that can offer a practical solution to enhance the learning effectiveness and motivation of makerspace through immersive game-based autonomous learning. Additionally, the study’s theoretical contribution lies in its innovative combination of game-based learning and scaffolding theory, while its practical significance stems from its potential to revolutionize makerspace user education, enhance motivation and performance and influence the broader landscape of educational technology.

This study combines game-based learning with augmented reality tools to develop a novel GARNS, which provides an innovative and effective learning tool suitable for the characteristics of makerspace and contributes to promoting makerspace user education and diversified learning modes. Additionally, most interviewees believed that using GARNS for educating makerspace users could assist them in consistently evaluating, choosing and discovering educational tasks in a library makerspace. This study contributes to promoting the popularization of makerspace user education.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how to use a web-based library game as an outreach tool at events. Games in higher education are a trend that libraries have used for information literacy but less frequently for outreach. Although there are relatively few examples of the use of games in academic library outreach events, games have the potential to be excellent outreach tools by engaging students and presenting them with the opportunity to change their perceptions of the library.

The University of North Dakota (UND) Libraries successfully connected with students at an outreach event by using a modified version of the Information Literacy Game originally developed by the University of North Carolina Greensboro (UNCG). UND Librarians created specific technical modifications and an event workflow, highlighted here, that other academic libraries can adapt for use at outreach events to attract both students who are and those who are not typically users of the library.

The information literacy game, with some specific technical changes, is customizable in relatively inexpensive ways that allow librarians from institutions of all sizes to engage students with a game at outreach events.

Games, especially Web-based games, have not previously been used in outreach events. The literature on the use of games in information literacy sessions but outreach is an even more logical fit for gaming. This paper presents a practical, value-oriented method for academic libraries to modify an information literacy game for use in outreach.