scholarly journals Spationomy Simulation Game—Playful Learning in Spatial Economy Higher Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 74
Author(s):  
Vít Pászto ◽  
Jiří Pánek ◽  
René Glas ◽  
Jasper van Vught

Simulation games, as a method of playful learning, have been used for more than 70 years in various disciplines with the economy as a leading application field. Their development has been tied with advances in computer science, and nowadays, hundreds of simulation games exist. However, simulation games are not just useful for encouraging disciplinary knowledge production; they also promise to be effective tools for interdisciplinary collaboration. To further explore these promises, we report on the design and playing of a simulation game on the boundary of geoinformatics and business and economics; an interdisciplinary field we have termed Spationomy. Within this game, students from different disciplinary (and cultural) backgrounds applied their knowledge and skills to tackle interdisciplinary problems. In this paper, we also analyze students’ feedback on the game to complement this aspect. The main goal is to discuss the design process that went into creating the game as well as experiences from play sessions in relation to this increase of interdisciplinary knowledge among students. In the end, we present a new gaming concept based on real-world data that can be played in other interdisciplinary situations. Here, students´ feedback on individual features of the game helped to identify future directions in the development of our simulation game.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Ivens ◽  
Monika Oberle

Grounded in a design-based research approach, the aim of this article is to determine whether scientific evaluations help to (a) identify and fix problems in educational interventions and (b) eventually foster a more effective and positive evaluated intervention. Therefore, data from a longer-term evaluation of short digital simulation games about the European Parliament for civic education in schools were used. The data included three cycles of interventions with pre- and post-evaluations starting with the first prototype in 2015/2016 (n = 209), the second cycle in 2017/18 (n = 97), and the last one in 2019/20 (n = 222). After each evaluation, major problems and critiques regarding the simulation game were discussed with the developers, and changes were implemented in the game design. The four most important problems, the processes by which they were improved and the reactions of the participants in the following evaluations are pointed out in the article. A comparison of the last and first evaluation cycle showed an overall improvement of the simulation game regarding its effectiveness in transferring EU knowledge and the participants’ general satisfaction with the simulation game. This study underlines the value of the design-based research approach for developing educational interventions and can be useful for further work on civic education measures and the implementation of digital simulation games.


Author(s):  
Ruth Stock-Homburg

AbstractKnowledge production within the interdisciplinary field of human–robot interaction (HRI) with social robots has accelerated, despite the continued fragmentation of the research domain. Together, these features make it hard to remain at the forefront of research or assess the collective evidence pertaining to specific areas, such as the role of emotions in HRI. This systematic review of state-of-the-art research into humans’ recognition and responses to artificial emotions of social robots during HRI encompasses the years 2000–2020. In accordance with a stimulus–organism–response framework, the review advances robotic psychology by revealing current knowledge about (1) the generation of artificial robotic emotions (stimulus), (2) human recognition of robotic artificial emotions (organism), and (3) human responses to robotic emotions (response), as well as (4) other contingencies that affect emotions as moderators.


1977 ◽  
Vol 5 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 18-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Chambers Clark

Learning outcomes of a simulation game designed to have one-to-one correspondence between behavioral objectives and game plays is reported The behavioral objectives were core concepts in psychiatric mental health nursing taught to associate degree nursing students. Decisions to use the simulation game method grew out of difficulties inherent in the community college nursing program, as well as the need for self-paced, efficient, learner-centered learning and evaluative tools. After the trial and revision of the game, a number of research hypotheses were tested Simulation gaming was found to be an effective mode of learning, and students who acted as teachers for other students learned significantly more than those who were taught. Some of the recommendations for further research were to study varied nursing populations, to add a control group, to test the long-range learning effects of playing the game, to decrease experimenter bias, to study transfer of learning to actual nurse-patient situations and changes in attitudes toward psychiatric patients, and to develop more simulation games for nursing education.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niluefer Deniz Faizan ◽  
Alexander Löffler ◽  
Robert Heininger ◽  
Matthias Utesch ◽  
Helmut Krcmar

As a current trend in teaching, simulation games play an active and important role in the area of technology-based education. Simulation games create an envi-ronment for scholars to solve real-world problems in a risk-free environment. Therefore, they aim to increase the knowledge base as well as learning experienc-es for students. However, assessing the effectiveness of a simulation game is necessary to optimize elements of the game and increase their learning effect. In order to achieve this aim, different evaluation methods exist, which do not always involve all phases when running a simulation game. In this study, we conduct a literature review to analyze evaluation methods for three phases of simulation games: pre-game, in-game, and post-game. Thirty-one peer-reviewed research papers met specified selection criteria and we classified them according to a di-dactic framework that illustrates four phases of running simulation games: Prepa-ration, Introduction, Interaction and Conclusion phase. Based on the results, we provide a concrete evaluation strategy that will be a guide to assess simulation games during all phases. This study contributes to theory by providing an over-view of evaluation methods for the assessment of simulation games within the different game phases. It contributes to practice by providing a concrete evalua-tion strategy that can be adapted and used to assess simulation games.


Author(s):  
Polona Tominc ◽  
Vit Paszto ◽  
Samo Bobek ◽  
Simona Sternad Zabukovšek

This research arises from the importance of integration of knowledge of economics/business and spatial sciences for graduates who must think and act in interdisciplinary contexts.The systematic literature review revealed thatthis interdisciplinary field is richly present in original scientific research, and is undoubtedly topical and worthy of research efforts. Themain objective of this paper is toanalyse important factors that contribute to the attitudes of students towards interdisciplinary knowledge, and factors that shape their intentions to use and integrate this knowledge in the future. The conceptual model formed was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Research results confirm the importance of integration of economics/business and spatial sciences knowledge, for graduates. As presented in the paper, results of thestudyhave important implications for higher education institutions, reforming and updating their study programs, as well as for educators in the field of spatial sciences and economic/business sciences, in research and in education.


Author(s):  
Haoxiang Xia ◽  
Huili Wang ◽  
Zhaoguo Xuan

As a key sub-field of social dynamics and sociophysics, opinion dynamics utilizes mathematical and physical models and the agent-based computational modeling tools, to investigate the spreading of opinions in a collection of human beings. This research field stems from various disciplines in social sciences, especially the social influence models developed in social psychology and sociology. A multidisciplinary review is given in this paper, attempting to keep track of the historical development of the field and to shed light on its future directions. In the review, the authors discuss the disciplinary origins of opinion dynamics, showing that the combination of the social processes, which are conventionally studied in social sciences, and the analytical and computational tools, which are developed in mathematics, physics and complex system studies, gives birth to the interdisciplinary field of opinion dynamics. The current state of the art of opinion dynamics is then overviewed, with the research progresses on the typical models like the voter model, the Sznajd model, the culture dissemination model, and the bounded confidence model being highlighted. Correspondingly, the future directions of this academic field are envisioned, with an advocation for closer synthesis of the related disciplines.


2018 ◽  
pp. 500-524
Author(s):  
Kimmo Oksanen ◽  
Timo Lainema ◽  
Raija Hämäläinen

This chapter focuses on the challenge of evaluating game-based learning. It argues that linking game-based learning with the characteristics of a specific game or game-produced engagement is challenging. It further proposes a framework in which the game-based learning process is approached by considering (business) simulation games as Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments and presents an approach on how learning can be approached and evaluated from this perspective. In addition, it highlights how simulation game mechanics appears to be a potential way to promote learners' socio-emotional processes and give rise to social interaction and to structure collaboration among the learners in the game context. The proposed framework of this chapter takes into account both cognitive and socio-emotional perspectives of learning. The results of the chapter will present a contemporary view on the roles of sociability, collaboration and engagement in game-based learning.


2011 ◽  
pp. 168-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Sauvé ◽  
Lise Renaud ◽  
David Kaufman

The authors of this chapter carried out a systematic review of the literature from 1998 to 2008 with the goal of developing conceptual definitions of game, simulation, and simulation game based on their essential attributes. This chapter first describes the motivation for this project and its methodological approach. It then introduces the databases consulted, and the analysis grid used. Finally, it presents the review results, which suggest a differentiation among games, simulations and simulation games. This analysis is intended to improve the precision of future research studies concerning the effects on learning of games, simulations, and simulation games.


2020 ◽  
pp. 135406612092260
Author(s):  
Stephen Aris

IR has long been concerned about its claim on disciplinary status. This includes concerns about its differentiation from Political Science and a divide between scholars who advocate a narrow disciplinary approach and others who conceive of IR as a pluri-disciplinary concept. Although these dilemmas revolve around its position vis-à-vis other disciplines, the vast majority of the recent disciplinary-sociology debates have focused on the extent of IR scholarship’s intradisciplinary fragmentation, along epistemological, topical, national, status and other lines. However, the sociology of science literature stresses that disciplines are the product of not only internal practice but also their knowledge relations to and differentiation from other disciplines. In short, intradisciplinary fragmentation cannot be considered as detached from a discipline’s relations to other disciplines – and, by extension, the differentiated knowledge relationships held by distinct intradisciplinary fragments to other disciplines. Taking this into account, this article uses bibliometric analysis of journals as a proxy for analysing the relationship between IR’s intradisciplinary make-up and its interdisciplinary relations to eight cognate disciplines between 2013 and 2017. Three distinct modes of bibliometric analysis are operationalised to map three different aspects of interdisciplinary knowledge practice: (inter)disciplinary debates (direct citation), multidisciplinary knowledge bases (bibliographic coupling) and interdisciplinary knowledge production (co-citation). On this basis, the article asks, one, whether and how differences in the interdisciplinary knowledge relations practised by IR scholarship correlate with intra-IR lines of fragmentation. And two, what are the implications for how IR’s socio-intellectual composition is understood and its disciplinary status evaluated?


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Aronsson

Connecting neuroscience and education is a desire in contemporary society, related to the recurring calls for education to become more evidence-based. Research in educational neuroscience strives towards such interdisciplinary knowledge production and to an enhanced interaction between neuroscience research and educational practice. However, various problems and difficulties in achieving these collaborations are often reported. Discrepancies, hierarchies, misconceptions and communication problems can be described as creating a ‘discourse of difficulty’. The aim of this paper is to trace the specific difficulties that have created this discourse, and to problematize these difficulties in ways that enable new conceptions of what might be entailed by interaction and mutual knowledge development between the fields of neuroscience and education, and between academic theory and educational practice. The most significant difficulty is caused by a binary understanding of the concept of difference in relation to understanding the fields. Instead of understanding the fields in opposition to each other, I will suggest an understanding that implies difference emerging in each of the collaborating fields as the self-differing effects of the encounter. In the concluding discussion, I will argue that an understanding of the concept of difference as a process of mutual transformation can be essential for reciprocity and bi-directionality in collaborations. Instead of producing contradictions and hierarchies between scientific fields and between theory and practice, such an understanding of difference might facilitate an investigation of the polarizations that always position something as of lesser value, and ultimately, creates the gaps that collaborations want to bridge.


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