NASA Videogame Research Accepted for Presentation at Conference
Wed Apr 2 2008
The NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future's research into videogame learning will be featured in two presentations at this year's Association of Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) international conference.
Dr. Debbie Denise Reese, senior educational researcher at the Center for Educational Technologies, home to the Classroom of the Future™, will present two sessions based on the Selene videogame project she leads. The Classroom of the Future is using Selene to study how NASA can use videogames to help students learn science.
The conference will be held Nov. 4-8 at the Buena Vista Palace Hotel in Orlando, FL. AECT has historically accepted fewer than about 60 percent of the proposals submitted and offered congratulations for being accepted to this year's program.
Reese's first presentation will be "Flowometer: Embedded Measurement of Learners' Flow Perceptions within Game-based Instructional Environments." This 60-minute session reviews the research the Classroom of the Future accomplished in 2007 as part of its NASA study into videogame learning. The Classroom of the Future was charged with creating an embedded assessment instrument in a videogame. It accomplished that through the creation of the Selene videogame, which offered a mechanism to test the assessment tool as well as study how students learn through videogames.
According to the abstract for the presentation, "Instructional videogame designers, developers, and researchers require instruments embedded within game-based environments to evaluate and assess players' experiences. This study tested the effectiveness of the flowometer, an innovative, theory-based assessment tool, based upon the experience sampling method. It measures players' perceived levels of skill and challenge (flow). The flowometer accurately measured changes in player experience due to researchers' manipulation of the Selene game-based environment."
Reese will join Christian Sebastian Loh of Southern Illinois University and Scott Warren of the University of North Texas in presenting "Instructional Design, Evaluation, and Assessment Strategies in Serious Games." This session will focus on the Consortium for IDEAS in Serious Games that the three presenters have formed. The consortium seeks to develop new IDEAS, or Instructional Design, Evaluation and Assessment Strategies, to guide serious games development and to promote growth of the new learning medium. Reese, Loh, and Warren will share draft strategies for these three key areas and invite members of the serious games community to join the consortium and complete these standards collaboratively.
