Thomas Hainey

• PhD Computer Science
• Programme Leader of Computer Games Development at University of the West of Scotland

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to look at existing literature and empirical evidence to compile a number of viable research directions to move the study of digital games for learning forward. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses a combination of the archival research methodology to present secondary empirical evidence and a large-s...

The literature suggests that every learner has a particular Learning Style (LS) and it is beneficial for the teacher and the learning approach to adapt to and accommodate these differences. The traditional classroom fails to motivate some learners and to maintain their engagement level during learning, possibly because of lack of interactivity. Com...

In Higher Education Institutions Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) training sometimes has great variability and may lack sensitivity. As a result, the process often lacks depth and does not provide the ability to make mistakes in a more risk free/simulated practice environment in a simulated practice way. EDI can often encompass and touch on...

The popularity of esports has gained public interest over the past decade, leading to the industries evolution, providing further avenues for career prospects and educational outreach. Esports, abbreviated from electronic sports, is the nature of playing video games casually or professionally at a competitive capacity, either as an individual, or a...

The term competitive gameplay or gaming is predominantly associated with esports. Esports, a synonym, or abbreviation for electronic sports is an industry that has a global outreach with a lucrative market. This is accentuated by the event driven, business model focus and organised competitive events, often involving sponsorship. These additional c...

Programming is a highly difficult skill which is a constituent of many undergraduate programmes at Higher Education (HE) level. With the advancement of games technology there is an increasing opportunity for educators to provide innovative assessment tools for students on their courses which are highly immersive and graphically indicative of the ti...

Human behavior in cyber space is extremely complex. Change is the only constant as technologies and social contexts evolve rapidly. This leads to new behaviors in cybersecurity, Facebook use, smartphone habits, social networking, and many more. Scientific research in this area is becoming an established field and has already generated a broad range...

Requirements collection and elicitation is generally recognised as an abstract and complicated area with a reputation of being underdeveloped in computing and games development graduates. It is a necessary component of computing programmes on all sides of the curriculum including software engineering, information systems and games development. One...

The aim of this paper is to give a detailed overview of the development of a 3D serious game that informs game students about career pathways in the games industry. The paper provides a scoping review on the key principles related to serious game design. These core design issues are reiterated in relation to how the development of the game has adhe...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate undergraduate student perceptions about the application of immersive technologies for enhancing the student learning experience. This study assesses the viewpoints of students from varying multidisciplinary backgrounds about whether immersive technologies can enhance their learning experience and inc...

Serious games are becoming increasingly popular as alternative supplementary learning approaches across all disciplines at all levels. Learners are more enabled to become more actively involved, not only in the learning process but also in the design and development of innovative formative assessment tools. This paper will present four serious game...

The games industry is one that continues to evolve and grow at an accelerated rate. Advances in technology in terms of how games are developed, the sophistication of gameplay, mechanics and their graphical representation span a multitude of game franchises. Furthermore, job roles within the games industry are as diverse as the game genres within it...

Purpose This article aims to explore student views from a UK higher educational institution about the concept of remote online higher educational delivery. Students were asked about opinions towards working remotely and the psychological impact this had upon students and students' studies. The research provided students with the opportunity to refl...

Serious games, games-based learning, and simulation-based learning have been used to teach Mathematics at various educational levels. In this paper we shall present a design process and the first steps towards an extended realities (XR) collaborative lab for teaching of mathematics at HE level, which is currently under implementation. Designing fo...

Purpose Rudimentary programming is an essential, transferrable, problem solving skill in many higher education (HE) programmes in academic institutions including Software Engineering, Business Information Technology, Computer Games Development, Design and Technology. The purpose of this paper is to address some of the problematic issues associated...

Purpose This paper provides an analysis and insight into undergraduate student views concerning the use of virtual reality technology towards whether it has the potential to support and provide novel pedagogical avenues towards teaching and learning in higher education. The purpose of this paper is to ascertain student views about the application o...

http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/call_for_papers.htm?id=7257 Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education Special issue: call for papers Computer games technology is a fundamental component in the areas of games-based learning and serious games. These areas have the potential to enhance the learning process in a supplemen...

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijcgt/si/523824/cfp/

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a semi-experimental study conducted over a period of two years of five degree programmes using a web-based personal tutoring system to enhance learner engagement and students’ self-efficacy, towards using personal development planning (PDP) e-portfolios. Design/methodology/approach –...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the attitudes of staff and students towards adopting the use of e-portfolios for the purposes of supporting the concept of personal development planning (PDP). The study compares and contrasts the views and opinions of staff and students at one UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) about whether e...

Over the past decade there has been extensive investigation into the aspects and potential applications of games-based learning. Educationalists and industrialists continue to explore it as it is perceived as a potentially beneficially supplementary learning, teaching and training approach. While there has been an increase in the quality and quanti...

Over the past decade, serious games are being widely used in a range of different contexts, including in business. Serious games can support the development of a number of different skills, enhance motivation, increase interest in subject matter and are reputed to be an effective learning tool. Regarding computer games and their conflicting impact...

Continuing interest in digital games indicated that it would be useful to update Connolly et al.'s (2012) systematic literature review of empirical evidence about the positive impacts and outcomes of games. Since a large number of papers was identified in the period from 2009 to 2014, the current review focused on 143 papers that provided higher qu...

An important part of educational effective practice is performing evaluations to optimise learning. Applying evaluation criteria to virtual and personal learning environments enables educators to assess whether the technologies used are producing the intended effect. As online educational technologies become more sophisticated so does the need to e...

Serious Games (SG) are developing a reputation with some educationalists as a useful supplementary approach for teaching and learning. Two important issues for SG application developers and educationalists are how the learning is assessed and how assessment is integrated into a SG application. This chapter presents the results of a systematic liter...

The literature suggests that every learner has a particular Learning Style (LS) and it is beneficial for the teacher and the learning approach to adapt to and accommodate these differences. The traditional classroom fails to motivate some learners and to maintain their engagement level during learning, possibly because of lack of interactivity. Com...

Learning analytics (LA) is a powerful technology expected to be adopted by institutions in the near future. The 2014 NMC horizon report situates it in the two to three years’ timeframe for primary and secondary level and one year or less for higher education. The use of LA in serious games raises two important questions, what data is gathered and h...

Serious Games (SG) are increasingly used by educators to assist the teaching and learning process and offer many advantages over traditional education. They are highly engaging, motivating and they have the potential to adapt to each student quickly becoming an ideal supplementary tool for education. However, if the majority of teachers agree that...

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the main regulatory body responsible for registering people who work in social services and is responsible for regulating their education and training. In Scotland there are currently 191,000 social service workers who work with a variety of different people in a variety of different settings ranging f...

Assessment is crucial to both learners, to receive feedback on their progress, and educators, to evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching. Serious games (SGs) usually offer an assessment system. However, if the majority of educators agree that using an SG increases the motivation, learning and retention of their students, many of them would not...

In classroom and online learning, there are benefits derived from delivering learning content in ways that match the student’s learning style. A similar result has also been found in games-based learning (GBL). While the learning contents can be adapted based on the student’s learning style identified by using a learning style questionnaire, it is...

Games-based learning has developed a reputation with educationalists as it is perceived as a potentially engaging form of supplementary learning that could be utilised to enhance the educational process. Games-based learning has been utilised at all levels of education including primary, secondary and tertiary education. Despite this recognition an...

Serious games are considered by some educationalists to be a potentially highly motivating form of supplementary education. In some cases, serious games are stand-alone but if delivered over the web is a subset of Web2.0 technologies. To properly deliver serious games over the web for educational purposes it is important to understand the motivatio...

With the advent of social media, it is widely accepted that teachers and learners are not only consumers but also may have an active role in contributing and co-creating lesson materials and content. Paradoxically, one strand of technology-enhanced learning (i.e. game-based learning) aligns only slightly to this development. Games, while there to e...

Serious Games (SG) are developing a reputation with some educationalists as a useful supplementary approach for teaching and learning. Two important issues for SG application developers and educationalists are how the learning is assessed and how assessment is integrated into a SG application. This chapter presents the results of a systematic liter...

This study found that the use of a 3D virtual world improved students’ self-efficacy beliefs in relation to a number of activities undertaken as part of collaborative team-based projects. This paper describes a quantitative study of 80 university students enrolled in the Computer Games Design module at the University of the West of Scotland. The re...

The interest towards the introduction of Games‐Based Learning (GBL) in education is increasing. Using computer games to assist the learning process offers a wide range of possibilities inconceivable in a traditional classroom. Assessment of the learner during game‐play represents a key challenge for GBL. This task is time consuming and requires bot...

Communication is no longer inhibited by boundaries. Communities of like minded people can form over countries and continents. Social media and collaborative technologies [Web2.0] have altered the social landscape, allowing students to collaborate, to be reflective and to participate in peer-to-peer learning. This paper presents the first empirical...

Newer approaches such as games-based learning (GBL) and games based-construction are being adopted to motivate and engage students within the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in Scotland. GBL and games-based construction suffer from a dearth of empirical evidence supporting their validity as teaching and learning approaches. To address this issue th...

Games-based Construction Learning (GBCL) and games-based learning (GBL) are being promoted within the curriculum for excellence (CfE). Children in the Upper Primary (Primary 4 onwards) are now being encouraged to construct their own games. These changes have been made from the previous curriculum and are causing frustration with some teachers who b...

Games-based learning is perceived by educationalists as a potentially highly motivational approach for learning and teaching at a supplementary level and is starting to be used more frequently at Primary Education (PE) and Secondary Education (SE) level. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has also increased in popularity. CLIL is a bil...

The present paper reports on the pre-piloting of the StartUp_EU Lifelong Learning European Project. StartUp_EU is a project for secondary schools that simulating the excitement and creative innovation of starting up a new company. The project developed a series of mini-games, an encompassing Web2.0 platform and a collaborative competition for secon...

It has been suggested in the literature that Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and other virtual worlds can offer an environment in which informal learning by participants can succeed through communication and collaboration (Steinkuehler, 2004; Shaffer et al., 2004; Childress & Braswell 2006; Gee 2007, 2008; Steinkuehler & Duncan, 2008; Ha...

This chapter explores the contribution that computer games and Web 2.0 technologies can provide in relation enhancing learner motivation and engagement. Such technologies are considered to be particularly suited to motivating the younger generation of learners or the “iLearner Generation”. The chapter will highlight some of the main advantages and...

Since their introduction over forty years ago, digital entertainment games have become one of the most popular leisure activities globally. While digital games clearly provide highly engaging activities, the nature of this engagement is not well understood. The current study aims to advance our understanding by reporting a systematic review of rece...

Currently casual games feature as the most dynamically developing section of the videogames industry and compared to the more complicated and technologically advanced hardcore games, are characterized by simple rules and game play, do not require long time commitment or special skills on the part of the player. They also have comparatively low prod...

Technology, and in particular the Web, have had a significant impact in all aspects of society including education and training with institutions investing heavily in technologies such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), ePortfolios and more recently, Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogs, wikis and forums. The advantages that these technologies pr...

Games-based learning (GBL) is perceived by some educationalists as a highly motivating form of supplementary learning and is now being used more widely at different levels of education to engage pupils. In Scotland a new approach to education called the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has been introduced in schools with a focus on the child at the...

Games-based Learning (GBL) is developing a reputation with some educationalists as a useful supplementary approach for teaching and learning. Two important issues for GBL application developers and educationalists are how the learning is actually assessed within a GBL environment and how assessment is integrated into a GBL application. This paper p...

Under the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) in Scotland, newer approaches such as games-based learning and games-based construction are being adopted to motivate and engage students. Construction of computer games is seen by some to be a highly motivational and practical approach at engaging children at Primary Education (PE) level in computer progra...

Research methods and statistics are core competences across various disciplines but pose significant challenges for many students. The CHERMUG project aims to develop a digital game to support students in acquiring methodological and statistical expertise. A key issue that has to be addressed in developing a game is to identify the desired learning...

Requirements collection and analysis is fundamental in software engineering education across various different modules at tertiary level. It is a highly important part of the software development lifecycle and the database application lifecycle and is vital for the success of any software project regardless of size and complexity. In terms of prepa...

A highly important part of software engineering education is requirements collection and analysis, one of the initial stages of the Software Development Lifecycle. No other conceptual work is as difficult to rectify at a later stage or as damaging to the overall system if performed incorrectly. As software engineering is a field with a reputation f...

Over the last 40 years, computer games have become an extremely popular leisure activity and more recently there has also been interest in the potential of serious games to help in learning, skill acquisition and attitude and behaviour change. Initially public interest in computer games focused on concerns about their violent and gender stereotyped...

The Internet represents a new industrial revolution, arguably with a more significant socio-economic impact than the previous two industrial revolutions. The impact of the Internet has resulted in significant changes within education with eLearning now an accepted and commonplace form of education. However, the online tools that are used in eLearni...

Since the introduction of computers into education in the 1960s their potential for education has been recognized by researchers, policymakers and practitioners. However, the rapid and seemingly constant evolution of digital technology means that teachers face the problems of keeping pace with the technological changes within society, identifying w...

While there are some teachers who are dubious about the benefits of gaming in education, language teachers make great use of simulation/gaming methodologies, and there are many supporting textbooks. While many of the simulations/games used are non-computer based, during recent years, the computer game has become an important development in popular...

A highly important part of software engineering education is requirements collection and analysis which is one of the initial stages of the Database Application Lifecycle and arguably the most important stage of the Software Development Lifecycle. No other conceptual work is as difficult to rectify at a later stage or as damaging to the overall sys...

Computer games have become a very popular form of entertainment and have had a significant impact on how University students spend their leisure time. More recently educationalists have become optimistic about the potential of computer games to help people learn effectively. If games-based learning is to become a recognised teaching approach then m...

In Scotland, work has been done over the past six years to transform education towards a fresh approach to what, how and where young people learn. This new approach, known as the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), has already been developing in primary schools and is now ready to be implemented in secondary schools. One of the teaching and learning a...