Mini Tracks – Calls for Papers

User Profiling for the Design of Adaptive Educational Video Games
The Teacher’s Role, Identity and Presence in Game-Based Learning
Exergaming in Physical Education: Design, Development and Evaluation
Group Learning Processes in Games Based Learning – Adults as Peer Learners
Game Research Methods
Games and Higher Education

Call for Papers on User Profiling for the Design of Adaptive Educational Video Games
Track Chair: Dr Patrick Felícia, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland

User profiling is a relevant research topic in both video games and educational software development. For the former, it helps to provide a more enjoyable experience that is tailored to users’ preferences; for the latter, it aims to provide a learning environment that adapts to subjects’ abilities, disabilities or learning preferences. 

Because people have different learning styles, needs and preferences, their motivation to play video games, their behaviour and their learning strategies can differ significantly. Unless these singularities are acknowledged, learning benefits on the part of the learner could vary greatly. Although several educational video games have been based on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) that included a flexible approach to learning, there is still a need to define valuable frameworks that address the design of educational video games at both cognitive and psychological levels.

The aim of this track is to present the latest research relevant to the design and deployment of adaptive educational video games. It will seek to include both theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence. The track will be multidisciplinary and welcome participants with an expertise in HCI, Adaptive Educational Systems, Game Design, Educational Psychology, or Instructional Design.

Topics include, but are not limited to:-   

§  Accounting for Personalities and learning styles in Game-Based Learning

§  Using Intelligent Tutoring systems to monitor and improve players’ cognitive skills in Video Games

§  Accounting for users’ disabilities and adapting the game features accordingly (e.g. user interface or feedback)

§  Using non-invasive techniques to profile users (e.g. using player’s input, navigation patterns, etc.)

§  Adapting the Game-Play to players’ preference and increase their motivation and enjoyment accordingly.

§  Assessing and using players’ emotions to improve motivation and learning outcomes

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page. Selected papers will also be considered for publication in a special issue of International Journal of Game-Based Learning.

Patrick Felicia

Call for Papers on The Teacher’s Role, Identity and Presence in Game-Based Learning
Track Chair: Thorkild Hanghøj, The Danish School of Education, Denmark

Within recent years, there has been a tendency to move focus away from the assumed learning potentials of games to study the actual practices of game-based teaching. When using games in education, teachers are to a smaller or larger degree expected to “re-design” the games in order to match curricular aims, time barriers, student expectations, etc. However, there still exist relatively few studies of teachers’ pedagogical approaches to games, and how games require new or re-defined teacher roles – i.e. as a guide, playmaker or explorer. In other words: How should teachers facilitate and assess the use of games in educational contexts?

The purpose of this track is to explore some of these issues, and to consider the opportunities and risks that exist for a teacher in playful educational spaces. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

§  how teachers’ game literacy influence game-based teaching

§  how games require teachers to assume different roles

§  how teachers position themselves in relation to games

§  teachers’ attempts to surface tacit knowledge through play

§  supporting and facilitating reflection in game-based settings

§  the place of assessment in game-based learning

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Thorkild Hanghøj

Call for Papers on Exergaming in Physical Education: Design, Development and Evaluation
Track Chair: Dr Kristian Kiili, Tampere University of Technology, Finland

In the research literature, digital games are often viewed as having negative effects to mental and physical health. However, the exergame genre has been evolved to facilitate physical health of players. Exergames involve physical activity as a means of interacting with the game. A major reason for increased interest in exergaming is the concern over the high levels of obesity in Western society. It has been argued that video games are one of the main reasons for physical inactivity, because the games that children are used to play are not physical by their nature. The emerging exergames genre tries to change this by encouraging players to perform physical movements during the game play. This track seeks original, high-quality contributions both in scholarly and practical contexts that will consider exergaming from different perspectives.

Topics include, but are not limited to:-   

§  Design principles for exergames

§  The usefulness of exergaming in physical education and rehabilitation

§  Health benefits of exergaming

§  Design and development of exergame technologies

§  Multiplayer exergames

§  The effectiveness of Commercial off the Shelf exergames such like Wii Sports and Wii fit

§  The acceptance of exergaming

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Kristian Killi

Call for Papers on Group Learning Processes in Game-Based Learning – Adults as Peer-learners
Track Co-Chairs: Dr Timo Lainema, Turku School of Economics, Finland and Dr Thomas Duus Henriksen, Danish School of Education, Aarhus, Denmark

Games accommodate complex and diverse approaches to learning processes and outcomes; allow for interactivity; promote collaboration and peer learning; allow for addressing cognitive as well as affective learning issues; and foster active learning. Several factors influence the effectiveness of peer learning, among them, the participants’ experience of group processing, as well as individual and group accountability. Games as learning platforms are especially suitable for peer learning processes, as they allow participants to be working collaboratively with others, taking responsibility for one’s own learning and deepening the understanding of specific learning contents. The potential benefits of peer learning have long been recognized, but this theme has not been thoroughly studied in the gaming context. To this track, we invite papers which deal with adult, game-based, group learning practices, analyses, and experiments. The papers may be both theoretical and practice-oriented. By practice-oriented papers we mean especially papers dealing with real-world game implementations in company/industrial settings. 

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Game-based learning
• Peer-learning
• Learning games for groups
• Collaboration in the gaming context
• Learning processes

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Timo Lainema


Thomas Duus Henriksen

Call for Papers on Game Research Methods
Track Co-Chairs: Dr Bente Meyer, University of Aarhus, Denmark and Dr Birgitte Holm Sørensen, University of Aarhus, Denmark

Research in game based learning is needed in order to explore how, when and why learning takes place in game based educational settings. Whereas games are highly recommended for being powerful learning environments, research into the use of games for learning has often produced inconclusive and contradictory results .This may be due to the fact that the design and study of educational games involve complex processes that may challenge existing methodological practices, i.e. new perspectives on learning spaces and artefacts, and how to study them.

In terms of methodology, approaches are needed that can capture and account for the changing and diverse environments in which games are used for teaching and learning. This highlights the need for not only empirically based arguments for the potential of games in education, but for methodologies that can describe the emerging use of games both inside and outside formal education.

The purpose of this track is to explore the challenges and opportunities involved in researching game based learning.  Topics may include, but are not limited to:

§  How context(s) influence methodology

§  How established methodology contributes to research in games based learning (for instance ethnography, quantitative vs. qualitative approaches)

§  Examples of how innovative methodology can contribute to research in learning games, i.e. what is the potential of new methodologies

§  Challenges in and possible ways of developing design-based game research

§  Methods for understanding the  influence of new types of human and non-human actors in game-based learning spaces

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Bente Meyer


Birgitte Holm Sørensen

Call for Papers on Games and Higher Education
Track Chair: Elias Pimenidis, University of East London, UK

Higher Education has seen considerable changes in the way academics interact with students over the past few years. The rising cost of Higher Education puts strain on institutions in maximizing utilization of resources and improving performance in terms of student results. At the same time students are far more technologically savvy compared to even five years ago. Teaching in higher education through games is an acceptable and fashionable mode of delivery. Lecturers and tutors constantly seek innovative means of attracting and maintaining student interest during class contact hours and games along with virtual worlds appear to be the current winning formula.

This mini track seeks to present innovative ways of developing games that would suit a wider HE audience (within a specific knowledge area) and for researchers / developers to present their approaches and experiences in developing games for HE teaching. Such presentations would prove particularly attractive to the educational community who often looks at developing in-house tools on limited budgets and small and usually understaffed teams.

The mini track would welcome papers presenting innovative approaches of utilizing existing off the shelf games within an HE teaching environment. The organizers are looking for input from the professional / commercial development world. Case studies of development and utilization of educational games are extremely desirable and are expected to raise the interest and elevate the level of debate beyond the confines of a strict academic conference, integrating the “real” world and its challenges to the “protected” environment of education.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

§  Developing computer based educational games

§  Managing the development small scale computer games projects for educational purposes

§  Games for Higher Education – Case Studies from the Commercial front

§  Delivering professional skills through computer games – a designer’s challenge

§  Computer Games for Higher Education students – balancing the fun element

§  Using off-the-shelf games in Higher Education teaching

For mini track submission details, see the call for papers page.

Elias Pimenidis