Please join us in the Grass for a Disruptive Bytes session on Certification in Gamification with António Coelho (University of Porto), Helen Routledge (Totem Learning) and Samantha Clarke (Coventry University).

Live Stream Link: https://plus.google.com/events/ca1si4salup5bva7l56jh54uv64

António Coelho

Serious games are starting to attain a higher role as learning tools in contexts such as education and training. In this talk we provide a set of guidelines for game designers to build specific games, not only for training, but also for the certification of competences. These guidelines are established on a triadic of components: Competencies / Mechanics / Play, following the approach of Casper Harteveld (Play / Meaning / Reality). This is needed for balancing the relationship between the game mechanics based in serious games genres, the array of competences to certify and the game elements.

António Fernando Coelho is Assistant Professor at the Department of Informatics Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto where he teaches in the areas of Computer Graphics, Programming and Digital Games. He is the director of the Doctoral Program in Digital Media at the University of Porto and member of the Board of advisors of the UT Austin | Portugal Program.
António Fernando Coelho is also a senior researcher at INESC TEC, having completed his PhD thesis in 2006 at the Faculty of Engineering of University of Porto, in the area of Computer Graphics. His research interests are focused in the areas of Computer Graphics, Serious Games and Geospatial Systems.

Helen Routledge

Helen will present a range of products from Totem Learning that have been built around specific skills frameworks and discuss how user behaviour in the games can be linked to evidence of competency. Specifically Helen will discuss a Welding Simulation, a Business Simulation and a Health and Safety simulation. Totem Learning are working with certification bodies such as City and Guilds to integrate Serious Games into qualifications and Helen will touch on some of the key challenges and benefits of securing official approval from an awarding body.

I am a serious games designer, researcher, project manager and production lead. I've worked in the serious games space since 2002 starting out in researching the effectiveness of games as learning tools before moving into product management, and then into design. My background is in psychology and behavioural sciences and I love everything to do with the brain. When I was 12 I saw a documentary on how the brain works, and from that moment on I was hooked! And I also love games. (http://www.totemlearning.com/totemspoll/2014/6/6/introduction-to-helen-routledge)

Samantha Clarke

Most Serious games and Game-based learning applications have a tendency to favour a fully digital approach in their style and delivery. Whilst these methods have many merits, digital games pose certain barriers for educational facilitators in terms of expertise in development methods and time taken to deploy. By looking at adopting a more traditional approach to game-based learning, we aim to encourage a greater support for facilitators to adopt game-based learning into their teaching practices, quickly and with less complications. The focus of this talk is to discuss the process of developing interactive, educational games through the DMLL project escapED, and to form a discussion about how we can move towards serious games that are digitally enhanced rather than digitally led.

Samantha Clarke is a Researcher and Game-Based Learning Designer at the Disruptive Media Learning Lab, Coventry University. Her research interests are focused around developing constructive trans-disciplinary methodologies that assist with the design and development of user centered play and learning mechanics in serious games. In addition to this, her work focuses on mapping pedagogic outcomes to game based mechanics and dynamics in order to promote motivation and acceptance in users for educational technologies. With a particular interest in developing human-centered, live-action GBL solutions, she strives to develop social play and interaction at the heart of her design and research outputs.