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This paper describes a implementation of a design for a game based virtual learning environment. The game is developed for a course in analogue electronics, and the topic is the design of a power supply. This overall task can be solved in a number of different ways, with certain constraints, giving the students a certain amount of freedom, the game is designed in such a way as to discourage a trial-and-error approach. The consequences of a wrong choice will be given in a safe, but realistic setting. The learning material is modelled in a MMORPG environment using storytelling and a virtual gaming environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Masters of STEM project seeks to excite young people about the positive impact of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) research and innovation, both throughout history and in the current day, and to introduce and reinforce positive role models from the STEM community. The purpose is to promote broader knowledge of STEM and the impact it has had on society, and to encourage more young people to undertake higher education and follow careers in STEM. The project already has partners in Europe, USA and Brazil, and continues to grow the partnership and funding base. At the core of the project is the development and deployment of an online game platform, supporting users playing short game scenarios developed by the project, and allowing them to develop their own scenarios utilising characters developed by the project to represent the role models we identify, the Masters of STEM. The game platform will support multi-lingual versioning, and role models will be identified and characterised for the scenarios at both global and local level. Rules and constraints will be applied at character level to ensure the scenarios developed by users are within acceptable limits of behaviour and activity. A number of types of scenarios will be developed, offering interest and engagement for users of all ages, from infant to adult, and this will permit the development of a user community generating their own content for the platform. The project will disseminate these outcomes widely throughout the world, particularly through the schools networks. To achieve this, websites will be developed by the project partners providing localised information on STEM activities, careers and opportunities in different regions. This will permit the development of region-specific linguistic and cultural representation of information, and identification of role models, both real and media-generated. Information on these role models will feed through to the game platform, which will be linked to these websites to provide both general and region-specific scenarios. The project partners will also use online surveys to capture information on young peoples attitudes towards STEM, positive views on characters from the STEM community, and interest in games. Initial work on the games platform has already begun, based on the Unity games engine and existing work on the scenario-authoring tool from the Pandora+ platform. Contact has been established with a number of media groups to ascertain the potential to use media characters as STEM role models, e.g. Big Bang Theory & CSI characters, and, where possible, real individuals will be approached to give their permission for their images and stories to be used in the system. Historical characters should not require such permissions, but the project will ensure that all characters are treated with respect, and the system will not permit inappropriate scenarios to be generated. User evaluation of the system will be sought continuously through feedback surveys, frequency of use measures, and user ratings. Impact measures will be established by agreement with the wider community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of human emotion in learning situations has been a feature of learning and training since earliest times, since it has been seen to improve the speed of uptake and the personalisation of the learning process. In recent years, research in affective computing has focused on providing realistic and appropriate representations of human emotions both in computer software and the variety of digital environments with which we engage, and, as a result, using these to create more realistic emotional interactions between humans and computers. A strong driver in this activity has been the games industry, seeking to make games more realistic and engaging, both for entertainment and, more recently, through the growth of serious games offering visualisation and simulation of real-world scenarios using games technologies. The authors have been involved for some time in research on the use of games for e-learning, and this paper considers the use of affective computing techniques within such games. The benefits are seen as greater engagement and immersion of students, faster achievement of suspension of disbelief, willingness to reuse and revisit learning materials, and the potential to introduce realistic emotions and stresses into the learning situation. Two similar but contrasting approaches, from the Pandora and Maritime City projects, are also discussed. The Maritime City project has developed a training scenario for social workers, based on a well-known child abuse case, using an avatar-based, first party game environment. The scenario is used as a training aid during interactive sessions, with the trainees critiquing the approach taken, analysing the issues presented, and role-playing alternative approaches. The Pandora project has developed an augmented reality training environment for Gold Commander crisis management, modelling and presenting real-world crisis situations as a timeline-based event network. The trainees are presented with a range of media inputs relating to the events as they unfold in the scenario, and are expected to collaboratively make decisions to deploy manpower and resources to address these events, in a timely fashion. Both projects seek to engender the stresses and emotional affects of their scenarios within the trainees, using accurate representation of the events, time constraints, and decision-making pressures, alongside the immersive effects of the technologies used. The conclusion from both projects, and from our other research, is that affective computing techniques can significantly enhance games for e-learning, but only if skilfully applied and with strong production values, as poor application of affective techniques can render a game unusable and laughable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]