BACKGROUND return to function, earlier discharge from hospital and improved patient satisfaction.... more BACKGROUND return to function, earlier discharge from hospital and improved patient satisfaction. Digital Health Interventions (DHI) show promise as a supporting tool for re-enablement. The aim of this study is to evaluate a re-enablement platform that we have developed that uses a holistic systems approach to address the ‘de-enablement’ that occurs as an in-patient in hospital with the elderly population most at risk of this. The AIMS platform is anticipated to deliver improved patient participation in recovery and self-management through education and the ability to track rehabilitation progression in hospital and after patient discharge. OBJECTIVE This study’s main goal is to examine the usability of the AIMS platform from both the patients’ and clinicians’ perspectives. METHODS Two common instruments were used to measure usability: the System Usability Scale (SUS) with 10 items and, for finer granularity, the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) with 26 items. 26 physiotherapists...
International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments
This paper discusses the evaluation of two 3D simulated practice learning environments, Tiny Oaks... more This paper discusses the evaluation of two 3D simulated practice learning environments, Tiny Oaks and Play2Do, focused on supporting people working with children, families, and vulnerable people in special educational settings. Pre-test/post-test evaluation methodology was employed consisting of a questionnaire with 16 questions covering knowledge and understanding, professional practice, and transferable skills. Tiny Oaks had 530 participants pre-test and 423 post-test from six European countries, and results show a significant increase in learning across all questions. Play2Do had 318 participants pre-test and 301 participants post-test from the UK and Bulgaria, and again results show a significant increase in learning across all questions. The system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire was also used to measure the usability of the two environments, and usability was found to be excellent. Findings suggest that 3D simulated practice environments can provide a valuable learning exp...
The importance of health and social services is increasing as European society grows older and un... more The importance of health and social services is increasing as European society grows older and unemployment and relocation across Europe increases. This growing demand for services is creating unprecedented pressures on health and social care systems. Despite differences in political approaches and institutional frameworks, health and social services across Europe face similar challenges in adjusting to demographic ageing, societal change, rising expectations and consumerism, changing employment and family patterns, evolving technological opportunities and funding issues. A key part of the sector deals with vulnerable people. Education and training plays a pivotal role in developing those who work with vulnerable people and, more generally, the social services sector. In many parts of Europe, the sector has a strong emphasis on learning and assessing skills for job roles in real practice environments ("practice learning"). In some qualifications, practice learning can be a...
A Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is a technology platform that uses medical knowledge wi... more A Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is a technology platform that uses medical knowledge with clinical data to provide customised advice for an individual patient's care. CDSSs use rules to encapsulate expert knowledge and rules engines to infer logic by evaluating rules according to a patient's specific information and related medical facts. However, CDSSs are by nature complex with a plethora of different technologies, standards and methods used to implement them and it can be difficult for practitioners to determine an appropriate solution for a specific scenario. This study's main goal is to provide a better understanding of different technical aspects of a CDSS, identify gaps in CDSS development and ultimately provide some guidelines to assist their translation into practice. We focus on issues related to knowledge representation including use of clinical ontologies, interoperability with EHRs, technology standards, CDSS architecture and mobile/cloud access.Th...
ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who... more ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students' characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: What are the different game playing habits of the three groups? What are the different motivations for playing games across the three groups? What are the different reasons for using games in HE across the three groups? What are the different attitudes towards games across the three groups? To our knowledge this is the first in-depth cross-national survey on gaming and education. We found that a large number of participants believed that computer games could be used at HE level for educational purposes and that further research in the area of game playing habits, motivations for playing computer games and motivations for playing computer games in education are worthy of extensive further investigation. We also found a clear distinction between the views of students in regular education and those in distance education. Regular education students in both countries rated all motivations for playing computer games as significantly more important than distance education students. Also the results suggest that Scottish students aim to enhance their social experience with regards to competition and cooperation, while Dutch students aim to enhance their leisurely experience with regards to leisure, feeling good, preventing boredom and excitement.
ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who... more ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students' characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: What are the different game playing habits of the three groups? What are the different motivations for playing games across the three groups? What are the different reasons for using games in HE across the three groups? What are the different attitudes towards games across the three groups? To our knowledge this is the first in-depth cross-national survey on gaming and education. We found that a large number of participants believed that computer games could be used at HE level for educational purposes and that further research in the area of game playing habits, motivations for playing computer games and motivations for playing computer games in education are worthy of extensive further investigation. We also found a clear distinction between the views of students in regular education and those in distance education. Regular education students in both countries rated all motivations for playing computer games as significantly more important than distance education students. Also the results suggest that Scottish students aim to enhance their social experience with regards to competition and cooperation, while Dutch students aim to enhance their leisurely experience with regards to leisure, feeling good, preventing boredom and excitement.
ABSTRACT The fact that each student has a different way of learning and processing information ha... more ABSTRACT The fact that each student has a different way of learning and processing information has long been recognised by educationalists. In the classroom, the benefits derived from delivering learning content in ways that match the student’s learning style have also been identified. As new modes of delivery of learning content such as computer-assisted learning systems (e.g. eLearning) have become increasingly popular, research into these has also identified the benefits of tailoring learning content to learning styles. However, in games-based learning (GBL), the adaptation based on learning style to enhance the educational experience has not been well researched. For the purpose of this research, a game with three game modes has been developed: 1) non-adaptivity mode; 2) a mode that customises the game according to the student’s learning style identified by using a learning style questionnaire; and 3) a mode that has an in-game adaptive system that dynamically and continuously adapts its content according to the student’s interactions in the game.
ABSTRACT The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the main regulatory body responsible for ... more ABSTRACT 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 from care home services for adults to early year settings such as nurseries and out of care clubs. Games‐based Learning has developed a reputation with educationalists for being a potential form of supplementary learning and has been applied in a number of different subject areas. The current state of computer games technology allows the creation of games beyond that of 2D games or web‐based eLearning games for increased engagement and immersion. It is therefore considered to be beneficial to use current computer games technology to create a realistic, 3D simulated practice environment for social and health care training. This paper will introduce a generic simulated practice environment developed in Unity for childhood practice training. The paper will describe the preliminary development of the games‐based learning environment and discuss the implemented prototype. The paper presents an analysis of an expert evaluation that has been performed on this prototype and discusses future developmental directions.
BACKGROUND return to function, earlier discharge from hospital and improved patient satisfaction.... more BACKGROUND return to function, earlier discharge from hospital and improved patient satisfaction. Digital Health Interventions (DHI) show promise as a supporting tool for re-enablement. The aim of this study is to evaluate a re-enablement platform that we have developed that uses a holistic systems approach to address the ‘de-enablement’ that occurs as an in-patient in hospital with the elderly population most at risk of this. The AIMS platform is anticipated to deliver improved patient participation in recovery and self-management through education and the ability to track rehabilitation progression in hospital and after patient discharge. OBJECTIVE This study’s main goal is to examine the usability of the AIMS platform from both the patients’ and clinicians’ perspectives. METHODS Two common instruments were used to measure usability: the System Usability Scale (SUS) with 10 items and, for finer granularity, the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) with 26 items. 26 physiotherapists...
International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments
This paper discusses the evaluation of two 3D simulated practice learning environments, Tiny Oaks... more This paper discusses the evaluation of two 3D simulated practice learning environments, Tiny Oaks and Play2Do, focused on supporting people working with children, families, and vulnerable people in special educational settings. Pre-test/post-test evaluation methodology was employed consisting of a questionnaire with 16 questions covering knowledge and understanding, professional practice, and transferable skills. Tiny Oaks had 530 participants pre-test and 423 post-test from six European countries, and results show a significant increase in learning across all questions. Play2Do had 318 participants pre-test and 301 participants post-test from the UK and Bulgaria, and again results show a significant increase in learning across all questions. The system usability scale (SUS) questionnaire was also used to measure the usability of the two environments, and usability was found to be excellent. Findings suggest that 3D simulated practice environments can provide a valuable learning exp...
The importance of health and social services is increasing as European society grows older and un... more The importance of health and social services is increasing as European society grows older and unemployment and relocation across Europe increases. This growing demand for services is creating unprecedented pressures on health and social care systems. Despite differences in political approaches and institutional frameworks, health and social services across Europe face similar challenges in adjusting to demographic ageing, societal change, rising expectations and consumerism, changing employment and family patterns, evolving technological opportunities and funding issues. A key part of the sector deals with vulnerable people. Education and training plays a pivotal role in developing those who work with vulnerable people and, more generally, the social services sector. In many parts of Europe, the sector has a strong emphasis on learning and assessing skills for job roles in real practice environments ("practice learning"). In some qualifications, practice learning can be a...
A Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is a technology platform that uses medical knowledge wi... more A Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) is a technology platform that uses medical knowledge with clinical data to provide customised advice for an individual patient's care. CDSSs use rules to encapsulate expert knowledge and rules engines to infer logic by evaluating rules according to a patient's specific information and related medical facts. However, CDSSs are by nature complex with a plethora of different technologies, standards and methods used to implement them and it can be difficult for practitioners to determine an appropriate solution for a specific scenario. This study's main goal is to provide a better understanding of different technical aspects of a CDSS, identify gaps in CDSS development and ultimately provide some guidelines to assist their translation into practice. We focus on issues related to knowledge representation including use of clinical ontologies, interoperability with EHRs, technology standards, CDSS architecture and mobile/cloud access.Th...
ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who... more ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students' characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: What are the different game playing habits of the three groups? What are the different motivations for playing games across the three groups? What are the different reasons for using games in HE across the three groups? What are the different attitudes towards games across the three groups? To our knowledge this is the first in-depth cross-national survey on gaming and education. We found that a large number of participants believed that computer games could be used at HE level for educational purposes and that further research in the area of game playing habits, motivations for playing computer games and motivations for playing computer games in education are worthy of extensive further investigation. We also found a clear distinction between the views of students in regular education and those in distance education. Regular education students in both countries rated all motivations for playing computer games as significantly more important than distance education students. Also the results suggest that Scottish students aim to enhance their social experience with regards to competition and cooperation, while Dutch students aim to enhance their leisurely experience with regards to leisure, feeling good, preventing boredom and excitement.
ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who... more ABSTRACT Games-based learning has captured the interest of educationalists and industrialists who seek to exploit the characteristics of computer games as they are perceived by some to be a potentially effective approach for teaching and learning. Despite this interest in using games-based learning there is a dearth of empirical evidence supporting the validity of the approach covering the wider context of gaming and education. This study presents a large scale gaming survey, involving 887 students from 13 different Higher Education (HE) institutes in Scotland and the Netherlands, which examines students' characteristics related to their gaming preferences, game playing habits, and their perceptions and thoughts on the use of games in education. It presents a comparison of three separate groups of students: a group in regular education in a Scottish university, a group in regular education in universities in the Netherlands and a distance learning group from a university in the Netherlands. This study addresses an overall research question of: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: Can computer games be used for educational purposes at HE level in regular and distance education in different countries? The study then addresses four sub-research questions related to the overall research question: What are the different game playing habits of the three groups? What are the different motivations for playing games across the three groups? What are the different reasons for using games in HE across the three groups? What are the different attitudes towards games across the three groups? To our knowledge this is the first in-depth cross-national survey on gaming and education. We found that a large number of participants believed that computer games could be used at HE level for educational purposes and that further research in the area of game playing habits, motivations for playing computer games and motivations for playing computer games in education are worthy of extensive further investigation. We also found a clear distinction between the views of students in regular education and those in distance education. Regular education students in both countries rated all motivations for playing computer games as significantly more important than distance education students. Also the results suggest that Scottish students aim to enhance their social experience with regards to competition and cooperation, while Dutch students aim to enhance their leisurely experience with regards to leisure, feeling good, preventing boredom and excitement.
ABSTRACT The fact that each student has a different way of learning and processing information ha... more ABSTRACT The fact that each student has a different way of learning and processing information has long been recognised by educationalists. In the classroom, the benefits derived from delivering learning content in ways that match the student’s learning style have also been identified. As new modes of delivery of learning content such as computer-assisted learning systems (e.g. eLearning) have become increasingly popular, research into these has also identified the benefits of tailoring learning content to learning styles. However, in games-based learning (GBL), the adaptation based on learning style to enhance the educational experience has not been well researched. For the purpose of this research, a game with three game modes has been developed: 1) non-adaptivity mode; 2) a mode that customises the game according to the student’s learning style identified by using a learning style questionnaire; and 3) a mode that has an in-game adaptive system that dynamically and continuously adapts its content according to the student’s interactions in the game.
ABSTRACT The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) is the main regulatory body responsible for ... more ABSTRACT 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 from care home services for adults to early year settings such as nurseries and out of care clubs. Games‐based Learning has developed a reputation with educationalists for being a potential form of supplementary learning and has been applied in a number of different subject areas. The current state of computer games technology allows the creation of games beyond that of 2D games or web‐based eLearning games for increased engagement and immersion. It is therefore considered to be beneficial to use current computer games technology to create a realistic, 3D simulated practice environment for social and health care training. This paper will introduce a generic simulated practice environment developed in Unity for childhood practice training. The paper will describe the preliminary development of the games‐based learning environment and discuss the implemented prototype. The paper presents an analysis of an expert evaluation that has been performed on this prototype and discusses future developmental directions.
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Papers by Mario Soflano