ISEP – GILT – Comunicações em eventos científicos
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- Self-assessing Teachers’ Competences for Curricula Modernization Through MOOCsPublication . Mihaescu, Vlad; Butkiene, Rita; Andone, Diana; Aydin, Cengiz Hakan; Vaz de Carvalho, Carlos; Zubikova, Olga; Toprak, Elif; Genc-Kumtepe, Evrim; Brueggemann, Tim; Intveen, SonjaMassive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) paved the way for new instructional methods by and for academic early adopters, who shifted their traditional teaching in ways believed to improve the students experience and to provide more interactive learning opportunities. To analyze this impact in the education system, at different levels, we investigated the desired competencies of the academics who create, develop or integrate MOOCs in traditional higher education. For this purpose, a self-assessment tool for educators was created and this paper presents its pedagogical and technical design, its development and the main results from the first pilot evaluation with teachers from universities in different European countries.
- LearnIt: A Serious Game to Support Study Methods in Engineering EducationPublication . Vaz de Carvalho, Carlos; Bessa, Pedro; Costa, Ricardo; Barata, Ana; Costa, AlexandraThe systematic application of study methods allows students to obtain better results in terms of knowledge acquisition and competences development. The successful application of those methods is directly related to the improvementof cognitive areas, such as memory, attention, and concentration in a simultaneously beneficial way. In the scope of the collaboration between a Student Support Center in a Higher Education Engineering Institution and an R&D group in Educational Technologies, an application was designed to foster both vectors, the development of cognitive capabilities and the adoption of study methods. The application integrates a serious game and a repository of contextualized educational resources. This combination motivates students to adopt these tools more regularly. This article describes the developed application and the positive results of its use with a first group of students.
- Methodology for in-game certification in serious gamesPublication . Baptista, Ricardo; Coelho, António; Carvalho, Carlos Vaz deSerious games are starting to attain a higher role as tools for learning in various contexts, but in particular in areas such as education and training. Due to its characteristics, such as rules, behavior simulation and feedback to the player's actions, serious games provide a favorable learning environment where errors can occur without real life penalty and students get instant feedback from challenges. These challenges are in accordance with the intended objectives and will self-adapt and repeat according to the student’s difficulty level. Through motivating and engaging environments, which serve as base for problem solving and simulation of different situations and contexts, serious games have a great potential to aid players developing professional skills. But, how do we certify the acquired knowledge and skills? With this work we intend to propose a methodology to establish a relationship between the game mechanics of serious games and an array of competences for certification, evaluating the applicability of various aspects in the design and development of games such as the user interfaces and the gameplay, obtaining learning outcomes within the game itself. Through the definition of game mechanics combined with the necessary pedagogical elements, the game will ensure the certification. This paper will present a matrix of generic skills, based on the European Framework of Qualifications, and the definition of the game mechanics necessary for certification on tour guide training context. The certification matrix has as reference axes: skills, knowledge and competencies, which describe what the students should learn, understand and be able to do after they complete the learning process. The guides-interpreters welcome and accompany tourists on trips and visits to places of tourist interest and cultural heritage such as museums, palaces and national monuments, where they provide various information. Tour guide certification requirements include skills and specific knowledge about foreign languages and in the areas of History, Ethnology, Politics, Religion, Geography and Art of the territory where it is inserted. These skills are communication, interpersonal relationships, motivation, organization and management. This certification process aims to validate the skills to plan and conduct guided tours on the territory, demonstrate knowledge appropriate to the context and finally match a good group leader. After defining which competences are to be certified, the next step is to delineate the expected learning outcomes, as well as identify the game mechanics associated with it. The game mechanics, as methods invoked by agents for interaction with the game world, in combination with game elements/objects allows multiple paths through which to explore the game environment and its educational process. Mechanics as achievements, appointments, progression, reward schedules or status, describe how game can be designed to affect players in unprecedented ways. In order for the game to be able to certify tour guides, the design of the training game will incorporate a set of theoretical and practical tasks to acquire skills and knowledge of various transversal themes. For this end, patterns of skills and abilities in acquiring different knowledge will be identified.
- TimeMesh: an educational historical gamePublication . Gouveia, David; Lopes, Duarte; Carvalho, Carlos Vaz de; Baptista, RicardoThe TIMEMESH game, developed in the scope of the European Project SELEAG, is an educational game for learning history, culture and social relations. It is supported by an extensible, online, multi-language, multi-player, collaborative and social platform for sharing and acquiring knowledge of the history of European regions. The game has been already used, with remarkable success, in different European countries like Portugal, Spain, England, Slovenia, Estonia and Belgium.
- Work in progress - learning through role play gamesPublication . Baptista, Ricardo; Carvalho, Carlos Vaz deIt is commonly accepted that the educational environment has been undergoing considerable change due to the use of the Information and Communication tools. But learning depends upon actions such as experimenting, visualizing and demonstrating through which the learner succeeds in constructing his own knowledge. Although it is not easy to achieve these actions through current ICT supported learning approaches, Role Playing Games (RPG) may well develop such capacities. The creation of an interactive computer game with RPG characteristics, about the 500th anniversary of the city of Funchal, the capital of Madeira Island, is invested with compelling educational/pedagogical implications, aiming clearly at teaching history and social relations through playing. Players interpret different characters in different settings/scenarios, experiencing adventures, meeting challenges and trying to reach multiple and simultaneous goals in the areas of education, entertainment and social integration along the first 150 years of the history of Funchal. Through this process they will live and understand all the social and historical factors of that epoch.