Organizational Unit:
Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
Permanent Link
Research Organization Registry ID
Description
Previous Names
Parent Organization
Parent Organization
Organizational Unit
Includes Organization(s)
Organizational Unit
Organizational Unit
Organizational Unit
Organizational Unit
Organizational Unit
ArchiveSpace Name Record
Publication Search Results
Now showing
1 - 7 of 7
-
ItemDesigning Controllers for Collaborative Play(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-04-27) Truesdell, Erin J.K.Physical inputs are an integral part of the play-experience in digital games. Recent advances in technology and controller creation have led to a proliferation of a great variety of game controllers outside the console gamepad and mouse-and-keyboard paradigm. These alternative controllers offer a broad space of design opportunities and can be configured to support a wide variety of interaction types and amplify digital game mechanics. Alternative controllers are particularly well-suited to collaborative play contexts because they may be designed to take multiple or complementary inputs and thus support multiple simultaneous users. However, there are few resources specific to collaborative alternative controllers available to designers. My work applies cognitive approaches to human-computer interaction to play to generate a holistic understanding of the relationship between the physical affordances of controllers and the sense-making experiences of players. This allows for the generation of actionable design guidelines that take into account both physical design choices and players' social experiences and the establishment of a novel means of quantifying collaborative embodied gameplay. This dissertation includes four primary contributions: 1) the development of three themes and a taxonomy for collaborative alternative controllers; 2) the documented development of three boundary objects for the purpose of investigating players' sense-making processes with each; 3) the first use of creative sense-making analysis to describe and quantify goal-oriented embodied collaborative play; and 4) a series of design principles developed from an annotated portfolio of the boundary artifacts developed for this thesis and annotation of creative sense-making curves for each. In addition to contributing specifically to the field of alternative game controllers and design for collaborative play, this work contributes to research in games and play studies, tangible and embodied interaction design, and human-centered computing.
-
ItemRisk and expression: Physical and material risk states in computational music practices(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-05-17) Weisling, AnnaThis research investigates qualities of physical and material risk within musical performance practices and the value that such properties may hold for less physical engagements afforded by computational instruments. The two studies designed for this research draw upon the experiences of practitioners directly, allowing them to speak about their creative processes, values, and priorities, and how risk and expressivity might factor into their practice. Through comparative studies, artifact design, in-depth discussions, and the application of Thematic Analysis I am able to share the perceptions and experiences of practitioners as they themselves describe. By identifying the value that physical and material risk, uncertainty, and the potential for failure play in the creative process we can potentially provide a compelling argument for the importance of such qualities in practices which do not naturally engage with them. Designing for risk and assessing the experiences of practitioners within the field of experimental media performance will contribute to a better understanding of the value of physical and corporeal materials within digital practices and present potential guidelines for the creation and use of new instruments for creative musical expression.
-
ItemDesign agency: Dissecting the layers of tabletop role-playing game campaign design(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-05-27) Gasque, Travis M.In the field of digital media, the study of interactive narratives holds the aesthetics of agency and dramatic agency as core to digital design. These principles hold that users must reliably be able to navigate the interface and the narrative elements of the artifact in order to have a lasting appeal. However, due to recent academic and critical discussions several digital artifacts are being focused on as possible new ways of engaging users. These artifacts do not adhere to the design aesthetics foundational to digital media, but represent a movement away from the principle of dramatic agency in interactive narratives. In an attempt to understand this separation and offer a solution to this developing issue, another non-digital interactive medium was studied: tabletop role-playing games. The designers of this medium were studied to understand the techniques and methods they employed to create dramatic interactive narratives for their users. These case studies suggested the designers used a third design aesthetic, design agency, to help balance the tension between agency and dramatic agency of the users of their medium. This design aesthetic could provide a balancing force to the current issues arising within interactive narrative.
-
ItemThinking in stories(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015-05-15) Anderson, Tory S.This thesis considers cognitive narrative a component of intelligence that specializes in generality. In exploring the ubiquitous external (mediated) and internal (cognitive) functions of narrative it provides two contributions to the literature: a uniquely cross-discipline survey of narratology that bridges humanities, social science, and computational fields; and a theory to generate cognitive personal narratives from ongoing perception. The implications of narrative cognition and cognitive narrative are discussed as well as the limitations of this introductory theory and the grounds for promising future work.
-
ItemA Qualitative Study on Engaging Students in Computing Through Computational Remixing with EarSketch(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2014-05-02) Livingston, EliseComputer Science fields have a difficult time engaging underrepresented populations such as African Americans and women. EarSketch is an approach to engage these student through authentic STEAM learning involving computational music remixing. EarSketch has been used in several pilot studies. In this study, students from one pilot study participated in a focus group to understand the effectiveness of EarSketch in engaging underrepresented minorities. Qualitative analysis shows a variety of contributing factors in engagement such as motivation, confidence, identity, conceptualization, and creativity.
-
ItemPlay with data - an exploration of play analytics and its effect on player expereinces(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2012-07-02) Medler, BenIn a time of 'Big Data,' 'Personal Informatics' and 'Infographics' the definitions of data visualization and data analytics are splintering rapidly. When one compares how Fortune 500 companies are using analytics to optimize their supply chains and lone individuals are visualizing their Twitter messages, we can see how multipurpose these areas are becoming. Visualization and analytics are frequently exhibited as tools for increasing efficiency and informing future decisions. At the same time, they are used to produce artworks that alter our perspectives of how data is represented and analyzed. During this time of turbulent reflection within the fields of data visualization and analytics, digital games have been going through a similar period of data metamorphosis as players are increasingly being connected and tracked through various platform systems and social networks. The amount of game-related data collected and shared today greatly exceeds that of previous gaming eras and, by utilizing the domains of data visualization and analytics, this increased access to data is poised to reshape, and continue to reshape, how players experience games. This dissertation examines how visualization, analytics and games intersect into a domain with a fluctuating identity but has the overall goal to analyze game-related data. At this intersection exists play analytics, a blend of digital systems and data analysis methods connecting players, games and their data. Play analytic systems surround the experience of playing a game, visualizing data collected from players and act as external online hubs where players congregate. As part of this dissertation's examination of play analytics, over eighty systems are analyzed and discussed. Additionally, a user study was conducted to test the effects play analytic systems have on a player's gameplay behavior. Both studies are used to highlight how play analytic systems function and are experienced by players. With millions of players already using play analytics systems, this dissertation provides a chronicle of the current state of play analytics, how the design of play analytics systems may shift in the future and what it means to play with data.
-
ItemIncreasing motivation by adapting intelligent tutoring instruction to learner achievement goals(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-04-05) Lockhart, Tony F.The impact of affect on learning and performance has caused many researchers in the field of cognitive psychology to acknowledge the value of motivationally supportive instruction. Goal orientation, which refers to the perceptions and behaviors of the learner in achievement situations, has been the most predominant theory in learning motivation. However, research suggests multiple components are responsible for affecting student cognitive engagement. The traditional framework distinguishes individuals who are self-motivated to master challenging tasks from those who are motivated to earn favorable judgments of performance as intrinsic and extrinsic learners, respectively. In addition, learners may be further categorized by an eagerness to ensure a positive outcome or by their vigilance in avoiding negative outcomes. As such, my research explores how these motivational categories can be utilized to construct a more robust instructional model. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of adaptive remediation strategies on motivation and learning performance. Research suggests the cost of integrating cognitive tasks with error analysis outweigh the benefits of sparse learning gains. However, further investigation is required to understand how feedback can improve these outcomes. The experiment presented here seeks to evaluate the adaptive instruction of two pedagogical agents embedded within two separate versions of the Virtual BNI Trainer. The basic coach uses a model of the learner's experience level to determine an appropriate level of elaboration required during remediation. In contrast, the motivationally enhanced coach uses a model of the learner's goal orientation to construct feedback that appeals to their natural disposition. A controlled experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of adaptive instruction on student self-efficacy, engagement, and learning performance in the Virtual BNI Training Environment. The results of this experiment are used to establish guidelines for integrating goal orientation, error analysis, and feedback within a virtual coach, to improve motivation and learning performance. In addition, these findings also indicate areas for future research.