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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

How Games Work: Exploring The Instructional Design Of Diablo Iii, Carly Finseth Sep 2014

How Games Work: Exploring The Instructional Design Of Diablo Iii, Carly Finseth

Carly Finseth

This paper describes a portion of a three-part case study designed to research the instructional patterns that occur within role-playing games (RPGs). It presents a set of nine heuristics for learning in RPGs and analyzes how and where those heuristics occur within the game Diablo III. The findings from the study include an overview of a cyclical learning pattern that occurs with RPGs, as well as theoretical and practical implication for both industry and academic contexts.


Networking Young Citizens: Learning To Be Citizens In And With The Social Web, Suzanne Mellor, Terri Seddon Oct 2013

Networking Young Citizens: Learning To Be Citizens In And With The Social Web, Suzanne Mellor, Terri Seddon

Suzanne Mellor

Many claims are made in the popular press and in professional education literature about the potential role of the social web for increasing the active civic engagement of young citizens, by either using it as a source of information or as a participatory tool. Empirical evidence supporting such claims is sparse and contested. Moreover, the impact of a young person’s general learning experience, especially that involving Web2, is rarely considered in terms of young people’s likely or actual active civic engagement. The Australian pilot research project Networking Young Citizens, supported by Monash University, examined the ways in which Web2 was …


“We’Re Off To Replace The Wizard”: Lessons From A Collaborative Group Project Assignment, Miguel Centellas, Gregory J. Love Jul 2012

“We’Re Off To Replace The Wizard”: Lessons From A Collaborative Group Project Assignment, Miguel Centellas, Gregory J. Love

Miguel Centellas

This article examines the effectiveness of a collaborative group learning project for teaching a core competency in comparative politics: constitutional structures. We use a quasi-experimental design and propensity score matching to assess the value of a consti- tutional writing group project and presentation. The results provide strong evidence that these learning tools are highly valuable for teaching abstract concepts. Students who par- ticipated in the project scored significantly higher on a short series of questions in final exams given several weeks after the completion of the group project. Somewhat paradox- ically, the project increased competency but did not affect student …


Political Efficacy And Introductory Political Science Course: Findings From A Survey Of A Large Public University, Miguel Centellas, Cy Rosenblatt Feb 2012

Political Efficacy And Introductory Political Science Course: Findings From A Survey Of A Large Public University, Miguel Centellas, Cy Rosenblatt

Miguel Centellas

We conducted a survey of the student population enrolled in undergraduate introductory- level courses in political science at a large public university. We were interested to test whether completing undergraduate introductory-level courses in political science had any effects on political efficacy, using some standard indicators (drawn from the ANES battery), at the individual level. Our findings suggest that earning a high grade (when controlling for various other factors) does seem to positively affect internal political efficacy at the individual level, but that the most important factor affecting external political efficacy is the number of courses completed. However, we found no …


Preaching What We Practice: Bringing Scope And Methods “Back In”, Miguel Centellas Oct 2011

Preaching What We Practice: Bringing Scope And Methods “Back In”, Miguel Centellas

Miguel Centellas

Recent discussions of teaching research methods have focused on understand- ing the relationship between methods courses and the broader discipline, including the need to integrate qualitative methods and other approaches beyond the traditional statis- tical approaches still common in the majority of undergraduate research methods courses. This article contributes to this conversation by arguing that the basic elements of research design and qualitative techniques should be integrated into substantive (or “non-methods”) courses across the discipline. To accomplish this aim, I offer a brief outline of methodolog- ical benchmark skills—drawn from the pool of skills necessary for a successful thesis—that can …


Transforming Science And Technology: Has The Elephant Yet Flicked Its Trunk?, Donna M. Hughes Dr. Dec 1990

Transforming Science And Technology: Has The Elephant Yet Flicked Its Trunk?, Donna M. Hughes Dr.

Donna M. Hughes

No abstract provided.