Game-Based Learning (ISSN: 2034-8800)

Description

Games are structured contexts where players have clear objectives, with victory as end goal. In a game, players must overcome challenges and face opponents (real or game characters) but always respecting a clearly-defined set of rules. Failure to follow these rules implies a punishment or penalty. Games can involve one player acting alone, two or more players acting cooperatively, or players or teams of players competing between themselves. Computer games are played through a computer, on a standalone or networked form. They are highly interactive and motivating products.
The use of games for learning is effective because they create rich contexts where educational objectives can be defined and theoretical concepts can be applied in practical situations. Furthermore, educational games promote the development of personal and social skills because they favor cultural awareness, socialization, respect for others, teamwork, leadership, decision making and collaborative learning. It is therefore possible to get a convergence of games and learning in three distinct areas: training (professional and social context); formal education (classroom and school context), non-formal education (outside the school context).
However, there is still a limited use of game-based learning in formal education. This has mainly to do with social concerns and stereotypes about the relation of games and education. Other issues relate to physical and cost barriers, hardware and license cost, access (for online games), maintenance and support, teachers’ confidence in using the game for a specific curriculum goal. But this limited use is also related to the lack of extended evidence of effective application. Therefore a dedicated journal is necessary to demonstrate the validity of this learning methodology.
The EAI Endorsed Transactions on Game-Based Learning is a multidisciplinary approach to the presentation of research, theory, application, practice and validation in the field of Game-Based Learning for any level and any area of education. As such it will cover areas like cognition, psychology, technology-enhanced education, evaluation and assessment, multimedia and information technology. By Game-Based Learning, are considered all forms of formal or informal learning which are supported by digital (or not) simulations, games, modeling, virtual and augmented reality, new interaction devices, toys and playthings.
Keywords
Game-based Learning, Games, Simulations, Serious Games, Learning Games, Training Games, Edutainment.
Editor-in-Chief
Carlos Vaz de Carvalho has a Master’s Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto and a Ph.D. in Information Systems and Technology by the School of Engineering of the University of Minho.
He has been a Professor for the last 19 years in the Computer Engineering Department of Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), the School of Engineering of the Porto Polytechnic. He was responsible for several disciplines in the fields of Algorithms, Programming and Multimedia and responsible for introducing innovative online components and methodologies (e-learning/b-learning) in these disciplines. He participated in several processes of curricular reform, like the one resulting from the Bolonha Declaration, where he was the lead promoter of the Graphics and Multimedia branch of the Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering.
He has, in parallel, remarkable activity in short-term/vocational training with emphasis on actions related to e-learning, in collaboration with outstanding organizations in this area.
Scientifically, he was researcher at INESC (Group on Computer Graphics), a private R&D organization, between 1988 and 1996. From that moment he developed his scientific career, in the field of e-Learning, at ISEP where he is currently the Director of the R&D Group GILT (Graphics, Interaction and Learning Technologies). He tutored/is tutoring seven PhD theses and 30 Master theses, has authored over 100 publications and communications, including nine books (as author and editor) and participated in more than 20 national and European projects, assuming the coordination of five of them.
He served as Vice President of Computer Engineering Department from 2000 to 2001 and Head of that Department between 2003 and 2005. He was e-learning Director (2001-2005) of ISEP and directed (1997-2000) the Distance Education Unit of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto. He was also a member of the Scientific Council in the ISEP between 1994 and 2009.
Baltasar Fernandez Manjon Associate professor in the Department of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (DISIA) at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). Dr. Fernández-Manjón is also the Vice Dean of Research and Foreign Relationships at the Computer Science School of this university. He co-leads the Complutense e-learning research group (www.e-ucm.es) . He is the former Academic Director of the Computer Science Technical School of Centro de Estudios Superiores Felipe II (Aranjuez, Spain) (2001-2006). He received Bachelor in Physics (major in Computer Science) and a PhD in Physics from the UCM. He is member of the Working Group 3.3 “Research on the Educational uses of Communication and Information Tecnlogies” of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and of the Spanish Technical Committee for E-learning Standarization (AENOR CTN71/SC36 “Tecnologías de la información para el aprendizaje”). He is also liason person between IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology (LTTC) and IFIP WG3.3. His main research interests are e-learning technologies, educational uses of markup technologies, educational uses of serious games, application of educational standards and user modelling on which he has published more than 60 research papers. He is also co-organizer and program committee member of several conferences (e.g. SIIE, ICALT, SCORM) and associate editor of several special issues about e-learning: Journal of Universal Computer Science (Springer, 2005 and 2007), Computers In Human Behaviour (2008), Simulation and Gaming (2008).
Editorial Board
Janet C Read
University of Central Lancashire, UK
Pedro Latorre
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Dr Margaret Linehan
Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland
Joze Rugeli
Faculty of Education University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Nicholas Mitchell
University of Central Lancashire, UK
Francisco Serón
Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
Martin Sillaots
Tallinn University, Estonia
Hariklia Tsalapatas
University of Thessaly, Greece
Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin
Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland
Paula Escudeiro
Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Portugal
Olivier Heidmann
University of Thessaly, Greece
Nick Kearney
Andamio Education and Technology S.L., Spain
Romana Křížová
Accord International s.r.o., Czech Republic
Martin Kuštek
Cordia a.s., Slovakia