Virginia Serious Game Institute

Gamifying everything from history to pain management

Colleen Rich — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 17:45:29 +0000

Gamifying everything from history to pain management Colleen Rich Wed, 09/07/2022 - 13:45

In This Story

Sang Nam. Photo provided

Sang Nam, the director of Computer Game Design Program in ��AV’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, doesn’t just make games for entertainment, he’s on a mission to make a difference.

Nam has been selected as a Fulbright Specialist Scholar, which lasts for four years.

Ying-Ying Kuo, a fellow Fulbright Specialist and a former Mason instructional designer and learning analyst, thought Nam would be a perfect candidate when asked to recommend someone for the assignment.

"I referred Sang to the Fulbright Specialist program because he was the best person to conduct this project,” said Kuo. Nam applied specifically for the assignment in Tunisia, for which he was selected.

He has been working with game designers and developers in Tunis, Tunisia. The organization that hosted Nam is Tunis International Center for Digital Cultural Economy (TICDCE), under the Ministry of Culture in Tunisia.

“They are game designers and developers in Tunisia, but the whole country is starting in this industry,” said Nam.

Nam’s visit to Tunis consists of two trips, the first of which was in late May.

“I ran a two-week long workshop on game design and development, and the implication of virtual reality,” said Nam.

Sang Nam with his May workshop group in Tunisia. Photo provided

He returns in September to help designers create a virtual reality game focused on the historical site Dar Sebastian, often called the Hammamet Cultural Centre. Nam and the workshop participants visited the historical site to see what they could do to highlight those places using game design.

“It will be educational for youth in Tunisia who play this virtual reality game while walking around this building and learning about their culture,” said Nam.

His work overseas mirrors the work he’s doing with his students at Mason, which includes upcoming projects that focus on concepts such as Serious Games and digital therapeutics.

“Serious Games are not for pure entertainment, but games with serious purposes such as education, simulation, defense, and more,” he said.

The concept of Serious Games can be applied to potential solutions for problems normally approached by other disciplines. This process, Nam said, is called “gamification.”

This is no easy feat, Nam said, but “we want our students to be creative problem solvers. While making a game from scratch, they have to overcome many things. To gamify is to basically use well-working game mechanics and learning why it works or makes the games so engaging. We try to use those mechanics in real life.”

Mason’s Virginia Serious Game Institute (VSGI) will host the international symposium on DTx, digital therapeutics, sponsored by NCSoft, one of the biggest game companies in Korea with Mason Korea. The event will take place at Mason Square (formerly Arlington Campus) on November 9.

Nam describes digital therapeutics as apps or games that can be used for medicinal purposes. “There are prescribed games for ADHD, pain management, and for people’s well-being,” he said.

Nam is working on a grant proposal for the National Cancer Institute in hopes of implementing a new pain management remedy for late-stage cancer patients, which will also lessen the use of pain medication.

“What I, and many game design developers believe, is that sometimes it’s better for a patient to play a virtual reality game in an immersive and engaging setting to ease the pain a little bit,” he said.

He compares these gamified solutions to that of the Metaverse, which simulates real-life structures.

“There are many ways for us to use games to make this world better.”

Topics

Fulbright

Fulbright Scholars

Research

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Virginia Serious Game Institute

Tech Talent Investment Pipeline (TTIP)

Mason Korea Participates in 5th UNESCO ICLC Held in Songdo

Pam Muirheid — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 14:58:56 +0000

Mason Korea Participates in 5th UNESCO ICLC Held in Songdo Pam Muirheid Tue, 11/16/2021 - 09:58

In This Story

Sang Nam

Professor Sang Nam, Director of Mason’s Computer Game Design (CGD) Program, presented and moderated a panel discussion on the current status and future of computer games to advance education and social progress at the 2021 5th UNESCO International Conference on Learning Cities (ICLC).

Mason Korea partnered with UNESCO and Incheon’s Yeonsu district to contribute to the 2021 5th UNESCO International Conference on Learning Cities (ICLC) held at the Songdo Convensia from October 27-30.

Since May, Mason Korea students Jae Young Lim and Yanghyun Im served as project managers for the ICLC, which entailed overseeing the entire hiring and training process of college student volunteers as well as interpreting for high-ranking special guests from around the world.

Mason Korea leadership, faculty, students, and staff attended the Opening Ceremony of the 2021 ICLC Global Citizen Lifelong-learning Expo hosted by Yeonsu-gu to learn about ways to create healthy and resilient cities.

��AV led a special session during the ICLC on “serious games,” the use of computer games for education and other social benefits. Professor Sang Nam, Director of Mason’s Computer Game Design (CGD) Program, presented and moderated a panel discussion on the current status and future of computer games to advance education and social progress. Following presentations by Professor Nam, Professor Eric Piccione (Assoc. Director of CGD Program at Mason), Professor James Casey (Director of Virginia Serious Game Institute at Mason), and Professor Jungmin Kwon (professor at Seoul National University of Education and visiting professor at Mason), Mason Korea CGD professors Jared Bruhn and John McGrew joined the panelists for a dynamic discussion on serious games, games and education, and the game industry. Mason Korea Campus Dean Robert Matz offered opening remarks.

“This conference really showed off our vibrant community here in Songdo," said Campus Dean Matz, adding, “Mason was excited to participate. I’m particularly glad the convention provided an opportunity to introduce more people to the potential of computer gaming as a positive social force, rather than only entertainment."

In addition, Mason Korea operated a booth at the ICLC exhibition hall, where Mason Korea student volunteers introduced the university to visitors at the fair. The Patriot mascot was a key feature at the fair and was very popular with visitors of all ages.

Read original article on Mason Korea website.

Topics

computer game design news

Computer Game Design

Virginia Serious Game Institute

College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)

Building Community - Quote from Scott Martin of the VSGI

Pam Muirheid — Wed, 17 Mar 2021 18:08:30 +0000

Building Community - Quote from Scott Martin of the VSGI Pam Muirheid Wed, 03/17/2021 - 14:08

In This Story

Scott Martin

From an article on InsideHigherEd.com, written by Madeline St. Amour on September 11, 2020

Community colleges are finding innovative ways to maintain or increase student engagement during a global health pandemic that has left most switching to online-only formats for the fall.

Two-year colleges serve diverse populations that include high school students in dual-enrollment courses, senior citizens, working adults and traditional-age students. While it may seem like a daunting task to build community among those varied groups of people, community college faculty often use that aspect to their advantage, said Kate Thirolf, co-editor of the Future Series on Community Colleges books and the previous vice president of instruction at Jackson College in Michigan.

"When we talk about what’s happening in classrooms, I can’t think of a sector that’s in a better position now," Thirolf said, referring to two-year colleges.

Community colleges may not typically have residential housing to foster community, but they tend to have smaller class sizes than some public four-year colleges and faculty who are focused solely on teaching, she said.

"What it boils down to is that community colleges know that relationships matter, and they really focus on that," she said. "Whatever the mode, they recognize that that’s important."

Building community is more important now than ever, as most of students' lives have gone virtual.

Many colleges have pivoted their student services to a virtual setting. At Northern Virginia Community College, students can enter a virtual lobby on Zoom that connects them with advisers,Direc who then connect them with the services they need.

"We have students who don't know what to ask, so talking with someone is important," said Frances Villagran-Glover, vice president of student services at NOVA.

The college's student clubs have also pivoted to meeting via Zoom -- and participation has increased as a result, she said.

"There are two things students don’t have: time and proximity to campuses," Villagran-Glover said. NOVA's virtual student union, an online engagement hub that lets students joins discussions and access resources, has also seen increased participation, from a few hundred students before COVID-19 to 32,000 now.

Students can also participate in a program called Rise Up, which lets them do a short presentation for peers on how they've overcome challenges during the pandemic, she said. It helps their peers feel like they're not alone.

Administrators at MiraCosta College near San Diego were concerned about how their programs would shift online when the pandemic first hit. Many of their clubs and programs are aimed at more vulnerable populations, like LGBTQ students and undocumented students.

"Are there going to be students who lack technology access? Are there going to be students who feel intimidated by the structure and process? How will we account for students who stop by the office unscheduled, or those you bump into in the parking lot?" said Wendy Stewart, dean of counseling and student development.

The college responded by keeping some programs -- like the Umoja group for Black students -- alive during the summer, when they usually aren't active. They saw an increase in participation for many of the programs, Stewart said.

In some ways, going virtual made it easier for students to participate. There were fewer conflicts with class schedules and no need to commute, Stewart said. Faculty also engaged in these programs so they could connect with students outside the classroom.

Beyond extracurricular programming, there are several ways faculty can increase engagement and foster a sense of community within their classrooms.

Scott Martin, director of Virginia Serious Game Institute

One way is to strategically plan synchronous instruction at points when students start to lose motivation, said Scott Martin, associate professor at ��AV and director of the Virginia Serious Game Institute, which supports start-ups founded at the university and regional economic development through serious game technology discovery.

Working asynchronously would go well for a few weeks, he said, but then he'd start to notice his students lose interest. Adding a live session at that time helped spark motivation for his students.

Faculty can also use algorithms to match students together into learning teams based on their commonalities. Research shows that grouping students by hobbies or interests, rather than academic performance, works much better for building community, according to Martin. The students will start to organically act as peer mentors to help those with lower grades

Martin hopes that the pandemic will push more faculty to use this method of community building.

One of the more basic but also most important things faculty can do is introduce themselves on day one with, at the least, a photo and a story, said Brian Newberry, director of Jackson College Virtual. They can also create an introduction forum, where students learn more about each other using games or answering survey questions, he said.

At the start of an online course, faculty should also use "richer" media, like video and audio.

"The higher the ambiguity, the richer the media you should use," Newberry said. There's a lot of uncertainty at the start of a class, and using media that can express more than simple text can will anchor students in the course, he said.

Under current circumstances, with a pandemic, faculty should use different tools to communicate with students, including mass texting services or phone apps.

"The technological landscape is different for those under 30 in that the primary tool for communicating digitally is the phone," he said. Older people tend to still prefer computers.

At Washtenaw Community College in Michigan, campus staff have been calling each student to check in with them and assess their needs, said Kimberly Hurns, vice president for instruction.

Reacting to what students and faculty want has led to some needed improvements, she said. For example, faculty urged the college to switch from using GoToMeeting for online courses to Zoom, as it has more interactive features. Faculty can take polls during class and break students into groups, Hurns said.

The college has also kept many of its annual events, turning them virtual instead. The turnout has been on par with previous years, she said.

"In retrospect, it shouldn’t be shocking because of this generation’s comfort with technology," she said.

Community colleges have an advantage right now, Hurns said, as they already know how to be responsive to students and nimble.

"In some ways I am so proud of our faculty, but when I think about it, I shouldn’t be shocked, because it’s what we do every day," she said.

Topics

Computer Game Design

Virginia Serious Game Institute

U.S. Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton visits Mason’s Science and Technology Campus

Melanie Balog — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 09:44:13 +0000

U.S. Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton visits Mason’s Science and Technology Campus Melanie Balog Tue, 04/16/2019 - 05:44

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Size

Impact

Quality

Science & Technology Campus

Institute for Biohealth Innovation

Virginia Serious Game Institute

Virginia's 10th District

Campus News