The Teaching Game
The Teaching Game: Integrating HCI and SoTL By Adapting Video Game Research Methods
D’Arcy Norman, PhD
University of Calgary
Program: Computational Media Design
Supervisors: Patrick Finn, Ehud Sharlin
Preferred citation:
Norman, D. (2023). The teaching game: integrating HCI and SoTL by adapting video game research methods (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1880/115879
Map of the dissertation as a game environment
Figure 8.8: A framework for integrating HCI and SoTL concepts to describe course designs
…these dimensions do not exist in isolation, but are interconnected and overlapping (figure 8.8). It is this integrated view of the framework that provides useful means to inform our design and description of teaching and learning. Each of the dimensions – Player, Performance, Narrative, Environment, and System – describe different aspects of the lifecycle of a course.
Abstract
This dissertation proposes and systematically explores the potential for integrating the distinct but overlapping disciplines of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). This work of integration is approached through a series of research projects from different perspectives, demonstrating the potential for adapting concepts from the design and formal analysis of video games to enrich the study of course designs and of understanding the varied experiences of instructors and students. Video games provide a useful point of integration between HCI and SoTL, specifically through concepts and principles employed in the design of video games, and through the adaptation of research methods that have been developed to enable formal analysis of video games.
It is our hope that integrating HCI and SoTL helps to address limitations in each discipline – to move HCI away from technical evaluation within contrived or laboratory contexts, and to move SoTL toward more deeply understanding the roles of technology, design, and performance.
The dissertation is organized into three parts. Part 1 introduces the reader to the dissertation, situates it within existing scholarship, and describes the research methods that will be utilized. Part 2 presents the findings of a series of research projects that explore aspects of HCI/SoTL integration. Part 3 synthesizes these findings into a novel framework that has the potential to extend our ability to design and describe teaching and learning, and to add meaningful context to research into the design of and interactions with technology.