Pages on D'Arcy Norman, PhD

The Teaching Game

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Integrating HCI and SoTL Through Video Game Research Methods

This dissertation integrated two research traditions that rarely talk to each other: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The bridge between them turned out to be video games, and the methods developed for formally analyzing how they work.

A course has players, environments, rules, sequences, and ways of measuring performance. So does a game. Analyzing a course with the tools developed for game analysis opens up conversations about course design that don’t get stuck on content and assessment.

Figures

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

A selection of key figures from my dissertation.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Figure 1.2: One of the conversations that shaped the direction of this dissertation. AI-generated character portrayal provided by Stable Diffusion

One of the pivotal conversations that led to the design of this dissertation involved a throw-away comment that compared these software-mediated teaching and learning experiences to those more commonly seen in video games (figure 1.2). If teaching and learning were experienced in similar ways to video games, perhaps the ways in which we design and analyze video games could be applied to informing our understand of teaching and learning as well.

Presentations

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

UCalgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning & Teaching

April 28, 2023, University of Calgary

Faculty of Science PhD Graduate Seminar

December 22, 2022, University of Calgary

TL;DR

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Wed, 28 May 2025 10:00:00 +0000

It’s a long, long document. Who has time to read that?

There’s a NotebookLM podcast summary available, and Claude 4 Opus generated this brief(er) overview with a focus on implications for course design in higher education. It’s not great, but it’s better than nothing. And if you want to go deeper, there’s the whole document for that…

AI-Generated Content via Claude 4 Opus

Summary: The Teaching Game - Integrating HCI and SoTL Through Video Game Research Methods

Core Thesis

This dissertation by D’Arcy Norman (University of Calgary, 2023) proposes a novel approach to understanding teaching and learning by integrating Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) through the adaptation of video game research methods. The work demonstrates that course designs and classroom activities can be meaningfully analyzed using concepts from video game design and analysis.

References

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Sat, 06 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Adams, A., Lunt, P., & Cairns, P. (2008). A qualitative approach to HCI research. (Publisher: Cambridge University Press)

Adams, E. (2014). Fundamentals of game design. Pearson Education.

Alexander, B. (2017). The New Digital Storytelling: Creating Narratives with New Media - Revised and Updated Edition, 2nd Edition. ABC-CLIO.

Al-Naabi, I., Kelder, J.-A., & Carr, A. (2021, August). Preparing teachers for emergency remote teaching: A professional development framework for teachers in higher education. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 18(5). Retrieved from https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol18/iss5/4 doi: 10.53761/1.18.5.4

Recent tags

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:12:47 +0000

These tags have been used in the last 5 years.

Photo tags

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 10:12:47 -0600

Tags from photos

GitHub Projects

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of my open source projects and contributions on GitHub.

Projects

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Sat, 23 Nov 2024 11:30:00 -0600

My open source projects are available on github.

2020 - 2029

A full(er) list of Generative AI projects
Obsidian Related Notes - a plugin for Obsidian to display a list of related notes, using a locally-run LLM
Standalone Bookmarks - a standalone, self-hosted bookmarks management application. Imports/Exports in Delicious and Pinboard formats.
Standalone RSS Mastodon Bridge - a standalone, self-hosted application that will post items from RSS feeds to authorized Mastodon accounts.
Custom Comments - a standalone, self-hosted comment manager tool for self-hosted static websites
Hugo Lightweight Search - a standalone, self-hosted search utility that integrates with Hugo.
Co-chair of 2026 University of Calgary Conference on Post-Secondary Learning & Teaching. Conference theme: Digital Transformation in Post-secondary Education
Obsidian Numbered Folders Index plugin
Obsidian Agenda Box plugin
Microcredentials Framework Systems and Processes Working Group
Academic Generative AI Working Group
Learning Spaces Team
PhD Dissertation: The Teaching Game: Integrating HCI and SoTL By Adapting Video Game Research Methods
COVID-19 Teaching Continuity / “Remote Pivot”
Zoom campus videoconferencing platform implementation
Learning Technologies Advisory Committee (co-chair, and lead of Processes working group)

2010 - 2019

ULead University of Calgary Leadership Program Cohort 9
YuJa video content management platform implementation
TIDraw - browser-based whiteboard tool for use in active learning classrooms (the tidraw.net domain is no longer in use, but I am hosting a copy on this server for posterity)
Reclaiming Educational Technology - interviews with several leaders in educational technology
MSc Thesis: A Case Study Using the Community of Inquiry Framework to Analyze Online Discussions in WordPress and Blackboard in a Graduate Course
Adobe Connect implementation and migration from Elluminate
Strategic Framework for Learning Technologies
Learning Technologies Task Force
D2L implementation and migration from Blackboard

2000 - 2009

UCalgaryBlogs.ca
wiki.ucalgary.ca
Mavericks (Pachyderm project authoring for Glenbow Museum)
Pachyderm
SciQ - K12 curriculum portal interface built on CAREO
Socrates LMS
CAREO - Campus Alberta Repository of Educational Objects
DiscoverWare Nova multimedia LMS

1990 - 1999

Adult Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
Communication Skills in Cancer Care
NURS 589 and PATH 461 (2 of the first for-credit online courses in western Canada)
Psychomotor Skills CD-ROMs multimedia skills training platform
HyperCard stacks for the Alberta Science Centre

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 14:05:21 -0700

These principles represent what I aspire toward in my work and leadership. I’m actively working to embody and demonstrate them more fully, recognizing that I still have significant growth ahead of me.

On Educational Technology

I’ve developed what I call a “thoughtfully conflicted” relationship with educational technology. I remain fascinated by the potential of digital tools to enhance teaching and learning while maintaining healthy skepticism about vendor promises and technological silver bullets.

Contact

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 10:45:24 -0700

Colophon

dnorman@me.com (D'Arcy Norman) — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 10:32:27 -0700

This website has been online in various forms since 2002, and is currently powered by:

Editing

BBEdit text editor
Obsidian markdown editor
Acorn image editor
Photos photo library
iCloud file storage/sync
NetNewsWire RSS reader
Audacity audio editor

Publishing

GoHugo (version 0.161.1) static website generator (run on macOS, via homebrew)
Custom theme
Custom search engine with SQLite/PHP running on my server.
PhotoBlogger - custom app for processing images for publishing to my /photos section. Captions and tags are generated using ministral-3:3b running in Ollama on my laptop.
rsync to upload the generated website
Cyberduck ftp/sftp transfer
Standalone RSS Mastodon Bridge - lightweight self-hosted application that posts newly published items to a Mastodon account.

Hosting

FullHost (Canadian non-cloud-based web host with servers in Calgary)
Custom standalone comments application (self-hosted, no external dependencies)

The combination results in a pretty high-performing website (last tested on April 21, 2026):

Pages on D'Arcy Norman, PhD

The Teaching Game

Integrating HCI and SoTL Through Video Game Research Methods

Figures

Chapter 1: Introduction

Figure 1.2: One of the conversations that shaped the direction of this dissertation. AI-generated character portrayal provided by Stable Diffusion

Presentations

UCalgary Conference on Postsecondary Learning & Teaching

Faculty of Science PhD Graduate Seminar

TL;DR

🤖 AI-Generated Content via Claude 4 Opus

Summary: The Teaching Game - Integrating HCI and SoTL Through Video Game Research Methods

Core Thesis

References

Recent tags

Photo tags

Tags from photos

Recent Comments

GitHub Projects

Projects

2020 - 2029

2010 - 2019

2000 - 2009

1990 - 1999

Blogroll

★★★★★

AI Suggestions

DS106-ish

Edublogs

General

Higher Education

Journals

Photos

Platforms

Tech

UCalgary

Video games

YYC

Archives

Philosophy