Abstract Virtual environments allow users to explore complex concepts using
simulations of real-world problems. In order to examine whether having mentors
communicate with players through a virtual chat program rather than face-to-face
changed anything about the players’ experience, this study compared a virtual chat
and a face-to-face condition of the epistemic game, Urban Science. 21 high school
aged players were randomly assigned to either the virtual chat or face-to-face
condition, and all players played Urban Science for 10 hours. As part of the game,
they participated in six reflection meetings led by their mentor, completed intake
and exit interviews, and wrote a final proposal. Using discourse analysis, epistemic
frame theory, and epistemic network analysis, this paper examines the mentors’ and
players’ reflection meeting discourse and the players’ interviews and final
proposals and asks whether there were differences in discourse, outcomes, or
engagement levels between the two conditions. This study concludes that virtual
mentoring can be just as effective as face-to-face mentoring and suggests that
mentoring via chat is a viable method for mentoring in the context of epistemic
games.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Orrill-Shaffer-ExploringConnectedness.pdf

In this study, we consider teacher knowledge of mathematics from the perspective of connectedness. To accomplish this, we adapted Epistemic Network Analysis techniques to characterize the connections between and among pieces of teacher knowledge related to on aspect of proportional reasoning. We discuss the value of this approach as well as directions
for further research.

Levasseur gets straight to the point when he says schools need to be looking to the future, not the past, for innovations in the classroom.

“As schools aim to prepare students for life outside of school, they need to realize that the world now values knowledge and skills that can be applied in creative ways. Epistemic games fit the learning requirements of today’s world because they allow students to role-play professions while learning skills that they apply in the game.”

Levassuer’s article is a great review of the epistemology that is behind Epistemic Games and learning through play.

“In playing games,[students] are doing explicitly, openly and socially what as adults they will do tacitly, privately and personally. They are running simulations of worlds they want to learn about in order to understand the rules, roles and consequences of those worlds.”

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/hatfield_dissertation_print_final.pdf

This study examines a 21st century theory of learning and cognition, Epistemic Frame Theory, which argues that expertise, such as the kind involved in complex thinking and problem solving, fundamentally involves diverse and dynamic connections between different forms of knowing and acting, guided by the norms and principles of a particular community.

In this dissertation, I consider the challenge of measuring and assessing epistemic frames using a new measurement tool, epistemic network analysis (ENA), which focuses on the patterns of relations between knowledge and other aspects of expertise as they are mobilized together in the discourse of complex practice.
The context for this investigation is science.net, a computer-supported role playing game in which young people take up the role of reporters-in-training and educational researchers take up the role of mentor editors in a simulation of a professional journalism practicum designed to help players begin to think like professional journalists.

Through epistemic network analyses of mentor and player discourse this experiment suggests the connections between the particular ways of knowing, doing, being, caring, and justifying that constitute an epistemic frame can be quantified and measured. In turn, this means epistemic frame theory can be tested, providing a more rigorous basis for the design of learning environments to better prepare young people for the complex demands of the future.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Bagley-Dissertation-FINAL.pdf

This dissertation examines how one approach to environmental education, the epistemic game Urban Science, extends an environmental education framework into a virtual environment that creates opportunities for young people to develop a combination of the skills, knowledge, values, identity, and epistemology needed to be environmentally literate. The aim of this study is to determine whether having mentors communicate with players through a virtual chat program rather than face-to-face changes anything about the players’ experience. Specifically, this study examines virtual chat versus face-to-face conditions during Urban Science and asks:

1. Was the mentors’ discourse during the reflection meetings different between the two conditions?
2. Was the players’ discourse during the reflection meetings different between the two conditions?
3. Were the players’ outcomes different between the two conditions?
4. Was the players’ level of engagement different between the two conditions?

Overall, these results suggest that since using more words did not impact the quality of the players’ professional discourse during the reflection meetings, the exit interviews outcomes, the quality of their final proposals, or their level of engagement, mentoring via chat is a viable method for mentoring in the context of epistemic games. A bolder interpretation of the results suggests that since mentoring in virtual and face-to-face conditions produced similar effects on players, epistemic mentoring could be automated and still retain the quality of interactions and players’ level of engagement. If the epistemic mentoring is automated, epistemic games like Urban Science could become more widely available to young people giving them the opportunity to help the world “move beyond what we already know in order to break beyond the boundaries of now to a more beautiful fabric of the future.”

CCLI PI Conference Poster

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Chesler_ASEE_2011.pdf

The design of first-year engineering courses represents a classic engineering design problem there are multiple stakeholders with different criteria and constraints and, as a result, there is no single, optimal solution. Our goal was to develop a first-year engineering design course that meets the criteria and constraints of several traditional stakeholders and also provides a platform for studying the ways in which a first year engineering student progresses from thinking like a novice to thinking like a professional engineer. To do so, we developed a computer-based professional practice simulator that can be incorporated into pre-existing first-year Introduction to Engineering courses with minimal resources by course directors with no expertise in an engineering discipline. The simulation provides an introduction to professional communication styles, the engineering design process, library skills and citation requirements, and the engineering disciplines. Importantly, engineering knowledge and skills are not required to complete the two design-build-test cycles in the simulation; instead the emphasis is on managing conflicting client requirements, making trade-offs in selecting a final design and justifying design choices. This paper describes the design of the simulation and preliminary results from its inclusion in a first-year Introduction to Engineering course at our institution.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/DAngelo_CSCL2011.pdf

Teamwork and collaboration are vital 21st century skills that students need to master. Specially designed epistemic games modeled after professional practica can help students build and practice these skills. This paper presents preliminary results from a virtual engineering internship, an epistemic game for introductory engineering undergraduates. The game was designed to help build students’ skills in teamwork and collaboration while providing experiences relevant to engineering and design. After the internship students reported a better understanding of what engineers do and about the practice of engineering. Students also made content learning gains. Students overwhelmingly enjoyed the experience and felt encouraged to stay on an engineering career path.

Players of epistemic games – computer games that simulate professional practica – have been shown to develop epistemic frames: a profession’s particular way of seeing and solving problems. This study examined the interactions between players and mentors in one epistemic game, Urban Science. Using a new method called epistemic network analysis, we explored how players develop epistemic frames through playing the game. Our results show that players imitate and internalize the professional way of thinking that the mentors model, suggesting that mentors can effectively model epistemic frames, and that epistemic network analysis is a useful way to chart the development of learning through mentoring relationships.

Full article can be viewed here.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/aied2011_submission_153.pdf

Multi-party chat is a standard feature of popular online games and is increasingly available in collaborative learning environments, including epistemic games. However, little is known about the linguistic qualities of group conversation, especially regarding modality of communication. This paper addresses the differences between spoken and typed conversations as high school students interacted with the epistemic game Urban Science. Coh-Metrix analyses showed that speech was associated with more global aspects of text (narrativity, cohesion) whereas typed input was associated with more local aspects (syntactic simplicity, word concreteness). The spoken conversations were also more verbose than typed conversations. These findings suggest that the modality in group communication should be considered, particularly with respect to the breaks in discourse cohesion that are more prominent in typed group chat.