YES, EVEN YOU CAN PUBLISH RESEARCH ON SERIOUS GAMES!

AVERY RUEBPASCAL NATAF

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•Who the heck are we?

•Why should you do research on your game?

•How do you get started?

•How do you get published?

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WHO THE HECK ARE WE?

AFFORDANCE STUDIO

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AVERY RUEB

•Dartmouth, Middlebury, McGill• 15 years experience in the classroom, 5 countries•McGill X-1 Accelerator• Research fields

–Reading comprehension–Serious games for

pronunciation and vocabulary–Serious games for motivation

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PASCAL NATAF

• Professor of Game Design, Université de Montréal

•Montréal Inc., Hyperliens, Concours Alpha, Futurpreneur,

• Regroupement des producteurs multimédia, la Guilde

• Research: Hôpital Ste-Justine

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WHY SHOULD YOU DO RESEARCH ON YOUR GAME?

WHY DO RESEARCH ON YOUR GAME

• Understand your game better

• Understand learning better

• Contribute to research community

• Contribute to the serious game community

• Get credibility with educators

• Product differentiator

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WHY DO RESEARCH ON YOUR GAME

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HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?

HOW TO GET RESEARCHERS ON BOARD

• Why not do it yourself?

• How to make yourself attractive to researchers?

• How to work with researchers?

• Conflict of interest?

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WHAT TO MEASURE

• Can I compare learning methods?– Rosetta Stone vs. Duolingo

• Difference between an experimental and a control group

• Different variables

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WHAT TO MEASURE

• RQ #1. Does playing Ready to Negotiate (RTN) contribute to the L2 acquisition of certain aspects of French pronunciation?

• RQ #2. Does playing Ready to Negotiate contribute to the L2 acquisition of French vocabulary?

• RQ #5. What are learners’ perceptions of the use of games as a learning tool?

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HOW DO I GET PARTICIPANTS?

• School Ethics Boards

• Teachers

• Students

• Pilot Study

• Individual participants: paid or unpaid?

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HOW DO I GET FUNDING?

• Pilot Study

• Get researchers on board

• Learn to write very clearly and persuasively

• Apply to a lot of places

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COMMON MISTAKES

• Writing too big research questions

• Writing a scary student consent form

• Trying to do everything yourself

• Not treating the experimental and control groups exactly the same

• Writing imprecise feedback forms

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HOW DO I GET PUBLISHED?

HOW DO I GET PUBLISHED?

• Get feedback

• Don’t worry about getting rejected

• Maximize team members’ talents

• Write a kick ass article

• Don’t submit to many journals!

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QUESTIONS?