Virtual worlds: Not the final frontier for games-based nursing education
- Authors: Meredith, Grant , Achterbosch, Leigh , Turville, Kylie , Venkatraman, Sitalakshmi
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: ascilite 2012: Future challenges, sustainable futures p. 1-5
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Virtual worlds present frontiers of promise for the ever evolving venture of pedagogical development, trial and embracement. Of late there have been large pushes into these worlds in terms of health-based education for students and early practitioners. Virtual worlds seem to be the next logical jump into nursing education and can offer a range of simulation benefits. But these worlds do not appeal to all students, can be complex and expensive to develop and interact within. Other game-like avenues exist though and have not been explored thoroughly enough to date. Such genres like puzzles games, management style games and surprisingly first person shooters already have titles and game mechanics which have been somewhat adapted to nursing education but could easily be more thought out and developed to suit. This paper outlines the two major gaming audience types to be considered and then explores a range of options for nursing education beyond virtual worlds.
Understanding novice programmers: their perceptions and motivations
- Authors: Turville, Kylie , Meredith, Grant , Smith, Philip
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Ascilite 2012 Future Challenges: Sustainable futures p. 652-656
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper presents the initial findings of an ongoing research program eliciting a basic understanding of students undertaking a first year programming course at the University of Ballarat, with a particular focus on their motivations and aspirations. This paper also provides a brief history of the course within its institutional setting including the different strategies that have been implemented over the last decade, an overview of the overarching study that is currently being undertaken, a discussion of some of the initial results, as well as a short discussion further research that is currently being undertaken. Results from the initial study indicate that students are positive coming into our courses but can become disillusioned as the course progresses. The research path forward will also be presented along with the discussion of these initial findings.