ALIVE INVESTIGATOR
about
Current assessment approaches are inadequate at identifying how students develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and sophisticated scientific reasoning – key 21st-century skills.
Feedback is one of the most powerful means to increase student learning. Feedback from formative assessments, or assessment for learning, carried out during instruction can help teachers tailor instruction and aid in deepening students’ understanding, further enabling students to self-regulate their learning.
Agency for learning in immersive and virtual environments (ALIVE) is a research project that examines how game-based assessments enable agency, self-efficacy, and self-regulated learning. Using evidence-centred game design, the ALIVE environment provides adaptable feedback, encouraging self-regulation as students engage in an ecological climate inquiry. The purpose of this research is to examine under what game design conditions agency is enabled and how different modes of agentic gameplay impact learning.
ALIVE Investigator: Falling Skies! (Remix)
Jillianne Code, PhD
Nick Zap, PhD
Rachel Ralph, PhD
Kieran Forde, PhD Candidate
Aashay Mehta
Made possible with funding from
Publications
2024
Code, J; Tasabehji, Z; Lutrin, A; Moylan, R; Forde, K; Donnelly, E; Mehta, A; Ralph, R; Zap, N
Navigating neurons: A journey through middle school cognition via game-based science inquiry Proceedings
2024.
@proceedings{Code2024,
title = {Navigating neurons: A journey through middle school cognition via game-based science inquiry},
author = {J Code and Z Tasabehji and A Lutrin and R Moylan and K Forde and E Donnelly and A Mehta and R Ralph and N Zap},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-06-16},
urldate = {2024-02-19},
abstract = {Code, J., Tasabehji, Z., Lutrin, A., Moylan, R., Forde, K., Donnelly, E., Mehta, A., Ralph, R. & Zap, N. (2024, June). Navigating neurons: A journey through middle school cognition via game-based science inquiry. Canadian Society for the Study of Education Annual Conference, Montreal. },
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pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}
2023
Code, J.; Forde, K.; Ralph, R.; Zap, N.; Mehta, A.; Chang, C.; Wei, Z.; Hu, L.; Wang, S.; Wu, B.
Evidence-centred game design in assessment for learning in immersive virtual environments Proceedings Article
In: 2023.
@inproceedings{code_evidence-centred_2023,
title = {Evidence-centred game design in assessment for learning in immersive virtual environments},
author = {J. Code and K. Forde and R. Ralph and N. Zap and A. Mehta and C. Chang and Z. Wei and L. Hu and S. Wang and B. Wu},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-05-31},
urldate = {2023-05-01},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Code, J; Forde, K; Ralph, R; Zap, N; Mehta, A; Chang, C; Wei, Z; Hu, L; Wang, S; Wu, B
Assessment for learning in immersive virtual environments: An evidence-centred game design Proceedings Article
In: American Educational Research Association 2023.
@inproceedings{code_assessment_2023,
title = {Assessment for learning in immersive virtual environments: An evidence-centred game design},
author = {J Code and K Forde and R Ralph and N Zap and A Mehta and C Chang and Z Wei and L Hu and S Wang and B Wu},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-05-01},
urldate = {2023-05-01},
organization = {American Educational Research Association},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
2021
Code, J; Forde, K; Petrina, S; Ralph, R; Zhao, J
Designerly ways, means, and ends: From STEM to STEAM to STEAMD Proceedings
STEM2021 International Conference Vancouver, Canada, 2021.
@proceedings{Code2021,
title = {Designerly ways, means, and ends: From STEM to STEAM to STEAMD},
author = {J Code and K Forde and S Petrina and R Ralph and J Zhao},
editor = {D Anderson and M Milner-Bolotin},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-09-01},
urldate = {2021-09-01},
address = {Vancouver, Canada},
institution = {University of British Columbia},
organization = {STEM2021 International Conference},
abstract = {In this symposium, five panelists provide conceptual and empirical direction for exploring designerly ways, means, and ends in STEM educational research. STEM and STEAM are inadequate without recognition of the uniqueness of design. The first paper explores methodological innovations with point-of-view wearable cameras and a group of pre-schoolers. The paper addresses how and why children share, or may be reluctant to do so, as they design with digital technologies, from their point of view. The second paper explores preservice teachers’ design of the digital self or professional image. Preservice teachers in this research inform researchers’ understandings of design considerations and concerns that young professionals process as they curate their image through social media. The third paper explores instructional designers’ experiences in a 3D virtual world design for the acquisition of cultural competence. Their insights challenge STEM education researchers to account for cultural nuances in design research. The fourth paper explores evidence-centred game design through a focus on Falling Skies!, which presents students with the problem of a mass mortality event. Drawing on a framework of inquiry-based learning and agency, the game challenges students to investigate why this happened. The fifth and final paper argues for an explicit role for design in STEM, perhaps as STEAMD. The paper draws from Cross’s argument that design is unique in its ways of knowing.},
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pubstate = {published},
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Code, J; Forde, K; Ralph, R; Zap, N
Assessment for learning in immersive and virtual environments: Evidence-centered game design in STEM Proceedings
STEM2021 International Conference Vancouver, Canada, 2021.
@proceedings{Code2021c,
title = {Assessment for learning in immersive and virtual environments: Evidence-centered game design in STEM},
author = {J Code and K Forde and R Ralph and N Zap},
editor = {D Anderson and M Milner-Bolotin},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-09-01},
urldate = {2021-09-01},
address = {Vancouver, Canada},
institution = {University of British Columbia},
organization = {STEM2021 International Conference},
abstract = {Creative thinking, problem-solving and inquiry skills are primary goals of teaching and learning. This paper reports on the development of an authentic performance assessment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), Falling Skies!, built around an ecological, inquiry-based problem – where students are presented with the issue of a mass mortality event and are challenged to investigate why this happened. Assessment for Learning in Immersive Virtual Environments (ALIVE; alivelab.ca) is a research program that examines how 3D immersive virtual environments (3DIVEs), as assessments for learning, is designed to enable students to regulate their science inquiry abilities in real-time. Specifically, this project explores the use of 3DIVEs to provide feedback through the formative assessment of inquiry reasoning in the context of middle school life science. Ultimately, the ALIVE project aims to contribute empirical evidence of how students conduct complex logic, assisting them to become better self-regulated learners, thus providing a sense of personal agency, efficacy, and opportunity necessary to participate in STEM careers.},
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2017
Code, J; Zap, N
Assessment in immersive virtual environments: Cases for learning, of learning, and as learning Journal Article
In: Journal of Interactive Learning Research, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 235-248, 2017.
@article{Code2017,
title = {Assessment in immersive virtual environments: Cases for learning, of learning, and as learning},
author = {J Code and N Zap},
year = {2017},
date = {2017-01-01},
urldate = {2017-01-01},
journal = {Journal of Interactive Learning Research},
volume = {28},
number = {3},
pages = {235-248},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}