Attendance and Social Interdependence in Game Development Labs
- Conference
- Location
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Virtual On line
- Publication Date
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June 22, 2020
- Start Date
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June 22, 2020
- End Date
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June 26, 2021
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Educational Research and Methods
- Page Count
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15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--34195
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/34195
- Download Count
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288
Paper Authors
Brantly Edward McCord
Purdue University, West Lafayette
orcid.org/0000-0002-5178-3186
Brantly McCord is a Master's graduate, Ph.D. candidate, teaching assistant and co-instructor at Purdue Polytechnic Institute assisting with the development and instruction of video game dev curriculum. His instructional specialties are in Unreal Engine 4, visual scripting and art design, and his current research interests are concentrated on education in his field.
Ronald Erdei
University of South Carolina
orcid.org/0000-0001-9350-5291
Dr. Ronald Erdei is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of South Carolina Beaufort. A graduate of Purdue University (PhD 2016), his research focuses primarily on reducing barriers to the learning process in college students. Topics of interest include computer science pedagogy, collaborative learning in college students, and human-centered design. Of particular interest are the development and application of instructional practices that provide benefits secondary to learning (i.e., in addition to learning), such as those that facilitate in learners increased self-efficacy, increased retention/graduation rate, increased matriculation into the workforce, and/or development of professional identity.
David M. Whittinghill
Purdue University, West Lafayette
orcid.org/0000-0002-2011-7893
Dr. David Whittinghill is an Associate Professor of Computer Graphics Technology and Computer and Information Technology. Dr. Whittinghill's research focuses on gaming, simulation and computer programming education and how these technologies can more effectively address outstanding issues in health, education, and society. Dr. Whittinghill leads projects in pediatric physical therapy, sustainable energy simulation, Chinese language learning, virtual reality, and games as a tool for improving educational outcomes. Dr. Whittinghill is the director of the Games Innovation Laboratory (www.gamesinnovation.org).
Marisa Exter Purdue University, West Lafayette
Marisa Exter is an Assistant Professor of Learning Design and Technology in the College of Education at Purdue University. Dr. Exter’s research aims to provide recommendations to improve or enhance university-level design and technology programs (such as Instructional Design, Computer Science, and Engineering). Some of her previous research has focused on software designers’ formal and non-formal educational experiences and use of precedent materials, and experienced instructional designers’ beliefs about design character. These studies have highlighted the importance of cross-disciplinary skills and student engagement in large-scale, real-world projects.
Dr. Exter currently leads an effort to evaluate a new multidisciplinary degree program which provides both liberal arts and technical content through competency-based experiential learning.
Abstract
Empirical studies of both the performance impact of attendance, and the financial reliance of residential higher education institutions on student attendance and retention (Lyubartseva & Mallik, 2012; Marburger, 2010; Snyder, Lee-Partridge, Jarmoszko, Petkova, & D’Onofrio, 2014) suggest that understanding how to operationalize students’ motivation to attend class is epistemically and fiscally valuable. During the Fall 2017 semester of an introductory video game development course, a course design emphasizing collaboration among students was employed; an extremely collaborative atmosphere and an unusually high lab attendance rate was then observed. The following year (Fall 2018), the design of the introductory video game development course was altered to emphasize a more individualized curriculum; decreased attendance was then observed until end-of-semester groupwork began (Erdei, McCord, & Whittinghill, 2019). Uncertain of and unable to compare the co-factors of attendance in these cases, this exploratory quasi-experimental study explores historic data for the introductory video game development course, defining potential co-factor variables, and investigates a correlation between attendance and positive interdependence. Studies of positive interdependence raise interest as a co-factor contextually through high commitment, joint efficacy, and mutual benefit (Deutsch, 1949; D. W. Johnson & Johnson, 2003), strongly overlapping with empirical antecedents of higher education retention (Braxton et al., 2013; Osterman, 2000; Rivera, 2013) and seminal social psychological frameworks (Asch, 1952; Tinto, 1975; Wenger, 1998). A convenience sample of students enrolled in the Fall 2019 introductory game development course (n=59) are currently engaged in cooperatively-designed lectures and lab activities; weekly attendance records and various self-report survey data are being collected during the course, including 7-point Likert scale ratings of perceived peer comfort and qualitative comments regarding challenges and opinions of the course. The Classroom Life Instrument (D. W. Johnson, Johnson, & Anderson, 1983), completed by students both midway through the course and at course completion, will be used to formally measure the presence of a positive interdependent context before and after group project work. Collected data will be treated as historical, with attendance counts and positive interdependence measures statistically analyzed for correlation following collection and within understood limitations.
Notes to the reviewers: (a) citations are included at this time only to help reviewers assess the foundation of the study, and will be removed in the revised abstract accompanying the full paper submission; (b) data collection will be completed during the 2nd week of December 2019, with all data analysis completed prior to submission of the draft due February 2020.
McCord, B. E., & Erdei, R., & Whittinghill, D. M., & Exter, M. (2020, June), Attendance and Social Interdependence in Game Development Labs Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34195
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