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MythHunter: Gamification in an Educational Location-Based Scavenger Hunt

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Immersive Learning Research Network (iLRN 2017)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 725))

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Abstract

Location-based applications have great potential to let users explore the environment in an immersive and engaging way. Digital scavenger hunts have a great potential as teaching and instructional guiding tool. However, many tools only guide users but are not designed as meaningful and engaging experiences. Adding more story-based and exploratory playful game design elements such as quests or achievements can make such experiences and the according learning experiences more entertaining and motivating. This paper contributes by introducing concept and development as well as a qualitative evaluation of an location-based scavenger hunt application with focus on a playful and story-based design. It allows users (e.g. teachers) to create multi-staged quests in a web-based editor, which app-users (e.g. students) can then complete in a platform independent mobile application that makes use of game design elements. In a first qualitative study we focus on evaluating the game with regards to fun, learning factors, usability, and engagement. Results indicate that story-based scavenger hunt applications have a high potential as tool to engage users to learn more about their environment. Especially story-based and playful elements are rated as important element for engaging exploratory experiences.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.geocaching.com/.

  2. 2.

    https://www.ingress.com/.

  3. 3.

    http://www.dotcomblog.de/educaching/.

  4. 4.

    https://scratch.mit.edu/.

  5. 5.

    https://www.ingress.com/.

  6. 6.

    https://unity3d.com.

  7. 7.

    http://tomee.apache.org/apache-tomee.html.

  8. 8.

    http://hibernate.org/orm/.

  9. 9.

    http://www.postgresql.org/.

  10. 10.

    https://angularjs.org/.

  11. 11.

    http://openlayers.org/.

  12. 12.

    https://www.openstreetmap.org.

  13. 13.

    https://unity3d.com/.

  14. 14.

    http://powerui.kulestar.com/.

  15. 15.

    http://jderrough.blogspot.co.at/2012/12/unityslippymap.html.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Armin Hutzler, Rudolf Wagner, Johanna Pirker & Christian Gütl

  2. Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia

    Christian Gütl

Authors
  1. Armin Hutzler
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  2. Rudolf Wagner
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  3. Johanna Pirker
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  4. Christian Gütl
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Johanna Pirker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Dennis Beck

  2. University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK

    Colin Allison

  3. Universidade Aberta, Coimbra, Portugal

    Leonel Morgado

  4. Institute of Information Systems and Computer Media, Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Johanna Pirker

  5. Department of Computer Science, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA

    Foaad Khosmood

  6. Salish Kootenai College, Pablo, MT, USA

    Jonathon Richter

  7. Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Christian Gütl

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Hutzler, A., Wagner, R., Pirker, J., Gütl, C. (2017). MythHunter: Gamification in an Educational Location-Based Scavenger Hunt. In: Beck, D., et al. Immersive Learning Research Network. iLRN 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 725. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60633-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60633-0_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60632-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60633-0

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