Design and development practitioners such as those in game development often have difficulty comprehending and adhering to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), especially when designing in a private sensitive way. Inadequate understanding of how to apply the GDPR in the game development process can lead to one of two consequences: 1. inadvertently violating the GDPR with sizeable fines as potential penalties; or 2. avoiding the use of user data entirely. In this paper, we present our work on designing and evaluating the “GDPR Pitstop tool”, a gamified questionnaire developed to empower game developers and designers to increase legal awareness of GDPR laws in a relatable and accessible manner. The GDPR Pitstop tool was developed with a user-centered approach and in close contact with stakeholders, including practitioners from game development, legal experts and communication and design experts. Three design choices worked for this target group: 1. Careful crafting of the language of the questions; 2. a flexible structure; and 3. a playful design. By combining these three elements into the GDPR Pitstop tool, GDPR awareness within the gaming industry can be improved upon and game developers and designers can be empowered to use user data in a GDPR compliant manner. Additionally, this approach can be scaled to confront other tricky issues faced by design professionals such as privacy by design.
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Serious games foster the acquisition of complex problem-solving skills. Assessment of such skills should be in line with instruction, and within a serious game environment its content validity should equal face-to-face assessment. Research on assessment in serious gaming has remained rather scarce. This article shows how assessment can be implemented in serious gaming in a way that assures content validity. The core of the authors’ validation method entails mapping learning activities (as contained in the game scenario) on performance indicators and outputs (as derived from formal attainment levels). They present how they have elaborated and applied the method for an assessment game for ICT managers in secondary vocational education. They describe the procedure and extent to which this assessment is content-valid compared to face-to-face assessment.
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The research goal of this dissertation is to make configurational HRM usable for science and practice by developing a simulation model and serious game. These tools offer HRM professionals the opportunity to design a multiyear HRM configuration that shapes employee behaviour, while enabling HRM research to get access to a level of detail that was not achieved earlier, contributing to the current state of the art knowledge on strategic HRM. To shape employee behavior in such a way that it contributes to overarching organizational goals, organizations often deploy a set of human resource management (HRM) practices. If the set of individual HRM-practices is designed correctly, they amplify each other in shaping the desired behavior. However, while there is wide agreement on the importance of combining HRM-practices in a configuration that reflects the organizational strategy, we notice a lack of consensus on which HRM-practices need to be combined given a specific strategic goal and organizational starting point. Furthermore, we did not find an agreement on how to design HRM configurations that shape the desired employee behavior within organizations in multiple years. As a result, HRM professionals that design HRM configurations are left empty handed. While the configurational approach has the potential to provide new insight on how HRM shapes employees’ behavior, applying the configurational mode of theorizing to HRM remains challenging. We explain this challenge by the level of theoretical and practical detail that is needed, by the application of the holistic principle when studying HRM configurations, and due to methodological issues. Traditional methods do not align to the dynamic assumptions and the large number of variables included in configurational HRM. In this dissertation we pose that the time is ripe to unlock the deserved value of configurational HRM for theory and practice. We do so by specifying the underlying assumptions and dynamic implications of the configurational mode of theorizing in HRM, and by defining and adding the needed level of detail. In the current research, configurational HRM is made applicable with the use of a simulation model and serious game. -172- Five sequential steps are taken to make configurational HRM applicable. Firstly, key principles of configurational HRM are identified. Secondly, to ground the simulation we look at the manifestation of ideal type HRM configurations in theory and practice. Thirdly, we collect the solidified practical knowledge of HRM professionals on the alignment of HRM-practices. Fourthly, an initial simulation model is created and tested. And finally, we solidified the simulation model for practice and research by implementing it in a serious game for HRM professionals. Taking these five steps, we have specified configurational HRM to an unprecedented level of detail that allows us to address its complexity empirically and theoretically. We claim that with the results of this research we have opened the scientific and empirical “black box” of configurational HRM. Furthermore, the simulation model and serious game provides HRM professionals with a tool to design firm specific HRM configurations in an interactive and fun way. While prior studies did already acknowledge the importance of alignment when designing HRM, the simulation model and serious game specify the general concept of alignment to a level at which HRM professionals and researchers can start selecting, designing, implementing and researching HRM configurations. The tools provide HRM professionals with a method to grasp, maneuver through the complexity of, and explore the implementation of multi-year firm specific HRM.
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Developing and testing several AR and VR concepts for SAMSUNG (Benelux) Samsung and Breda University of Applied Sciences decided to work together on developing and testing several new digital media concepts with a focus on VR and gaming. This collaboration has led to several innovative projects and concepts, among others: the organisation of the first Samsung VR jam in which game and media students developed new concepts for SAMSUNG GEAR in 24 hours, the pre-development of a VR therapy concept (Fear of Love) created by CaptainVR, the Samsung Industry Case in which students developed new concepts for SAMSUNG GEAR (wearables), the IGAD VR game pitch where over 15 VR game concepts were created for SAMSUNG VR GEAR and numerous projects in which VR concepts are developed and created using new SAMSUNG technologies. Currently we are co-developing new digital HRM solutions.
The project’s aim is to foster resilient learning environments, lessen early school leaving, and give European children (ages 4 -6) a good start in their education while providing and advancing technical skills in working with technology that will serve them well in life. For this purpose, the partnership has developed age appropriate ICT animation tools and games - as well as pedagogical framework specific to the transition phase from kindergarten to school.
A continuation and update of the first ALT-ER project, which produced an app for early-years students that allowed them to express their feelings and tell stories related to pro-social and important developmental themes. This follow-up project will expand the software and themes, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, to reflect a wider range of experiences for young people.
