A new write-up was released today on Saluki Times. The photograph of David playing the video game showed some genuine emotion.

A “professor of games” is developing software that will allow teachers to correct students’ mistakes as they make them.

“Research tells us that repeated mistakes will become entrenched, and correction at a later point can become costly,” said C. Sebastian Loh, who teaches in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

“I have taken that idea into games used for learning and training. This software can track players within the game world and show where they are and what they are doing in that environment. As a result, an instructor can be notified about a mistake early enough to help trainees correct any mistakes before they become habits.”

Loh’s research focuses on his twin interests in performance assessment and the fantastical computer-generated worlds where millions of alter-egos, known as avatars, live — and oft times die….

As with any kind of training, the key question in computer-aided instruction is: What did the student actually learn? Most assessments come when training ends. Loh himself has developed software that pulls data from gaming sessions once they’re done to pinpoint performance progress, strengths and weaknesses. But because these tools come into play at the end of the training, trainees may have spent as much as 60 hours making mistakes and worse, repeating them.

“That time is wasted,” Loh said…

Read the full article.

Photo by Steve Buhman

On March 3, 2010, the Southern Illinoisian has a full page coverage on the DURIP grant and what I am doing… The write up is fairly extensive and accurate. They also interviewed Heidy Cuervo-Carruthers (one of my Ph.D. student) in the process and she talks about how Second Life could well be the next area of synthetic learning environment we look at…

CARBONDALE – A lab in Pulliam Hall contains a 72-inch television with HD and 3D capabilities, a beefed up PC and walls draped in video game posters.

Sebastian Loh, assistant professor and coordinator in the department of Curriculum and Instruction at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, received a $70,000 grant from the U.S. Army Research Office to set up a sweet gaming room on campus for research purposes. The goal of the research is to explore using a game-like virtual environment for instruction.

Loh said in the long run, this could lead to 3D instruction in fields such as medicine, where surgeons in training could practice in a 3D environment.

In the short term, the research could help teachers work with students in a virtual environment and track their progress. For example, Loh uses a modified version of the multi-player role playing games “Neverwinter Nights” and “Neverwinter Nights 2.” Loh said using the game, an in-game instructor can track a student’s progress, offer tips and see how the student adapts.

In the classroom, this could translate into a teacher seeing a student’s mistakes almost immediately and correcting them as they go along. He said another focus is “Second Life,” an online virtual world where people can interact through avatars. Heidy Cuervo-Carruthers, a doctoral student in instructional technology, is looking at using the virtual world for foreign language classes…

Read full article here.

SIU Professor C. Sebastian Loh loads James Cameron's Avatar video game onto a 72-inch liquid plasma, high-definition, rear-projector 3-D television in the V-Lab Tuesday at Pulliam Hall. Loh was given a $70,000 grant to pay for this equipment that will allow him to develop and test real-time assessment tools, which will hopefully allow teachers to correct students.