Dr. Ian Dunwell

As a Research Fellow at Coventry University's Serious Games Institute, Dr. Dunwell has recently completed the evaluation of the Department for Transport's £2.5m Code of Everand serious game for road safety. As a multiplayer online roleplaying environment, this game sought to create communities amongst its players as a basis for social learning.

As lead author of the project's final evaluation report, he co-ordinated in-depth qualitative and quantitative research to gain insight into the game's 100,000 user base. Technical research interests include the application of semantic web technologies to populate games with validated and context-sensitive educational content: as a co-investigator on the ALICE (Adaptive Learning via Interactive, Collaborative, and Emotional Approaches) FP7 STREP, his work has explored the integration of serious games with learning content management systems, exploring the pedagogic as well as technical advantages of such approaches.

As of January 2012, he has begun directing a PhD studentship fully funded by Jaguar Land Rover, examining the use of avatars as vehicle interfaces, and is principal investigator of an I-CASE studentship in liaison with industrial partner PlayGen, exploring the use of the semantic web as a resource for serious game development.

  • Knight, J., Carly, S., Tregunna, B., Jarvis, S., Smithies, R., de Freitas, S., Dunwell, I., and Mackway-Jones, K. (2010) 'Serious gaming technology in major incident triage training: A pragmatic controlled trial'. Resuscitation 81 (9), 1174-1179. 
  • Buckingham Shum, S., Aberer, K., Schmidt, A., Bishop, S., Lukowicz, P., Anderson, S., Charalabidis, Y., Domingue, J., de Freitas, S., Dunwell, I., Edmonds, B., Grey, F., Haklay, M., Jelasity, M., Karpištšenko, A., Kohlhammer, J., Lewis, J., Pitt, J., Sumner, R., and Helbing, D. (2012) 'Towards a Global Participatory Platform: Democratising Open Data, Complexity Science and Collective Intelligence'. The European Physical Journal Special Topics 214 (1), 109-152. 
  • Dunwell, I., Lameras, P., Stewart, C., Petridis, P., Arnab, S., Hendrix, M., de Freitas, S., Gaved, M., and Paletta, L. (2013) 'Developing a Digital Game to Support Cultural Learning amongst Immigrants'. Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Intelligent Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion, 'IDGEI 2013, Satellite of the 8th Foundations of Digital Games 2013'. Held 2013. 
  • Dunwell, I. (2012) 'Conducting Ethical Research with a Game-based Intervention for Groups at Risk of Social Exclusion'. In Entertainment Computing - ICEC 2012, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Volume 7522.594-599. 
  • Arnab, S., Brown, K., Clarke, S., Dunwell, I., Lim, T., Suttie, N., Louchart, S., Hendrix, M., and de Freitas, S. (2013) 'The Development Approach of a Pedagogically-Driven Serious Game to support Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) within a classroom setting'. Computers and Education 69, 15-30. 
  • Dunwell, I., Petridis, P., Arnab, S., Protopsaltis, A., de Freitas, S., and Hendrix, M. (2011) 'Creating a Blended Game-Based Learning Environment: Extending a Serious Game into a Learning Content Management System'. Proceedings of the 2011 Third International Conference on Intelligent Networking and Collaborative Systems, 'INCOS '11'. Held 30 Nov-02 Dec 2011 in Fukuoka, Japan. 
  • Dunwell,I., Petridis,P., Protopsaltis,A., de Freitas,S., Panzoli,D., Samuels,P., (2010). Automating Content Generation for Large-Scale Virtual Learning Environments using Semantic Web Services. workshop on Semantic Wikis (SemWiki), at Annual Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC). 
  • Pappa, D., Dunwell, I., Protopsaltis, A., Pannese, L., Hetzner, S., de Freitas, S., and Rebolledo-Mendez, G. (2010) 'Game-based learning for knowledge sharing and transfer: the e-VITA approach for intergenerational learning'. In Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation through Educational Games: Multidisciplinary Approaches. Ed. by Felicia, P. Hershey: IGI Global. 
  • Schuller, B., Dunwell, I., Weninger, F., and Paletta, L. (2013) 'Serious Gaming for Behaviour Change: The State of Play'. IEEE Pervasive Computing 12 (3), 48-55. 
  • Dunwell, I., and Whelan, J.C. (2005) 'Perceptually-Oriented Interest Management in Large Scale Networked Virtual Environments'. Proceedings of Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics 2005, 'Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics 2005'. Held 15-17 Jun 2005 in Canterbury, UK. 83-89
  • ALICE - Adaptive Learning via Interactive, Collaborative, and Emotional Approaches: This project sought to advance pedagogical and technological aspects of e-learning systems through integrative and innovative technologies. 
  • MASELTOV: Through innovative services including serious games, this project seeks to support immigrants entering Europe and at risk of social exclusion. 
  • Code of Everand: Evaluation: Working with the UK Department for Transport, this evaluation sought to assess the impact of game-based learning on road safety. 
  • mEducator: This European-funded project sought to identify and implement mechanisms for the reuse and repurposing of medical education content. 
  • Internet Metadata for Embedded Transmedia Content in Serious Games: This I-CASE studentship in concert with industrial partner PlayGen seeks to use crowd-sourcing and internet content supported through serious games. 
  • Avatars as Vehicle Interfaces: Funded by Jaguar Land Rover, this PhD studentship is currently exploring the use of avatars in driving contexts. 
  • e-Vita: European Life Experiences: Using stories from seniors around Europe as a basis, this LLP project sought to create serious games promoting cultural learning. 
  • Servitize: This EPSRC -funded project is exploring the use of games to promote the process of servitization within industry. 
  • GaLA - Games and Learning Alliance: GaLA is a European Network of Excellence focused on the application of digital games for learning.
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University of the year shortlisted
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