Ms Sue Grice
PhD Student
Office: 2.03 QMB
Email: sgrice@computing.dundee.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1382 386541
Fax: +44 (0)1382 385509 [FAO: Ms Sue Grice]
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Ms Sue Grice
School of Computing
University of Dundee
Dundee DD1 4HN
Scotland
Web: http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/staff/sgrice/
Research Group: Interactive systems design
View publications authored/co-authored by Sue
PhD Research Project Summary:
Supervisor: Dr Janet Hughes
Title: Creating flow within e-learning interface designs
Brief description:
This research is centred around e-learning, with the main emphasis being on the interface design. In particular studying and developing an interface which enables learners to more easily attain an optimal learning state or, as it is often referred to, flow. This state of flow is a state where people lose sense of time, they become completely absorbed in the activity they are doing, concentrating wholly on that activity to the extent that they ‘become at one with the task’. Many people experience this feeling of flow during various tasks such as when playing music, rock climbing, playing sports, reading a book or even when browsing the web. Entering this state of flow can improve a person’s learning experience as well as their learning outcomes.
To achieve this the use of music and animation within an e-learning application is being studied. The aim being to evaluate the potential usefulness of music and / or animation in achieving an increased state of flow amongst the learners.
Music has an innate power to convey emotion and evoke emotional responses in the listener. Examples of this can be seen everyday all around us, in shops where research has shown that playing quiet music with a slow beat will encourage shoppers to stay longer and therefore spend more. In films music is often used to set an ambient mood, also in adverts where jingles are played to attract attention and aid the listeners’ ability to remember a product.
It is hoped that appropriate music within the interface can evoke the necessary emotions within the learner so as to enable them to more readily enter a state of flow. Animation alone and in combination with the music will also be examined to establish what effects it has on influencing the learner’s ability to enter flow.