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Factors Affecting the Gaming Experience of Older Adults in Community and Senior Centres

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Computers Supported Education (CSEDU 2016)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 739))

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Abstract

This study investigated whether a Wii Bowling tournament could improve older adults’ attitudes towards digital games and factors affecting their gaming experience. This study applied a two-group pre-post design. A total of 142 older adults aged 60 and over were recruited from 14 community and senior centers (N = 81 in the experimental group; N = 61 in the control group). The participants in the experimental group formed a total of 21 teams, which played against one another once a week for a period of eight weeks. The findings indicated that the Wii Bowling tournament improved older adults’ attitudes towards digital games (t = 2.53, p = .01). More importantly, the authors identified six factors that contributed to the positive gaming experience of older adults in community and senior centers.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support received for this study from the Age-Well National Centre of Excellence and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada

    Fan Zhang, Simone Hausknecht, Robyn Schell & David Kaufman

Authors
  1. Fan Zhang
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  2. Simone Hausknecht
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  3. Robyn Schell
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  4. David Kaufman
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Correspondence to Fan Zhang .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Gennaro Costagliola

  2. Ulster University, Belfast, United Kingdom

    James Uhomoibhi

  3. University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Susan Zvacek

  4. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Bruce M. McLaren

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Zhang, F., Hausknecht, S., Schell, R., Kaufman, D. (2017). Factors Affecting the Gaming Experience of Older Adults in Community and Senior Centres. In: Costagliola, G., Uhomoibhi, J., Zvacek, S., McLaren, B. (eds) Computers Supported Education. CSEDU 2016. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 739. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63184-4_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63184-4_24

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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