1. Electronic Commerce Group Institute for Software Technology and Interactive Systems Vienna University of Technology Favoritenstraße 9-11/188-1. 1040 Vienna. Austria/Europe Tel.: +43 (1) 58801 - 18822, Fax: +43 (1) 58801 - 18896 http://www.ec.tuwien.ac.at Towards an Online Serious Game Providing a Joyful Experience in Learning Art History Josef Froschauer, Max Arends, Doron Goldfarb, Dieter Merkl Vienna University of Technology

2. Outline Motivation What is ThIATRO? Making of... Gameplay Demo Challenges Conclusion and Future Work 2

3. Motivation Art historical facts are often tedious to communicate.... but they can play an important part in raising one‘s interest in contemporary culture and cultural heritage. Huge interest in Serious Games and Gamification Our research question: Does Serious Gaming awake interest in the field of cultural heritage? 3

4. What is ThIATRO 4  Online game that aims at raising the interest in art history, contemporary culture and cultural heritage.  Helps students learn art history  Make the communication of art historical facts an entertaining experience.

5. Game-Based Learning Follows a constructivist perspective Knowledge is constructed, not transmitted to the user. Learner plays an active role in the learning process. Highly motivating increases the motivation and compels the player to think about, organize and use information 5

6. What is it about? Player slips into the role of a museums curator In every level, a special exhibition has to be arranged. Player has to collect paintings from different virtual museums to fulfill a specific task. Data: Web Gallery of Art (www.wga.hu), 18.000 works from 1100 to 1850 6

7. Learning Content 7 Genres (Tutorial) Iconography Famous Topics in Art Perspective Eras of Art Lighting and Shading Specific Artist (Caravaggio)

8. Making of... 8

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11. Making of... 11 + Unity Game Development Tool

12. 12 www.thiatro.info

13. Challanges 13  Loading Times  Dynamic Content Creation  Real size of paintings  Multiplayer

14. Future Work Multiplayer Evaluation (already carried out) Control group (classroom teaching) Experimental group (playing ThIATRO) 14

15. Thank You, ευχαριστώ Josef Froschauer Email: josef.froschauer@ec.tuwien.ac.at Web: http://vsem.ec.tuwien.ac.at/ 15