Project Abstract

Misinformation is ubiquitous and not restricted to geographical borders, yet people from developing countries are underrepresented in the studies of misinformation. One of the techniques used successfully to combat misinformation is gamification, yet there is evidence to support that the positive effects do not have a sustained impact. One reason may be due to the lack of research covering continuous gameplay, another concerns the usability of these games. Therefore, there is a need to discover strategies and features that can be employed to make the games more engaging and impactful. Hence, this study will evaluate two misinformation games (Fakey and Cranky Uncle Vaccine) to assess the effectiveness of current educational games in thwarting false information. The paper will adopt two methodologies, first of which will be performance monitoring of selected participants who will play the games continuously over a designated period. The participants shall be divided into two groups: one group from the United Kingdom, and the other from Nigeria. A web application will be created to collect the demographic data of participants because some of the games elect to not collect this data, and a screen capture component will be created to record their scores. The second methodology will be in the form of interviews to record participants feedback on the usability of the games. The findings of this paper will contribute to existing literature on educational games used against misinformation, it will provide insights into the influence of usability on players?�� engagement. Finally, it will contribute the perspective of an underrepresented community in the field of misinformation.

Keywords: Misinformation, Usability, Human-Computer Interaction

 Conference Details

Session: Presentation Stream 12 at Presentation Slot 2

Location: College 017 at Tuesday 7th 13:30 – 17:00

Markers: Scott Yang Yang, Ehinafa Akinola (GTA)

Course: MSc Computer Science, Masters PG

Future Plans: I’m looking for work