1.
Cano-Viktorsson, Carlos, 1977-
(författare)
From Vision to Transition : Exploring the Potential for Public Information Services to Facilitate Sustainable Urban Transport
2014
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Background: Policy initiatives to promote sustainable travel through the use of Internet based public information systems have increased during the last decade. Stockholm, in being one of the first cities in Europe to implement an Internet based service for facilitating sustainable travel is believed to be a good candidate for an analysis of key issues for developing sustainable travel planning services to the public.Aim: This thesis investigates the past development of two Stockholm based public information systems and their services in order to draw lessons on how to better provide for a public information service geared towards facilitating environmentally sustainable travel planning through information and communications technology. The overall goal of the thesis is to contribute to an understanding on how to better design and manage current and future attempts at facilitating sustainable travel planning services based on historical case studies.Approach: The thesis draws ideas from the concept of organizational responsiveness – an organization’s ability to listen, understand and respond to demands put to it by its internal and external stakeholders – in order to depict how well or not the two public information systems and their owners have adapted to established norms and values of their surroundings.Results: Overall, the findings from the historical case studies suggest that organizations attempting to provide sustainable travel planning to the public need to design and manage their systems in such a way that it responds to shifting demands on how to provide for information. Implementing and embedding new technologies involves complex processes of change both at the micro level – for users and practitioners of the service – and at the meso level for the involved public service organizations themselves. This condition requires a contextualist framework to analyze and understand organizational, contextual and cultural issues involved in the adoption of new technologies and procedures.Conclusions: The thesis concludes with a discussion on how the findings from the historical case studies may provide lessons for both current and future attempts at providing public information systems geared towards facilitating environmentally sustainable travel planning to the public. Historical examples and issues concerning collective intelligence and peer to peer based forms of designing, producing and supervising public information services identified throughout the study are looked upon and discussed in terms of their possible role in increasing the potential for public information services to facilitate sustainable urban transport.
2.
Lassinantti, Josefin
(författare)
Public Sector Open Data : Shaping an arena for innovation and value creation
2014
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
This research initially sprung out of a natural curiosity for the emerging phenomenon of open data with its combination of democratic perspectives, since it is based on freedom of information legislation, and its potential for a multitude of citizen driven innovations. Research showed that while open data repeatedly was being envisioned for having immense potential of leading to a multitude of innovations and societal impacts, most of the attention still remained on challenges related to enable a broad realisation of open data, that is, putting more data on the web. At the same time, research and reports indicated that open data was a more complex matter than expected, and that the release of open data was guarded by myths saying that opening up of data equalled instant benefits from open data use, and that open data initiatives were emerging too slowly. In general, the understanding of how to address open data so that the envisioned innovative potential was enabled remained a pressing issue. Therefore this research set out to explore how the public sector open data phenomenon is being shaped to address societal opportunities and challenges, and thereby enabling both practical and theoretic contributions. The field of Social Shaping of Technology (SST) was chosen as main theoretic lens since it provided good models for approaching technology development and innovation in general, and also includes social and political dimensions without being limited by organisational borders or managerial dimensions. By engaging in a case study of two Swedish municipalities and their respective open data initiatives in combination with a study on European policies and reported open data use, a number of research papers has been written, of which four is included in this thesis.Findings reveal that the highly heterogeneous evolvement of open data can advantageously be seen as shaped into a metaphorical open arena for innovation and value creation, inspired by a SST concept called arenas for development. The arena concept enables us to bring together processes and entities that otherwise are dislocated, and to gain a holistic view of the shaping processes at stake for this yet immature ICT-phenomenon. Also, it allows us to address the evolvement of open data in a way that intertwines with social, political and technical aspects. Within the overall concept of an open arena for innovation and value creation, the research revealed two concepts for understanding how societal challenges and opportunities were addressed with the help of open data; multidirectional and multicentre evolvement, of which the latter is a contribution to SST theory. As a final reflection, this thesis provides some thoughts on future implications and possibilities of the democratic stance of open data.
3.
Gullberg, Cecilia
(författare)
Puzzle or Mosaic? : On Managerial Information Patterns
2011
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Managers and information are key components in most management control literature, and a range of tools and concepts have been developed to better accommodate the information needs of managers so as to ensure efficient action and intelligent decisions. At the same time, the managerial work is often described as highly fragmented, unstructured and interpersonal, with little time for planning and isolated reflection. It is therefore relevant to explore how and to what extent new technologies come into play in managerial information patterns. Furthermore, new management concepts and tools could potentially give rise to new control practices, resulting from e.g. novel relations between managers and other actors, new influential roles, and alternative forms of information flows.These issues are addressed in three papers. The first paper examines the portfolio of information that managers use in their daily work, thereby putting formal information systems into the context of less formal sources. The study is based on interviews with a variety of managers in different organisations. The second paper discusses the interplay between formally designed information-based practices, and the individual perceptions and habits that emerge in relation to the formalised. People at different levels in two public-sector organisations form the basis of the second paper. The third paper explores how various control practices operate together in a government agency, thereby providing new perspectives on how management control is exercised in a knowledge-intensive organisation.It is suggested that managerial information patterns evolve slowly compared to the technological development. Obtaining an overview of one’s area of responsibility is mainly achieved through dialogue and interaction with others. However, new technologies have influenced the more routine exchange of information, thereby causing increased dispersion among users and creating new roles. Subordinates constitute a vital influence on the managerial role and on how managers reason concerning their use of information. This people-oriented type of management results in the use of a multitude of pieces of information that is sometimes very subtle and retrieved in spontaneous interaction. The multidimensional and emerging nature of information provides insight into both the strengths and the limitations of formalising managerial information patterns. Furthermore, various information patterns are interrelated, e.g., they complement each other, substitute each other, or serve different purposes at different times. In total, managerial information patterns resemble a mosaic rather than a puzzle that can be solved by specific pieces. Management information should therefore be viewed from a broader perspective in order to better understand managers’ information needs, how control practices emerge and how information systems come into play.
4.
Göbel, Hannes
(författare)
IT Service Management : Designprinciper för Informationssystemsartefakter
2014
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
"Kunden är idag nöjdare""Antalet kritiska fel i produktion har markant minskat"”Vi har nått en högre kapacitetsnivå för flera processer”"Bättre kostnadskontroll för helheten samt för respektive förvaltningsobjekt""Ramverket mottogs bland medarbetarna på ett positivt sätt och kommer att hjälpa oss att arbeta mer effektivt”"Fått bättre kvalitet på data vilket ger möjlighet till bättre uppföljning och genomförande av proaktiva åtgärder"Citaten ovan vittnar om att det 36 månader långa forskningsprojekt som legat till grund för resultatet i avhandlingen har varit lyckat. Ytterligare ett bevis för framgången var att projektet blev tilldelat ”Årets IT Service Management Projekt” år 2013 med motiveringen att projektet på vetenskapliga grunder har arbetat för att effektivisera IT Service Management sektorn. Priset utdelades av den ledande internationella medlemsföreningen inom ITSM; itSMF. Men vad handlar då denna positiva respons om? Svaret är IT Service Management (ITSM) vilket är ett relativt nytt koncept där IT hanteras och levereras i form av kund- och processorienterade tjänster.Möjligheterna att fullt ut dra nytta av den samlade kunskapen inom ITSM-området är dock inte helt oproblematisk. Detta gäller framförallt för små och medelstora företag (SMF) som betraktar sig som IT-tjänsteleverantörer. Den främsta anledningen till detta är att befintliga stöd på marknaden, som avser att bistå organisationer med att leverera effektiva tjänster, inte är designade efter de förutsättningar som SMF besitter. Detta innebär att det finns en brist på goda stöd för denna stora grupp att skapa tjänster av hög kvalitet på ett kostnadseffektivt sätt. Detta kan leda till onödigt höga kostnader, minskad konkurrenskraft och minskade vinstmarginaler för organisationerna.Ett forskningsprojekt vid Högskolan i Borås har under tre år utvecklat ett ramverk som syftar till att stödja SMF i sitt arbete med att effektivisera sina tjänsteleveranser. Ramverket består av metoder, modeller och IT-artefakter. Syftet med avhandlingen är att beskriva arbetet med dessa artefakttyper samt att presentera kunskapsbidrag bland annat i form av designprinciper. Designprinciperna syftar till att underlätta och stödja utvecklingen av ITSM-relaterade informationssystemartefakter (IS-artefakter) för SMF. Den forskningsmetod som använts har varit en variant av Action Design Research (ADR). Forskningsmetoden hanterar utveckling, intervention och utvärdering av artefakter och ligger inom ramen för Design Research (DR). Bidraget i avhandlingen relaterar därför till de dubbla uppgifterna i DR: 1) kunskapsbidrag riktade till forskarsamhället och 2) kunskap som är riktat till praktiker. De kunskapsbidrag som presenteras för forskarsamhället utgörs främst, men är inte begränsade till, designprinciper och förfining av de teorier som legat till grund för designprinciperna. Bidraget till praktiker utgörs främst av, men är inte begränsade till, de olika typer av IS-artefakter som designats och utvärderats under studien.
5.
Karlsson, Eva
(författare)
Systemutveckling för riskbaserad tillsyn : Hur verksamhetsanalys på praktikteoretisk grund kan användas för kravfångst
2012
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Denna studie har utförts vid en myndighet som bedriver statlig tillsyn över det svenska järnvägssystemet. När myndigheten beslutade att deras tillsyn skulle vara riskbaserad uppstod behov att se över och eventuellt förändra myndighetens verksamhetsprocesser utifrån ett riskbaserat synsätt. Arbetet med denna licentiatavhandling, som har skett i form av praktikforskning, har sin grund i två förändringsprojekt som var starkt påverkade av den bärande idén om riskbaserad tillsyn. Av denna anledning fanns ett behov att karaktärisera riskbaserad tillsyn. Detta skedde med hjälp av verksamhetsanalys på praktikteoretisk grund vars resultat formulerades i en verksamhetsteori för riskbaserad tillsyn. På ett övergripande plan handlar riskbaserad tillsyn om att integrera riskhantering i myndighetens tillsynsprocesser.Denna licentiatavhandling är skriven inom ämnet informationssystemsutveckling och det problem som undersöks är hur man kan fånga kraven på ett verksamhetsstödjande informationssystem med hjälp av en verksamhetsanalys på praktikteoretisk grund. Tesen för arbetet är att de krav som identifieras i en verksamhetsanalys på praktikteoretisk grund bör kunna användas i det fortsatta kravarbetet. Därför är spårbarhet mellan verksamhetsanalysens dokumentation och den fortsatta kravhanteringen i ett systemutvecklingsprojekt en viktig egenskap. Spårbarheten undersöks genom att två av myndighetens utvecklingsprojekt som var inriktade på att utveckla både verksamheten och nya informationssystem analyseras.Att uppnå spårbarhet är en del av tillvägagångssättet när informationssystem utvecklas. I denna licentiatavhandling beskrivs tillvägagångssättet utifrån tre metodegenskaper: arbetssätt (vilka frågor som ställs), notation (hur kraven dokumenteras) och arbetsformer (vilka tekniker för datainsamling som används). Det är alltså inte bara spårbarhet (som ingår i metodegenskapen notation) som är intressant att studera närmare utan hela tillvägagångssättet i verksamhetsanalysen.Studien har bedrivits i form av praktikforskning och det innebär att tre bidrag har producerats: 1) ett bidrag till den lokala praktiken, dvs. till myndigheten; 2) ett bidrag till den generella praktiken, dvs. till andra verksamheter som bedriver statlig tillsyn men även praktiker som arbetar med verksamhets- respektive systemutveckling inkluderas i den generella praktiken; samt 3) ett bidrag till akademin. Bidraget till den lokala praktiken är genomförandet av utvecklingsprojekten och deras resultat. Bidraget till den generella praktiken inom verksamhetsutveckling är verksamhetsanalysen som resulterar i en verksamhetsteori för riskbaserad tillsyn. Bidraget till praktiker inom systemutveckling är kravanalysen som visar hur en verksamhetsanalys på praktikteoretisk grund kan användas för att fånga krav på ett verksamhetsstödjande informationssystem. Kravanalysen öppnar även för möjligheter att söka efter krav på ett informationssystem utan att verksamhetsanalysen fokuserar informationssystemet. Bidraget till akademin består också av kravanalysen som med hjälp av fyra kravkategorier härleder spårbarhet mellan verksamhetsteorin för riskbaserad tillsyn och kravdokumentation från de studerade projekten. Det andra bidraget till akademin är ett önskvärt tillvägagångssätt för att genomföra en praktikteoretisk verksamhetsanalys för riskbaserad tillsyn.
6.
Zikra, Iyad
(författare)
Integration of Enterprise Modeling and Model Driven Development : A Meta-Model and a Tool Prototype
2014
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
The use of models for designing and developing Information Systems (IS) has changed in recent years. Models are no longer considered a peripheral documentation medium that is poorly maintained and often neglected. Rather, models are increasingly seen as essential parts of the final product—as central artifacts that drive and guide the development efforts. The knowledge that modelers rely on when designing models is represented as formal models and clearly defined rules for transforming the models. The flexibility, reliability, and effectiveness offered by the formal models and the transformations are making Model Driven Development (MDD) a popular choice for building IS. Models also serve in describing enterprise design, where enterprise-level models capture organizational knowledge and aid in understanding, improving, and growing the enterprise. Enterprise Modeling (EM) offers a structured and unified view of the enterprise, thereby enabling more informed and accurate decisions to be made.Many MDD approaches have been proposed to tackle a wide range of IS-related issues, but little attention is being paid to the source of the knowledge captured by the IS models. EM approaches capture organizational knowledge and provide the necessary input and underlying context for designing IS. However, the results produced by EM approaches need to be manually analyzed by modelers to create the initial MDD model. This interruption of the MDD process represents a gap between enterprise models and MDD models. Limited research has been done to connect EM to MDD in a systematic and structured manner based on the principles of model-driven development.This thesis proposes a unifying meta-model for integrating EM and MDD. The meta-model captures the inherent links that exist between organizational knowledge and IS design. This helps to improve the alignment between organizational goals and the IS that are created to support them. The research presented herein follows the guidelines of the design science research methodology. It starts with a state-of-the-art survey of the current relationship between MDD and prior stages of development. The findings of the survey are used to elicit a set of necessary properties for integrating EM and MDD. The unifying meta-model is then proposed as the basis for an integrated IS development approach that applies the principles of MDD and starts on the enterprise level by considering enterprise models in the development process. The design of the meta-model supports the elicited integration properties. The unifying meta-model is based on the Enterprise Knowledge Development (EKD) approach to EM. A prototype tool is developed to support the unifying meta-model, following a study to choose a suitable implementation environment. The use of the unifying meta-model is demonstrated through the implemented tool platform using an example case study, revealing its advantages and highlighting the potential for improvement and future development.
7.
Hartikainen, Heidi
(författare)
Secure emergency communications of emergency responders : a case study of Kemi municipality in Finland
2013
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Emergency response is highly time-critical and information dependent: every moment counts and organizations need to access various information that supports their decision making and informs them about the scale and location of the emergency, the damages, and the availability of human and physical resources. This kind information can originate from many different places and the situation can be stressful as there is a need to communicate quickly, reliably and accurately within their own organization, but also inter-organizationally. ICTs make it possible to access and spread information with speed and efficiency, but other factors, such as different professional cultures, can still hinder information sharing. There is a growing need in emergency organizations to develop understanding for how communications between emergency responders can be secured. It seems important to consider how emergency responders respond to security objectives, since the assumptions for secure communications may not only be developed on the premise of ICT, but also how the emergency actors appreciate the emergency environments in terms of secure communications.The aim of this research is to develop understanding of information security and secure communications in a context where it has not been well researched. The research looks at secure emergency communications from a socio-technical viewpoint and concentrates on the communication inside and between the emergency organizations of police, the paramedics, and the rescue department in the municipality of Kemi, and more specifically on the communications of operative emergency actors while they are working in the preparedness and response phases of emergency management. Two persons from each organization were interviewed using semi-structured interviews, and the empirical data was used for writing the appended papers that are the basis of this thesis work.The research started by doing an extensive literature review and analysis on the field of secure emergency communications. The results show that while technical developments on the field aim at effective and secure technologies, organizational aspects of emergency communications seem to involve not only emergency actors, but also how these actors more and more utilize information technology. The landscape for emergency management is becoming very diverse, which challenges the way that secure emergency communications can be understood. The developers of future emergency communications structures not only need to ensure the technical aspects of confidentiality, availability and integrity of information, but they also need to take into account the social rules, norms and structures that guide the emergency communication. Next, this research sought out to re-conceptualize the role of information security in emergency response. A conceptual basis encompassing technical, cognitive and organizational information security layers as a relationship between association and connectivity was developed by synthesizing Actor Network Theory and Theory of Organizational Routines. The approach of combining two theoretical accounts details the enactment of information security in emergency response so as to understand how cognition ties technical security features with organizational security issues. Without the cognitive layer, the technical and organizational aspects of information security remain static or disconnected to the actions performed during emergency response. Theoretically the approach contributes constructively to describe an alternative approach to information security research to address the gap between formal and informal criteria of information security.Lastly, the research sought out to explore the current situation of the case organizations in detail concerning their level of information security, communication challenges faced, and training offered. It was learned that different aspects of information security are valued depending on whether emergency responders work in preparation periods or if they are responding to an emergency: 1) When working in their own respective organizations the most important aspect was information confidentiality 2) When responding to emergency the most important aspects were information availability and integrity. Most communication challenges present in emergency communications can be seen to arise when responding to emergencies. This is not something currently being taken into account in the case organizations. The basic training of emergency actors and the training and guidelines of each organization largely concentrate on confidentiality issues, and tools and communications training that would be needed to ensure information availability and integrity when responding to an emergency is not prioritized. To overcome the communication challenges present in emergency communications and to ensure confidentiality, availability and integrity of emergency information, those responsible for information security in emergency organizations must therefore provide up to date information security training and awareness building, but also tools and communications training that supports inter-organizational communication.
8.
Iqbal, Sarfraz
(författare)
Designing the online educational information security laboratories
2014
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Distance education and e-learning in the field of information security is gaining popularity. In the field of information security education, virtual labs have been suggested to facilitate hands-on learning in distance education. An internet-based information security lab is an artifact which involves a collection of systems and software used for teaching information security, and which is accessible through the Internet. This research is motivated from an on-going information security lab development initiative at Luleå University of Technology. A literature review on the online educational information security laboratories (InfoSec labs) in the academic literature was conducted. The current literature about online InfoSec labs still lacks well-specified pedagogical approaches and concrete design principles. It hinders the accumulation of technically and pedagogically rigorous knowledge for the implementation and use of online educational InfoSec labs. Moreover, the literature focused mainly on details of technical lab implementations whereas the pedagogical elements of the curriculum and rationale behind them were ignored. This leads to inadequate guidance about how the instructor and the learner can make use of the lab to pedagogically align the course objectives, teaching / learning activities and assessment methods.A theoretical framework comprising the Constructive alignment theory (Biggs 1996) and Conversational Framework (Laurillard 2002) was proposed to further guide the research process and analyze the case of an internet security course and e-learning platform. The framework suggested that the MSc program and individual courses in information security should be developed based on specific pedagogical principles in order to improve the quality of teaching and enhance the e-learning platform for flexible hands-on security education. Therefore, to design an online InfoSec lab to improve flexible hands-on education and security skills development in the courses; Action design research (ADR) was chosen as the whole approach to continue with this research project. The ultimate goal is to design an ensemble IT artifact as a result of emerging design, use, and refinement in context through continuous interaction between technology and organization during design process. This licentiate thesis is mainly focused on the 1st stage (Problem Formulation) of the ADR method where the trigger for the first stage is the problems perceived in the teaching of information security, i.e., how to improve students’ security knowledge, how to provide the students with flexible online educational information security lab.The review of prior research, observations, interviews with teachers and program management and reflection on pedagogical approaches lead to formalize five initial design principles (Contextualization, Collaboration, Flexibility, Cost-effectiveness and Scalability). These initial design principles have been derived keeping in view the requirements of an information security course in the degree program. A conceptual design for the information security course based on Personalized System Of Instruction (PSI) approach including online InfoSec lab design to promote student’s hands-on security knowledge level and to provide them flexibility to study at their desired speed has been proposed. The anatomy of design theory framework by Gregor & Jones (2007) is used for outlining a few first components of a design theory for an online-InfoSec-lab course. In its current form, this study makes a contribution to the literature by identifying and discussing about hitherto scattered research reports of educational online InfoSec labs in a common frame of reference, which will help other developers and researchers of information security pedagogy as an index of previous literature. The theoretical framework will be used to provide further guidelines to develop theory-ingrained artifact which will not only help to provide the necessary justification for elements of curriculum and the rationale behind its selection but also it will help to align the course objectives with teaching / learning activities in a specific teaching context for better hands-on education of information security. The initial design principles suggested in this study will provide help to start the next phase of ADR, Building, Intervention and Evaluation (BIE), which will support us to achieve a refined set of more concrete emergent design principles. The proposed conceptual design of online information security course will be implemented including development, implementation and use of online InfoSec lab. The future research will be focused on IT-dominant BIE (building, intervention and evaluation phases of the ADR method). Further research work after the licentiate phase will cover the rest of the phases of ADR.
9.
Ahlin, Karin
(författare)
Approaching the intangible benefits of a boundary object
2014
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
Today´s information society is constantly increasing the quantity of digital information that organisations have access to and depend on. Despite this dependency, few descriptions exist of the benefits which this digital information can provide the organisation with. Examples of what the organisation can use the information for include business intelligence or in a business process. The absence of such benefit descriptions results in missed opportunities in organisational management and a failure to cultivate the artefact. In terms of a practical operational work role, this means that the artefact just exists and that there are no decisions, communication and discussions connected to it. Earlier research about benefits in the Information Systems field is focused on describing the process of finding benefit factors from different IT investments and how these investments can be measured financially. The result of this was that it was only the measurable benefits that were taken into consideration. Later benefit management research has shown interest in the intangible benefit factors as well and added this as an activity in the evaluation process. Today´s view is that the benefit consists both of tangible and intangible benefit factors. This thesis emphasises benefit factors found by means of qualitative research in organisations producing Technical Information (TI). TI isinformation connected to goods and services and is a part of a product. The intangible benefit factors found which are connected to TI are semantic interoperability and knowledge. Semantic interoperability is beneficial both for the organisation and the individuals – in the first case exemplified by a uniform working process and in the second as efficiency in the internal communication. Knowledge also provides benefit both to the organisation and the individuals – the organisation can operate without depending on certain individuals and information gives the individuals mobility in their profession.The next part in the thesis discusses information management´simpact on benefit factors. In the case of an autocratic approach, it is the organisation that benefits most, whereas a decentralised management style provides the individual co-workers with a greater number of benefit factors. This proves that information management is an important and decisive ingredient, and that it affects benefit factors.One step in the direction of converting the intangible benefit factors into tangible ones is to visualise them. In this work the theoreticallens provided by a boundary object has been used. This lens adds a qualitative view on cross-boundary information and has efficiency approaches. These approaches are the syntactical, semantic andpragmatic. Via interpretations from the thesis´s two empirical cases, those approaches are "measured" by interpretations and visualised by the three leaves of a clover. This gives the opportunity to describewhat information efficiency, in this case connected to a positiveexpectation, can contribute to the organisation or the individuals. By this procedure, different cases or time aspects can be compared,thereby providing a basis for decision-making, communication and discussion. Future research in this area can be made in different directions – one is to investigate whether the intangible benefit factors can be turned into measurable ones. In this way, the internal organisation can be provided with better knowledge of the digital information's impact. Another research direction is to investigate how the passage of time affects the benefit factors that digital information gives the organisation.
10.
Berg Marklund, Björn, 1988-
(författare)
Games in Formal Educational Settings : Obstacles for the development and use of learning games
2013
Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt) abstract
From the perspective of educators, games are viewed as a medium in which the younger generation both thrive and excel. Students navigate game environments with ease and regularly solve problems, engage in advanced collaborative efforts, and communicate complex concepts and strategies to one another during their private gaming sessions at home. Games invite the player to form an understanding of intricate systems and mechanics based on participation and experimentation rather than mere observation, and on these merits games are often prophesized as a medium that will significantly change the face of education as we know it. However, while teacher interest in using games is increasing, wide-spread and successful examples of games being implemented in formal educational contexts (e.g. schools and university courses) remain rare.This thesis aims to examine why this is the case and identifies some of the more prevalent obstacles educators and developers both face when embarking on learning game projects as users and creators. In order to examine the situation from both of these perspectives, the research takes a mixed-method approach that entails extensive literature studies coupled with several studies with both educators and developers. Interviews were conducted in order to investigate attitudes and experiences, and more direct researcher participation and case studies were used to examine the processes of implementing and developing learning games as they were carried out. The studied cases and literature have revealed obstacles that indicate that “traditional” entertainment game development is incommensurable with learning game development, and that the use of games in formal educational settings introduces heavy demands on the recipient organization’s infrastructure, culture, and working processes.The conclusion of this research is that learning games embody a unique mixture of utility and game experience, and the formal context which they are to be used in significantly influence the process of developing and using them. Learning games can’t be understood if they’re solely seen as a teaching utility or solely as a game experience and to make them viable both educators and developers need to change their internal processes, their own perceptions of games and teaching, as well as the way they collaborate and communicate with each other. There are also several obstacles that are outside individual institutions and developers’ control, for example the practicalities of the economic constraints that both developers and educators work under that put the sustainability of pursuing learning games for formal education as a business into question. However, the continuous incremental improvements on the infrastructure of educational institutions (e.g. availability of technology and teachers’ familiarity with technology) can likely alleviate many of the obstacles currently inhibiting the impact learning games can potentially have in formal education.
