Faculty from UC Santa Cruz’s Serious Games and GPM Master’s programs are part of a team that recently received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to test and launch a new version of StudyCrafter, an interactive platform for students to create and share research projects. UCSC faculty members include Magy Seif Al-Nasr, professor of Computational Media and Vice Chair of the Serious Games Master’s program, Eddie Melcer, Assistant Professor of Serious Games, and Elin Carstendottir, Assistant Professor of Games and Playable Media. Joining them will be researchers from Northeastern University, New York University, and the University of Houston – Clear Lake.
The NSF grant will be used to help researchers create a new version of StudyCrafter, which will include an AI agent called “StudyHelper” This agent aims to enhance student interaction and learning of concepts such as experimental design, research with human subjects, and data analysis, through the the use of experiential learning tools and activities.
The goal of the new and improved StudyCrafter is to engage even more undergraduates in research, with the hopes of preparing them for postgraduate education and careers focused on research. The current online-first version helps students create interactive experiments that are easily accessible to research participants anywhere in the world, since they only need to have access to the internet. With the help of this NSF grant, the new version of StudyCrafter will be integrated into the curriculum of 11 universities across the United States, spanning more diverse fields of interests, ranging from engineering to humanities to communication studies.
The team hopes that as StudyCrafter becomes more widely adopted by universities, the platform can be expanded to accommodate deeper critical analysis of research data, with an emphasis on ethical and inclusive practices. The team would also like to build new curriculum and interactive activities to heighten student engagement.