{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/121513"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/121513","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"An investigation of collaborative practices in massively multiplayer online role-playing game groups: Online learning in informal groups","abstract":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-12-04 without embargo terms","abstract_html":"Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-12-04 without embargo terms","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Guerrero, Brian D."],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Curriculum and Instruction","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Lane, H C","Lindgren, Robb","Mercier, Emma","D'Angelo, Cynthia"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-08","date_published":"2023-08","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:00Z","subjects":["Collaboration","Team Mental Model","Mmorpg","Games","Informal Learning","Case Study"],"languages":["en","eng"],"rights":["Copyright 2023 Brian Guerrero"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121513","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Lane, H C","Lindgren, Robb","Mercier, Emma","D'Angelo, Cynthia"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Guerrero, Brian D."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2023-08","2023-07-12"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Curriculum and Instruction"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Collaboration","Team Mental Model","Mmorpg","Games","Informal Learning","Case Study"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en","eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2023 Brian Guerrero"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121513"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-12-04 without embargo terms","The student, Brian Guerrero, accepted the attached license on 2023-07-12 at 12:23.","The student, Brian Guerrero, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2023-07-12 at 12:30.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2023-07-12 at 16:23.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19654 on 2023-12-04 at 17:02:21","Continuing the trend of research into online environments, this study investigates the differences in collaborative practices within Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and examines how they differ between groups with varying levels of previous experience. This research provides a lens into the cultures and practices of these cooperative communities that have grown in popularity. The most active MMORPG’s currently have around 126 million registered players, with about a million being daily active players. In this study, four groups were chosen and divided based on their previous raiding experience and were each observed attempting a new raid without the use of external support. Following observations, three individuals from each group were interviewed to develop a better understanding of the team mental model for each experience level. The observational analysis showed that more experienced groups spent less time strategizing in between combat sessions because of the higher rate of conversations focused on helping less experienced members learn. Further, team mental models of experienced groups were found to focus on building strong social ties and promoting a varied and frequent use of tools to help them reach a level where they will be recognized among the community. On the other hand, less experienced groups were found to have team mental models defined primarily by two factors. First, these teams used a teacher centric model, revolving around their most knowledge players. Second, these teams placed social interactions as important if not more important than the learning process. The results showed that less experienced teams had trouble balancing tools that were external to the environment and had trouble extending the usage of tools to analyze on a group basis. Recommendations for design include developing more tools within these online environments that promote the usage of data collection and data transformation through a combination of logs and drawing tools."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["An investigation of collaborative practices in massively multiplayer online role-playing game groups: Online learning in informal groups"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Lane, H C","Lindgren, Robb","Mercier, Emma","D'Angelo, Cynthia"],"dc:creator":["Guerrero, Brian D."],"dc:date":["2023-08","2023-07-12"],"dc:description":["Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2023-12-04 without embargo terms","The student, Brian Guerrero, accepted the attached license on 2023-07-12 at 12:23.","The student, Brian Guerrero, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2023-07-12 at 12:30.","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2023-07-12 at 16:23.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #19654 on 2023-12-04 at 17:02:21","Continuing the trend of research into online environments, this study investigates the differences in collaborative practices within Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) and examines how they differ between groups with varying levels of previous experience. This research provides a lens into the cultures and practices of these cooperative communities that have grown in popularity. The most active MMORPG’s currently have around 126 million registered players, with about a million being daily active players. In this study, four groups were chosen and divided based on their previous raiding experience and were each observed attempting a new raid without the use of external support. Following observations, three individuals from each group were interviewed to develop a better understanding of the team mental model for each experience level. The observational analysis showed that more experienced groups spent less time strategizing in between combat sessions because of the higher rate of conversations focused on helping less experienced members learn. Further, team mental models of experienced groups were found to focus on building strong social ties and promoting a varied and frequent use of tools to help them reach a level where they will be recognized among the community. On the other hand, less experienced groups were found to have team mental models defined primarily by two factors. First, these teams used a teacher centric model, revolving around their most knowledge players. Second, these teams placed social interactions as important if not more important than the learning process. The results showed that less experienced teams had trouble balancing tools that were external to the environment and had trouble extending the usage of tools to analyze on a group basis. Recommendations for design include developing more tools within these online environments that promote the usage of data collection and data transformation through a combination of logs and drawing tools."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121513"],"dc:language":["en","eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2023 Brian Guerrero"],"dc:subject":["Collaboration","Team Mental Model","Mmorpg","Games","Informal Learning","Case Study"],"dc:title":["An investigation of collaborative practices in massively multiplayer online role-playing game groups: Online learning in informal groups"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Curriculum and Instruction"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:00Z"}