Data Arcade is a game portal developed and managed by EdGE , the Educational Gaming Environments group at TERC (a not-for-profit education company in Cambridge, MA), and Fun Atomic (cutting-edge developers of high-quality educational games).
Researchers at EdGE are studying how STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) activities in games can support learning. You don't have to be part of any of EdGE's studies, but if you choose not to participate, you won't be able to enter Data Arcade. Players' activities in Data Arcade are being studied by EdGE under grants from the National Science Foundation (US), including NSF/DRK12/#1119144, NSF/TSL/#1134914, and NSF/DRK12/#1502882.
As part of EdGE's studies, we will be collecting all digital activity that takes place within Data Arcade and the associated games. We will be looking at the IP addresses from which people register. All of these data will remain entirely anonymous to the researchers.
If you agree to be part of an EdGE study by logging into Data Arcade:
- All of your interactions with Data Arcade and the associated games will be digitally recorded.
- You may stop using the website and thus stop being recorded at any time.
- No identifying information will be stored with the data.
- Some participants of Data Arcade may be asked to take part in surveys. You can always choose whether or not to be part of these surveys.
- All research data will be stored as digital files and will be password protected. They will contain no identifying information. Only EdGE researchers will have access to the files.
- The results of the research will be published in academic journals, presented at conferences, posted on websites, used to inform the future development of EdGE games, and otherwise shared.
- Your participation in a research study does not add to your risk of being in an online environment. The results of the research will help us build better places for learning in educational games.
Dr. Jodi Asbell-Clarke is the Director of EdGE and a researcher on EdGE's studies. If you have questions, you may contact her at edge@terc.edu . If you have concerns about the research and want to talk to someone who is not on the project, you may contact Dr. Mia Ong of TERC's Oversight Board for Human Participants in Research (IRB) at mia_ong@terc.edu , 617-873-9600.
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