Purpose: The reemergence of immersive virtual technology (IVR) provides both opportunities and challenges for workplace learning (WPL). The purpose of this study is to explore and develop knowledge about how gamification influences the WPL experience by addressing two research questions: RQ1. What characterizes a gamified immersive safety training experience with IVR technology? and RQ2. How does gamified immersive safety training with IVR technology impact the WPL experience?

Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a mixed methods approach by combining a systematic literature review with a case study on an empirical project about immersive fire safety training for train operators that are used at the Swedish train operating company SJ. The case study included data from semistructured interviews, Web survey and observation studies. The data was analyzed in two stages combining inductive and deductive data analysis for identifying themes and categories.

Findings: The findings of the study are twofold: (1) themes that conceptualize the gamified immersive safety training experience based on outputs from both the literature review and the first round of data analysis; and (2) a framework with three overarching categories that are mapped with the identified themes, and which were deduced throughout the second round of data analysis.

Originality/value: The originality of the findings stresses the implications of how a body of knowledge that synthesizes gamification concepts with immersive safety training, can inform the design of WPL experiences that are facilitated with IVR technology. As such, the implications of the findings are targeted toward both the advancement of the IVR discourse in the WPL field, but also toward practical considerations for design of immersive learning experiences that enrich WPL practices and culture

The conceptualization of space is integral to many of the diverse forms of information systems — for example, the physical space represented in geographical information systems and the virtual space of simulated worlds. Yet despite its importance and centrality, the conceptualization of space in information systems is not as sophisticated or mature as in other fields. A lack of attention to the diversity of perspectives on space hampers ongoing research and the revisioning of phenomena that could lead to new insights in information systems. The aim of this paper is to develop an encompassing framework that provides a comprehensive view of philosophical perspectives, spatial themes, and concepts of space that are relevant to information systems. As a result of an extensive literature review, an encompassing framework is presented that includes four prominent spatial themes: representing space, differentiating space, disclosing space, and intuitive space. Each theme is related to its key characteristics and features and underlying philosophical perspectives. The paper demonstrates how the new framework can facilitate IS scholars’ expansive analysis in scholarly work and assist editors and reviewers in evaluating papers concerning space in IS and shows how the revisioning of phenomena can lead to transformational shifts in understanding IS phenomena.

Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology has been shown to effectively facilitate fire safety training. However, the current discourse on immersive safety training provides scarce knowledge on the quality of immersive safety training from the perspective of safe spaces.

In turn, the general notion of a safe space – being an environment that is characterized by the freedom to move, share, talk, and act freely without risk for physical or mental damage – needs further elaboration in an IVR training context where the experience of safety is highly interrelated with embodiment and immersion. This study employed thus a phenomenological approach to explore and conceptualize characteristics of immersive safe spaces. This was done through phenomenological interviews with employees at Sweden’s largest train operating company, which undertook fire safety training in IVR by using an IVR application known as the “Fire Trainer”.

The interview material was then analyzed through an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) that conceptualized four themes for characterizing immersive safe spaces: Sense of Authentic Hazard Recognition, Sense of Behavioral Responsiveness, Sense of Intersubjective Risk Perception, and Sense of Embodied Atmosphere. Implications of conceptualizing the themes are targeted towards understanding the quality of being/feeling safe during safety training in IVR, and how the design of future immersive fire safety environments might benefit from employing the proposed themes.

Gamification provides a prominent technique that can be used to provide Immersive Learning Environments (ILEs) for domains, where it is dangerous or expensive to learn in real environments. Especially industrial organizations (e.g., manufacturing, mining, construction) are a promising domain for implementing ILEs that combine gamification concepts with a pedagogical design to facilitate safety training under secure circumstances. Although there are design research studies that exemplify the utility of gamification of learning activities, or how to improve organizational safety training through gamification, there is a need to address how sustainable safe spaces can be designed for enhanced safety training in ILEs. Safe spaces are key elements of a successful safety training experience in ILEs as they provide safe and secure training environments, which in the physical world are typically considered too dangerous with high risk of injuring the training participants. This study reports findings from an ongoing DSR project that stresses the design of ILEs for sustainable safety training. Within the project, an artifact for immersive fire safety training in virtual reality has been designed, developed, and evaluated together with employees of a train operator company. The research responds to the need of producing design knowledge that moves beyond the highly contextualized designs principles that are particular for IVR applications. We use gamification concepts as a kernel theory for developing a mid-range theory of designing immersive virtual safety training environments.

mmersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology is becoming central for Information Systems (IS) research. However, existing studies in IS fall short of providing insights into how the IVR experience becomes meaningful for end-users. To increase granularity and specificity in this regard, researchers have suggested that the IVR experience can become meaningful due to its fleeting feeling of escapism. In this paper, I explore and characterize how individuals use the IVR experience to create meaning in the context of meaningful escapism, by undertaking a phenomenology inspired inquiry, based on Heideggerian views on meaning, meaningfulness, and world. Interviews and analysis were conducted within an empirical case of IVR fire safety training. As a result, four characteristics of the IVR experience as a meaningful form of escapism were unveiled: a sense of content, a sense of familiarity, a sense of mood, and a sense of care. Throughout this study, I offer a nuanced perspective on how the characteristics contribute to clarifyingthe distinctions and relationship between meaning and meaningfulness, as well as how the IVR experience becomes a meaningful escapism that provides an alternative of individual’s being-in-the-world, into a being-in-the-virtual-world, also known as Virtual Dasein. Further, this study contributes to the IS field by advancing the current discourse on IVR research and escapism, from a phenomenological perspective.

While ethics are recognized as an integral part of information systems (IS) research, many questions about the role of ethics in research practice remain unanswered. Our report responds to this emerging set of concerns with a broad and integrative account of five perspectives on ethics in IS research and design science research (DSR) in particular. Our report is informed by a broad literature review, a panel discussion at DESRIST 2020, and substantial personal experience from wrestling with ethical considerations in the field. The report provides a comprehensive discussion of prevailing perspectives on ethics and the implications for IS research. Together, we hope the report will inspire more ethics-conscious and responsible IS research. © 2022 by the Association for Information Systems.

Many Design Science Research (DSR) papers in Information Systems (IS) suggest sets of design principles (DPs) that provide knowledge for creating instances, in different contexts, of IT artefacts that belong to the same class. However, despite frameworks for evaluating DSR contributions, the evaluation of DP reusability to, with and for practitioners has been largely neglected. We suggest that in order to maintain the practical relevance of DSR, papers with DPs as their key outcomes should contain a reusability evaluation of the proposed principles. We propose a framework of minimum reusability evaluation of DPs by members of the target community of practitioners. The framework comprises five criteria: (1) accessibility, (2) importance, (3) novelty and insightfulness, (4) actability and guidance, and (5) effectiveness.

Purpose

Although there is a large body of literature available on the foundations of workplace learning (WPL), little is known about designated research methods that systematically combine intervention, design and learning at work. The purpose of this study is to propose action design research as an alternative method for organizing WPL in general and facilitating pedagogically rich activities in particular.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used a case study approach to focus the action design research method and exemplify its utility through two case studies that emphasize WPL in general and how the method can be used to facilitate pedagogically rich activities in particular.

Findings

The results of the case studies indicate that the action design research method had a significantly positive effect on organizing WPL in organizations systematically, as well as creating a narrative that structures the research process and its outcomes.

Originality/value

The findings help scholars that are in need of organizing WPL research in a systematic way. The findings do also help practitioners in organizations to solve real-world problems and develop new knowledge jointly together with scholars. Consequently, the findings contribute to the existing literature by exemplifying how to facilitate pedagogically rich activities and disseminate the outcomes of doing so in a formalized way.

A comprehensive understanding of how to achieve relevance and practical impact with our work remains elusive within the information systems (IS) community. While we know that finding or constructing important research problems sets the bar for the potential impact that research can have, we know little about how to support research problem assessment and selection in practice. This paper address this gap by presenting the problem assessment framework (PAF) and outlining its application for the assessment, selection, and justification of important research problems. The PAF builds on the problem assessment ontology, which explicates the domain of problem assessment based on a synthesis of extant research. We have instantiated the PAF in the problem assessment canvas to make it more accessible. Altogether, we contribute three novel artifacts that support researchers looking to work on the most important research problems as the basis for more relevant and impactful IS research.