Over the last decade, I have followed my natural curiosity about the areas that interest me into research. This has allowed me to ask quesitons that require months or even years of research to answer. By thinking about my craft - in both professional writing and education - from this academic standpoint, I have become a better writer and educator. My profile on Google Scholar can be accessed by clicking here.
I am currently undertaking further study in the area of professional writing, under the tutelage of Associate Professor Patrick West and Dr Karen Le Rossignol, in which I am considering the way that a literary sense of place is evoked within prose fiction and using this understanding as the basis for creating a sense of place in a literary graphic novel adaptation. This work incorporates theory from the fields of narratology and literary geography, and will result in the creation of a script for a 132-page graphic novel which will be published by Magnetic Force in late 2023. During my course of study, I am also looking forward to working with Deakin Motion Lab to bring a location from the graphic novel to life within the VR environment.
In 2017, I completed a PhD at Deakin University, Australia, under the supervision of Associate Professor Joanne O'Mara and Professor Julianne Moss, in which I investigated the role of the writer in the development of narrative-driven educational games.
As games become a more popular tool for teachers wishing to better engage their students and improve learning outcomes, I am certain that we will see an increase in the number of narrative-based games; and, if that is the case, I believe that we need to look at what makes a really compelling narrative for games in order to utilise these features within games that are designed primarily for learning which, otherwise, can end up being didactic and unappealing for their target audience. As well as learning more about these games, and the people who create them, I am interested in experimenting with getting students to create their own games as a way of demonstrating their subject knowledge. This PhD led to the publication of three papers, all of which are outlined below.
For my Master of Education, I spent two years researching the ways that changing teacher practice may positively affect the sense of community within online courses. As the basis of my study, I used the 'Community of Inquiry Framework' by Dr Randy Garrison et. al, and discovered that just by using some relatively simple online tools and strategies we could greatly improve the perceptions of our students. In recognition of these findings, I received the award for Best ICT-Related thesis from the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education in 2013.
Peer-reviewed publications:
Jackson, L. C., West, P., A Spatial Reading of Two-Week Wait: An IVF Story. Keywords and Keyimages in Graphic Medicine, L Diedrich, B Martino (Eds.), University of Mississippi Press (in Press).
West, P., Jackson, L., At the End of the World: Extinction, Death and Animals in Australian 21st Century Eco-Gothic Cinema. Contemporary Antipodean Gothic on Screen, J Gildersleeve, Kate Cantrell (Eds.), University of Amsterdam Press (in Press).
Jackson, L. C., O'Mara, J., Moss, J., Jackson A. C. (2022). Analysing Digital Educational Games with the Games as Action, Games as Text Framework. Computers & Education, DOI: 10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104500
Luke C. Jackson, Joanne O'Mara, Julianne Moss & Alun C. Jackson. (2021). Expert writers on how to achieve narrative immersion in digital games, New Writing, DOI: 10.1080/14790726.2021.1940211
Jackson, L.C., O'Mara, J., Moss, J., & Jackson, A. (2018). A Critical Review of the Effectiveness of Narrative-Driven Digital Educational Games. International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 8,4,18pp. DOI: 10.4018/IJGBL.2018100103 (To download the 78-page table associated with this publication, click here.)
Jackson, L. C., Toniolo, A., & Bitz, M. (2016). Comics Go Global: Reporting on a four-year transnational pilot project. New Scholar, 4(1). Available here.
Jackson, L. C., Jackson, A. C., & Chambers, D. (2013). Establishing an online community of inquiry at the Distance Education Centre, Victoria..Distance Education, 34(3), 353-367. DOI: 10.1080/01587919.2013.835774
International Conference presentations:
‘Using the Games as Action, Games as Text framework to analyse game construction’, Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE), 2016
‘Fostering Multiple Literacies through Online Collaboration’, GLOBALEDCON, 2012
‘Young People and Alternative Futures’, Royal Geographic Society Conference, London , 2011