Writing.
Research on how people read, play and learn, and on methods for studying it where it happens. Most of it predates the product work; all of it runs through it.
Full record: Medium · Google Scholar · ResearchGate
Good News
Weekly column · Wabasha Herald, Wabasha, Minnesota · since 2025
On learning, adaptation, grief, post-traumatic growth and what I call identity motion. Column 8, Identity Motion: There Will Never Be Anyone Like You Again, Ever, is about how a life’s purpose is activated, inhibited and reorganized.
Shorter pieces on research practice, AI and systems, curiosity and how people change. Most are on Medium.
- 2026The Leftovers?Medium
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- 2023Ethnography and UXMedium
- 2022
- 2019
- 2019Research craft and right-sizingUX Collective
- 2017
- 2016
How people read across print, screens and games — the root of the later work on mental models.
- 2009Video games, reading, and transmedial comprehensionDubbels · in Ferdig (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Effective Electronic Gaming in Education, 251–276
- 2009Technology and literacy: Current and emerging practices with Student 2.0 and beyondO’Brien & Dubbels · in Wood & Blanton (Eds.), Literacy Instruction for Adolescents: Research-Based Practice
- 2007Developmental changes in the visual span for readingKwon, Legge & Dubbels · Vision Research 47(22), 2889–2900
- 2004Reading-to-learn: From print to new digital media and new literaciesO’Brien & Dubbels · Learning Point Associates / NCREL
What makes an experience worth returning to, and how to measure learning where it happens.
- 2019Requirements-based design of serious games and learning software: An introduction to the Vegas EffectDubbels · in Exploring the Cognitive, Social, Cultural, and Psychological Aspects of Gaming and Simulations
- 2016Viability of gamification for enhancing cognition as spatial reasoning: User experience research and usability test reportDubbels, Bennett & Bermingham · McMaster University
- 2016The politics of removing play from classroomsDubbels · article
- 2016Pedagogy and play: Creating a playful curriculum for academic achievement and engaged learningDubbels · in Schrier (Ed.), Learning, Education and Games, Vol. 2
- 2016Gamification transformed: Gamification should deliver the best parts of game experiences, not just experiences of game partsDubbels · in Transforming Gaming and Computer Simulation Technologies Across Industries
- 2014Play: A framework for design, development, and gamificationDubbels · InTensions
- 2014Cognitive ethnography and causal network analysis as a mixed method for game user researchDubbels · conference paper
- 2013Gamification, serious games, ludic simulation, and other contentious categoriesDubbels · International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations 5(2), 1–19
- 2011Cognitive ethnography: A methodology for measure and analysis of learning for game studiesDubbels · International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations 3(1), 68–78
- 2009Dance Dance Education and rites of passageDubbels · International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations 1(4), 63–89
- 2009Entries in Encyclopedia of Play in Today’s SocietyContributor · Carlisle (Ed.) · Sage
Practical writing for teachers and librarians on games, media and the open web in schools.
- 201121st-century learnerDubbels · NEA Today
- 2010Blogging and internet filters in schoolsDubbels · Community & Junior College Libraries 16(4)
- 2010Social networking nightmaresDubbels · NEA Today
- 2009Online social networking for educatorsDubbels · NEA Today
- 2019Exploring the Cognitive, Social, Cultural, and Psychological Aspects of Gaming and SimulationsDubbels (Ed.) · IGI Global
- 2016Transforming Gaming and Computer Simulation Technologies Across IndustriesDubbels (Ed.) · IGI Global
- 2012The Brain Is for Action: Embodiment, causality, and conceptual learning with video games to improve reading comprehension and scientific problem solvingDoctoral dissertation · University of Minnesota
Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations, 2013–2020; now Emeritus, including editorial prefaces for special issues on esports (2017) and on video games as systems for assessment and data collection (2016). The method behind this site’s evidence labels is on Methods.