Tracking precursors of learning analytics over serious game team performance ranking

ABSTRACT

The use of serious games to improve collaborative skill transfer and retention has received considerable attention from scholars, web marketing practitioners and business consultants. Team rankings and learning progress in game learning analytics, however, have yet to be empirically examined. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to study the performance of competing teams in a web marketing serious game (Simbound), we highlight a combination of causal conditions (engagement, reach and profitability) affecting team rankings. This paper proposes a conceptual architecture of the forces that influence learning progress within a collaborative learning environment. This learning environment is studied for web marketing boot camps powered by Simbound at three European universities: Grenoble Alpes University (France), University of Milano-Bicocca (Italy) and Dunarea de Jos University of Galati (Romania). Gaining knowledge of cases through game learning analytics is valuable for two reasons: It emphasises the instructor’s role in mobilising players’ engagement, and it tests variability across cases, offering precursors of team performance rankings. This approach to collective skill retention highlights the moderating factors of team performance rankings, whilst purposely calibrating a gameable learning environment. This paper enriches our knowledge of how active experimentation in learning analytics metrics can develop skills for real business competition.     

严肃游戏中虚拟角色行为建模综述

严肃游戏是计算机游戏一个新的发展方向,可以提供形象互动的模拟教学环境,已经广泛应用于科学教育、康复医疗、应急管理、军事训练等领域。虚拟角色是严肃游戏中模拟具有生命特征的图形实体,行为可信的虚拟角色能够提升用户使用严肃游戏的体验感。严肃游戏中的图形渲染技术已经逐步成熟,而虚拟角色行为建模的研究尚在初级阶段。可信的虚拟角色必须能够具有感知、情绪和行为能力。本文分别从游戏剧情与行为、行为建模方法、行为学习和行为建模评价等4个方面来分析虚拟角色行为建模研究。分析了有限状态机和行为树的特点,讨论了虚拟角色的行为学习方法。指出了强化学习的关键要素,探讨了深度强化学习的应用途径。综合已有研究,归纳了虚拟角色行为框架,该框架主要包括感觉输入、知觉分析、行为决策和动作4大模块。从情感计算的融入、游戏剧情和场景设计、智能手机平台和多通道交互4个角度讨论需要进一步研究的问题。虚拟角色的行为建模需要综合地考虑游戏剧情、机器学习和人机交互技术,构建具有自主感知、情绪、行为、学习能力、多通道交互的虚拟角色能够极大地提升严肃游戏的感染力,更好地体现寓教于乐。     

Serious games and learning effectiveness: The case of It’s a Deal!

Although the value of serious games in education is undeniable and the potential benefits of using video games as ideal companions to classroom instruction is unquestionable, there is still little consensus on the game features supporting learning effectiveness, the process by which games engage learners, and the types of learning outcomes that can be achieved through game play. Our aim in this discussion is precisely to advance in this direction by providing evidence of some of the factors influencing the learning effectiveness of a serious game called It’s a Deal! This serious game was created for the purpose of teaching intercultural business communication between Spaniards and Britons in business settings in which English is used as the lingua franca. This paper hypothesizes that the immersive, all-embracing and interactive learning environment provided by the video game to its users may contribute to develop and enhance their intercultural communicative competence. The study attempts to answer three main research questions: (a) after playing It’s a Deal!, did the students sampled improve their intercultural awareness, intercultural knowledge and intercultural communicative competence in business English? (b) If they improved their intercultural learning, what are the factors influencing such improvement? And (c) if they did not improve their intercultural learning, what are the factors influencing such failure? The game participants who volunteered to take part in the study were all students of English Studies at the University of Alicante in the academic year 2010-2011. One hundred and six students completed both the pre-test and the post-test questionnaires, and played It’s a Deal! A sample of fifty students was selected randomly for the empirical study. The results obtained in the tests performed were compared and contrasted intra-group, both qualitatively and quantitatively, for the purpose of finding any statistically significant difference that may confirm whether or not there was an improvement in the students’ intercultural communicative competence in business English as a result of the implementation of the It’s a Deal! serious game. Findings of this study demonstrate that the video game is an effective learning tool for the teaching of intercultural communication between Spaniards and Britons in business settings in which English is used as the lingua franca. In particular, whereas the game had a small learning effect on intercultural awareness and a medium learning effect on intercultural knowledge, it had a large learning effect on intercultural communicative competence. The study also documents correlating factors that make serious games effective, since it shows that the learning effectiveness of It’s a Deal! stems from the correct balance of the different dimensions involved in the creation of serious games, specifically instructional content, game dimensions, game cycle, debriefing, perceived educational value, transfer of learnt skills and intrinsic motivation.     

Enhancing 5th graders’ science content knowledge and self-efficacy through game-based learning

Many argue that games can positively impact learning by providing an intrinsically motivating and engaging learning environment for students in ways that traditional school cannot. Recent research demonstrates that games have the potential to impact student learning in STEM content areas and that collaborative gameplay may be of particular importance for learning gains. This study investigated the effects of collaborative and single game player conditions on science content learning and science self-efficacy. Results indicated that there were no differences between the two playing conditions; however, when conditions were collapsed, science content learning and self-efficacy significantly increased. Future research should focus on the composition of collaboration interaction among game players to assess what types of collaborative tasks may yield positive learning gains.     

Playful public participation in urban planning: A case study for online serious games

The aim of this paper is to study the implementation of online games to encourage public participation in urban planning. Its theoretical foundations are based on previous work in public participatory geographical information systems (PP GISs), play and games, with a special focus on serious games. Serious games aim to support learning processes in a new, more playful way. We developed the concept of playful public participation in urban planning, including playful elements such as storytelling, walking and moving, sketching, drawing, and games. A group of students designed an online serious public participatory game entitled NextCampus. The case study used in NextCampus was taken from the real-world question of a possible move of a university campus to a new location in the city of Hamburg, Germany. The development of the serious public participatory game NextCampus resulted in a physical prototype, user interface design, and a computational model of the game. The NextCampus game was tested with the help of two groups of urban planning students and presented to three external experts who provided valuable recommendations for further development. The critical comments questioned the level of complexity involved in such games. The positive comments included recognition of the potential for joy and the playfulness a game like NextCampus could evoke.     

Supervised machine learning in multimodal learning analytics for estimating success in project‐based learning

Multimodal learning analytics provides researchers new tools and techniques to capture different types of data from complex learning activities in dynamic learning environments. This paper investigates the use of diverse sensors, including computer vision, user‐generated content, and data from the learning objects (physical computing components), to record high‐fidelity synchronised multimodal recordings of small groups of learners interacting. We processed and extracted different aspects of the students' interactions to answer the following question: Which features of student group work are good predictors of team success in open‐ended tasks with physical computing? To answer this question, we have explored different supervised machine learning approaches (traditional and deep learning techniques) to analyse the data coming from multiple sources. The results illustrate that state‐of‐the‐art computational techniques can be used to generate insights into the "black box" of learning in students' project‐based activities. The features identified from the analysis show that distance between learners' hands and faces is a strong predictor of students' artefact quality, which can indicate the value of student collaboration. Our research shows that new and promising approaches such as neural networks, and more traditional regression approaches can both be used to classify multimodal learning analytics data, and both have advantages and disadvantages depending on the research questions and contexts being investigated. The work presented here is a significant contribution towards developing techniques to automatically identify the key aspects of students success in project‐based learning environments, and to ultimately help teachers provide appropriate and timely support to students in these fundamental aspects.     

My‐Mini‐Pet: a handheld pet‐nurturing game to engage students in arithmetic practices

In the last decade, more and more games have been developed for handheld devices. Furthermore, the popularity of handheld devices and increase of wireless computing can be taken advantage of to provide students with more learning opportunities. Games also could bring promising benefits – specifically, motivating students to learn/play, sustaining their interest, reflecting their learning/playing status, and facilitating the learning/playing progress. However, most of these have been designed for entertainment rather than education. Hence, in this study we incorporate game elements into a learning environment. The My‐Mini‐Pet system is a handheld pet‐nurturing game environment, in which students learn with an animal learning companion, their My‐Mini‐Pet. Three design strategies are adopted. First, the pet‐nurturing strategy, which simulates the relationship between the pet and its owner, the My‐Mini‐Pet becomes a motivator/sustainer of learning. Second, the pet appearance‐changing strategy, which externalizes the learning status of the student. In other words, the My‐Mini‐Pet plays the role of a reflector. Third, the pet feedback strategy, which links the behaviours of the student and his/her pet, the My‐Mini‐Pet acts as a facilitator of learning. A pilot study was also conducted to preliminarily investigate the effectiveness and experiences of the strategies on allowing the student to understand arithmetic practices. The results showed that the strategy was effective, encouraging the students to engage in learning activities. Furthermore, the game attracted the students’ attention and stimulated discussion between peers. Some implications about the further developments are also discussed.     

Assessing implicit science learning in digital games

Building on the promise shown in game-based learning research, this paper explores methods for Game-Based Learning Assessments (GBLA) using a variety of educational data mining techniques (EDM). GBLA research examines patterns of behaviors evident in game data logs for the measurement of implicit learning—the development of unarticulated knowledge that is not yet expressible on a test or formal assessment. This paper reports on the study of two digital games showing how the combination of human coding with EDM has enabled researchers to measure implicit learning of Physics. In the game Impulse, researchers combined human coding of video with educational data mining to create a set of automated detectors of students' implicit understanding of Newtonian mechanics. For Quantum Spectre, an optics puzzle game, human coding of Interaction Networks was used to identify common student errors. Findings show that several of our measures of student implicit learning within these games were significantly correlated with improvements in external postassessments. Methods and detailed findings were different for each type of game. These results suggest GBLA shows promise for future work such as adaptive games and in-class, data-driven formative assessments, but design of the assessment mechanics must be carefully crafted for each game.     

Pedagogical agent in Multimedia Interactive Modules for Learning – MIMLE

Using new game-based learning systems in college education is neither an easy nor a simple task. The aim of such systems is to keep attention, teach students or assess their knowledge through a game. With the aim of keeping students’ attention through a game, in this paper we show the implementation of game-based learning systems with a pedagogical agent. We presents two models for assessing student’s knowledge used by a pedagogical agent which is a part of the new class of Multimedia Interactive Modules for Learning – MIMLE. One of the models is used for activating the agent. It is realized as a window of Help option and built in accordance to Marcov decision process theory (MDP). The basic goal of this mode is to determine the minimal intervention of the agent towards making the right direction concerning the studying process based on simulation learning. With the second, long-term model, we have assessed student’s knowledge in the current game level that is used to decide students should pass on to the next level of learning or if they should stay on the same level.     

Ubiquitous games for learning (UbiqGames): Weatherlings,a worked example

This paper provides a rationale for a class of mobile, casual, and educational games, which we call UbiqGames. The study is motivated by the desire to understand how students use educational games in light of additional distractions on their devices, and how game design can make those games appealing, educationally useful, and practical. In particular, we explain the choices made to build an engaging and educational first example of this line of games, namely Weatherlings. Further, we report results from a pilot study with 20 students that suggest that students are engaged by the game and are interested in learning more about academic content topics, specifically weather and climate, after playing the game. Research should continue to determine whether Weatherlings specifically does increase learning in these areas, and more generally to determine whether any learning gains and similar results with regard to engagement can be replicated in other content areas following the general model for game design.     

Effects of constructing versus playing an educational game on student motivation and deep learning strategy use

In this study the effects of two different interactive learning tasks, in which simple games were included were described with respect to student motivation and deep strategy use. The research involved 235 students from four elementary schools in The Netherlands. One group of students (N = 128) constructed their own memory ‘drag and drop’ game, whereas the other group (N = 107) played an existing ‘drag and drop’ memory game. Analyses of covariance demonstrated a significant difference between the two conditions both on intrinsic motivation and deep strategy use. The large effect sizes for both motivation and deep strategy use were in favour of the construction condition. The results suggest that constructing a game might be a better way to enhance student motivation and deep learning than playing an existing game. Despite the promising results, the low level of complexity of the games used is a study limitation.     

Using Serious Games in Data Communications and Networking Management Course

Data communications and networking management is one important course taught in business schools. To prepare themselves for future career, students need to acquire the data communications skills and the higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) from this course so that they relate the relevance of the theory to practical problems. Prior literature shows that serious games offer an ability to trigger enjoyment in learning this difficult subject. Therefore, in this study, we empirically examined the effects of serious game feature on students’ learning experience, focusing particularly on concentration and enjoyment, as well as measuring the perceived improvement in their HOCS. The results revealed that features of serious games have positive effects on students’ concentration and enjoyment, and such learning experience did indeed significantly improve their perceived HOCS. The results encourage faculty members to adopt serious games to teach difficult subjects in the field of management information systems.     

Impacts of behavioral engagement and self-monitoring on the development of mental models through serious games: Inferences from in-game measures

The present study investigated the potential of serious games for the acquisition of complex cognitive skills by assessing learners’ mental model development, operationalized as an increase in Mental Model Accuracy (MMA). Furthermore, we assessed behavioral engagement and self-monitoring as two specific engagement types within the gameplay process and analyzed their impact on mental model development. German undergraduate students (N = 97) played a serious game developed to foster practical money skills. We obtained pre- and post-gaming measures of MMA to analyze the development of mental models by applying a structural assessment method. Unobtrusive measures of behavioral engagement and self-monitoring were obtained by computerized collection of participants’ in-game activities. Although we did not find a significant increase in overall MMA through playing, the degree of self-monitoring had a significant and positive effect on post-gaming MMA, even beyond the effect of initial MMA. Behavioral engagement had no impact on mental model development; however, it was positively related to self-monitoring behavior. The results are discussed in light of findings from research on self-regulated learning and controversial notions regarding the effect of behavioral engagement in serious games. In addition to insights into gameplay processes that affect mental model development through serious games, the present study also has practical implications in stressing the importance for game designers to provide learners with the opportunity to engage in self-monitoring behavior while playing a serious game.     

Using commercial video games in flipped classrooms to support physical concept construction

Based on the flipped‐classroom model and the potential motivational and instructional benefits of digital games, we describe a flipped game‐based learning (FGBL) strategy focused on preclass and overall learning outcomes. A secondary goal is to determine the effects, if any, of the classroom aspects of the FGBL strategy on learning efficiency. Our experiments involved 2 commercial games featuring physical motion concepts: Ballance (Newton's law of motion) and Angry Birds (mechanical energy conservation). We randomly assigned 87 8th‐grade students to game instruction (digital game before class and lecture‐based instruction in class), FGBL strategy (digital game before class and cooperative learning in the form of group discussion and practice in class), or lecture‐based instruction groups (no gameplay). Results indicate that the digital games exerted a positive effect on preclass learning outcomes and that FGBL‐strategy students achieved better overall learning outcomes than their lecture‐based peers. Our observation of similar overall outcomes between the cooperative learning and lecture‐based groups suggests a need to provide additional teaching materials or technical support when introducing video games to cooperative classroom learning activities.     

Interactive story authoring: A viable form of creative expression for the classroom

The unprecedented growth in numbers of children playing computer games has stimulated discussion and research regarding what, if any, educational value these games have for teaching and learning. The research on this topic has primarily focused on children as players of computer games rather than builders/constructors of computer games. Recently, several game companies, such as BioWare Corp. and Bethesda Softworks, have released game story creation tools to the public, along with their games. However, a major obstacle to using these commercial tools is the level of programming experience required to create interactive game stories. In this paper, we demonstrate that a commercial game story construction tool, BioWare Corp.’s Aurora Toolset, can be augmented by our new tool, ScriptEase, to enable students in two grade ten English classes to successfully construct interactive game stories. We present evidence that describes the relationship between interactive story authoring and traditional story authoring, along with a series of factors that can potentially affect success at these activities: gender, creativity, intellectual ability, previous experiences with programming, time playing computer games, and time spent online. Results indicate that students can successfully construct sophisticated interactive stories with very little training. The results also show no gender differences in the quality of these interactive stories, regardless of programming experience or the amount of time per week playing computer games or participating in general online activities, although a subset of female students did show a slightly higher level of performance on interactive story authoring. In the educational context of this study, we show that ScriptEase provides an easy-to-use tool for interactive story authoring in a constructionist learning environment.     

深度学习在游戏中的应用

综述了近年来发展迅速的深度学习技术及其在游戏(或博弈)中的应用. 深度学习通过多层神经网络来构建端对端的从输入到输出的非线性映射, 相比传统的机器学习模型有显见的优势. 最近, 深度学习被成功地用于解决强化学习中的策略评估和策略优化的问题, 并于多种游戏的人工智能取得了突破性的提高. 本文详述了深度学习在常见游戏中的应用.     

Problem-solving processes in an educational construction simulation game

The growing adoption of educational simulation games in construction pedagogy has significantly impacted student learning. One game, the Virtual Construction Simulator 4 (VCS4), has been found to support student learning of how to solve complex construction problems. However, further research is warranted to evaluate the thinking processes that students engage while playing the game. This study examines those thinking processes by analyzing verbal protocols collected as students thought aloud while playing VCS4 game modules and resulting verbal protocols were coded to capture both cognitive and metacognitive operations. Patterns of thought revealed by this coding were then compared to the patterns expected based on the intentions of game design. The results show that students do generally exhibit the expected patterns. These findings support the claim that students engaged in complex higher-order thinking processes and skills, which evolved based on the types of construction projects.     

Learning loops – interactions between guided reflection and experience‐based learning in a serious game activity

In a study on experience‐based learning in serious games, 45 players were tested for topic comprehension by a questionnaire administered before and after playing the single‐player serious game Peacemaker (Impact Games 2007). Players were divided into two activity conditions: 20 played a 1‐h game with a 3‐min half‐time break to complete an affect self‐report form while 25 also participated in a 20‐min reflective group discussion during their half‐time break. During the discussion, they were asked by an experimenter to reflect on a set of topics related to the game. We present the analysis of the questionnaires, which illustrates that contrary to our expectations the reflection period had a negative effect on the learning of the players as judged by their performance on closed‐form questions at levels 1–5 (out of 6) on the Bloom taxonomy of learning outcomes. The questionnaire also included a few open questions which gave the players a possibility to display deep (level 6) learning. The players did not differ significantly between conditions regarding the questions measuring deep learning.     

Children’s choices and strategies in video games

It is important to develop an understanding of children’s engagement and choices in learning experiences outside of school as this has implications for their development and orientations to other learning environments. This mixed-methods study examines relationships between the genres of video games children choose to play and the learning strategies they employ to improve at these games. It also explores students’ motivations for playing the games they choose to play. One hundred eighteen fourth- and fifth-grade students participated in this study. Qualitative analyses of student responses resulted in a model for classifying motivation for game choices. Children primarily cite reasons that can be classified as psychological or cognitive reasons for choosing to play certain video games, and are motivated by the challenge and thinking required in the games. Analyses using Chi-square tests of association demonstrated significant relationships between video game genre and learning strategy used for two of the six learning strategies (p < .05). Children playing action games are more likely to use repetition to learn the game and children playing adventure games are more likely to use their imaginations to take on the role of the character in the game and think the way the character would to make decisions in the game. There were also several gender differences in learning preferences.     

Modeling how incoming knowledge,persistence, affective states,and in-game progress influence student learning from an educational game

This study investigated the relationships among incoming knowledge, persistence, affective states, in-game progress, and consequently learning outcomes for students using the game Physics Playground. We used structural equation modeling to examine these relations. We tested three models, obtaining a model with good fit to the data. We found evidence that both the pretest and the in-game measure of student performance significantly predicted learning outcome, while the in-game measure of performance was predicted by pretest data, frustration, and engaged concentration. Moreover, we found evidence for two indirect paths from engaged concentration and frustration to learning, via the in-game progress measure. We discuss the importance of these findings, and consider viable next steps concerning the design of effective learning supports within game environments.