A distinctive feature of game‐based learning environments is their capacity to create learning experiences that are both effective and engaging. Recent advances in sensor‐based technologies such as ...facial expression analysis and gaze tracking have introduced the opportunity to leverage multimodal data streams for learning analytics. Learning analytics informed by multimodal data captured during students’ interactions with game‐based learning environments hold significant promise for developing a deeper understanding of game‐based learning, designing game‐based learning environments to detect maladaptive behaviors and informing adaptive scaffolding to support individualized learning. This paper introduces a multimodal learning analytics approach that incorporates student gameplay, eye tracking and facial expression data to predict student posttest performance and interest after interacting with a game‐based learning environment, Crystal Island. We investigated the degree to which separate and combined modalities (ie, gameplay, facial expressions of emotions and eye gaze) captured from students (n = 65) were predictive of student posttest performance and interest after interacting with Crystal Island. Results indicate that when predicting student posttest performance and interest, models utilizing multimodal data either perform equally well or outperform models utilizing unimodal data. We discuss the synergistic effects of combining modalities for predicting both student interest and posttest performance. The findings suggest that multimodal learning analytics can accurately predict students’ posttest performance and interest during game‐based learning and hold significant potential for guiding real‐time adaptive scaffolding.
In this paper, we investigate the impact of flow (operationalized as heightened challenge and skill), engagement, and immersion on learning in game-based learning environments. The data was ...gathered through a survey from players (N = 173) of two learning games (Quantum Spectre: N = 134 and Spumone: N = 40). The results show that engagement in the game has a clear positive effect on learning, however, we did not find a significant effect between immersion in the game and learning. Challenge of the game had a positive effect on learning both directly and via the increased engagement. Being skilled in the game did not affect learning directly but by increasing engagement in the game. Both the challenge of the game and being skilled in the game had a positive effect on both being engaged and immersed in the game. The challenge in the game was an especially strong predictor of learning outcomes. For the design of educational games, the results suggest that the challenge of the game should be able to keep up with the learners growing abilities and learning in order to endorse continued learning in game-based learning environments.
•Engagement in the game has a positive effect on learning.•Immersion in the game does not have a significant effect on learning.•Challenge affected learning both directly and via the increased engagement.•Skill did not affect learning directly but only via the increased engagement.•Perceived challenge was an especially strong predictor of learning outcomes.
Game‐based learning (GBL) may address the unique characteristics of a single subject such as chemistry. Previous systematic reviews on the effects of GBL have yielded contradictory results concerning ...cognitive and motivational outcomes. This meta‐analysis aims to: (a) estimate the overall effect size of GBL in chemistry education on cognitive, motivational, and emotional outcomes compared with non‐GBL (i.e., media comparison); (b) examine possible moderators of the effects; and (c) identify the more effective game design and instructional design features (i.e., value‐added comparison). We screened 842 articles and included 34 studies. This study is the first GBL meta‐analysis that employed a three‐level random‐effects model for the overall effects. Moderator analysis used a mixed‐effects meta‐regression model. Results from the media comparison suggest chemistry GBL was more effective for cognition (g = 0.70, k = 30, N = 4155), retention (g = 0.59, k = 20, N = 2860), and motivation (g = 0.35, k = 7, N = 974) than non‐GBL and the substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 86%) for cognitive outcomes. No study reported emotional outcomes, and studies considering value‐added comparisons of GBL with versus without specific design features (k = 3) were too few to perform a meta‐analysis. Moderator analyses implied that except for publication source and sample size, no other moderator was related to effect sizes. There may be the small‐study effects, particularly publication bias. Although we conclude that GBL enhances chemistry learning more than non‐GBL, the results also make clear that additional high‐quality value‐added research is needed to identify design guidelines that may further improve chemistry GBL. More GBL meta‐analyses on subjects other than chemistry are also needed. As the first GBL meta‐analysis that emphasizes emotion, we call for more research on emotion and on relationships between cognition, motivation, and emotion in GBL.
Serious games have proven to be a powerful tool in education to engage, motivate, and help students learn. However, the change in student knowledge after playing games is usually measured with ...traditional (paper) prequestionnaires–postquestionnaires. We propose a combination of game learning analytics and data mining techniques to predict knowledge change based on in‐game student interactions. We have tested this approach in a case study for which we have conducted preexperiments–postexperiments with 227 students playing a previously validated serious game on first aid techniques. We collected student interaction data while students played, using a game learning analytics infrastructure and the standard data format Experience API for Serious Games. After data collection, we developed and tested prediction models to determine whether knowledge, given as posttest results, can be accurately predicted. Additionally, we compared models both with and without pretest information to determine the importance of previous knowledge when predicting postgame knowledge. The high accuracy of the obtained prediction models suggests that serious games can be used not only to teach but also to measure knowledge acquisition after playing. This will simplify serious games application for educational settings and especially in the classroom easing teachers' evaluation tasks.
Lay Description
What is currently known about the subject matter
Serious games are a powerful tool to engage, motivate, and help students learn.
Pre‐post experiments are commonly used to measure knowledge acquisition.
Game learning analytics can be applied to interaction data from games.
What this paper adds
We present a two‐step approach combining game learning analytics and data mining to predict players' performance in serious games based on their interactions.
The approach is tested in a case study with pre‐post experiments collecting interaction data with 227 students playing a serious game to determine if performance can be accurately predicted.
The comparison of prediction models has helped to determine if pretest information is essential.
The highly accurate prediction models obtained suggest that games can be used to teach and measure knowledge acquisition after playing.
Implications of study findings for practitioners
The approach aims to simplify the measurement of players' learning with serious games.
It may be generalized at least to similar scenarios (e.g., games for procedural learning or game‐likesimulations) where similar interaction data are feasible.
Game mechanics and educational design should define the interaction data to capture.
Using an accepted standard tracking profile is a clear recommendation.
Collaborative inquiry learning affords educators a context within which to support understanding of scientific practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. One approach to ...supporting collaborative science inquiry is through problem‐based learning (PBL). However, there are two key challenges in scaffolding collaborative inquiry learning in technology rich environments. First, it is unclear how we might understand the impact of scaffolds that address multiple functions (e.g., to support inquiry and argumentation). Second, scaffolds take different forms, further complicating how to coordinate the forms and functions of scaffolds to support effective collaborative inquiry. To address these issues, we identify two functions that needed to be scaffolded, the PBL inquiry cycle and accountable talk. We then designed predefined hard scaffolds and just‐in‐time soft scaffolds that target the regulation of collaborative inquiry processes and accountable talk. Drawing on a mixed method approach, we examine how middle school students from a rural school engaged with Crystal Island: EcoJourneys for two weeks (N=45). Findings indicate that hard scaffolds targeting the PBL inquiry process and soft scaffolds that targeted accountable talk fostered engagement in these processes. Although the one‐to‐one mapping between form and function generated positive results, additional soft scaffolds were also needed for effective engagement in collaborative inquiry and that these soft scaffolds were often contingent on hard scaffolds. Our findings have implications for how we might design the form of scaffolds across multiple functions in game‐based learning environments.
Background
In recent years, the importance of emotions in learning has been increasingly recognized. Applying emotional design to induce positive emotions has been considered a means to enhance the ...instructional effectiveness of digital learning environments. However, only a few studies have examined the specific effects of emotional design in game‐based learning.
Objectives
This quasi‐experimental study utilized a value‐added research approach to investigate whether emotional design applied to scaffolding in a game‐based learning environment improves learning and motivational outcomes more than emotionally neutral scaffolding.
Methods
A total of 138 participants, mean age of 11.5 (SD = 0.73) participated in the study. A total of 68 participants played the base version of a fraction learning game (Number Trace), where scaffolding was provided with emotionally neutral mathematical notations, and 70 participants played the value‐added version of the game using emotionally designed animated scaffolding agents. Pre‐and post‐tests were used to measure conceptual fraction knowledge and self‐reported measures of situational interest and situational self‐efficacy to evaluate motivational outcomes.
Results and Conclusions
Our results indicate that the emotional design applied to scaffolds can improve the educational value of a game‐based learning environment by enhancing players' situational interest and situational self‐efficacy. However, although the intervention improved the participants' conceptual fraction knowledge, there was no significant difference between the scaffolding conditions in participants' learning outcomes.
Takeaways
The results suggest that emotional design can increase the educational impact of game‐based learning by promoting the development of interest, as well as improving self‐efficacy.
Lay Description
What is currently known about the subject matter
Learning games that include scaffolding can enhance learning outcomes.
Emotional design can enhance learning outcomes.
Only a few studies have examined effects of emotional design in game‐based learning.
There are no studies examining the effects of emotional design of scaffolding.
What this paper adds to this
The study is the first to examine the effects of emotionally designed scaffolds in game‐based learning.
Emotional design applied to scaffolds did not enhance learning more than emotionally neutral scaffolds.
Emotional design applied to scaffolds enhanced participants' situational interest and situational self‐efficacy.
The implications of study findings for practitioners
The study confirms that math games that include number line mechanics and scaffolding can be effective.
The results demonstrated that emotional design of scaffolds did not harm learning.
The results confirm that emotional design of instructional features is useful as it can enhance motivational outcomes.
Learning effects of emotionally designed features should be examined with longer interventions.
Gamification refers to using game attributes in a non-gaming context. Health professions educators increasingly turn to gamification to optimize students’ learning outcomes. However, little is known ...about the concept of gamification and its possible working mechanisms. This review focused on empirical evidence for the effectiveness of gamification approaches and theoretical rationales for applying the chosen game attributes. We systematically searched multiple databases, and included all empirical studies evaluating the use of game attributes in health professions education. Of 5044 articles initially identified, 44 met the inclusion criteria. Negative outcomes for using gamification were not reported. Almost all studies included assessment attributes (n = 40), mostly in combination with conflict/challenge attributes (n = 27). Eight studies revealed that this specific combination had increased the use of the learning material, sometimes leading to improved learning outcomes. A relatively small number of studies was performed to explain mechanisms underlying the use of game attributes (n = 7). Our findings suggest that it is possible to improve learning outcomes in health professions education by using gamification, especially when employing game attributes that improve learning behaviours and attitudes towards learning. However, most studies lacked well-defined control groups and did not apply and/or report theory to understand underlying processes. Future research should clarify mechanisms underlying gamified educational interventions and explore theories that could explain the effects of these interventions on learning outcomes, using well-defined control groups, in a longitudinal way. In doing so, we can build on existing theories and gain a practical and comprehensive understanding of how to select the right game elements for the right educational context and the right type of student.
Past studies on the issue of learning‐theory foundations in game‐based learning stressed the importance of establishing learning‐theory foundation and provided an exploratory examination of ...established learning theories. However, we found research seldom addressed the development of the use or failure to use learning‐theory foundations and categorized these learning theories into relative types and synthesized their development. We investigate this issue from the perspective of learning theories invoked to underpin educational computer game design and use based on the four types of learning theories: behaviourism, cognitivism, humanism and constructivism. Because the investigation needs to examine and analyse the results from a large number of independent previous studies, this study applied the meta‐analysis method to present a more comprehensive description and discussion of the influence and implications of the findings. This study shows the distribution of development trends for the use of learning theory as a theoretical foundation, as opposed to those that fail to use learning theory in game‐based learning, along with the distribution of types and principles of learning theories that used a learning‐theory foundation. These new findings can supplement the results of previous studies with regard to the issue of learning‐theory foundations in game‐based learning. The contributions of this study for the issue of learning‐theory foundations in game‐based learning are discussed.
Despite many known educational benefits of digital game‐based learning, teaching with digital games is not yet a common practice in formal education. The role that digital game‐based learning might ...play in future school teaching can be explored by examining the behavioral intentions of pre‐service teachers as the ultimate gatekeepers. In this survey study, 402 pre‐service teachers from German‐speaking universities had participated. Multiple regression analyses were applied to examine the role of pre‐service teachers’ personal characteristics in their intention to integrate digital games into two educational contexts. For both educational contexts, we identified perceived usefulness and curriculum relatedness of digital games as key factors in pre‐service teachers' intention to teach with digital games. We also found differences in explained variance and relevant personal characteristics between educational contexts. Overall, we discuss how teaching with digital games could become a common practice if particular characteristics of pre‐service teachers are already addressed in teacher education.
Practitioner notes
What is already known about this topic
Several conceptual and empirical works have synthesized diverse educational benefits of teaching with digital games and digital game‐based learning.
Teaching with digital games poses several infrastructural and technological challenges for teachers.
Whether teaching with digital games becomes a common practice is related to the intention of teachers who act as gatekeepers for effective educational approaches.
What this paper adds
Insights into relations between intentions to teach with digital games and personal characteristics among pre‐service teachers as future gatekeepers.
The intentions of pre‐service teachers to teach with digital games show particularly strong relations to a small set of personal characteristics.
The relations between the intentions of pre‐service teachers and their personal characteristics may vary between educational contexts.
Implications for practice and policy
The usefulness and curriculum relatedness of digital games in different educational contexts should be made clear to pre‐service teachers.
Teacher education could better prepare pre‐service teachers for their future role as gatekeepers by providing key experiences and competences regarding teaching and learning with digital games.
Policy makers could support teaching with digital games by advancing digital game‐based learning in teacher education and by reducing known barriers related to teaching with digital games.
The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of a pedagogical model of digital games on students' scientific competencies that are advocated by the Programme for International Student ...Assessment (PISA). As a single game‐based learning strategy may not be enough to enhance such competencies, the online game in the current study incorporated the design of the proposed pedagogical gamification, assessment, modeling, and enquiry (GAME) model. The participants were 69 sixth grade students at one primary school in Taiwan. A quasi‐experimental design was adopted. The experimental group students learned with the GAME model, whereas the comparison group students only learned with traditional learning way. The results showed that the learning gain in scientific competencies of the experimental group was better than those of the comparison group. This study revealed that the GAME model has potential to promote students' PISA scientific competencies. It is suggested that the integral GAME model may serve as one kind of strategies to enhance students' scientific competencies.
Lay Description
What is already known about this topic:
The existing literature suggested that GBL has the potential to improve science learning.
Studies of the effect of GBL on students' scientific competencies are still limited.
What this paper adds:
This study proposed the pedagogical GAME model that consists of gamification, assessment, modeling, and enquiry.
This study revealed that the GAME model led to differences in primary school students' scientific competencies.
Implications for practice and/or policy:
The enquiry activities embedded in games were shown to be crucial for students' learning gains of scientific competencies.
The GAME model may serve as a reference for improving students' scientific literacy.
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