Elsevier

Computers in Human Behavior

Volume 47, June 2015, Pages 98-107
Computers in Human Behavior

Visualisation of student learning model in serious games

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.09.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Game-based learning environment requires concrete real-time analytical tool.

  • We propose a new tool for visualisation of student learning model during gameplay session.

  • Tool can be used by educators and by students to track the game progress.

  • Evaluation of the proposed approach was done through an empirical study.

  • Initial quantitative results and recorded opinions of the participants speak in favour of the proposed approach.

Abstract

Application of serious games in distance learning can raise quality of education and student satisfaction on a higher level. However, when student learns through game, his focus is moved from learning domain to different context of the game. This actually enables to achieve fun and learn at the same time. But this approach also makes harder for educators to track and analyse students learning progress during game session, which is crucial in order to provide immediate feedback and to help students reach established learning goals. Such a specific learning environment requires concrete real-time analytical tool that will adequately match the dynamic game environment. This paper proposes a new tool for visualisation of student learning model during gameplay session. Tool can be used by educators and by students to track the game progress. Using this tool educators are provided with real-time tracking of students learning and it enables them to react and influence the overall learning process. Evaluation of the proposed approach was done through an empirical study, conducted on educators group monitoring an educational game session, using the combination of traditional analytic tool and the newly proposed visualisation approach. Initial quantitative results and recorded opinions of the participants speak in favour of the proposed approach and justify further investment in development of this specific learning analytics method.

Introduction

Application of serious games in distance learning can raise quality of education and student satisfaction on the higher level. However, when student learns through game, his focus is moved from learning domain to different context of the game. This actually enables fun and learning in the same time. But this approach also makes harder for educators to track and analyse students learning progress during game session, which is crucial in order to provide immediate feedback and to help students to reach established learning goals. Such a specific learning environment requires a specific real-time analytical tool that will adequately match the dynamic game environment.

Existing distance learning environments, such as LMS (Learning Management System) usually apply log analysis, produced by student’s activities, and apply some data mining methods on them in order to discover useful patterns (Colomo-Palacios et al., 2014, Jovanović et al., 2012). Such approach enables post-festum learning analytics. Unfortunately, similar approach applied in the domain of educational games would not be so effective, since things are more complicated, mostly due to the complex nature of the games. While student plays the game, his focus is on the player goals and solving game puzzles, while the educator is concerned with learning goals and learning progress. Hiding learning context behind playing is what makes learning through games more fun and consequently more motivating for students.

Our research problem is how to enable teacher to track and analyse students learning progress in real-time, during the educational game session. Approach that will be presented is part of our efforts to expand learning platform produced and maintained by our team, based on the educational games development framework (Minović, Milovanović, Lazović, & Starčević, 2008). The platform provides educators with the ability to define a 2D adventure game and gives students the ability to play such a game via browser or mobile phone (Minović, Milovanović, Štavljanin, & Starčević, 2010). Students’ knowledge is represented by student overlapping model (Brusilovskiy, 1994), while learning path is modelled using primitives defined in our framework. In order to provide educator with real-time feedback on students’ progress, we will propose visualisation of students’ knowledge by new kind of graphical representation. Using that tool, the educator will be able to track how well the student grasps the provided knowledge. Additionally, based on that information he can assess student or influence his game plan in order to support him.

In the next section we provide a brief literature review on the area of learning analytics and educational games. After that, we define problem statement, followed by models relevant to knowledge modelling in Section 4. Section 5 describes our educational game development environment from the educator’s perspective. Next section presents a new approach to visualisation of students’ knowledge. Section 7 is devoted to an experimental study conducted to evaluate the proposed approach. Final section is dedicated to discussion and conclusion.

Section snippets

State of the art

It is a common fact that new generation of students finds traditional methods of teaching less suitable. Our students are no longer the people that our educational system was designed to teach (Minović et al., 2012, Sancho et al., 2008) and also the formality of traditional learning materials is increasingly transforming to more popular informal approach (García-Peñalvo et al., 2013, García-Peñalvo et al., 2014). That is why many researchers are attempting to find a way of including student’s

Problem statement

Distance learning makes education accessible to a broad audience. There is no constraint of physical presence and teacher can work with a larger group of students. Although working at a distance is convenient, such a form of knowledge exchange is usually the cause of disconnection between educator and student. Communication in person helps educators grasp the specific progress of students learning. In this case, teachers lack the visual cues that can signal when students are not sufficiently

Relevant meta-models

Our approach to the development of educational games is inspired by the model-driven development. It uses a platform-independent base model (PIM) and one or more platform-specific models (PSM), each describing how the base model is implemented on a different platform (Obrenović & Starčević, 2004). In this way, the PIM is unaffected by the specifics of different implementation technologies (e.g., web-based LMS, game-based learning environment), and the necessity of remodelling the application or

Integrating knowledge within game

Educational game is constructed by combining knowledge with games scenario and environment. Using developed software package, game is built by educator (Minović et al., 2008). Adventures are consisted of quests that are further divided into quest steps. Player has to go through all quest steps in order to complete the quest. Game is over when all given quests are solved.

For the knowledge integration, educator defines new or reuses existing domain models. In our example its computer networks

Visualisation of student learning model

During the educational game session, students and educator have different goals. Students are mainly focused on the game itself, working to complete all given quests. They need the ability to track their game progress and how far are they in completing the quests. On the other side, educator is mostly concerned with the learning progress of the student group and of each student individually. Having feedback on how students are accepting knowledge is essential for a successful educational

Experimental study

Visualisation can contribute to many aspects of the analytical process. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine in what extent this contribution can be of positive nature, especially in regard to a concrete mode of application. Visualisation approach can affect many roles in learning process. In our setting highest effect is expected with the educators using the proposed tools.

In order to measure the effects of the proposed visualisation approach one can rely on two measures. One being the

Conclusion

Focus of this paper was on the problem of real-time learning analytics during active educational game session. Our approach is based on combination of specific educational game development platform with specially designed data visualisation for tracking of students learning progress. This new form of diagram is introduced in order to visualise student-overlapping model. Same model can be used on student groups as well as for analysing individual students. Diagram construction provides

Acknowledgements

This research is partially funded by grants from the Serbian Ministry of Education and Science, contract nos. TR 32013 and EU funded, Lifelong Learning Programme, PROJECT NUMBER- 519141-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-KA3-KA3MP.

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