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The challenge of educational game design is to develop solutions that please as many players as possible, but are still educationally effective. How learning happens in games is methodologically very challenging to point out and thus it is usually avoided. In this paper we tackle this challenge with eye tracking method. The aim of this research is to study the meaning of cognitive feedback in educational games and evaluate the usefulness of eye tracking method in game based learning research and game design. Based on perceptual data we evaluated the playing behavior of 43 Finnish and Austrian children aged from 7 to 16. Four different games were used as test-beds. The results indicated that players’ perception patterns varied a lot and some players even missed relevant information during playing. The results showed that extraneous elements should be eliminated from the game world in order to avoid incidental processing in crucial moments. Animated content easily grasps player’s attention, which may disturb learning activities. Especially low performers and inattentive players have difficulties in distinguishing important and irrelevant content and tend to stick to salient elements no matter of their importance for a task. However, it is not reasonable to exclude all extraneous elements because it decreases engagement and immersion. Thus, balancing of extraneous and crucial elements is essential. Overall, the results showed that eye tracking can provide important information from game based learning process and game designs. However, we have to be careful when interpreting the perceptual data, because we cannot be sure if the player understands everything that he or she is paying attention to. Thus, eye tracking should be complemented with offline methods like retrospective interview that was successfully used in this research.

The aim of this study was to develop a geometry learning game for handheld devices that adapts to the user's behaviour. The learners in this study were six years old Finnish pre-school pupils. The adaptive system was very limited and the observed behaviour was defined to be very simple. Despite that, the developed software achieves good learning results among the tested pupils. The study shows that the learning effect is very promising with this kind of a handheld platform and simple adaptation system. This study gives good visions of what can be achieved with more complex behaviour adaptive systems in the field of eLearning.

The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the problembased gaming model that tries to explain the learning process in educational games. The model was studied through Geometry game aimed for pre-school children (N = 24). The game relays on learning by teaching approach and involves AI-engine modeling the human concept learning structures. The qualitative analyses were used to explore participants' learning processes and gaming strategies. The results indicated that the model well describes the problem-based gaming process in which the reflection phase seems to be a vital factor. Furthermore, the changes in playing strategies were found to enhance learning.

The main aim of this paper is to evaluate the problembased gaming model that tries to explain the learning process in educational games. The model was studied through Geometry game aimed for preschool children (N = 24). The game relays on learning by teaching approach and involves AI-engine modeling the human concept learning structures. The qualitative analyses were used to explore participants' learning processes and gaming strategies. The results indicated that the model well describes the problem-based gaming process in which the reflection phase seems to be a vital factor. Furthermore, the changes in playing strategies were found to enhance learning.