Improving Serious Games Analyzing Learning Analytics Data: Lessons Learned

Alonso‐Fernández, Cristina; Pérez-Colado, Iván José; Martínez‐Ortiz, Iván; Fernández‐Manjón, Baltasar

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-11548-7_27

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Yet, this task is almost impossi-ble to carry out, as there are many different SG genres, covering diverse subjects, addressed to different groups of people. As a result, some concluded that the evaluation of SGs' functional components remains unclear (e.g., Alonso-Fernández, Pérez-Colado, Freire, Martínez-Ortiz, & Fernández-Manjón, 2018;Zhonggen, 2019) or that it is biased (e.g., Connolly, Boyle, MacArthur, Hainey, & Boyle, 2012). Others declared that past studies failed to solve this problem (Shi & Shih, 2015) or supported the view that there is no established methodology for measuring their effectiveness (e.g., Hersh & Leporini, 2018;Serrano-Laguna, Manero, Freire, & Fernández-Manjón, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing the Subjective Learning Effectiveness of Serious Games

et al. 2019

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Aim/Purpose: This work examines which factors influence user views on the learning effectiveness of serious games. For that matter, a model was developed and tested. Background: Although the impact of serious games on learning is their most widely ex-amined aspect, research is spread thin across a large number of studies having little in common in terms of their settings, samples, and learning sub-jects. Also, there is a lack of consensus regarding which factors have an im-pact on their effectiveness. The most significant problem seems to be the fact that most assessment tools examined just a few factors. Methodology: The initial model included eleven factors responsible for shaping the learning outcomes, belonging to four groups: (a) content, (b) technical features, (c) user state of mind, and (d) learning enabling features. All possible relationships between these factors and subjective learning effectiveness were examined. Data were collected using the Serious Games Evaluation Scale. The target group was 483 university students who played two serious games. The model was tested using covariance-based structural equation modeling. Contribution: The study offers the prototype of a rather complex model, accurately explaining the intricate relationships between the substantial number of factors that were measured and their impact on user views regarding the subjective learning effectiveness of serious games. Findings: The final model fit statistics were very good, and 58.4% of the variance in subjective learning effectiveness was explained. The factor with the most significant impact was enjoyment, followed by subjective narration quality and realism. Quite interestingly, motivation did not have any effect on subjective learning effectiveness, while subjective feedback quality was not included as a construct in the final model. Moreover, the subjective ease of use and audiovisual fidelity had a minimal impact on other factors. Finally, the model proved to be invariant across genders and across the serious games that were used. Recommendations for Practitioners: Serious game developers can use the model so as to decide on which factors to focus, depending on their needs. Educators and education policymakers can also benefit from the model’s use, together with scales evaluating the quality of educational software. By assessing technical and content features and by using the model as a blueprint, they can envisage how enjoyable and motivating a serious game might be, as well as how it is going to impact user views regarding its learning effectiveness. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers can use the model in order to understand what shapes the learning experience of users when they play serious games. They can also use it for understanding the interactions between different the factors that come into play. Future Research: Several alternative models have to be tested so as to develop a much simpler one which, at the same time, will have the capacity to adequately explain what users think of serious games. Several different target groups and serious games have to be examined in order to establish that the model is indeed invariant across a wide range of serious games genres and users. Finally, an interesting idea is to examine the relationship between subjective and objective learning effectiveness.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing the Subjective Learning Effectiveness of Serious Games

et al. 2019

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“…In both of these examples described above, players could see leader boards and compare their performance to other students (i.e., the social frame of reference), which may lead to competition rather than knowledge and skill mastery (Alonso-Fernández et al, 2018). In the next section, we discuss an example of a studentfocused LA dashboard in an educational game called Physics Playground, which uses an achievement frame of reference and focuses on mastery, not competition.…”

Section: La Dashboards In Educational Gamesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning Analytics Dashboards in Educational Games

Rahimi

Shute

2021

Advances in Analytics for Learning and Teaching

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“…Problems such as the lack of both computational and additional human resources, teacher's rejection of new teaching methods, the fact that some teachers still believe that the implementation of educational games is a complex process that is beyond their reach, make it very difficult to systematically expand the implementation of games in educational settings. That is why providing guidelines and facilitating a simplified deployment of these games is so important, so that their implementation can greatly benefit teachers and students [3]. One of the reported methods to facilitate the adoption of educational games in the classroom is to provide visualization dashboards that can represent easy, interactive and intuitive visualizations, a series of interactions of the student with the environment.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visualizing Educational Game Data: A Case Study of Visualizations to Support Teachers

Andreo-Martínez¹,

Gómez²,

Ruipérez‐Valiente³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Video games have become one of the most popular mediums across cultures and ages. There is ample evidence that supports the benefits of using games for learning and assessment, and educators are largely supportive of using games in classrooms. However, the implementation of educational games as part of the curriculum and classroom practices has been rather scarce. One of the main barriers is that teachers face to actually know how their students are using the game so that they can analyze properly the effect of the activity and the interaction of students. Therefore, to support teachers to fully leverage the potential benefits of games in classrooms and make data-based decisions, educational games should incorporate learning analytics by transforming click-stream data generated from the gameplay into meaningful metrics and present visualizations of those metrics so that teachers can receive the information in an interactive and friendly way. For this work, we use data collected in a case study where teachers used Shadowspect geometry puzzle games in their classrooms. We apply learning analytics techniques to generate a series of metrics and visualizations that seek to facilitate that teachers can understand the interaction of students with the game. In this way, teachers can be more aware of the global progress of the class and each one of their students at an individual level, and intervene and adapt their classes when necessary.

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Improving Serious Games Analyzing Learning Analytics Data: Lessons Learned

Cited by 11 publications

References 12 publications

Factors Influencing the Subjective Learning Effectiveness of Serious Games

Factors Influencing the Subjective Learning Effectiveness of Serious Games

Learning Analytics Dashboards in Educational Games

Visualizing Educational Game Data: A Case Study of Visualizations to Support Teachers

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