The effectiveness of adaptive versus non‐adaptive learning with digital educational games

Abstract

Digital educational games are typically used for the training of academic skills.Given the heterogeneity in children's prior knowledge and learning pace in classrooms, especially educational games with integrated adaptivity are promising. Adaptive educational games are considered superior to non-adaptive educational games, because they constantly assess children's performance, and accordingly adapt the difficulty of the tasks corresponding to the children's individual level. However, empirical evidence with regard to the effectivity of adaptive compared to non-adaptive educational games to date is limited. A study was conducted with 191 children from the 3 rd year of Kindergarten who were enrolled in one of three conditions, i.e. playing an adaptive version of the Reading Game (RG), a non-adaptive version of the RG or training with pen-and-paper exercises. In all three conditions, children trained emergent reading (i.e. phonological awareness and letter knowledge) once a week for 30 minutes over a period of five weeks. Children's performance on cognitive (i.e. phonological awareness, letter knowledge, reading fluency) and non-cognitive (i.e. motivation, self-concept) factors was assessed. Results revealed a significant improvement in phonological awareness and letter knowledge in all conditions. However, no differences between the conditions were observed with respect to children's improvement on phonological awareness and letter knowledge or on their posttest scores for reading fluency.In addition, with regard to motivation and self-concept, again, no differences in these noncognitive factors were observed across conditions.

Maximizing learning without sacrificing the fun: Stealth assessment, adaptivity and learning supports in educational games

“…However, the current study does not indicate a significant effect of adapting game levels to fit learners' needs relative to either game enjoyment or test performance. This result is consistent with the findings of Vanbecelaere et al (2019) who similarly reported no difference in game‐based learning as a function of adaptivity. It also supports other findings that a computer‐based learning environment that makes navigation decisions for students (i.e.…”

“…Black & Deci, 2000; Vansteenkiste, Simons, Lens, Sheldon, & Deci, 2004). For instance, Vanbecelaere et al (2019) compared the effectiveness of an adaptive versus a non‐adaptive educational game on kindergarten students' cognitive and non‐cognitive gains. Results showed significant learning gains in general but no difference between conditions.…”

The Effect of Educational Games on Learning Outcomes, Student Motivation, Engagement and Satisfaction

“…Adaptive computer games could evaluate students’ performance, and thus adapt corresponding levels of difficulty to students. However, they failed to greatly improve the motivation of children (Vanbecelaere et al., 2019).…”

The effectiveness of an adaptive digital educational game for the training of early numerical abilities in terms of cognitive, noncognitive and efficiency outcomes

“…The implementation of adaptivity has been put forward as a promising feature to train particular skills more effectively and to reduce MA (Klinkenberg, Straatemeier, & Van Der Maas, 2011; Sampayo‐Vargas, Cope, He, & Byrne, 2013; Vanbecelaere et al , 2019). A learning environment is adaptive “if it is capable of monitoring the activities of its users, interpreting these on the basis of domain‐specific models, inferring user requirements and preferences out of the interpreted activities, appropriately representing these in associated models; and finally, acting upon the available knowledge on its users and the subject matter at hand, to dynamically facilitate the learning process” (Paramythis & Loidl‐Reisinger, 2003, p. 182).…”

“…Previous research has shown that specific features of digital games might enhance learning, such as automatically generated exercises, immediate feedback (O’Rourke, Main, & Hill, 2017), interaction between the system and the learner, concrete representations, and an attractive narrative (Ronimus, Kujala, Tolvanen, & Lyytinen, 2014). Recently, there has been increased attention for the integration of adaptivity which facilitates the alignment of exercise difficulty to the child’s ability (Hooshyar et al , 2019; Vanbecelaere et al , 2019).…”