Games+Learning+Society 11 Conference

Shapes and Patterns of Adaptive Game-Based Learning: An Experiment
Josine Verhagen, David Hatfield, Julie Watson, Solomon Liu, Dylan Arena

It is often claimed that adaptive educational games keep the learner more engaged and maximize the learning taking place in the game. We explored these two claims by evaluating adaptive and non-adaptive forms of a pattern- and shape-recognition game for preschoolers. We used a Bayesian IRT model to make this game adapt in real time to the learner’s performance. Results indicate that adaptivity led to higher engagement, and we found some evidence of greater learning. We also note some important prerequisites for the success of adaptive games.


Designing and Tracking Play Styles in Solving the Incognitum
Josep Valls-Vargas, Andrew Kahl, Justin Patterson, Glen Muschio, Aroutis Foster, Jichen Zhu

Better understanding of players' motivation and their in-game play patterns is crucial to build educational games that can be adapted to individuals' learning preferences. Although the traditional instruments of motivation can suggest one's intrinsic orientation, they do not always correlate with the observable in-game activities (i.e., play style) as the latter are affected by many other factors. In this paper, we first present a play-based interactive learning environment called Solving the Incognitum, designed to support different play styles. We also present our initial data from a user study (n=75), focusing on the correlation between intrinsic motivation and the play styles the learners adopted.


Playing with Gender: Examining How Learning Games Can Adapt to User Characteristics to Maximize Positive Outcomes
Rabindra Ratan, Denice Blair, Joseph Fordham, John Besley, Paul Powell, Tommy Schutter, Zachary Terry

This study explores the role of gender—as a continuous construct—within interactions between media users and game characters in digital learning games. Using a museum-based science-learning game with scientist characters designed to serve as experimental stimuli, we examined how the relationship between character gender, player gender and player age influence motivation in a science-learning game. Analyses suggest that the scientist characters’ masculinity or femininity influenced male and female players’ motivation differently, but that the specific manifestation of such influence appears to vary for different age groups. These results suggest that the characters in science-learning games could be designed to adapt to the players’ characteristics in order increase their science content learning or interest in STEM fields. More generally, this study highlights the importance of considering player characteristics in game design and the potential of adapting to such characteristics in order to maximize meaningful outcomes.