Foundation for Measuring Engagement in Educational Games

Presenter: Che-Yu LinAdvisor: Min-Puu ChenDate: December 1,2008

Kristian, K., & Timo, L. (2008). Foundation for Measuring Engagement in Educational Games. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 19(3), 469–488.

Introduction(1/3)

• It appears that educational games are seen as being magic new tools that will solve the

problems of computer assisted learning.• Examination of typical educational games

indicates that games are primarily used as tools for supporting the practice of factual information transmission in education.

• If educational games are developed without an appropriate pedagogical basis, the investments may be considered wasted.

Introduction(2/3)

• The field of educational technology lacks research on:

- how to design game environments that foster knowledge construction

- deepen understanding and problem-solving while being engaging and entertaining at the same time

• The main purpose of this paper is to validate the flow antecedents included in the experiential gaming model and to test a constructed GameFlow questionnaire.

Introduction(3/3)

• The main purpose of the present study is to test two hypotheses derived from the experiential gaming model.

- all the flow antecedents included in the model would have positive effects on the flow experience

- the flow experience has a positive impact on learning and exploratory behaviour

Foundation

• A flow theory (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991) that provides a universal model of enjoyment.

• Experiential Gaming Model (modified from Kiili, 2005a) - experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) - constructivism (Phillips, 1995)• Malone’s motivation theory (1981) - challenge - curiosity - control - fantasy

Experiential Gaming Model設計循環

遊戲循環

設計方式學習者需求

The elements of flow in the educational game context

RealGame player interface

Methods(1/2)

• Participants (N = 92) were the students of Turku School of Economics.

• The age of the participants varied between 20-30 years.

• RealGame business simulation game (BioCounter Ltd).• The GameFlow questionnaire, using 5-point Likert-

type response format, can be divided into three parts.

Methods(2/2)

• The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha estimates.

• RealGame was played twice with each of the student groups.

- introductory - a short pre-assignment

Results(1/4)

• The gaming experience was perceived as being intensive, interesting, motivating as well as engaging, and immersive.

• Most of the players felt that the gaming session was too short and they would like to play RealGame again in the future.

General experiences about RealGame

Results(2/4)Reliability of the GameFlow Questionnaire

Results(3/4)Examining the Connection between Flow Antecedents and Flow State

Results(4/4)

• Results indicate that there was a loose positive connection between flow experience and learning.(r=.29; p=.005)

• It is noteworthy that in this study, learning was not directly measured, but was examined by asking participants’ feelings about learning.

• The results indicate that there was a loose positive connection between flow experience and exploratory behaviour.(r=.24; p=.024)

Examining the Connection between Flow State and Flow Consequences

Conclusions(1/2)

• The constructed GameFlow questionnaire needs to be further developed and validated with larger sample sizes.(challenge, goals, gamefulness and exploratory behaviour)

• Provide some base line evidence about the positive relationship between flow experience and learning.

• Educational games should stretch a player’s mind to its limits in an effort to overcome worthwhile challenges.

Conclusions(2/2)

• Flow inducing studying activities are not done with the expectation of some future benefit, but simply because the playing of an educational game is itself the reward.

• The measurement of flow is important in the game development process because it provides a means for designing game elements that support learning with games.