An Adaptive, Competence based, Approach to Serious Games
Sequencing in Technology Enhanced Learning
Luca Cuoco
1
, Andrea Sterbini
2
and Marco Temperini
1
1
Department of Computer, Control and Management Engineering, Sapienza University, Via Ariosto 25, Roma, Italy
2
Department of Computer Science, Sapienza University, Via Salaria 113, Roma, Italy
Keywords: Personalized e-Learning, Game based e-Learning, Adaptivity, Student Model.
Abstract: We present a platform for Technology Enhanced Learning, allowing the learner to follow a path of game
applications towards a learning objective. The path is determined by the learner, by selecting each time the
next game of her choosing. The games are defined by teachers and experts, or even imported as web
resources: they are associated to the system through suitable metadata, that express their pedagogical
meaning. The system’s interface allows the student to navigate the repository of learning games (organized
as a graph) and see among them those that she can select to undertake, and those that are not yet affordable.
Whether a game is affordable, at a given moment, is determined by comparing the Student Model with the
game’s specification. In conclusion, the path of learning activities followed by the learner is built
interactively, by the learner, according to learner’s choice and the system’s pedagogical guidance. The
system has not yet been experimented in a real class: we report about its design and implementation, and
provide the reader with some simulated applications showing the system’s behaviour.
1 INTRODUCTION
In the area of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)
game based learning is founded on the use of serious
games, i.e. (digital) games designed and
implemented in order to allow teaching/learning
rather than (pure, exclusive) entertainment. Rather
than discarding or dulling entertainment, the serious
game aims to couple "meaningful play" (Salen and
Zimmermann 2004) with a learning outcome.
Certain characteristics of games (such as the
need to make choices, and perform an action, rather
than explaining what to do) can facilitate learning
and increase learning performance in applicative
fields (Coller and Scott, 2009; Pasin and Giroux,
2011). In time the use of games and simulations has
become one of the most significant approaches to
assisted learning (Wu et al. 2012). There are studies
that might reduce the enthusiasm (Kebritchi et al.
2012), yet this is one of the hot topics for research in
TEL (Van Eck, 2006; Metawaa and Berkling, 2016).
Game Based Learning can also be accompanied
by (other) playful aspects of the learning
environment, referred to by the term "gamification"
(Deterding et al., 2011; Vassileva, 2012). They are
in general incorporating game-inspired elements in a
non-game environment; examples are the support to
leaderboard and badges.
Similarly to what happens in traditional adaptive
learning systems (Liang et al., 2012; De Marsico et
al., 2013), in an adaptive game based learning
system the personalization of the learning offer is
based on a Student Model, i.e. a representation of a
set of personal traits of the individual student.
Examples of such personal traits are, among others,
the competence (that is the amount of knowledge
possessed at that time by the learner, in relation to
the subject matter at hand), or the student's learning
style. In such an adaptive system, the student is
proposed with different games, or with different
(adapted) versions of the same game, according to
the current state of her student model.
In this paper we present an approach to
personalized game based learning, by the web
system DEV, in which the learner is offered to build
her personal learning (gaming) path, by selecting
games among those available, provided that they are
“affordable” according to her Student Model. The
system provides an interface to allow teachers to
build their course’s game repository; the inclusion of
a game is implemented by means of a “specification
step”, in which the teacher defines a “learning
Cuoco, L., Sterbini, A. and Temperini, M.
An Adaptive, Competence based, Approach to Serious Games Sequencing in Technology Enhanced Learning.
DOI: 10.5220/0006338305890596
In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2017) - Volume 1, pages 589-596
ISBN: 978-989-758-239-4
Copyright © 2017 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
589
(gameful) experience”, by selecting the game from a
general repository and assigning to it the
pedagogical characteristics the game is going to
have in the course, namely the competence needed
in order to play the game fruitfully (i.e. with
possibilities of success), and the competence that a
success in the game witnesses. The student interface
allows the learner to select a game for play. After
“game over”, the learner’s Student Model is
updated, hopefully by adding in it the competencies
gained/witnessed through the learning game
experience completion.
2 RELATED WORK
Hays (2005) reviewed 48 empirical studies on the
effectiveness of instructional games published
between 1973 and 2005. Results revealed that K-12
learners might find games useful for learning math,
social sciences, vocabulary, but that no information
existed about game-related learning for other
disciplines (e.g., health and geography). In addition,
games were found to be useful in teaching social
sciences, physics, electronics and engineering
principles to college students and, in the workplace,
games showed positive learning effects on teaching
attention, periscope skills, technical skills and so on.
However, no evidence indicates that games are the
preferred instructional method in all situations.
Based on the meta-analysis approach, Vogel et
al. (2006) investigated the relative strengths of
games and interactive simulations against traditional
teaching methods. Results indicated that, across
populations and situations, games and interactive
simulations produce better cognitive gain outcomes.
Applicative fields in which Game based learning
is found are many. In (Morelli et al. 2011; MacLean
and Robertson, 2012) serious games are applied to
provide guide and support to physical exercise. In
(de Jong and van Joolingen, 1998) the development
of a game simulation deemed “to teach about
collisions in physics” is presented.
In the system proposed by the present paper there
are two significant aspects that characterize the
approach to game based learning: the adaptive
student interface, and the possible function of games
as assessment means; the former characteristics
allows for the construction of a personalized
learning (gaming) path, while the second support the
updating of the student model after every gaming
experience. So in the following we recall some
research related to the above mentioned aspects.
Magerko et al. (2008) tackles the problem of
delivering “adaptive games”, i.e. game applications
that can present the learner with differentiated
interface and diverse basic game mechanics,
depending on the player's gaming type. Significant
factors for the personalization are the structure of the
interface, and the way the learner is presented with
knowledge (such as giving importance to high score,
or visualizing texts about the subject matter, or
having a time limit to frame the gaming activity). So
a single game might come to represent a “space of
possible games”. Gamer types are taken from an
analysis of literature; they are intrinsically motivated
Explorers, extrinsically motivated Achievers, and
extrinsically motivated “Winners”. A mini-game
prototype (S.C.R.U.B.) is presented, ranging over
microbiology concepts.
In the system presented in this paper, the
approach is cruder with respect to the games (we
have different games helping pursuing different
skills, yet only one version of each game), On the
other hand, the personalization is obtained by
helping the learner to build her own path of games,
by choosing at each time the preferred game among
those that are pedagogically affordable at the
moment. By "affordable" we mean that a game can
be met by the learner, according to the current state
of her student model. In (Metawaa et al. 2016) an
approach to personalization in game based learning
is shown, for students with little or no access to
teachers, whereas games (the learning activities
available in the platform) are suggested basing on a
lightweight modelization of the learner. The student
model is focused on previous choices of the learner,
and on a game rating derived by the preference
accorded by learners to the game.
Another experience possibly related to the
personalization in a game based learning
environment is in (Lindberg and Laine, 2016), where
foundational blocks for the provision of adaptivity in
a game based learning system are studied: learner’s
learning style, and gaming style. Results shed some
light on the play and learning styles among South
Korean elementary school students. In this
experience the provision for adaptation allowed to
change the learning activity settings, according to
the personally preferable style of the moment, and
provided for an important degree of versatility in the
experimented framework.
Regarding the nature of games as assessment
means, Loh (2007) treats the problem of designing
assessment in a game and uses the concept of
"information trail" as a means to track, from a
pedagogical point of view, the learner's in-game
behaviour ("avatar tracking system") and assess her
SGoCSL 2017 - Special Session on Serious Games on Computer Science Learning
590
accomplishments.
3 THE DEV SYSTEM
The DEV system presents the learner with an
environment in which several games are available
and the learner student model is managed. In the
present version of the system the games are all
related to topics in Basic Physics, and are designed
to allow the learner for experimenting with concepts
(such as principles, equations, and computation of
the motion of a body in two and three dimensions)
and build the answer to questions (such as
composing the right equation to use, or computing
some values). At the end of each game it is possible
to appreciate whether the play has been successful
and to what extent (and the system is passed
information suitable to update the student model).
We have designed the DEV system around the
main goal of allowing the learner to follow a
personal path of experiences to reach a goal
knowledge (a set of target skills defined by the
teacher). The definition and management of the
learner’s Student Model is material to such aim: the
system points out for the learner, among the whole
set of available games, those that are at the moment
“affordable” for her, so the learner can choose her
path, although according to a pedagogical guidance.
In this we have taken inspiration by the concept of
“zone of proximal development” known in the
educational theory of Vygotsky (Chaiklin, 2003;
Vygotskij, 1981).
DEV is comprised of a repository where all the
available games are collected. Different courses can
be built by associating games from the repository to
the course area, according to the pedagogical
specifications described in the next section.
4 GAME DEFINITION AND
STUDENT MODEL
The games presently available in DEV are
implemented by different technologies: so far they
are either interactive questionnaires or game
applications built through the Unity3D framework
(Unity3D, 2016). Besides its implementation, each
game, say G, is specified by a set of metadata,
declaring the skills that are necessary in order to
play the game (Required Skills – G.RS) and those
that can be considered owned by the learner once
she has been successful in the game (Acquired Skills
– G.AS).
A skill is defined as a pair <k, c>. In it k is a
“Knowledge Item” (KI), that is an identifier (a
name) for a concept or ability (which is further
described, in the DEV system with a Glossary
topic), while c is the “certainty” that is associated to
the possession of k. The certainty factor is a real
value in [0,1]. The skill’s certainty factor, basically
describes how much we can be sure that the student
does actually possess the related KI. The Student
Model (SM) contains the current list of skills
possessed by the learner. When a game, G, has been
experienced by a learner, l, then she is supposed to
have acquired the skills in G.AS, and her student
model, l.SM, can be updated accordingly. In
particular, if G is specified as follows, where the r
i
and a
i
are KIs
G.RS={<r
1
,rc
1
>, …, r
n
,rc
n
>}
G.AS={<a
1
,ac
1
>, …, r
m
,ac
m
>}
The basic updating rule for the SM is as follows:
for all <k,c> in G.AS, <k,c> is added to l.SM
In other words, each skill acquired by the game, is
added to the learner’s SM, with a certainty equal to
that specified in the game definition.
The basic SM updating rule, though, has to be
enhanced: it is apparent that, for any given skill, the
system could provide (or actually must provide)
several games acknowledging it. Moreover, it is
possible that a learner will select and complete the
same game several times. This, from the teacher’s
perspective, can be interpreted as useful practice:
repeating a game, or, possibly, playing a game that
awards skills that are already in one’s student model,
is a strengthening practice for such skills. On the
other hand, while the certainty assigned to a skill
that is just being added to the Student Model after a
game (a newly acquired skill) is a remarkable
fraction of 1 (such as 0.6, the default we are
currently using in fact), the increase in certainty
awarded to a skill already in l.SM ought to be quite
lower. This is to avoid reaching a certainty of 1
without a considerable effort, and yet allows for a
perceivable increase (fostering a sense of
accomplishment in the learner).
For a game specified as above, the cases to be
managed during the post-game student model update
are as follows (with l a learner, and G a game)
for all <k,c>G.AS, with <k,c>l.SM, <k,c>
is added to l.SM
for all <k,c>G.AS, with <k,C>l.SM, i.e.
with the skill already present in the student
model, with an associated certainty C, the
skill’s certainty is updated by just a fraction of
c: C
(C, c, n
G
), where computes the new
An Adaptive, Competence based, Approach to Serious Games Sequencing in Technology Enhanced Learning
591
value for C, according to the value c and to the
number of times the game G has been already
played n
G
.
So the basic updating rule, valid only for the
acquired skills <k,*>
l.SM, is enhanced by
applying the principle that we cannot grant the
whole amount of certainty that would be granted the
first time the game is solved, or the first time the
skill is placed in l.SM. This is done by applying an
algorithm that reduces c according to the cases (a
repeated game will acknowledge just a small
increase of certainty, progressively decreasing to
none_at_all; on the other hand, already possessed
skills have a similar, yet less drastic, treatment
granting that strengthening competence through
different games is more valuable than in the case of
game replay.
5 PEDAGOGICAL ASPECTS OF
THE SYSTEM
The games occur in a general learning activity: a
course, or a cycle of (game-)experiences flanking a
course. The objectives of such an activity (Target
Skills - TS) are defined as a set of skills as well. The
abovementioned general learning activity can be
considered completed once all the elements of TS
are “covered” by the learner’s model: Namely, when
the TS is satisfied by the student's SM.
Definition 1. (Skill coverage)
Given two skills, <k
a
,c
a
> and <k
b
,c
b
> we say that
<k
a
,c
a
> covers <k
b
,c
b
>, and write <k
a
,c
a
> <k
b
,c
b
>
iff k
a
=k
b
AND c
a
c
b
Definition 2. (Skill set Satisfaction)
Given a leaner l, and a set of skills,
S = {<K
1
,C
1
>, <K
2
,C
2
>, ... , <K
q
,C
q
> },
we say that the learner’s student model
l.SM ={<k
1
,c
1
>, …, k
p
,c
p
>}
satisfies S, and write S
SM
iff i[1….,q], j[1,…,p]
such that <k
j
,c
j
> covers <K
i
,C
i
>.
So, the course, or cycle of experiences, with
target skills TS, is considered concluded by a learner
l, once TS
SM.
In DEV, while all games can be inspected by
learners at will (to see their definitions), they are not
always available for playing (accessible henceforth).
In particular, only the games, G, whose requirement
set, G.RS, is empty, are accessible by everybody.
Otherwise, G is accessible for l, if and only if l.SM
satisfies G.RS: G.RS
l.SM.
Definition 3. (Game accessibility)
Given a learner l, and a game G, we say G is
accessible by l, and write G ZPD(l), iff
G.RS
SM
Namely, the system’s interface shows to the
learner all the available games, let her inspect them,
yet let her selects for use only those that are
accessible to that particular learner.
The interface is shown in Fig.1; further
description of the interface is in the next section.
The AS/RS annotation and the current student
model SM cooperate to keep the student inside the
set of activities that she is able to try without
frustration. In this we get inspiration from the
Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development
(Chaiklin, 2003; Vygotskij, 1981). Notice that the
certainty factors are not to be interpreted as a
description of knowledge levels 'a la Bloom (Bloom,
1964; Anderson and Krathwohl, 2000), because
cognitive levels are not additive. To represent
different knowledge levels, we use different KIs.
Finally, we describe an additional feature of the
system, although it is not exclusively connected to
game experience. As it is imaginable, the games in
the system are to be implemented in such a way to
offer both gaming activity and communication with
the system itself. The communication part is crucial,
as it is providing the system with evidences to use
for the personal student model updates. We call such
a game a formal resource. Also a questionnaire (as
the system allows the construction of multiple
choice questionnaires) can function as a formal
resource in the above “communication” sense
(although it is not properly a game).
On the other hand, the possibility to join into the
system “informal resources” is valuable, and very
likely to be requested.
Such informal resources are all those activities
that 1) can be easily retrieved on the web, and 2) are
(by consequence) not specifically programmed to
communicate with the system, and can hardly
provide the system with feedback: A YouTube clip,
an swf game, taken “as is”, and actually any other
resource that is available on the web (through a
uniform resource indicator, for instance).
So the system provides for the possibility to
import an informal resource, by associating to it a
questionnaire, so to make of it an overall formal
resource.
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6 SYSTEM’S FEATURES AND
FUNCTIONALITIES
From the point of view of a course designer, the
system provides a dedicated area to upload, add and
modify the contents which compose the experiences,
an editor for their distribution on the navigation
graph, and an area for learners’ management.
From the point of view of the student, the system
provides the environment to explore the course
graph and to face the experiences that are accessible,
depending on her SM. In addition, a glossary is
provided to explain the meaning of the Knowledge
Items. Fig. 1 shows a sample student’s view of the
course repository: games accessible to the learner
are circled in yellow; games already played (still
accessible) are circled in violet, and the lock
represents non-accessibility. Placing the mouse
arrow on a node-game highlights the connections of
the selected node. A connection is represented by a
directed arc in the graph: an arc from G1 to G2 says
that part of, or whole, G1.AS could be used to cover
(part of) G2.RS, towards making G2 accessible.
Figure 1: Navigation Graph Tool. Initial state of the games
when SM = {} – only some initial games are accessible.
So the student can plan her next experience also
basing of what it would unlock (let acquire). This
allows, in turn, to build one’s own path towards the
TS satisfaction. Fig. 2 shows a visualization of the
learner’s Student Model.
The system provides a questionnaire editor to
compose questions and evaluate answers. The
questions can be enhanced with Javascript code (e.g.
to generate different random parametric instances of
the question each time the experience is visited)
through an integrated scripting environment.
On the side of permissions management, the
system provides ways to freely associate privileges
to the users. One user can view a specific area of the
system in read-only mode, while another can have
more privileges to edit and delete contents. In a
second time, the first user can obtain the access to
modification. This way, work-flows can be defined
to manage different developers working on the same
activities (e.g. learning designer, web designer,
multimedia/graphic designer, Javascript developer).
Figure 2: Visualization of the student model. For each
element in TS, possession and certainty are shown. The
upper bar gives a comparative degree of completion for
the whole course (i.e. a degree of current coverage for
TS).
6.1 The System in Action
In the following we show a very simple example of
how the content definition produces the student view
of the course.
The first step is the identification of the
Knowledge Items to match the learning needs. We
suppose to build a virtual physics laboratory where
students can interact with the laws of physics in an
immersive environment that simulates everyday life
problems. The first KIs defined are: Vectors, Force,
Velocity, Acceleration, Linear motion, Uniformly
accelerated linear motion, Projectile motion. For
each KI a description of the meaning is added to the
glossary. Having KIs, we can then define the course
learning objectives, TS.
As previously described, each skill obtained by a
student has a certainty value between 0.0 and 1.0.
We want the student to let develop her Student
Model to reach TS satisfaction. Suppose that
TS = {<Vectors, 0.6>, <Velocity, 0.6>,
<Acceleration, 0.6>, <Linear motion, 0.8>,
<Uniformly accelerated linear motion, 0.8>,
<Projectile motion, 0.9>}
To cover TS the student needs to enhance her SM,
by executing some of the available experiences.
Supposing that SM is empty at start, the course must
contain a group of initial experiences with empty
requirements. When new skills are acquired, the SM
grows, new experiences become accessible, and the
An Adaptive, Competence based, Approach to Serious Games Sequencing in Technology Enhanced Learning
593
course can proceed. An example of starting
experience, from Fig. 1, follows:
Name: The Velocity Definition
Informal resource: A video with real life
examples and formulas definition
Formal resource: A game application that let
the learner do experience with the concept of
velocity and also verifies the comprehension of
the velocity concept
Req. Skills: { } empty set
Acq. Skills:{<Vectors, 0.6>, <Velocity, 0.6> }
Let’s assume that the learner undertakes this first
experience, successfully; now Fig. 3 shows the
outcome: the experience becomes “played” in the
interface, and new experiences are unlocked
(become accessible).
Figure 3: State after completion of the first game. Now
SM = { <Vectors, 0.6>, <Velocity, 0.6> } and the
experiences “The Acceleration Definition” and “Speed of
Sound” became accessible.
Let’s also assume that the student undertook the
following experience:
Name: The Acceleration Definition
Informal resource: An interactive animation
that presents the concept and the formulas
Formal resource: A intelligent questionnaire
powered by the scripting environment
Req. Skills:{ <Vector, 0.6>, <Velocity, 0.6> }
Acq. Skills: { <Acceleration, 0.4> }
Once the above experience has been completed, the
student still needs another experience providing at
least other 0.2 certainty value of Acceleration to
fulfil the course Target Skills (where a 0.6 certainty
is required for the Acceleration KI). Well, the
following experience is available, and now
accessible, to help covering the gap (Fig. 4 shows
the consequences on the student model of
undertaking this experience):
Name: Gravitational acceleration
Informal resource: An animation of the
newton's apple with some mathematical
reflections
Formal resource: A 3D application with inputs
for the replication of the falling apple
Req. Skills: { <Acceleration, 0.4> }
Acq. Skills: { <Acceleration, 0.6> }
Figure 4. State of the Navigation Graph Tool after
completion of two games. Now SM = { <Vectors, 0.6>,
<Velocity, 0.6>, <Acceleration, 0.4> } and the experience
“Gravitational acceleration” became accessible.
The idea of this example is to show how the course
designer could make a whole graph of experiences
available (games, closed answer questionnaires,
informal resources made formal by questionnaires),
and how the learner can select a personal path to let
her SM grow towards TS satisfaction. A course
would have to provide several alternative starting
nodes; moreover, several different resources ought
to have intersecting AS, and grant the same skills. It
is this redundancy the feature that would provide
learners with a true opportunity to build her own
personal learning path.
An example of DEV physics games is shown in
Fig. 5, where a 3D physics soccer simulator asks the
student to solve the problem of passing the ball to a
team-mate.
Figure 5: Soccer simulator.
The solution needs stating 1) the right trajectory, as
resulting from a correct definition of the motion
equations (as shown in Fig. 6), and 2) a correct
shooting angle.
SGoCSL 2017 - Special Session on Serious Games on Computer Science Learning
594
Figure 6: Soccer simulator. Construction of the motion
equation, through a puzzle game.
7 CONCLUSIONS
DEV is not yet being experimented in a real class,
mainly due to the necessity of providing the system
with a wealth of good games, to obtain the
aforementioned redundancy. So the main activity
related to DEV in this time regards the development
of games, and make them available into the system.
We are currently working of the definition of an API
allowing to produce different scenarios of a same
game. Moreover, editors for the rapid production of
small games, such as puzzle games, ruzzle based
games and Tower games, are under design. This
should allow us to nourish the system and proceed
beyond the simulation we have presented in this
paper.
When the presented approach will be more
mature, we plan to extend it towards collaborative
(game based) learning, by means of multi-player
game activities (Sterbini and Temperini, 2009;
Nebel et al. 2016). A parallel line of development is
towards peer-based assessment and learning (Cho
and MacArthur, 2010; Sterbini and Temperini, 2012;
Sterbini and Temperini, 2013; Isabwe, 2013;
Tenorio et al. 2016). By involving new teachers, we
also plan to extend the learning domain to
mathematics and formal languages (Hancock, 1995;
Formisano et al. 2000; Formisano et al. 2001;
Isabwe, 2013). In a near future we want to enhance
DEV by gamification applied to the overall system
interface. Examples of interventions are as follows:
making the games more immersive, by
showing a personal Avatar actively interacting
with the graph of experiences and within the
experiences themselves;
engaging learners in competitions, as it can be
supported by showing a leaderboard or
awarding badges;
allowing a different visualization of the student
model, under the form of the avatar inventory
of abilities, with “power-ups” related to the
measure of certainty. In some sense the Student
Model already can be thought as an inventory
of items, yet the games should be modified to
behave differently depending on the “items”
carried by the player.
collecting an overall measure of experience
(XP points, which could be thought as a
measure of reputation or of learning
involvement) describing how well the student
has played the whole course.
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