Foundation for Measuring Engagement in Educational Games

1. Foundation for Measuring Engagement in Educational Games Presenter: Che-Yu Lin Advisor: Min-Puu Chen Date: December 1,2008 Kristian, K., & Timo, L. (2008). Foundation for Measuring Engagement in Educational Games. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 19(3),469–488.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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

5. Foundation • Aflow 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

6. Experiential Gaming Model 設計方式 設計循環 學習者需求 遊戲循環

7. The elements of flow in the educational game context

8. RealGame player interface

9. 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.

10. 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

11. Results(1/4) General experiences about RealGame • 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.

12. Results(2/4) Reliability of the GameFlow Questionnaire

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

14. Results(4/4) Examining the Connection between Flow State and Flow Consequences • 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)

15. 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.

16. 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.