Game‐based feedback for educational multi‐user virtual environments

Abstract

The authors of this paper are based at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. Darryl Charles specialises in computational intelligence for games and virtual worlds. Michael McNeill is interested in graphics algorithms and interaction within the same context. Therese Charles is currently completing her PhD studies in the area of game based learning, under the supervision of Dave Bustard and Michaela Black, who have an interest in innovative approaches to e-learning and teaching in general. AbstractIt is generally accepted that informative and timely feedback is important to a student's learning experience within higher education. In the study of commercial digital games it has also become increasingly understood that games are particularly good at providing effective feedback of this form to gameplayers. We discuss recent game based learning research that attempts to harness the motivating qualities of digital games to inform the design of educational technology. Results from this research demonstrate student participation and performance can be improved by providing Game-Based Feedback (GBF) to students. The GBF approach awards points to students for the successful completion of tasks throughout a course of study. Points and achievements accumulated over time builds a profile that provides a student with a potentially powerful representation of their educational identity. In this paper, we argue that virtual worlds are particularly suitable for this form of GBF and can further enhance a student's understanding of their educational standing. We outline a Virtual Learning Landscape (VLL) design that is embedded within a multi-user virtual environment, where educational feedback is supplied to students via their avatar and a virtual world's landscape. The core structural principles of the proposed VLL are explained and several examples of the use of the VLL are provided to illustrate the system. IntroductionIn comparison to secondary school, university can be a complex learning experience for students. In particular, students find that they have much more responsibility for their own learning. Degree courses have fewer timetabled classes and class sizes are often significantly larger. Typically, attendance, while encouraged, is not compulsory, and contact time with teachers is much less than they are used to. It may be argued that to be successful on a degree, a student needs to learn how to learn within the university context. They must understand that learning within a university is about understanding the processes and systems that help them build skills and knowledge. It is about forming good learning habits: good attendance, preparing for class, reflection, good communication with peers and teachers, reading around a topic, consistent work ethics, knowing who to go when in trouble, and other implicit institutional expectations. From a university teaching perspective, the focus is naturally placed on the communication of compul-

Gamification: The effect on student motivation and performance at the post-secondary level

“…As shown in Table 1, below the number of participants in the studies ranged from 14 to 371 with five studies (Abramovich et al, 2013;Charles et al, 2011;Gåsland, 2011;Meyer, 2008;O'Donovan, Gain & Marais, 2013) having fewer than 50 participants.…”

“…Points can be awarded for a wide variety of tasks such as completing quizzes, attending lectures, taking part in class exercises, solving puzzles, creativity in assignments (Charles et al, 2011;O'Donnell et al, 2013), completing practice questions, or correct answers (Mekler et al, 2013a). Mekler et al (2013a) discovered that awarding points was effective in increasing intrinsic motivation.…”

“…As shown in Table 2, points were examined in 11 of 19 studies (Barata et al, 2013;Berkling & Thomas, 2013;Charles, Charles, McNeill, Bustard, & Black, 2011;Dominguez et al, 2013;Gåsland, 2011;Li et al, 2013;Mayer & Johnson, 2010;Mekler et al, 2013a;Mekler et al, 2013b;Meyer, 2008;O'Donovan, Gain & Marais, 2013) and are the basis of many gamified elements such as leaderboards and levels (Mekler et al, 2013a). Points can be awarded for a wide variety of tasks such as completing quizzes, attending lectures, taking part in class exercises, solving puzzles, creativity in assignments (Charles et al, 2011;O'Donnell et al, 2013), completing practice questions, or correct answers (Mekler et al, 2013a).…”

Breaking Bad Behaviors: A New Tool for Learning Classroom Management Using Virtual Reality

“…Real-time feedback helps users to identify their weaknesses during their performance (Lopez et al, 2012) and to continuously adapt their behavior to efficiently reach training goals. Previous research has demonstrated that effective feedback systems should reinforce the gamification aspects of the training, which is based on the gradual increase of challenges, perceptual support, and finely tuned scoring systems (Charles et al, 2011;Honey and Hilton, 2011). However, how best to provide effective feedback within an immersive CRM training system remains an open question.…”

Enhancing Learning and Engagement through Gamification of Student Response Systems

“…Given that some students perceive an inherent tension between cultivating a fun versus a scholarly atmosphere, instructors may wish to explain the measured benefits of gamification to learning so that it is not merely perceived as an unwelcome distraction [14], [15]. In addition, despite the ability for competition to increase student engagement [16], caution may need to be exercised to ensure the competitive dynamic does not result in students feeling disempowered Figure 2. Improvement in course content mastery between the first and last weeks of class as assessed by 7 multiple-choice questions (n = 103 students).…”