Serious Games Analytics: Theoretical Framework

Abstract

"Serious Games" is a unique industry that is concerned with the training/ learning performance assessment of its clients. It is one of three digital technology industries (along with digital games, and online learning) that are rapidly advancing into the arena of analytics. The analytics from these industries all came from the tracing of user-generated data as they interacted with the systems, but differed from one another in the primary purposes for such analytics. For example, the purpose of game analytics is to support the growth of digital (entertainment) games, while that of learning analytics is to support the online learning industries. Although some game and learning analytics can indeed be used in serious games, they lack specifi c metrics and methods that outline the effectiveness of serious games-an important feature to stakeholders. Serious Games Analytics need to provide ( actionable ) insights that are of values to the stakeholders-specifi c strategies/policies to improve the serious games, and to (re)train or remediate play-learners for performance improvement. Since the performance metrics from one industry are unlikely to transfer well into another industry, those that are optimal for use in the Serious Games industry must be properly identifi ed as Serious Games Analytics -to properly measure, assess, and improve performance with serious games.

Game Learning Analytics: Learning Analytics for Serious Games

“…While the purpose of learning analytics is to support the online learning industries, that of game analytics is to support the growth of digital (entertainment) games (Loh, Sheng, & Ifenthaler, 2015).…”

Apprentissage, jeu sérieux et « détournement sérieux de jeu »

“…Dans les jeux de nature commerciale, les données servent principalement à améliorer le jeu, puis à définir des profils de joueurs. En éducation et en formation, où les finalités sont tout autres, les données -qui sont également utiles pour l'amélioration des jeux -servent aussi et surtout à valider l'acquisition des compétences (Loh, Sheng et Ifenthaler, 2015 , permet aux enseignants de créer des questions de différents types qui sont proposées à leurs étudiants sous la forme d'un jeu générique. Un jeu générique est un jeu très connu comme le tic-tac-toe où l'apprenant peut placer un X ou un O sur la grille s'il donne une bonne réponse à la question formulée par l' enseignant.…”

The Serious Games Ecosystem: Interdisciplinary and Intercontextual Praxis

“…Acquiring those metrics relevant to the educational context, and meaningfully presenting them to educators , is an emerging topic of research [121] -somewhat reflecting broader movements in education towards data-driven, or 'big-data' practices. In addition to this is development of educational games that are not only designed to educate but also to assess learner's progress.…”