The purpose of this demonstration is to present how video games can communicate cutting-edge scie... more The purpose of this demonstration is to present how video games can communicate cutting-edge science research topics to a new generation of players. Researchers in the Games, Learning, and Society Center (GLS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison collaborated with partners at the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery (WIDs) to develop and refine a suite of educational video games to explore topics such as limnology, virology, regenerative medicine, and ecological science rarely studied in the realm of educational spaces. Several games develop collaborative participatory science skills while expanding games based learning into adult informal learning. The presentation will begin with brief history of CyberSTEM implementation, followed with a hands-on demonstration of the iterations in the most current form, and will close with a audience discussion of the direction of CyberSTEM and its social network.
Games in service of learning are uniquely positioned to offer immersive, interactive educational ... more Games in service of learning are uniquely positioned to offer immersive, interactive educational experiences. Well-designed games build challenge through a series of well-ordered problems or activities, in which perseverance is key for working through ingame failure and increasing game difficulty. Indeed, persistence through challenges during learning is beneficial not just in games but in other contexts as well, with grit and perseverance positively associated with academic performance and learning outcomes. However, recent studies suggest that not all persistence is positive, suggesting that many students end up “wheel-spinning”, spending considerable time on a topic without achieving mastery. Thus, it is vital to differentiate productive and unproductive persistence in order to understand emergent student progress, particularly in the context of learning games and personalized learning systems, in which individual pathways differ greatly based on student needs. Leveraging Educati...
This paper outlines a mixed methods workshop describing how the methods of quantifying qualitativ... more This paper outlines a mixed methods workshop describing how the methods of quantifying qualitative codes, repertory grid analysis, matched sample comparison, triangulation, and discourse analysis can be used in various combinations to create a more detailed analysis. These methods are presented in the context of researching online games.
This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+Learning+Society Casual Le... more This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+Learning+Society Casual Learning Lab, an afterschool program for teenage males who were struggling or chronically disengaged with school. In it, we detail the lab's intended design and how it proved to be entirely wrongheaded. The paper then goes on to describe in situ changes we made to the program, as well as lessons learned from the failure of its original design.
This extended study (building on pilot research) presents a Game-Based Assessment model (GBA) des... more This extended study (building on pilot research) presents a Game-Based Assessment model (GBA) designed to capture relevant information on play and test whether it can constitute reliable evidence of learning. A central challenge for videogames research in education is to demonstrate evidence of player learning. Assessment designers need to attend to the ways in which gameplay itself can provide a powerful new form of assessment. The GBA model has two key layers which build on content-based educational game design: a semantic template that determines which click-stream data events could be indicators of learning; and learning telemetry that captures data for analysis. This study highlights how the GBA was implemented in a stem-cell science learning game, and shows how the GBA demonstrates a relationship among success, kinds of failure, and learning in the game. Objectives and Theoretical Framework A central challenge for videogames in education is to demonstrate evidence of player le...
SUMMARY Digital games can be potent problem solving environments which afford discovery learning ... more SUMMARY Digital games can be potent problem solving environments which afford discovery learning through thoughtful exploration [1, 2]. As such, game microworlds facilitate self-regulated learning through sandbox elements in which students have agency in individualizing their pathways of interaction [3]. These agency-driven environments can support learning via individual discovery of problem space constraints and solutions, particularly through boundary testing and productive failure [cf. 4]. Thus, modeling of user interaction in digital learning games can provide considerable insight into emergent trajectories of discovery-based progression, in which equally engaged players may interact differently with the system. To this end, this research leverages educational data mining (EDM) [5] to investigate organic player trajectories of thoughtful exploration (around boundary testing and productive failure) in a learning gamespace. We align behavioral coding with log file data to automatically detect sequences of thoughtful exploration (TE) in play. Results include a robust predictive model of event-stream TE, with multiple trajectories of emergent student behavior—offering insight into organic learning pathways through the game-based problem space, and informing iterative design in optimization of user experience and student engagement.
Big data in education has fostered emergent fields like educational data mining (Baker & Yacef, 2... more Big data in education has fostered emergent fields like educational data mining (Baker & Yacef, 2009) and learning analytics (Siemens & Long, 2011). Simulations and educational videogames are obvious candidates for the application of these analytic methods, affording big data situated in meaningful learning contexts (Gee, 2003; Steinkuehler et al., 2012). In design of these educational games, clickstream analytics for core design, alpha usertesting, and final-stage adaptive play design play a key role in optimizing learner experience. This paper maps learning analytics methods to these learning game development phases. Leveraging these powerful analytic tools of visualization, association mining, and predictive modeling throughout the design process is key to supporting players in a user-adaptive, engaging play experience optimized for learning.
This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+ Learning+ Society Casual ... more This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+ Learning+ Society Casual Learning Lab, an afterschool program for teenage males who were struggling or chronically disengaged with school. In it, we detail the lab's intended design and how it proved to be entirely wrongheaded. The paper then goes on to describe in situ changes we made to the program, as well as lessons learned from the failure of its original design.
The purpose of this demonstration is to present how video games can communicate cutting-edge scie... more The purpose of this demonstration is to present how video games can communicate cutting-edge science research topics to a new generation of players. Researchers in the Games, Learning, and Society Center (GLS) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison collaborated with partners at the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery (WIDs) to develop and refine a suite of educational video games to explore topics such as limnology, virology, regenerative medicine, and ecological science rarely studied in the realm of educational spaces. Several games develop collaborative participatory science skills while expanding games based learning into adult informal learning. The presentation will begin with brief history of CyberSTEM implementation, followed with a hands-on demonstration of the iterations in the most current form, and will close with a audience discussion of the direction of CyberSTEM and its social network.
Games in service of learning are uniquely positioned to offer immersive, interactive educational ... more Games in service of learning are uniquely positioned to offer immersive, interactive educational experiences. Well-designed games build challenge through a series of well-ordered problems or activities, in which perseverance is key for working through ingame failure and increasing game difficulty. Indeed, persistence through challenges during learning is beneficial not just in games but in other contexts as well, with grit and perseverance positively associated with academic performance and learning outcomes. However, recent studies suggest that not all persistence is positive, suggesting that many students end up “wheel-spinning”, spending considerable time on a topic without achieving mastery. Thus, it is vital to differentiate productive and unproductive persistence in order to understand emergent student progress, particularly in the context of learning games and personalized learning systems, in which individual pathways differ greatly based on student needs. Leveraging Educati...
This paper outlines a mixed methods workshop describing how the methods of quantifying qualitativ... more This paper outlines a mixed methods workshop describing how the methods of quantifying qualitative codes, repertory grid analysis, matched sample comparison, triangulation, and discourse analysis can be used in various combinations to create a more detailed analysis. These methods are presented in the context of researching online games.
This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+Learning+Society Casual Le... more This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+Learning+Society Casual Learning Lab, an afterschool program for teenage males who were struggling or chronically disengaged with school. In it, we detail the lab's intended design and how it proved to be entirely wrongheaded. The paper then goes on to describe in situ changes we made to the program, as well as lessons learned from the failure of its original design.
This extended study (building on pilot research) presents a Game-Based Assessment model (GBA) des... more This extended study (building on pilot research) presents a Game-Based Assessment model (GBA) designed to capture relevant information on play and test whether it can constitute reliable evidence of learning. A central challenge for videogames research in education is to demonstrate evidence of player learning. Assessment designers need to attend to the ways in which gameplay itself can provide a powerful new form of assessment. The GBA model has two key layers which build on content-based educational game design: a semantic template that determines which click-stream data events could be indicators of learning; and learning telemetry that captures data for analysis. This study highlights how the GBA was implemented in a stem-cell science learning game, and shows how the GBA demonstrates a relationship among success, kinds of failure, and learning in the game. Objectives and Theoretical Framework A central challenge for videogames in education is to demonstrate evidence of player le...
SUMMARY Digital games can be potent problem solving environments which afford discovery learning ... more SUMMARY Digital games can be potent problem solving environments which afford discovery learning through thoughtful exploration [1, 2]. As such, game microworlds facilitate self-regulated learning through sandbox elements in which students have agency in individualizing their pathways of interaction [3]. These agency-driven environments can support learning via individual discovery of problem space constraints and solutions, particularly through boundary testing and productive failure [cf. 4]. Thus, modeling of user interaction in digital learning games can provide considerable insight into emergent trajectories of discovery-based progression, in which equally engaged players may interact differently with the system. To this end, this research leverages educational data mining (EDM) [5] to investigate organic player trajectories of thoughtful exploration (around boundary testing and productive failure) in a learning gamespace. We align behavioral coding with log file data to automatically detect sequences of thoughtful exploration (TE) in play. Results include a robust predictive model of event-stream TE, with multiple trajectories of emergent student behavior—offering insight into organic learning pathways through the game-based problem space, and informing iterative design in optimization of user experience and student engagement.
Big data in education has fostered emergent fields like educational data mining (Baker & Yacef, 2... more Big data in education has fostered emergent fields like educational data mining (Baker & Yacef, 2009) and learning analytics (Siemens & Long, 2011). Simulations and educational videogames are obvious candidates for the application of these analytic methods, affording big data situated in meaningful learning contexts (Gee, 2003; Steinkuehler et al., 2012). In design of these educational games, clickstream analytics for core design, alpha usertesting, and final-stage adaptive play design play a key role in optimizing learner experience. This paper maps learning analytics methods to these learning game development phases. Leveraging these powerful analytic tools of visualization, association mining, and predictive modeling throughout the design process is key to supporting players in a user-adaptive, engaging play experience optimized for learning.
This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+ Learning+ Society Casual ... more This paper describes the original designed lab structure for the Games+ Learning+ Society Casual Learning Lab, an afterschool program for teenage males who were struggling or chronically disengaged with school. In it, we detail the lab's intended design and how it proved to be entirely wrongheaded. The paper then goes on to describe in situ changes we made to the program, as well as lessons learned from the failure of its original design.
Uploads