Gaming Learning Analytics: how projects RAGE and

BEACONING are improving serious games applicability

Baltasar Fernandez-Manjon balta@fdi.ucm.es , @BaltaFM

e-UCM Research Group , www.e-ucm.esREV conference, Madrid, 26/2/2016

Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-System

http://www.slideshare.net/BaltasarFernandezManjon

Some definitions …• Serious games Any use of digital games with purposes other than

entertainment (Michael & Chen, 2006)• e.g. educational games, advertgames• Some kinds of educational simulations could be serious games

• Gamification using game techniques into non gaming environments• E.g. competition, collaboration, badgets, leaderboards, …

• Game Analytics is the process of capturing game interaction data with different improvement purposes • e.g. debugging, monetization

¿Why DoD produce a free high-quality game? America’s Army

3 http://www.americasarmy.com/

America’s Army

4 http://www.americasarmy.com/

Remote laboratories and serious games?KIBO – tangible programming – Tufts Uni.KIBO is a robot kit specifically designed for young children aged 4-7 years old

The child creates a sequence of instructions (a program) using the wooden blocks. They scan the blocks with the KIBO body to tell the robot what to do.

http://kinderlabrobotics.com/kibo/

More definitions …• Learning Analytics Improving education based on data

analysis• Data driven• Evidence-based education

• Gaming Learning Analytics is a specific case when all interaction data is used in serious games for improving the learning process supported by the games• Educational games not as “black boxes”

Learning analytics steps• 1. Collecting large amounts of data from a number of channels

• Interaction with the system

• 2. Translating that data into information or actionable insights. • It may be impossible to track how much a student really absorbed from one lesson

but the system CAN track his/her behaviour and use that as a signal

• 3. Use of the information for different purposes• Personalization and adaptation. Once the system gets the signal, it can then

personalize each student’s learning environment. • Assessment. Use that information for formative or summative assessment• Predicting the best course in the future. As students use the system for a prolonged

period of time, educators will be able to track what works and what doesn’t – and adjust accordingly.

http://www.edudemic.com/grades-2-0-how-learning-analytics-are-changing-the-teachers-role/

Uses of Gaming Learning Analytics in educational games• Game testing – game analytics• It is the game realiable?• How many students finish the game?• Average time to complete the game?

• Game deployment in the class – tools for teachers• Real-time information for supporting the teacher• “Stealth” student evaluation• Knowing what is happening when the game is deployed in the class

• Formal Game evaluation• From pre-post test to evaluation based on game learning analytics??

Methodologies for serious game development

Torrente et at (2014) Development of Game-Like Simulations for Procedural Knowledge in Heathcare Education. IEEE Transactions on Learning Tecnologies. 7(1), 69-82

USERS

In the medical domain

Formal evaluation pre-post• Formal evaluation of games is very

complex and expensive• Pre-test• Post-test

• Very few games have been formally probed to be effective

• Similar results with Learning Analytics than with pre-post test?

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Can we use Gaming Learning Analytics for formal evaluation of games?

Formal evaluation of games from the analysis of the user (interaction) data?

Game design and development with GamingLearning analytics

ProsocialLearn

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BEACONING

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H2020 serious games projects

H2020 RAGE in a nutshell• RAGE will deliver advanced technology and know-how to support the

European Applied Games industry build-up and job creation• February 2015, 4 years, 19 partners, 9M

• Creating a new serious games ecosystem by making available a set of reusable technology components for developing advance serious games easier, faster and more cost-effectively• Open source gaming learning analytics framework • provide all the required services (e.g. game tracker, learning analytics server,

visualization of analytics information) • easy inclusion of gaming learning analytics techniques in the new games

Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-System

RAGE: creating the Gaming Learning Analytics infrastructure H2020 RAGE project will simplify the process of SG creation with ready to use assets• Game trackers• LA server infrastructure• Standards support (e.g. xAPI)

Using interaction data for assessment

Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-System

Firsts results from RAGE: GLA support

Logical architecture

Actual architecture

GLA Asset Status in RAGE• All available at github: code, documentation & demos, except

• 2.4c (User Model) server-side,currently under collaborative development (first versión july 2016)

• 2.4b (Dashboard) plugin architecture,which is under development - current dash-boards are hard-wired

• Additionally,• rage-analytics project simplifies deployment of complex assets

• only dependency: docker & docker-compose• platform and library agnostic

• Support for standards (xAPI)• Host your server-side asset behind 2.4a (Auth & Authentication), enjoy

• single-sign on• free HTTPs with your clients (via nginx and letsencrypt)

H2020 Beaconing project• BEACONING stands for ‘Breaking Educational Barriers with

Contextualised, Pervasive and Gameful Learning’ • Started in january 2016, 15 partners, 9 countries, 6M

• Global goal is learning ‘anytime anywhere’• Exploitation of technologies for contextual pervasive games and use of

gamification techniques• Problem based approach to learning• Enriching the Gaming Learning Analytics data model with

the contextual, geolocalized and accessibility information

• Large pilots in real settings • Formal and informal learning across virtual and physical spaces

Gaming for good – games or labs?• gaming approaches applied to solving complex problems in a

collaborative way

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Play to Cure™: Genes in Space - a mobile game in which players collaborate to analyse real genetic data (Cancer Research UK, n.d.)

http://centerforgamescience.org/portfolio/foldit/

http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/support-us/play-to-cure-genes-in-space

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Conclusions• LA in Serious Games has a great potential from the application and

research perspective• Still complex to implement LA in SG• Increases the (already high) cost of the games• New specification could simplify the task (e.g. xAPI)

• New open frameworks produced by EU projects and new standards specifications could greatly simplify GLA implementation and adoption• And this is just the beginning (BYOD, VR, new interactions devices..)• Games are driving the disruption ….

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Thank You!

¿Questions?• Mail: balta@fdi.ucm.es• Twitter: @BaltaFM

• GScholar:  https://scholar.google.es/citations?user=eNJxjcwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

• ResearchGate:  www.researchgate.net/profile/Baltasar_Fernandez-Manjon• Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/BaltasarFernandezManjon

Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-System