Affective Educational Games and the Evolving Teaching Experience

Teaching methods must adapt to learners’ expectations. Computer game-based learning environments enable learning through experimentation and are inherently motivational. However, for identifying when learners achieve learning goals and providing suitable feedback, Intelligent Tutoring Systems must be used. Recognizing the learner’s affective state enables educational games to improve the learner’s experience or to distinguish relevant emotions. This chapter discusses the creation of an affective student model that infers the learner’s emotions from cognitive and motivational variables through observable behavior. The control-value theory of ‘achievement emotions’ provides a basis for this work. A Probabilistic Relational Models (PRMs) approach for affective student modeling, which is based on Dynamic Bayesian Networks, is discussed. The approach is tested through a prototyping study based on Wizard-of-Oz experiments and preliminary results are presented. The affective student model will be incorporated into PlayPhysics, an emotional game-based learning environment for teaching Physics. PRMs facilitate the design of student models with Bayesian Networks. The effectiveness of PlayPhysics will be evaluated by comparing the students’ learning gains and learning efficiencies.

Games Development for Pedagogical and Educational Purposes

This chapter presents a research developed in collaboration by two higher education institutions. Nowadays, high education programs can only be successful with the use of new technologies in the teaching/learning process, especially when there are special education requirements. Two experiments were carried out: (1) a set of billiard balls, for snooker game, simulated by using physics laws and, (2) aLJo 2009, a game whose aim is to achieve the correct sorting of a sequence to accomplish a common task. Both projects were developed by students from University of Minho (UM), with different background and from different engineering courses. The snooker game, an academic project, aims to demonstrate that, through a simple game, several areas of knowledge can be used. On the other hand, aLJo 2009 was developed considering a collaboration protocol between UM and the Parents and Friends Association of the Citizen with Mental Deficiency (APPCDM), to improve behavior and social skills in patients with mental impairments.

Games and Simulations in Distance Learning

This chapter discusses the selection and potential use of electronic games and simulations in distance learning supported by an operational model called AIDLET. After analyzing the different approaches to the use of games and simulations in education, and discussing their benefits and shortcomings, a framework was developed to facilitate the selection, repurposing, design and implementation of games and simulations, with focus on the practical aspects of the processes used in Open and Distance Learning (ODL). Whereas traditional learning is based on knowledge memorization and the completion of carefully graded assignments, today, games, simulations and virtual environments turn out to be safe platforms for trial and error experimentation, i.e. learning by doing/playing. New instructional models may require that rich interactive processes of communication are supported, that assignments are structured as game-like projects, and that a culture of interaction, collaboration, and enablement drives learning and personal development. In this context, the AIDLET model was set out and verified against a taxonomy representing the main categories and genres of games to meet the requirements of distance education teachers, instructional designers and decision-makers.

Can Computer Games Motivate and Sustain Learning?

A critical examination of the use of computer games as motivation for learning is provided. The examination is addressed by reviewing evidence from the literature dealing with computer games as learning tools. Factors and difficulties associated with games as instructional strategies are discussed. Evidence from the literature indicates that current methods of applying computer games into instruction are not guided by pedagogical principles. It is recognized that the design of educational games be based on learning theories. The current practice of viewing educational games as separate entity from all other educative processes is detrimental to learning. Although, the results of scientific studies on game-based learning are inconclusive, nevertheless, the future of game-based learning is promising partly because games are generally engaging. The results of qualitative interviews reveal that the participants believe that computer games motivate them to have fun but not to learn. Thus, by implication may not sustain learning.

Evaluation of Simulation Games for Teaching Production (Engineering)

The findings from the evaluations showed that serious games deliver learning outcomes. However, there are drawbacks to their use that need to be taken into account. Principally the high cost of development and the need for expert facilitators for running game sessions.

RACEM Game for PC for Use as Rehabilitation Therapy for Children with Psychomotor Disability and Results of Its Application

Present work develops a PC simulation game to conduct a study with the main objective to train children with psychomotor disabilities (coordination, equilibrium and movements). The child interacts with simulated environments which contain the needed stimulus to develop the eye-hand coordination, the child responds to the game with mouse movements by means of audible orders. The main objective for the present work is to enhance the child´s psychomotricity with more precise movements. Converting the game in a mean to children rehabilitation, this can be used in homes aided by child´s parents. Another purpose is to have a didactical tool for professors of special education.

Creating Computer Games for Class Instruction

The purpose of this chapter is to provide the classroom teachers with the basic tools and fundamentals necessary to create instructional games targeted to specific courses and/or instructional objectives. By discussing the trends and issues related to today’s teaching and learning environment, the authors review the benefits of using educational games in classrooms, and provide some strategies and guidelines for creating computer games for classroom instruction. Along with discussing the fundamental issues and considerations, the authors discuss some of the challenges and impact of computer games in classrooms. Additional examples drawn from literature are also included to illustrate the use of games in education and the strategies of effective instruction.

The Educational Value of Digital Games

The use of digital games in educational contexts encourages active, critical, autonomous and participated learning processes, overcoming some of the limitations presented in more ‘conventional’ methods, engaging players in non-passive forms of acquiring knowledge and skills. Aiming to demonstrate how digital games make the learning process possible by allowing the development of critical thinking, outlined during the act of playing, we will proceed to a critical analysis of Spore, a game created by Electronic Arts in 2008, demonstrating how the player places himself in an active learning situation which is self controlled and self regulated, facilitating the comprehension of phenomena that are not a part of formal teaching.

Multi-Vocality and Post-Processualism as Methodological Assets of the ’Collaboration Game’

In recent years the gap between educational theory and practice has been closing, but although there have been calls for ‘reflexivity’, there has been little critical examination of its meanings. Proposed reflexive methodologies still perpetuate many traditional hierarchies, and fail to consider the creative nature of the educational process as such. Much research work also takes place within the commercial sphere, and post-processual ideas cannot advance educational practice unless they can be implemented in some type of an e-learning system. In our Chapter we examine theoretical considerations of reflexivity, representation, subjectivity and experiential engagement to highlight their relevance to everyday educational practice, and their potential to undermine existing suboptimalities in the classroom.

Educational Games

The market favors the best-selling computer games regardless of their social and educational effects. This chapter will discuss the present trends in educational games development, technologies related to them as well as their features, through representative examples of games used for education with respect to pedagogical, business, and social aspects. Benefits and limitations of introducing games in education will be pointed out. Computer games for the disabled along with their pedagogical and social effects will be presented. Recent research results on the implementation of video games in schools and educational game evaluation will be presented in the chapter, based on the experience in the development, implementation, and evaluation of several interactive e-learning educational exercises, as well as in the development and validation of several innovative computer games for the visually impaired.