Opening the black box of play: Strategy analysis of an educational game

Britton Horn, Yetunde Folajimi, Amy K. Hoover, Gillian Smith, Jackie Barnes, Casper Harteveld

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

A significant issue in research on educational games lies in evaluating their educational impact. Although game analytics is often leveraged in the game industry, it can also provide insight into player actions, strategy development, and the learning process in educational games separate from external evaluation measures. This paper explores the potential of game analytics for learning by analyzing player strategies of an educational game that is designed to support algorithmic thinking. We analyze player strategies from nine cases in our data, combining quantitative and qualitative game analysis techniques: hierarchical player clustering, game progression visualizations, playtraces, and think-aloud data. Results suggest that this combination of data analysis techniques provides insights into level progression and learning strategies that may have been otherwise overlooked.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationCHI PLAY 2016 - Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
PublisherAssociation for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages142-153
Number of pages12
ISBN (Electronic)9781450344562
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 16 2016
Externally publishedYes
Event3rd ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2016 - Austin, United States
Duration: Oct 16 2016Oct 19 2016

Publication series

NameCHI PLAY 2016 - Proceedings of the 2016 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play

Other

Other3rd ACM SIGCHI Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, CHI PLAY 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin
Period10/16/1610/19/16

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Human-Computer Interaction

Keywords

  • Computational thinking
  • Educational games
  • Evaluation
  • Playtrace analysis

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