Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning
Studies show that using role models can boost academic performance of learners (Lockwood, 2006; Marx & Roman, 2002). In this paper, we describe an experiment (N=1067) exploring the impacts of varying types of avatar on engagement in an educational game. The different conditions include role mode...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Educational Research Association
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113092 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7732-6258 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4992-2201 |
| _version_ | 1811078055645413376 |
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| author | Kao, Dominic Harrell Jr, Douglas Alan |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Kao, Dominic Harrell Jr, Douglas Alan |
| author_sort | Kao, Dominic |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Studies show that using role models can boost academic performance of learners (Lockwood, 2006; Marx & Roman, 2002). In this paper, we describe an experiment (N=1067) exploring the impacts of varying types of avatar on engagement in an educational game. The different conditions include role models and (c) the non-role model case of simple geometric shapes (for baseline comparison). Using the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) (IJsselsteijn, Kort, Poels, Jurgelionis, & Bellotti,
2007), we find that female participants using role model case (scientist avatars) had significantly higher engagement than female participants using non-scientist or shape avatars. This result suggests that STEM role model avatars have the potential to enhance engagement in educational games, which could in turn influence learning outcomes (Blumenfeld, Kempler, & Krajcik, 2005). |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:52:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/113092 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:52:41Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Educational Research Association |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1130922022-09-30T23:39:38Z Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning Kao, Dominic Harrell Jr, Douglas Alan Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Kao, Dominic Kao, Dominic Harrell Jr, Douglas Alan Studies show that using role models can boost academic performance of learners (Lockwood, 2006; Marx & Roman, 2002). In this paper, we describe an experiment (N=1067) exploring the impacts of varying types of avatar on engagement in an educational game. The different conditions include role models and (c) the non-role model case of simple geometric shapes (for baseline comparison). Using the Game Experience Questionnaire (GEQ) (IJsselsteijn, Kort, Poels, Jurgelionis, & Bellotti, 2007), we find that female participants using role model case (scientist avatars) had significantly higher engagement than female participants using non-scientist or shape avatars. This result suggests that STEM role model avatars have the potential to enhance engagement in educational games, which could in turn influence learning outcomes (Blumenfeld, Kempler, & Krajcik, 2005). National Science Foundation (U.S.) (STEM+C Grant 1542970) Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada 2018-01-12T19:04:29Z 2018-01-12T19:04:29Z 2016-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/ConferencePaper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113092 Kao, Dominic and D. Fox Harrell. "Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning." 2016 2016 American Educational Research Association Conference, 8-12 April, 2016, Washington, DC, American Educational Resource Association, 2016. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7732-6258 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4992-2201 en_US http://www.aera.net/Publications/Online-Paper-Repository 2016 American Educational Research Association Conference Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Educational Research Association Kao |
| spellingShingle | Kao, Dominic Harrell Jr, Douglas Alan Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning |
| title | Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning |
| title_full | Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning |
| title_fullStr | Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning |
| title_full_unstemmed | Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning |
| title_short | Toward Understanding the Impacts of Role Model Avatars on Engagement in Computer Science Learning |
| title_sort | toward understanding the impacts of role model avatars on engagement in computer science learning |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113092 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7732-6258 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4992-2201 |
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