Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View

© 2008-2011 IEEE. Learning games have great potential to become an integral part of new classrooms of the future. One of the key reported benefits is the capacity to keep students deeply engaged during their learning process. Therefore, it is necessary to develop models that can measure quantitative...

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Main Authors: Ruiperez-Valiente, Jose A, Gaydos, Matthew, Rosenheck, Louisa, Kim, Yoon Jeon, Klopfer, Eric
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133795
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author Ruiperez-Valiente, Jose A
Gaydos, Matthew
Rosenheck, Louisa
Kim, Yoon Jeon
Klopfer, Eric
author_facet Ruiperez-Valiente, Jose A
Gaydos, Matthew
Rosenheck, Louisa
Kim, Yoon Jeon
Klopfer, Eric
author_sort Ruiperez-Valiente, Jose A
collection MIT
description © 2008-2011 IEEE. Learning games have great potential to become an integral part of new classrooms of the future. One of the key reported benefits is the capacity to keep students deeply engaged during their learning process. Therefore, it is necessary to develop models that can measure quantitatively how learners are engaging with learning games to inform game designers and educators, and to find ways to maximize learner engagement. In this article, we present our proposal to multidimensionally measure engagement in a learning game over four dimensions: general activity, social, exploration, and quests. We apply metrics from these dimensions to data from The Radix Endeavor, an inquiry-based online game for STEM learning that has been tested in K-12 classrooms as part of a pilot study across numerous schools. Based on these dimensions, we apply clustering and report four different engagement profiles that we define as 'integrally engaged,' 'lone achiever,' 'social explorer,' and 'nonengaged.' We also use three variables (account type, class grade, and gender) to perform a cross-sectional analysis finding interesting, statistically significant differences in engagement. For example, in-school students and accounts registered to males engaged socially much more than out-of-school learners or accounts registered to females, and that older students have better performance metrics than younger ones.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1337952022-10-01T16:04:27Z Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View Ruiperez-Valiente, Jose A Gaydos, Matthew Rosenheck, Louisa Kim, Yoon Jeon Klopfer, Eric © 2008-2011 IEEE. Learning games have great potential to become an integral part of new classrooms of the future. One of the key reported benefits is the capacity to keep students deeply engaged during their learning process. Therefore, it is necessary to develop models that can measure quantitatively how learners are engaging with learning games to inform game designers and educators, and to find ways to maximize learner engagement. In this article, we present our proposal to multidimensionally measure engagement in a learning game over four dimensions: general activity, social, exploration, and quests. We apply metrics from these dimensions to data from The Radix Endeavor, an inquiry-based online game for STEM learning that has been tested in K-12 classrooms as part of a pilot study across numerous schools. Based on these dimensions, we apply clustering and report four different engagement profiles that we define as 'integrally engaged,' 'lone achiever,' 'social explorer,' and 'nonengaged.' We also use three variables (account type, class grade, and gender) to perform a cross-sectional analysis finding interesting, statistically significant differences in engagement. For example, in-school students and accounts registered to males engaged socially much more than out-of-school learners or accounts registered to females, and that older students have better performance metrics than younger ones. 2021-10-27T19:56:42Z 2021-10-27T19:56:42Z 2020 2021-04-02T11:58:35Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133795 en 10.1109/TLT.2020.2968234 IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Other repository
spellingShingle Ruiperez-Valiente, Jose A
Gaydos, Matthew
Rosenheck, Louisa
Kim, Yoon Jeon
Klopfer, Eric
Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View
title Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View
title_full Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View
title_fullStr Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View
title_full_unstemmed Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View
title_short Patterns of Engagement in an Educational Massively Multiplayer Online Game: A Multidimensional View
title_sort patterns of engagement in an educational massively multiplayer online game a multidimensional view
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/133795
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