What Does It Mean? Validation of Gameplay Patterns Through Design and Analysis

• In Event: 49.089 - Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: 49.089-4 - Exploring the Current Landscape of Technology, Instruction, Cognition, and Learning

Abstract

Typical metrics used to assess student performance in technology-based games tend to focus on overall gameplay. Gameplay data that captures key events and game states can be used to generate qualitative descriptions of student performance to help make sense of student understanding. Findings from this study provides some initial evidence that gameplay patterns generated by cluster analysis of data on a specific set of levels designed to target specific learning goals could validly provide qualitative information about student understanding. Our findings also highlight the need to examine the data for any potential threats to the validity of the inferences we make about students based on their gameplay patterns.

Authors

• Girlie C. Delacruz, University of California - Los Angeles

• Ayesha Madni, University of California - Los Angeles

• Rajesh Jha, SimInsights, Inc