Affect and Off-Task Behavior in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments

• In Event: Knowing What Students Know and Feel: Innovative Technology-Rich Assessments

Abstract

Narrative-centered learning environments have become the subject of increasing attention. By contextualizing learning within narrative settings, narrative-centered learning environments tap into students’ innate facilities for crafting and understanding stories, and they take advantage of narratives’ motivating features such as compelling plots, engaging characters, and fantastical settings. Narrative-centered learning environments offer significant potential for encouraging active participation in learning, higher-level thinking, and forming connections between narrative and pedagogical content. By embedding technologies from intelligent tutoring systems, embodied conversational agents, and serious games into narrative-centered interactions, such learning environments offer the promise of adaptive, situated learning experiences that are highly interactive and engaging for students.

Narrative-centered learning environments contextualize problem solving in interactive story scenarios. While narrative-centered learning environments present significant opportunities for enhancing engagement, they may also invite behaviors that are not learning-oriented. Concerns about off-task behavior are reinforced by recent findings, which indicate that going off-task is detrimental to learning. There is also evidence that off-task behavior may be associated with students’ emotional states, such as boredom and frustration. However, off-task behavior may play an important productive role in educational settings. Rather than serving as an unproductive diversion, off-task behavior could offer a means for students to take a needed “break” from complex or challenging learning activities. In this manner, off-task behavior may function as an emotion regulation mechanism that students use to renew their motivation to participate in productive learning activities.

Our paper will discuss our ongoing investigation of affect and off-task behavior in the narrative-centered learning environment, Crystal Island. Crystal Island features a science mystery set on a recently discovered volcanic island. Students play the role of the protagonist, who is attempting to discover the identity and source of an unidentified disease plaguing a newly established research station by learning information, forming hypotheses, and performing investigations in the environment. More than 1,500 middle school students have participated in studies of Crystal Island in a series of studies. In many of these studies, two forms of data are collected. First, we collect behavior trace data that provides detailed records of students’ problem-solving activities. The trace data reveal students’ problem-solving strategies and provide a window into off-task behavior. Second, in many of the studies, students are encouraged to periodically self-report on their affective state through an in-game smart phone. The self-reports provide insight into the fluctuating affective state that students exhibit as they solve diagnostic problems and interact with characters in the game.

We will examine students’ affective states and their off-task behavior in the Crystal Island learning environment. We will explore the relationship between others labs’ work on students’ off-task behavior in interactive learning environments and off-task behavior in Crystal Island. We will present emerging results on the relation of students’ affective states and their off-task behaviors, and examine individual differences in these relationships. We will also consider the possibility that some off-task behaviors are in fact productive and contribute to learning. We will conclude with a discussion of design implications for narrative-centered learning environments.

Authors

• Jonathan Rowe, North Carolina State University

• Jennifer Sabourin, North Carolina State University

• James Lester, North Carolina State University