Educational Games in MOOCs Manuel Freire-Morán, Iván Martínez-Ortiz, Pablo Moreno-Ger, Baltasar Fernández-Manjón (e-ucm.es)

• 12 researchers eLearning Serious Games Learning and Game Analytics

• Committed to collaboration

e-UCM

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Realising an Applied Gaming Eco-System

partners

projects

eAdventure game platform Open source authoring environment for point&click adventure games and immersive learning simulations

Easy to include Learning Analytics in eAdventure games

http://sourceforge.net/projects/e-adventure/

http://www.chermug.eu

With MGH-Harvard University http://first-aid-game.e-ucm.es

With ONT, educ@ONT

GLEANER

• GLEANER: Game Learning Analytics for Education Research

Open code framework to capture & analyze game traces

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Reference model in the EU NoE GALA, http://e-ucm.github.io/gleaner/

Ángel Serrano-Laguna, Javier Torrente, Pablo Moreno-Ger, Baltasar Fernández-Manjón (2014): Application of Learning Analytics in Educational Videogames. Entertainment Computing 5(4), pp. 313–322 (2014)

GLEANER Architecture

what how

(highly scalable)

MOOCs

• Huge scales

• Large dropout rates

• Generate user data

MOOCs & Serious Games

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Serious Games

• Expensive to develop

• Highly engaging

• Generate & can use more user data

Game Integration in MOOCs

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Game Clients & Servers

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Client: internal vs external

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A changing landscape

• HTML5, WebGL support in major browsers, Unity web plugin

• Flash, Java Applet adoption down

• Increased platform diversity

• Clients independent of MOOC servers: server APIs are client-platform neutral (eg.: JSON over HTTP)

• To integrate the game into the MOOC without administrative platform access

• To gather & access (or let others access) game interaction data: Learning Analytics

• To gamify the game! Leaderboards, competitions, ...

• Evolve the game without touching courses – Add levels, even user-submitted

– Fix bugs, respond to educator & student feedback

Game server: why do you want it?

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Use your interaction data!

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actual screenshot from GLEANER analyzing eAdventure game traces

Server: internal vs external

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Complexity vs. lack of isolation • Same-server sacrifices isolation

– requires administrative access – security concerns

• Separate-server – no admin access required; allows "SGaaS" – still needs to collaborate with MOOC server-side shim – may present a scalability bottleneck

• LON-CAPA – surprisingly rich types; ~200k problems online – very simple analytics (answer + right/wrong) – JSInput: course author's JS as problem UI

• LTI (v1.2) – supported in Moodle, Sakai, other LMSs – specifies packaging, answer types – poor analytics support

• XBlocks – LON-CAPA & LTI are actually XBlocks – XBlock SDK to build and test your own – Custom XBlock installation requires admin access – XBlock has full access

Integration options for EdX

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XBlocks!

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https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/wiki/List-of-XBlocks https://github.com/OfficeDev/xblock-officemix

Adding a very simple SG to EdX

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LON-CAPA+JSInput

But:

• Client is limited to JS

• Limited server-side grading

• Basic analytics only

The case of EyeWire

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In-browser WebGL client, EyeWire servers with API that is queried from EdX

• Stand-alone clients, Stand-alone servers

• Client is computationally intensive

• Built-in EdX support, uses custom Fold.IT API to query student scores

The case of fold.it

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• Support standardized packaging formats, providing search-friendly metadata

• Use student profiles (when available) to customize learning experience

• Provide information on student actions and progress to the MOOC platform

• Allow authoring access to the educational content, in the spirit of OER

Better Games

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Technical

Educational

• Integrate guest SG activity into general course progression: – provide activity with student profile

– reflect in-game decisions in updated profile

• Provide educational context for the hosted SG, both before and after

• Select the SG activities that best advance the educational goals of the course

Better MOOC Courses

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Technical

Educational

• Clear APIs for guest activities.

• Support several integration levels

• Collect and facilitate analysis of data from guests, allowing, for example, student leaderboards to be generated

• Support A/B testing of game variants

Better MOOC Platforms

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Technical

Educational

Thanks!

Questions? Comments?

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www.mokap.es

– prototype and develop self-contained games on a tablet in minutes

– fully open-source, online asset libraries too!

Before the next speaker sets up...

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Google Play & github.com/e-ucm/ead

eAdventure + Learning Analytics

Game Engine

Communication API

{

type: 'input',

timeStamp: some_timestamp,

device: 'some_device',

action: 'some_action',

target: 'target_id',

data: { key1: value, ...}

}

{

type: 'logic',

timeStamp: some_timestamp,

event: 'some_event',

target: 'some_id',

data: { key1: value, ...}

}

Learning Analytics Database

...