Homer & Plass: Expertise reversal for iconic representations in science simulations
Published December 3rd, 2011
Category Publications
By Bruce Homer and Jan L Plass
Topics
The influence of prior knowledge and cognitive development on the effectiveness of iconic representations in science visualizations was examined. Middle and high school students (N = 186) were given narrated visualizations of two chemistry topics: Kinetic Molecular Theory (Day 1) and Ideal Gas Laws (Day 2). For half of the visualizations, iconic representations of key information were added. Results indicated a main effect of prior knowledge on learning in Day 1. In Day 2, a three-way interaction was found between prior knowledge, age group and icons: icons were effective for all middle school students and for high school students with low prior knowledge, but were not effective for high school students with high prior knowledge. These findings indicate that the expertise reversal effect can be mediated by cognitive development and other factors, not just domain specific prior knowledge. More…
Homer, B.D. & Plass, J.L. (2010). Expertise reversal for iconic representations in science simulations. Instructional Science, 38, 259–276.
Domagk, Schwartz, & Plass: Interactivity in multimedia learning: An integrated model
Published December 3rd, 2011
Category Publications
By Jan L Plass and Ruth Schwartz
Topics
What does interactivity entail? What factors need to be taken into account in the design of interactive systems? Although interactivity is a widely used term accorded great prominence in discussions of multimedia learning, even a preliminary look at the literature suggests that how interactivity is defined, and what benefits it may offer, are not at all clear. The goal of this article is therefore to clarify the concept of interactivity. We present a unifying model that includes the user, the learning environment, and a system of connections and concepts that together make up interactivity. Such a model can help inform research, discussion, and design decisions on interactive multimedia instruction. More…
Domagk, S., Schwartz, R., & Plass, J.L. (2010). Interactivity in Multimedia Learning: An Integrated Model. Computers in Human Behavior, 26, 1024–1033. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.03.003
Game Review: Playground Sessions
Published December 2nd, 2011
Category White Papers
By Jan L Plass
Topics Game Review,
G4LI recently reviewed Playground Sessions, recently released by brand invention firm ZAG, is an innovative new way to learn to play the piano. Employing a “Play to Learn” approach, this downloadable software hopes to revolutionize the music tutoring industry by bringing the allure and motivation of triple-A games such as Guitar Hero and Rockband to the often dull and tedious world of learning to play an instrument. While not a game per se, Playground Sessions borrows many of the features of successful video games to support learning and to help maintain interest and motivation.
We give Playground Sessions 4 stars on our 5-star scale, based on the application of our evaluation rubric for games for learning.
Read the Full Review: G4LI Review–Playground Sessions
G4LI PIs Plass, Homer present Google TechTalk
Published June 8th, 2011
Category Presentations
By Jan L Plass and Bruce Homer
Topics
G4LI Co-Director Jan Plass and Co-PI Bruce Homer presented at Google in Mountain View, California in Google’s TechTalk speaker series with a talk entitled, Video Games and the Future of Learning.
G4LI Presents a Poster at the Jean Piaget Society Annual Meeting
Published June 7th, 2011
Category Presentations
By Lizzie , Bruce Homer and Jan L Plass
Topics
Bruce Homer, Jan Plass, and Elizabeth Hayward were in attendance at the 41st Annual Jean Piaget Society Annual Meeting in Berkeley, California. Click the link below to see the poster presentation on mode of play in an educational video game to teach middle school math. In this research, we examined the effects of manipulating social context of playing an educational math game with early adolescents. Effects on in-game and paper-pencil learning outcomes, situational interest, achievement goal orientation were investigated.
Social Context, Motivation and Learning in an Educational Video Game to Teach Middle School Math
G4LI announces post-doctoral positions (CUNY)
Published March 9th, 2011
Category
By Jan L Plass
Topics
The Graduate Center, City University of New York (Graduate Center) announces the availability of up to two postdoctoral research positions through the Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Research and Training Fellowship in the Educational Sciences (IPoRT) program, which is funded by a grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education.
Fellows will be appointed in the Educational Psychology Program at the Graduate Center and have
research affiliations with the Consortium for Research and Evaluation of Advanced Technologies in
Education (CREATE) at New York University http://create.alt.ed.nyu.edu/
Appointments are for one year with the possibility of a one-year reappointment.
More information is available at the IPoRT program website.
4th Annual Subway Summit: Posture as an Indicator of Engagement in Handheld and Laptop Game-Play
Published January 30th, 2011
Category Presentations
By Jennifer Case
Topics Engagement, Posture, subway summit,
The 4th Annual Subway Summit on Cognition and Education Research, hosted by Fordham University, was well represented by G4LI in presentations and presence. Click the link below to see the slides for the presentation on Posture as an Indicator of Engagement in Handheld and Laptop Game-Play. In this research, we are investigating the use of a posture sensor to identify engagement.
G4LI Report of May 28th, 2010 Meeting—A Discussion of the Potential of Video Games to Transform the Future of Learning
Published September 19th, 2010
Category White Papers
By Charles Hendee
Topics
Click on the image to download a PDF of the report.
The permise of the day, as written in the program, was as follows:
PREMISE: After 30 years, digital educational products are going unused in homes and in schools. These materials are short on educational quality, and their impact on students is as yet unknown. We have yet to develop a means of knowing whether these products are effective for learning. Furthermore, we still have no way to assure that effective reach all students equally.
In our conversations today, we challenge you to brainstorm about how we can meet the following challenges:
How do digital media, especially games, help us respond to critical challenges in education, such as an emphasis on learning 21st Century skills, to bridge formal and informal (in-class and out-of-class) environments, to foster inter-generational construction and transfer of knowledge, and support the lowest performing students, as well as ELL students, with learning materials designed to follow Common Core Standards?
What new forms of assessment can capture students’ level of proficiency in these new skills?
We are especially interested in discussing how the potential of games can be leveraged to address these challenges?
How can any (game-based) solution we may identify be brought to scale (designed, produced, marketed)?
G4LI Report of May 28th, 2010 Meeting—A Discussion of the Potential of Video Games to Transform the Future of Learning
Published September 19th, 2010
Category White Papers
By Charles Hendee
Topics
Defining and Measuring Engagement in Educational Games Presented at GLS 6.0
Published September 15th, 2010
Category
By Jennifer Case
Topics Engagement, GLS, Posture,
Research and design of educational games requires an understanding of the concept of player engagement during serious play. However, the there is currently no clear definition of the concept of player engagement, and its measurement is hampered by this lack of conceptual clarity. We propose a new definition and measurement methods for engagement in educational games based on a process model of interactivity that uses a systems approach to integrate the learning environment, behavioral activities, cognitive and metacognitive activities, motivation and emotion, learner characteristics, and the learner’s mental model (learning outcomes) (Domagk, Schwartz, & Plass, 2010). More specifically, our operational definition and measurement of engagement is based on a triangulation of behavioral responses, physiological responses (including biometrics), and self-reported data.
Behavioral responses (gameplay metrics) are obtained by capturing learners’ in-game actions within educational games that we have instrumented to capture players’ actions as well as in-game events in a log file. We are collaborating with Pragmatic Solutions, Inc., a company specializing in such instrumentation as well as the data mining and analysis of the recorded behavioral data, and we have been using this type of data for over a decade (e.g., Chang, Plass, & Homer, 2008; Leutner & Plass, 1996; Chang, Plass, & Homer, 2008).
Physiological responses (biometrics) include heart rate, pupil dilation, galvanic skin response, electromyography signals, and posture. These measures have been used successfully in previous game usability research (Burleson & Picard, 2004; Mandryk, 2008; Plass, Perlin, & Nordlinger, 2010).
Finally, self-reported data (user metrics) include users’ responses to questions such as “Are you having fun” and “Would you like to continue playing” during game play. Self-report data has also been used extensively in prior usability research (Homer, Plass, & Blake, 2008; Plass, Perlin, & Nordlinger, 2010; Schuh et al., 2008).
While using each of these data by itself to operationalize engagement has been subject to criticism, their triangulation allows for a more valid definition of this concept, and their character of process data allows for the analysis of engagement for specific in-game and out-of-game events.
This poster will present our work-in-progress of using triangulations of these three types of data toward an operational definition of engagement and an approach to its measurement. We will report results of related empirical studies with simulations and educational mini-games specifically designed for this research with middle-school students.
G4LI Game Design Patterns Rubric Presented at GLS 6.0
Published June 12th, 2010
Category Presentations
By Dan Hoffman
Topics Assessment, Design Patterns, g4li, GLS, Rubric, Teachers College,
Educational game development is increasing in popularity and is tapping into a huge, lucrative market, yet educational game design is sometimes more a matter of intuition rather than based on tested design patterns. A reliable, universal evaluation tool to assess educational games’ designs across genres and content areas is not available, though several researchers and designers are trying to identify core design patterns (Holopainen, 2003; Church, 1999) while others provide rubrics around very limited, design elements (CSUS, 2007; SDSU, 2009).
This presentation encourages educators, researchers and designers to evaluate games with a shared vocabulary and professional dialogue about clear criteria and standards by using a rubric created by researchers from the Games for Learning Institute (G4LI). G4LI is a consortium of university researchers, supported primarily by Microsoft Research, studying the educational use of digital games and investigating their socio-cultural, cognitive and emotional impact (http://www.seriousgamessource.com/item.php?story=20553). Part of this effort is to identify supportable design patterns for effective educational games that designers can draw on to assure high quality gameplay and educational value. A rubric with the dual purpose of providing guidance for educational game design as well as an evaluation tool for comparing educational games across play genres is one outcome of this work.
A rubric is several things: a guide for evaluating performance (Danielson, 1997); a descriptive scoring scheme developed to guide the analysis of a product or process (Brookhart, 1999); a written-down version of criteria, with all scoring described and defined (Arter & McTighe, 2001). While rubrics are commonly used in education, creating a rubric for evaluating game design has been challenging, as fixed criteria about what to assess in a game is not agreed upon. Thus, G4LI researchers surveyed the existing literature and identified 17 “design patterns” of effective games. The rubric uses these design patterns as criteria for game design and evaluation.
Along with the game design patterns, three central criteria are used in the rubric. These relate to internal game mechanics that affect gameplay and learning, and are simultaneously important and independent of one another (Danielson, 1997). Each of the 17 individual design patterns are evaluated on 5-point scale in each of the three criteria:
- Technical Implementation: The activity of programming and executing a design pattern into a working version of the game. Includes the seamless integration of design elements within game play.
- Educational Appropriateness: The ability of the game to address educational/curricular goals and the player(s) knowledge/ability relative to the educational content being addressed.
- Overall Integration with goals: The integration of the design pattern being considered with the other elements within the game, and within overall game play and educational goals.
The rubric has been developed and tested as a guidance-for-design tool in the national G4Li Game Design Challenge, already announced (http://g4li.org/archives/680). Authors will report the effectiveness of using the Game Design Patterns rubric, lessons learned from this experience and, by including a sample game evaluation, demonstrate how the rubric is used.
