ENGAGE: A Game Based Learning and Problem Solving Framework.

摘要

This month we performed the first trials at University Child Development School (UCDS) and Interagency Academy, where we collected gameplay data, pre- and post- test results, and behavioral and affective data. Feedback on technical issues and potential game design improvements was also generated. We are now sorting through the gameplay data and the feedback in order to target specific improvements to the games before the next round of trials (see details below). With the data in, it is clear that we need to have some infrastructure not only for logging but filtering and analyzing the data as well. To that end, we have written preliminary versions of a variety of scripts to pull the data from the logging database, search for inconsistencies and other potential logging errors, and perform useful transformations on the data before they are brought into a statistical analysis package. The development of these tools will be an ongoing process. One common question from classroom educators is about the games support for tablet devices, which are seeing increasing popularity in schools. Partially in response to those requests, we spent some time this month investigating various solutions to bring each of the games to both iOS- and Android-based tablet devices. The test results were very promising and we believe we can have functionally and aesthetically identical versions of the games available on tablets over the next year. We have selected our Community Manager and she is set to begin at the start of the new year. The Community Manager will play a key role in developing a robust and self-supporting community of teachers and educators around the games through social interactions in the Teacher Portal, as well as through social media channels on education sites such as Edmodo and on the internet at large (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).