PRE2017 3 Groep9 - State of the Art

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State of the Art

Before starting a project it is important to know what has been done before. Therefore this section will talk about previous research into learning through games as well as research done in which types of learning are effective and why. This page will give a general overview of this research.

Viability of game based learning

Research has been done using the valence, the psychological value, of game-based learning as a measuring tool. The research set out to test the following hypotheses:

1. Potential learners will have greater pre-training valence for gamified instruction than for a traditional (i.e., PowerPoint-driven) instructional approach.

2a.Attitudes towards game-based learning will moderate the relationship between training design and valence; specifically, people with positive attitudes toward game-based learning will anticipate better outcomes from gamified instruction.

2b: Experience with video games will moderate the relationship between training design and valence; specifically, people with video game experience will anticipate better outcomes from gamified instruction.

The results show that in the end the participants near the mean. As for the hypotheses, on average hypotheses 1 holds. As for evidence of the other two hypotheses, although there was a mean effect, participants with poor attitudes towards game-based learning and limited experience with games had poorer valence for game-based learning than for lecture-and-powerpoint instructions.

Learning concepts in games

Games have been using teaching methods to teach their players about the game, that only recently have been thought of in the realm of education. The most prominent of these have been listed by, among others, James Paul Gee in his paper Learning and games. According to this paper the biggest difference between the learning methods used in education and those used in games is the general approach to teaching. Schools often focus on the content to be learned, whereas games focus on the meaning and uses of this content. That is to say that schools let their students learn the facts, while games focus on the use of those facts. Another big difference is the role of failure in learning. In games the costs of failure are relatively low and the failure itself if mostly seen as a learning opportunity. Multiple papers also talk about the role of competition. Competition is a big part of games and provides motivation to get better and learn more. Games in general have shown to increase motivation considerably, making not only the way of learning more interesting but also the concept itself,making the concept more interesting. So motivation is definitely one of the biggest advantages of learning with games.

Skills developed through game based learning

Games can be used to develop a plethora of skills. Research has shown that games can teach or help to develop soft skills, like leadership. A particular study about leadership showed that the use of a game could also identify what type of leader people were. This kind of effect of games, where they are used to learn something about the player, instead of the other way around, has not been used anywhere else as far as we have seen. Other research has shown that virtual worlds can be used to have engaging and effective social conferences, allowing for a good environment for discussions. Another skill taught by games is that of collaboration. Another study has shown that creative skills can be learned through games.

Inspiration for the game

Our game makes use of the learning techniques laid out in the book “De Taalhacker”, or “Fluent Forever” internationally by Gabriel Wyner. First of all, we took the fact that our visual memory is very strong. Meaning it’s a lot easier to connect a word to an image, than a word to another word. Second of all we try making a mnemonic, “ezelsbruggetje” in Dutch, by showing the player a mini game based on the word. This mini game should surprise the player and make him instantly connect this experience to the word. Since the minigame is based on the word they should thus more easily recall the word.

According to Wyner, while learning a language you should use other language as little as possible. This is why we only use English to explain the minigames, and the settings, all other text is in Italian. We even try to teach the player the Italian word for Congratulations by showing them the text Felicitazioni when they get a correct word.

Language Tutor Applications

There already exist multiple applications that try to teach people new languages. The most popular one being Duolingo. However, Duolingo, has very weak gamification, only incentivizing visiting the app for some valuta that can only be spend on some customization for the app itself. It also does not use the language learning methods very well. For example it doesn’t use images to learn you the words, it also makes full use of english while learning the language, making you translate english sentences directly. However, it does use something we also wanted to use, Space-Based Repetition (SBR). Which is a very valuable technique for learning words.

SBR, teaches you words in a sequence that keeps testing your memory and helping you remember words you learned before. It uses an algorithm to decide when a word you just got wrong/right, will be tested again. For example, you have a sequence in which a program will test you on words, and every time you get a word wrong it will repeat that word after the next 3 words. and when you get it right it will be tested after you got all the wrong words correct from last time.

SBR is the most useful application of learning words digitally, programs that use it like WRTS, are very popular among students.

References Wyner, G. (2015, February). De Taalhacker. Amsterdam: Maven Publishing.