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PLAGER-VG: platform for managing educational multiplayer video games

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Abstract

Information and communication technologies, in general, and multimedia systems, in particular, are currently incorporated into the learning processes with certain normality. Furthermore, the scientific community agrees that video games, as a specific expression of these technologies, present additional benefits that improve many student skills. In an educational context which uses video games as learning tools, the need for a well-defined framework to develop effective educational games seems evident. However, most educational games are not supported by specific architectures; perhaps because the existing ones do not include fundamental aspects such as collaboration, adaptation or gameplay, or its conceptual language is hardly understandable to the educational team. With the aim of fill this gap, we here describe the architecture PLAGER-VG to design, execute, monitor and adapt collaborative learning processes supported by video games, focusing the paper in the design and personalization aspects. PLAGER-VG is a modular platform composed of five sub-systems which allows incrementally designing video games and using them, as well as integrating a video game with other related to it. In particular, we propose the Design Sub-system for managing the educational game design process and the Personalization Sub-system for adapting the gameplay, and therefore the educational process, to the needs of students. The architecture has been considered during the development of several video games and a set of thirty teachers have expressed their acceptance regarding the main elements of PLAGER-VG.

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Notes

  1. e-adventure - official web site available, 2016. Retrieved April, 2, (2016) from http://e-adventure.e-ucm.es/

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Acknowledgements

This study and work is financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, as part of the DISPERSA Project (TIN2015-67149-C3-3-R), and by the Andalusia Research Program under the project P11-TIC-7486 co-financed by FEDER (European Regional Development Fund – ERDF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (UNIR), Avda. de la Paz, 137 26006, 26002, Logroño, La Rioja, Spain

    Natalia Padilla-Zea

  2. Video Games and E-learning Research Laboratory, GEDES Research Group, CITIC-UGR, University of Granada, C/ Periodista Daniel Saucedo Aranda, s/n, 18071, Granada, Spain

    Nuria Medina Medina, Francisco L. Gutiérrez Vela & Patricia Paderewski

  3. IDIS Research Group, Universidad del Cauca, Sector Tulcan, Popayán, Colombia

    César A. Collazos

Authors
  1. Natalia Padilla-Zea
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  2. Nuria Medina Medina
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  3. Francisco L. Gutiérrez Vela
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  4. Patricia Paderewski
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  5. César A. Collazos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Nuria Medina Medina.

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Padilla-Zea, N., Medina, N.M., Gutiérrez Vela, F.L. et al. PLAGER-VG: platform for managing educational multiplayer video games. Multimed Tools Appl 77, 2115–2152 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-017-4376-8

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