Skip to main content

The Journey: A Service-Based Adaptive Serious Game on Probability

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 9221))

Abstract

Serious Games (SGs) have a lot of potential in education, possibly making learning more engaging and satisfying. Adaptive Games strive to keep the challenges presented by the game balanced with the player’s abilities, as to keep the player in the “flow” state. We have used a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach to develop a simple adaptive SG for teaching basic elements of probability to high school and entry-level university students, called The Journey. The game performs continuously the updating of a user model with the competences of the student and presents the new challenges according to the student’s current level. This paper presents details of the educational aspects of the game, as well as of its implementation. It also presents a preliminary validation study and discusses future work.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   34.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  1. van Eck, R.: Digital game-based learning: it’s not just the digital natives who are restless. EDUCAUSE Rev. 41(2), 16–30 (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bellotti, F., Berta, R., De Gloria, A.: Designing effective serious games: opportunities and challenges for research. Int. J. Emerg. Technol. Learn. (iJET) 5(SI3), 22–35 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Kickmeier-Rust, M.D., Albert, D.: Educationally adaptive: balancing serious games. Int. J. Comput. Sci. sport 11(1), 1–10 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Hauge, J.B., Bellotti, F., Kickmeier-rust, M., Berta, R., Carvalho, M.B.: Deploying serious games for management in higher education: lessons learned and good practices. In: Escudeiro, P., de Carvalho, C.V. (eds.) Proceedings of the 7th European Conference on Games Based Learning, pp. 225–234 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bellotti, F., Berta, R., De Gloria, A., Margarone, M.: MADE: developing edutainment applications on mobile computers. Comput. Graph. 27(4), 617–634 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bellotti, F., Berta, R., De Gloria, A., Primavera, L.: Supporting authors in the development of task-based learning in serious virtual worlds. Brit. J. Educ. Technol. 41(1), 86–107 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Curatelli, F., Martinengo, C.: Design criteria for educational tools to overcome mathematics learning difficulties. Procedia Comput. Sci. 15, 92–102 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Curatelli, F., Bellotti, F., Berta, R., Martinengo, C.: Paths for cognitive rehabilitation: from reality to educational software, to serious games, to reality again. In: De Gloria, A. (ed.) GALA 2013. LNCS, vol. 8605, pp. 172–186. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Arnab, S., Lim, T., Carvalho, M.B., Bellotti, F., de Freitas, S., Louchart, S., Suttie, N., Berta, R., De Gloria, A.: Mapping learning and game mechanics for serious games analysis. Br. J. Educ. Technol. 46(2), 391–411 (2015). doi:10.1111/bjet.12113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Peirce, N., Conlan, O., Wade, V.: Adaptive educational games: providing non-invasive personalised learning experiences. In: 2008 Second IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning, pp. 28–35 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Bloom, B.S.: The 2 sigma problem: the search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Educ. Researcher 13(6), 4–16 (1984)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. De Bra, P.: Adaptive hypermedia. In: Adelsberger, H., Kinshuk, Pawlowski, J., Sampson, D. (eds.) Handbook on Information Technologies for Education and Training SE - 2. International Handbooks on Information Systems, pp. 29–46. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  13. Kickmeier-Rust, M., Göbel, S., Albert, D.: 80Days: melding adaptive educational technology and adaptive and interactive Storytelling in digital educational games. In: Klamma, R., Sharda, N., Fernández-Manjón, B., Kosch, H., Spaniol, M. (eds.) Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Story-Telling and Educational Games (STEG’08), CEUR Workshop Proceedings, January 2008

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kickmeier-Rust, M.D., Marte, B., Linek, S., Lalonde, T., Albert, D.: The effects of individualized feedback in digital educational games. In: Proceedings of the 2nd European Conference on Games Based Learning, pp. 227–236 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Steiner, C.M., Kickmeier-Rust, M.D., Mattheiss, E., Göbel, S., Albert, D.: Balancing on a high wire: adaptivity key factor of future learning games. In: An Alien’s Guide to Multi-Adaptive Educational Computer Games, p. 43 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Shute, V.J., Ke, F.: Games, learning, and assessment. In: Ifenthaler, D., Eseryel, D., Ge, X. (eds.) Assessment in Game-Based Learning, pp. 43–58. Springer, New York (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  17. Hurwitz, J., Bloor, R., Baroudi, C., Kaufman, M.: Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies. Wiley, Hoboken (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Sprott, D., Wilkes, L.: Understanding service-oriented architecture. Archit. J. 1(1), 10–17 (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Papazoglou, M.P., Traverso, P., Dustdar, S., Leymann, F.: Service-oriented computing: state of the art and research challenges. Computer 40(11), 38–45 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hassan, M.M., Hossain, M.S., Alamri, A., Hossain, M.A., Al-Qurishi, M., Aldukhayyil, Y., Ahmed, D.T.: A cloud-based serious games framework for obesity. Proceedings of the 1st ACM multimedia international workshop on Cloud-based multimedia applications and services for e-health (CMBAS-EH ’12), p. 15. ACM Press, New York (2012)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  21. Floryan, M., Woolf, B.P.: Optimizing the performance of educational web services. In: 2011 IEEE 11th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, pp. 399–400. IEEE, July 2011

    Google Scholar 

  22. Doswell, J., Harmeyer, K.: Extending the ‘Serious Game’ boundary: virtual instructors in mobile mixed reality learning games. In: Proceedings of the 3rd Digital Games Research Association International Conference - DiGRA 2007, pp. 524–529 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kickmeier-Rust, M.D., Albert, D.: An Alien’s Guide to Multi-Adaptive Educational Computer Games. Informing Science Press, Santa Rosa (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Zagal, J.P., Bruckman, A., Computing, C.: The game ontology project : supporting learning while contributing authentically to game studies. In: Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on International Conference for the Learning Sciences (ICLS’08), pp. 499–506 (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  25. Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Bloom, B.S.: A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Longman, New York (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  26. Bellotti, F., Kapralos, B., Lee, K., Moreno-Ger, P., Berta, R.: Assessment in and of serious games: an overview. Adv. Hum.-Comput. Interact. 2013, 1–11 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work has been partially funded by the EC, through the GALA EU Network of Excellence in Serious Games (FP7-ICT-2009-5-258169). This work was supported in part by the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Interactive and Cognitive Environments, which is funded by the EACEA Agency of the European Commission under EMJD ICE FPA n 2010-0012. This work is partially supported by the European Commission (EC) under the Information Society Technology priority of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development under contract no 258114 NEXT-TELL.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maira B. Carvalho .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Carvalho, M.B. et al. (2015). The Journey: A Service-Based Adaptive Serious Game on Probability. In: De Gloria, A. (eds) Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 9221. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22960-7_10

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22960-7_10

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22959-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22960-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics