Student mathematical errors are rarely random and often occur because students are applying procedures that they believe to be accurate. Traditional approaches often view such errors as indicators of students' failure to understand the construct in question, but some theorists view errors as opportunities for students to expand their mental model…

A large-scale randomized controlled trial tested the effects of researcher-developed learning games on a transfer measure of fractions knowledge. The measure contained items similar to standardized assessments. Thirty treatment and 29 control classrooms (~1500 students, 9 districts, 26 schools) participated in the study. Students in treatment…

Educational video games provide an opportunity for students to interact with and explore complex representations of academic content and allow for the examination of problem-solving strategies and mistakes that can be difficult to capture in more traditional environments. However, data from such games are notoriously difficult to analyze. This…

Analyzing log data from educational video games has proven to be a challenging endeavor. In this paper, we examine the feasibility of using cluster analysis to extract information from the log files that is interpretable in both the context of the game and the context of the subject area. If cluster analysis can be used to identify patterns of…

Appropriately designed technology-based learning environments such as video games can be used to give immediate and individualized feedback to students. However, little is known about the design and use of feedback in instructional video games. This study investigated how feedback used in a mathematics video game about fractions impacted student…

Commercial video games undergo usability studies to determine the degree to which the player is able to learn, control, and understand the game. Usability studies allow game designers to improve their games before they are released to the public. If usability studies could be expanded to include information about the presentation of the…

Effective design of training-related games (games for training and/or assessment) requires synergy between the mechanisms for delivering instructional content and the mechanisms for learning game play and game functionality (Becker, 2006). The learning domain must be embedded as a core game mechanic: that is, the game cannot be advanced or won…

Digital games offer an appealing environment for assessing student proficiencies, including skills and misconceptions in a diagnostic setting. This paper proposes a dynamic Bayesian network modeling approach for observations of student performance from an educational video game. A Bayesian approach to model construction, calibration, and use in…

Though video games are commonly considered to hold great potential as learning environments, their effectiveness as a teaching tool has yet to be determined. One reason for this is that researchers often run into the problem of multicollinearity between prior knowledge, in-game performance, and posttest scores, thereby making the determination of…

Educational videogames can be designed to provide instructional feedback that is responsive to specific actions. However, existing research indicates that students tend to ignore videogame feedback and subsequently use less effective help-seeking strategies. Research on help-seeking in learning environments has primarily focused on the role of…

One of the reasons why commercial video games are popular is that they effectively teach players how to play the game--in many cases as the player plays the game itself. This paper focuses on how to effectively integrate teaching "how to play a game" with teaching an "instructional domain" within a game for learning. By analyzing more than 30…

This study is an exploratory study of the relationship between collaboration and mathematics and game outcomes in a video game aimed at teaching concepts related to rational numbers. The sample included 243 middle school students who played the video game either with one partner or individually for 40 minutes. Results suggest that participants…

The use of a narrative in educational contexts has been found to increase learners' experience of flow or absorption in a task. This increased experience of flow can in turn result in increased retention and learning outcomes. However, narrative can also be polarizing particularly in the male-dominated realm of video game play due to gender…

The evaluation of educational interventions requires assessments that consistently (reliably) produce data from which accurate (valid) inferences about the test subjects can be made for some stated purpose. Despite codified definitions of all these terms, there remains vibrant debate about the assessment design process and how measures of…

Understanding the meaning of rational numbers and how to perform mathematical operations with those numbers seems to be a perennial problem in the United States for both adults and children. Based on previous work, we hypothesized that giving students more time to practice using rational numbers in an environment that enticed them to apply their…