Combining Gamification and Intelligent Tutoring Systems for Engineering Education

Ryan Hare, Ying Tang, Chengzhang Zhu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This work-in-progress research-to-practice paper provides ongoing results from the development and testing of a personalized learning system integrated into a serious game. Given limited instructor resources, the use of computerized systems to help tutor students offers a way to provide higher quality education and to improve educational efficacy. Personalized learning systems like the one proposed in this paper offer an accessible solution. Furthermore, by combining such a system with a serious game, students are further engaged in interacting with the system. The proposed learning system combines expert-driven structure and lesson planning with computational intelligence methods and gamification to provide students with a fun and educational experience. As the project is ongoing from past years, numerous design iterations have been made on the system based on feedback from students and classroom observations. Using computational intelligence, the system adaptively provides support to students based on data collected from both their in-game actions and by estimating their emotional state from webcam images. For our evaluation, we focus on student data gathered from in-classroom testing in relevant courses, with both educational efficacy results and student observations. To demonstrate the effect of our proposed system, students in an early electrical engineering course were instructed to interact with the system in place of their standard lab assignments. The system would then measure and help them improve their background knowledge before allowing them to complete the lab assignment. As they played through the game, we observed their interactions with the system to gather insights for future developments, which are presented in this work. Additionally, we demonstrate the system's educational efficacy through early pre-post-test results from students who played the game with and without the personalized learning system integration.

Original languageAmerican English
Title of host publication2023 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE 2023 - Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
ISBN (Electronic)9798350336429
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event53rd IEEE ASEE Frontiers in Education International Conference, FIE 2023 - College Station, United States
Duration: Oct 18 2023Oct 21 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings - Frontiers in Education Conference, FIE

Conference

Conference53rd IEEE ASEE Frontiers in Education International Conference, FIE 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityCollege Station
Period10/18/2310/21/23

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Education
  • Computer Science Applications

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