Thibault Carron

Observation of Collaborative Activities in a Game-Based Learning Platform

The work reported here takes place in the educational domain. Learning with Computer-Based Learning Environments changes habits, especially for teachers. In this paper, we wish to demonstrate through examples how learning sessions set up in a Game-Based Learning environment may be regulated by the teacher thanks to observation facilities. Providing teachers with feedback (via observation) on the ongoing activity is thus central to being aware of what is happening in the classroom, in order to react in an appropriate way and to adapt a given pedagogical scenario. The first part deals with the observation of a learning environment, based on traces left by users in their collaborative activities. The information existing in these traces is rich but the quantity of traces is huge and very often incomplete. Furthermore, the information is not always at the right level of abstraction. That is why we explain the observation process, the assets of a multisource approach and the need for visualization linked to the traces. The second part of the paper focuses on our view of learning games illustrated through the “pedagogical dungeon,” a game-based environment that we have developed. In the third part, we illustrate these concepts in the pedagogical dungeon equipped for observation and with the capacity for collaboration in certain activities. Finally, the feedback about the experiments presented is discussed at the end of the paper.

Teaching with game-based learning management systems: Exploring a pedagogical dungeon

The work reported here takes place in the educational domain. The authors propose a learning environment based on a graphical representation of a course. The emergence of online multiplayer games led the authors to apply the following metaphor to the digital work environments: The method of acquiring knowledge during a learning session is similar to the exploration of a dungeon, where each student collects knowledge related to a learning activity. In the first part of this article, the authors focuses on a description of how concepts of learning activities can be represented in the dungeon view. The second part deals with the support of the observation task for the teacher during a learning session and more generally with providing users with awareness. The authors thus propose a multiagent system using data collected from traces resulting from the collaborative learning activity. Finally, this environment allowed the authors to set up experiments with students at their university.

Helping the Teacher to Re-Organize Tasks in a Collaborative Learning Activity: An Agent-Based Approach

Our work aims at providing teachers with an observation tool making the learning task flexible and more adaptive. The main point of this paper deals with an agent approach to support the observation task of the teacher during a learning session. A multi-agent system architecture is proposed and discussed.

Help through visualization to compare learners' activities to recommended learning scenarios

We are interested in the observation of learner behavior in learning environments in order to compare it to a recommended learning scenario. This paper deals with visualization as a means for observation. Indeed, the visualization can bring different functionalities and we are particularly interested in two of them: first to make the visualization aid the user to better explain the learners activities by highlighting relevant information; second, to manipulate data to add some semantics on them. We present some visualization techniques adapted to our purpose, based on results previously obtained in an experiment.

Towards a structured approach to the definition of indicators for collaborative activities in engineering design

The work reported here relates to the need for collaborative platforms for sharing knowledge in engineering design. Such platforms often integrate different indicators for describing or measuring the characteristics of current or past activities in order to improve collaboration. These collaboration indicators are intended to promote the interaction between the users of those platforms, and to provide engineers with different forms of awareness. In this paper, the issue of defining a structured approach for building a consistent set of indicators for an efficient collaborative platform in engineering design is investigated. A possible classification for these indicators is put forward and is based on several dimensions, such as the social aspects. This classification provides a broad view of indicator requirements, through grid, making it possible both to analyse existing indicators and to characterise users’ needs in order to define new ones. The proposed classification is tested in two different companies using a collaborative platform for their engineering activities. It is shown that the classification makes it possible to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of an existing set of indicators, and how it can support the elicitation process of new ones. Finally, a definition of co-design methodology for collaboration indicators is suggested. Here, particular attention is paid to users’ needs and to the systematic consideration of all relevant dimensions.

The Electronic Schoolbag, a CSCW workspace: presentation and evaluation

This paper describes the Electronic Schoolbag, a digital workspace developed at the University of Savoie (France) and analyses its usages. This online environment is dedicated to the educational world: it offers pupils, students, teachers, school staff, or parents, personal and group workspaces in which individual or collaborative activities can take place. The flexibility of this software, allowing synchronous or asynchronous activities, lies in the “participation model”. This model allows groups themselves to describe and organise their activities. The architecture that permits its implementation in the Electronic Schoolbag workspace is described. The study of the practices of the workspace is then presented. This requires different observation methods, according to the different procedures chosen: real practices provided by quantitative methods (analysis of the logs of the actions and questionnaires) and imagined practices provided by qualitative methods (semi-directive interviews). The results obtained from the university users allow us to assess the evolution of the usages for different periods and on different university sites. The observatory also lets us list the main uses of the Electronic Schoolbag for educative communication (collaborative vs. individual, informative vs. communicative).

Building on the Case Teaching Method to Generate Learning Games Relevant to Numerous Educational Fields

University teachers often feel the need to try innovative learning technologies such as Learning Games to motivate the new generation of students. However, the typically limited resources of universities coupled with the high cost of designing and developing Learning Games result in it rarely being feasible to meet this need. To address this challenging problem, we have designed a framework that allows teachers to create their own Learning Games with very little or no help from developers and graphic designers. This framework, tested and validated by several university teachers, is suited to a wide variety of educational fields because it generates Learning Games based on the widely-used case teaching method.

MoPPLiq: A Model for Pedagogical Adaptation of Serious Game Scenarios

In order to help teachers adapt the educational scenarios of Serious Games to their specific needs, we have built a model called MoPPliq capable of formalizing the flow of activities in the game. This model integrates all the functionalities necessary to allow teachers to restructure the Serious Game scenario without altering the logic of the games storyline. In this paper, we describe the MoPPliq model and discuss our evaluation of its expressivity by using model transformation.

A Model for CSCL Allowing Tailorability: Implementation in the “Electronic Schoolbag” Groupware

We describe in this paper a model for Computer Supported Collaborative Learning and the corresponding architecture. This model has been designed to take into account the variety of educational activities and cultures. It offers primitives to endusers, mainly the teachers, allowing them to describe a collaborative activity and to regulate it (i.e. modify it dynamycally). It has been implemented within a groupware based on the metaphor of electronic schoolbag, which is used today by more than 40000 users in both University and secondary french schools. Thanks to the model, the developed groupware is flexible and tailorable.

Adaptive and playful approach in the MOOC: Thanks to serious game

Massive Open Online Course(MOOC) is a new development of knowledge learning. Two main models (xMOOC and cMOOC) provide online open education thanks to the wide use of information and communication technologies. The attractiveness of MOOCs is an undeniable fact and the number of participants on institutional websites is very important. Despite this success, the number of learners completing the entire Mooc is very low. In this paper we propose to improve MOOC completion rates by adaptive and playful approach. For this, we propose the use of flexible learning paths and integration with a Serious Game.