The Effects of a Customisable Pedagogical Agent in a Serious Game Teaching Art Concepts to Middle School Students
Authors
Ovesen, Dennis Lyngsaa ; Gade, Christopher Tanderup ; Maarbjerg, Jacob Sax
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2016
Submitted on
2016-06-17
Pages
86
Abstract
I dette projekt udviklede vi et læringsspil med en pædagogisk agent – en virtuel lærerfigur – der skulle hjælpe elever med at forstå kunstbegreber. Spillet rummer fem minispil og en figur-skaber, hvor spilleren kan tilpasse agentens udseende. Hvert minispil fokuserer på ét begreb: perspektiv, beskæring, komposition, genre og farveblanding. Spillet blev afprøvet med 36 elever i 4.-6. klasse (10-13 år) på en dansk folkeskole. De spillede i grupper på to eller tre; halvdelen af grupperne kunne tilpasse agenten, mens den anden halvdel ikke kunne. Vi evaluerede forløbet med før- og efter-spørgeskemaer, Fun Toolkit, Godspeed Questionnaire og videooptagelser. Resultaterne peger på, at muligheden for at tilpasse agenten øgede elevernes oplevede sjov, videnstilegnelse og vurdering af agenten. De mest lovende effekter sås i 4. klasse, men med kun 12 elever i denne gruppe kan der ikke drages endelige konklusioner.
This project developed a learning game featuring a pedagogical agent—a virtual teaching character—to help students understand art concepts. The game includes five mini-games and a character creator that lets players customize the agent’s appearance. Each mini-game focuses on one concept: perspective, image cropping, composition, genre, and color blending. We tested the game with 36 Danish public-school students in grades 4–6 (ages 10–13). They played in pairs or trios; half of the groups could customize the agent, and the other half could not. We evaluated the experience with pre- and post-questionnaires, the Fun Toolkit, the Godspeed Questionnaire, and video recordings. The findings indicate that allowing customization increased enjoyment, knowledge gain, and students’ ratings of the agent. The most promising effects appeared in the 4th-grade subgroup, but with only 12 students in that grade, the results are not conclusive.
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