Collaborative Game-based Learning: Using Text Collecting Technology to Analyze Learners’ Performance

Abstract

In a collaborative learning environment, instructors need to pay attention to individual performance and experience throughout the activity. During the activity, instructors usually walk around the classroom to get feedback from each group of participants one by one orally; after the activity, feedback is usually in the form of surveys, quizzes, and assignments. The feedback provides an inconsistent understanding of participants’ behaviors and feelings due to limitations on their recall of all the details during the learning process and of the content of all the questions on the surveys or assignments. In this thesis, we describe a real-time, dynamic, minimalist feedback system designed for collaborative game-based learning environments using data-with-scale and keywords. This newly developed educational tool allows instructors to track the performances of each participant during the activity with a real-time analyzing viewing panel and produce a comprehensive final report. The instructors can view the topics being discussed in each group; receive notifications for questions, concerns, off-topic conversations; and see the main content of the dialogue between participants on an interactive platform similar to a control panel to better understand the learning curve and difficulties of the participants in such uncontrollable and varied situations.