Flujo de trabajo 1 detallado

The main objective of the project undertaken during this master’s thesis is to conduct research in the area of video games, it will specifically focus on the study of the motivation, engagement and learning obtained through the use of motion based educational games. In order to achieve this it is important to discover how to use intrinsic motivation factors as fantasy, challenge and curiosity [32], so the game becomes appealing for the young players and its success on learning by playing increases.

The research of this thesis will also include the effectiveness of these games when they are played individually or with others in order to provide important information for the industry or other researchers regarding the design of motion based educational games.

The play experience is different when it includes more than one person in the same game instance, may it be cooperatively or against each other, hence it is interesting to analyze this factor.

The research also encompasses studying in which kind of domains the same game could be used. This is important because finding games or game components that can be reused would significantly lower the developing costs of future games and ease the efforts towards their creation. This is of special interest for Cyberlab because they want a game that could be easily configured to teach concepts different to the one in which the game developed in this master is created.

8 2.3. Goals

Chapter 3

Research

As in any other scientific thesis, a big part of this work is focused on the research in an in-teresting area for Information Systems, more concretely, this thesis focuses on educational games and motion capture as the means to regulate the interaction between the players and the game. The project includes the development of a game prototype, but its purpose is to serve as a tool to undertake the research in this project. This part of the thesis includes the research questions that are to be studied in this thesis, the research methodology used, the data gathering techniques that were utilized to obtain the data needed to perform the research, and the validation models for the results obtained in this thesis.

3.1 Research Questions

This section introduces the questions subject to research during the development of the project. These questions aim to analyze the effectiveness and usefulness of motion based educational games as a tool to motivate, engage and help with the learning process of the players. It also examines the effects of this kind of games in social situations and the possibilities of reusing the same game concepts in order to be able to find out the different domains where the game could be used as a teaching and learning tool. In order to address these goals it is necessary to find suitable and concrete questions that could be measurable and answerable by the study undertaken in this project. The approach I decided to follow is the Goal Question Metric GQM.

3.1.1 The Goal Question Metric Approach

GQM is an approach used first at NASA, and has as a purpose to translate high level goals to questions that establish clearly how the goals can be attained. In addition, establishes the corresponding metrics needed to measure and answer said questions and hence the goal. The GQM is composed by three levels, these can be described as follows [9]:

Conceptual Level is composed by the Goal, and defined for an object in specific, in this case the game being developed, depending on different viewpoints and the issues of interest, and with a specific purpose.

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10 3.1. Research Questions

Operational Level is represented by the Questions in GQM tree. Each goal identified in the conceptual level is decomposed into a set of questions that describe the manner in which it will be achieved.

Quantitative Level is represented by the Metrics in the GQM tree. Each question ob-tained in the operational level will have a metric to measure it. They are made by the data needed to answer each question and can be either objective (depends only on the object) or subjective (depends on the object and the viewpoint).

Figure 3.1: GQM Tree.

As it can be seen in Figure 3.1, the GQM is a hierarchical approach that is formed in a top-down fashion. The top most elements are represented by the goals, which in turn are decomposed into a set of questions which have a series of metrics used to answer said questions and measure them. It is interesting to note that in some cases the questions and metrics can be overlapped across different goals [9]. Even though the description of the GQM indicates that the metrics used to answer each of the questions are of a quantitative nature, the approach can also be suited for projects similar to the present one. It is only important to have in mind that the data used in the metrics are of a qualitative nature and in this case are extracted from the opinions and experiences of the users of the game which are captured in the form of questionnaires and interviews.

3.1.2 Research Questions and the GQM Approach

The research questions to be addressed in this study can be seen in Tables 3.1, 3.2 and 3.3, and they are obtained by decomposing each of the goals that were found to be the purpose of this project. The object that the GQM refers to is in this case the motion based educational game, placing interests in its effects in the education, the repercussions on the same game if played in a social manner, and the possibilities of reusing this game as a learning tool in different domains.

Chapter 3. Research 11

G1 The study seeks to establish the effects of motion capture in educational games.

RQ1.1 What are the benefits of using a motion capture system in an educational game?

Metric Questionnaires Interview

Literature Review Observation

RQ1.2 What are the effects in the motivation, engagement and learning of players who are exposed to a motion based educational game which is used as a teaching tool?

Metric Questionnaires Interview Observation

RQ1.3 What are the advantages of learning through a motion based educational game in comparison with the traditional teacher-student interaction that takes place in a classroom?

Metric Questionnaires Interview

Literature Review

Table 3.1: Table with the goal 1 and the questions and metrics obtained.

G2 The study seeks to understand how the social aspect affects a motion based educational game.

RQ2.1 What are the players’ social preferences in a motion based educational game?

Metric Questionnaires Interview Observation

RQ2.2 How are the effects in the motivation, engagement and learning of players in a game with a social component compared to a single player game?

Metric Interview

Literature Review Observation

Table 3.2: Table with the goal 2 and the questions and metrics obtained.