Gamified Learning Activities In Situ: Lessons Learnt with Teachers and Students
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Gamified Learning Activities In Situ: Lessons Learnt with Teachers and Students
- 1. GAMIFIED LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN SITU: Lessons Learnt with Teachers and Students Javier Melero, Davinia Hernández-Leo, Josep Blat Interactive Technologies Group Universitat Pompeu Fabra EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 2. OUTLINE EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013 1. Introduction 2. A conceptual model for puzzle-based games design 3. Methodology 4. Evaluation 5. Results on teachers and students 6. Conclusions and future work
- 3. INTRODUCTION 3 • M-learning: Situated learning activities in physical spaces • Benefits: Exploration skills and cooperation (Jeng et al. 2010) • Previous Work: “QuesTInSitu” (Santos et al. 2011) • Explorative and Spatial Skills • Foster students’ motivation and self-assessment Further research work involve improving students’ reflexion when performing situated learning activities EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 4. INTRODUCTION 4 How can we support more fruitful learning activities in situ that can be designed by teachers? • Adopted approach: A metaphor based on puzzle games • Educational Games: strengthen and support school achievement, cognitive abilities, motivation towards learning, reflection, attention and concentration. • Puzzles: arrangement of a set of pieces into a single, well-fitting structure that interrelates them • Benefits: • Puzzle-based games can engage students in the subject topics, foster students’ problem solving, analytical and memory skills (Huang 2007; Bottino 2008). • The nature of puzzle-based games seems relevant to consider as potential educational strategy to feasibly involve teachers as game designers (Huang 2007; Crawford 1982) Research Question EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 5. INTRODUCTION 5 Main objectives: • To propose a conceptual model, and its associated binding, for the design and computational representation of puzzle-based games • To support the teachers the creation of in situ learning activities following the conceptual model • Enactment with students Objectives EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 6. PUZZLE-BASED GAMES 6 • Previous research studies about game design elements that have to take into account when designing educational games (Fisch, 2005; Jones, 1998; Kirriemuir et al., 2004; Malone, 1981; Sandford et al., 2005; Squire et al., 2003) • A 4-dimension framework, considering the role of teachers, intended to evaluate the potential of using games- and simulation-based learning (de Freitas et al., 2006) A Conceptual Model (1/2) The proposed conceptual model considers: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 7. PUZZLE-BASED GAMES 7 A Conceptual Model (2/2) Graphical representation: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 8. 8 We explore how can we apply the puzzle-based game metaphor in the creation of question item-based activities Considering students: • Applying the puzzle-based game metaphor in situated learning activities enhance the students’ learning experience • Aim: to engage students in reflecting on the correct solutions • Similar to jigsaw puzzles: players could try to solve the different questions as many times as needed until reaching a correct solution • Ways to find the correct solutions: reflecting on wrong past choices, consulting resources provided by the gamified application, discussing with other students, asking people, searching by the Internet, etc. PUZZLE-BASED GAMES The metaphor to design situated activities (1/2) EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 9. 9 Considering teachers: • Flexible metaphor for the design of gamified situated learning activities (independent of the subject matter) • Elements considered in the metaphor to design the (assessment) in situ learning activities: PUZZLE-BASED GAMES The metaphor to design situated activities (2/2) Board Geographical zones or museums rooms Slots Questions designed for the gamified learning activity Pieces Options associated to each question Puzzle Groups of slots Level Contains a puzzle. Levels as Points Correct/Incorrect answers, consulting hints. Bonus Extra points when all questions from a level have been correctly answered Feedback Information associated to ranges of points Hints Information of help to guide students to find the correct answer EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 10. 10 • The teachers became co- participants in the design and analysis • Involves social interactions with the teachers: • Sharing ideas • Looking at multiple aspects of the design and developing • Involves different participants in the design (researchers and teachers METHODOLOGY Design-based Research Methodology (1/2) Design Enactment Analysis Re-design • The methodology (Barab et al., 2004; Collins et al. 1992; DBRC, 2003) involves continuous cycles of: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 11. 11 Applying the design-based research methodology: • Context: The puzzle-based game metaphor as an approach to create gamified in situ learning activities • Participants: Teachers (designers) and students (end users) of secondary education • Design: filling the templates containing the different key elements of the conceptual model • Enactment: QuesTInSitu: The Game • Analysis: Mixed evaluation method considering: • Observations, tests, questionnaires, and log files (with students) • Interviews and questionnaires (with teachers) METHODOLOGY Design-based Research Methodology (2/2) EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 12. 12 EVALUATION Three gamified situated learning activities (1/2) MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’H Teachers Involved 1 teacher 1 teacher 7 teachers Purpose Activity associated to a subject, as a learning activity Activity associated to a subject, as part of its formative assessment Transversal activity in the school Context Learning about different contemporary pictures of the MNAC Learning about the city of Vic and its art history (unfamiliar city for most of the students) Discovering and learning about the heritage of the city of l’Hospitalet (their own city) Secondary teachers of different schools were involved in the design of their own gamified situated learning activities considering the puzzle-based game metaphor: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 13. 13 EVALUATION Three gamified situated learning activities (2/2) MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’Hospitalet Number Levels 4 levels 4 levels 10 levels Number Questions 20 questions 75 questions 55 questions Points Correct Answers 50 points more 1 point more 250 points more Points Incorrect Answers 10 points less 0.3 points less the first attempt, 0.5 point the second one, 1 point the third one. 100 points less Number Hints 19 hints 25 hints 52 hints Points Hints 50 points less 0.2 points less 100 points less Extra Bonus 50 points more 1.5 points more when all the questions correctly answered at the first attempt, 0.75 points otherwise. Proportional to the number of questions Hints Content Short text about the context related to the question Short text about the context related to the question Suggestions rather than clues (ask people, read the information that appears next to the statue, etc.) Levels Information Short sentence of the museums room Short sentence of the geographical zone General information about the zone and particular information about the questions Feedback Messages Informal Formal Informal Summary of the game design task for creating situated learning activities: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 14. 14 RESULTS MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’Hospitalet Educational benefits (metaphor) Metaphor perceived as motivating, entertaining, educational Metaphor allows consolidating knowledge and learning from mistakes Metaphor is stimulating, encouraging, and motivating Approach (answering as many times as needed) Useful to help students to reflect but difficult for the teachers to know the students’ difficulties The teacher totally agrees on the importance of the approach Different ratings when asking about the importance of the approach* Data gathering techniques: questionnaires (once the teachers finished their game design task) and interviews Summary of results (according to the teachers’ opinions) [1/2]: * A teacher pointed out that “I find the bonus, hints and punctuation more motivating and interesting than trying and trying to reach the correct answer or having a free hint. It is not bad, but I find these elements dispensable” EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013 Teachers’ opinions (1/2)
- 15. 15 RESULTS Teachers’ opinions (2/2) MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’Hospitalet Elements understanding No problems understanding what the different elements mean No problems understanding what the different elements mean The “Level” element was the most problematic*. “Slot” and “pieces”, just at the beginning** Hints Hints are useful to guide students, but not each question should have Hints are important to guide students in case that they are lost or stuck Hints are a good mechanism to advance in the game, but not all the questions should have Bonus Important to keep students motivated Important to keep students motivated Important to keep students motivated Punctuation Important since it may stimulate students to reflect on their decisions when selecting an answer Highlights the importance of designing adapted punctuation depending on the number of wrong attempts Good approach to allow students self-reflecting on their performance. 5 out of the 7 teachers found very important the adapted punctuation depending on the number of wrong attempts. Feedback Important to students to reflect on their actions The teacher did not find very important the feedback Feedback are perceived as motivating and necessary Summary of results (according to the teachers’ opinions) [2/2]: * 6 out of the 7 teachers quite or totally agreed that they had difficulties understanding what a level means ** During the discussion of a meeting, some teachers argued that at first the metaphor is quite abstract, and it is needed to recall and interpret the meanings of each element [Observer-1]; but once the elements were understood, it was easy [Observer-2] EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 16. 16 RESULTS MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’Hospitalet Following the metaphor 16/36 students don’t like to be forced to answer the questions until reaching the correct solution 52/63 students followed the metaphor 25/56 students fully followed the metaphor 18/36 students preferred having only one chance to solve the questions 45/63 students preferred this approach to only having one chance 32/56 students preferred this approach to only having one chance 28/36 students did not try to do it better in next attempts 53/63 students think more about the possible solutions and pay more attention 36/56 students totally agree that think better the solutions and pay more attention Data gathering techniques: questionnaires (once the students finished the activity), observations (from researchers during the activity), log files (from the app.) Summary of results (according to the students) [1/4]: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013 Students' Opinions (1/4)
- 17. 17 RESULTS MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’Hospitalet Punctuation 29/36 students didn’t find appropriate and (30/36) motivating the amount of points when solving correctly the questions 47/63 students found appropriate and (47/63) motivating the amount of points when solving correctly the questions 45/56 students found (30/56) appropriate and motivating the amount of points when solving correctly the questions 14/36 students didn’t find appropriate and (14/36) discourage the amount of points when solving correctly the questions 30/63 students didn’t find appropriate and (16/63) discourage the amount of points when solving correctly the questions 20/56 students didn’t find appropriate and (4/56) discourage the amount of points when solving correctly the questions Extra bonus 19/36 students didn’t find appropriate the amount of points 37/63 students found appropriate the amount of points 42/56 students found appropriate the amount of points 17/36 students didn’t find it motivating 46/63 students found it motivating 31/56 students found it motivating Summary of results (according to the students) [2/4]: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013 Students' Opinions (2/4)
- 18. 18 RESULTS MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’Hospitalet Hints No data gathered 9/14 groups of students accessed to the hints (max. 2 hints) 7/14 groups of students accessed to the hints (max. 5 hints) 0/18 Students found hints useful because (0/15) help them not to be stuck 13/28 Students found hints useful because (10/25) help them not to be stuck 4/20 Students found hints useful because (9/19) help them not to be stuck 3/16 students found appropriate the amount of points subtracted 14/27 students found appropriate the amount of points subtracted 4/19 students found appropriate the amount of points subtracted 2/20 students carefully accessed because of the points* 24/28 students carefully accessed because of the points* 11/20 students carefully accessed because of the points* * Strategies followed by the students were: looking the information of the surroundings, asking people, searching by the Internet, all the members agreeing on the answers, and divide the questions among the members of the group [data from questionnaires and observations] Summary of results (according to the students) [3/4]: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013 Students' Opinions (3/4)
- 19. 19 RESULTS Students' Opinions (4/4) MNAC Discovering Vic Discovering l’Hospitalet Information’s levels 4/36 students found it helpful 31/63 students found it helpful 26/56 students found it helpful 17/36 students it found unnecessary 17/63 students found it unnecessary 5/56 students found it unnecessary Feedback 7/36 students it found motivating 31/63 students found it motivating 21/56 students found it motivating 16/36 students it found unnecessary 12/63 students found it unnecessary 9/56 students found it unnecessary Summary of results (according to the students) [4/4]: EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 20. 19 RESULTS Comparing Students’ Performance EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013 Particular case: students from the MNAC experiment using the gamified application vs. not using the gamified application: • Post-test containing 8 random questions already answered in the app. • Comparison of correct answer: gamified application vs. not gamified application
- 21. 20 The conclusions, considering the teachers’ opinions, are: • The metaphor allows the design of gamified learning activities in situ depending on the teacher’s purpose • Concerns about having the possibility of answering several times the questions are mainly about knowing what the most problematic questions are to the students • Problems understanding the “level” element • The teachers can design their own punctuation depending on the activity’s purpose • Different approaches followed to design hints: textual information vs. clues • Results suggest that not all the questions should have associated hints • Extra bonus valued as a good approach to motivate students • Levels’ information design depends on the purpose: concrete vs. generalize CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Conclusions (1/2) EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 22. 21 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Conclusions (2/2) The conclusions, considering the students, are: • Not to force students to answer all the questions for a given level. Like in jigsaw puzzles, one could leave it without finishing it • Punctuation is not the most important information when situated activities are as a part of the students formative assessment • Does not make sense having bonus when forcing the students to answer all the questions. • Hints are not consulted because students follow other strategies to find the answers • Feedbacks are necessary and motivating • When interpreting these results, we should also consider contextual aspects (relation teachers-students, students age, socioeconomics factors, sense of freedom, etc.), and the teachers’ decisions for the game design EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 23. 22 Future work includes: • Evaluating the students’ performance on “Discovering l’Hospitalet” • Evaluating a gamified design for “Discovering Sant Sadurni” in which 7 teachers have been involved • Evaluating an authoring tool with teachers (excepted end of June) CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK Future Work EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013
- 24. THANK YOU!! EEE Meeting – Leganés, 27-28 May 2013 Questions? Suggestions? Doubts?
Notas del editor
- M-learning brings the possibility of creating situated learning activities that take place in physical spaces (Jeng et al. 2010). Benefits derived from this type of activities are related to developing exploration skills and cooperation (Hwang et al. 2008). In this line, previous research work on QuesTInSitu, an m-learning app to support assessment in situ , shows that students put explorative and spatial skills into practice and fosters their motivation, and personal observation. However, further research work involves supporting the students ’ reflexion when performing this type of learning activities (Santos et al. 2011).
- Games is an option to adress learning and motivation. Empirical evidence supports the positive effects of computer games as learning tools. The evidence indicate that games implementing pedagogical designs can strengthen and support school achievement, cognitive abilities, motivation towards learning, reflection, attention and concentration. In order to engage students to reflect on their decisions while performing learning activities in situ, we mainly focus on the following challenge: How can we support more fruitful learning activities in situ that can be designed by teachers? With the aim of allowing teachers the design this type of learning activities, we adopt an approach that consists in using a metaphor based on puzzle games as an innovative way to design gamified in situ learning activities. In general, we take as a basis the jigsaw puzzles, meaning the arrangement of a set of given pieces into a single, well-fitting structure that interrelates the pieces. Also: Puzzle-based games can engage students in the subject topics, foster students ’ problem solving, analytical and memory skills (Huang 2007; Bottino 2008). A puzzle should be interesting because its result is not immediately intuitive. The nature of puzzle-based games seems relevant to consider as potential educational strategy to feasibly involve teachers as game designers (Huang 2007; Crawford 1982).
- To tackle our research question: First we propose a conceptual model, and its associated binding, for the design and computational representation of puzzle-based games. We aim at support the teachers the creation of in situ learning activities following the conceptual model. The resulting designed activities we ain at enactment with students.
- The proposed conceptual model considers: Previous research studies about game design elements that have to take into account when designing educational games (Fisch, 2005; Jones, 1998; Kirriemuir et al., 2004; Malone, 1981; Sandford et al., 2005; Squire et al., 2003) A 4-dimension framework, considering the role of teachers, intended to evaluate the potential of using games- and simulation-based learning (de Freitas et al., 2006). As a result, the approach defines the learning flow of the whole game, the context where the game takes places as well as the puzzles associated to each activity.
- In general terms, a puzzle-based game design considers a person playing a role in the gaming process. The outcomes of the games, stated as gaming objectives, have to be achieved by performing the learning activities associated to the levels of the game. Also, each activity can have associated a hint to scaffold the learning process. Besides, the story of the game consists in defining which player role has to perform which activity and at what moment in the gaming process. Each activity has associated a puzzle, composed by a set of virtual or physical pieces that can also include scaffolding mechanisms. Pieces can be part of a board in which players should relate each piece with its corresponding slot. Depending on the puzzle game design (e.g.: game to be played indoors or outdoors), either pieces or slots could have associated virtual, tagged or geo-located positions.
- Considering the proposed conceptual model, we explore how can we applied in the creation of question item-based activities. Focusing on the role of the students, we claim that the puzzle-based game metaphor can be applied for creating gamified situated learning activities to enhance the students ’ learning experience: The aim of applying this strategy is to engage students to reflect on the correct solutions for each question proposed by the teacher. Similarly to jigsaw puzzles, players could try to solve the different questions as many times as needed until reaching a correct solution. We escape from just having one attempt to solve the questions and providing immediate feedback when solutions are incorrect. Instead, students have more chances to solve the questions until finding the right solution. Students have the possibility of finding the correct solutions either by reflecting on their wrong past choices or taking benefit of the resources provided not only by the gamified application itself but also by the information that can be found in the real place, discussing with other students, etc.
- For teachers, we believe that this is a flexible metaphor for the design of gamified situated learning activities (independent of the subject matter). The puzzle-based game metaphor considers the following elements to design the (assessment) in situ learning activities: The “ board ” is the set of questions that is associated to geographical zones or buildings maps. The “ slots ” are the different questions designed for the gamified learning activity. The “ puzzle pieces ” are the different options for each designed question. Just one puzzle piece can fit in a concrete slot, meaning that there is only a correct option for each question. The “ puzzle ” . The puzzle is formed by a group of questions (i.e. slots). The “ level ” . A level contains just one puzzle. It can be defined as many levels as the designer wants. For instance, the designer can create a level per each museum ’ s room or geographical zone. The “ points ” are defined to reflect the students ’ performance: a) correct answers add points to the overall player ’ s punctuation, b) incorrect answers subtract points, c) consulting hints subtract points. The “ bonus ” . When all the questions for a given level have been correctly answer, students will obtain a bonus that will add extra points to the overall punctuation. The extra bonus is a reward to engage and encourage students to correctly complete the different puzzles. The “ feedback ” . This means textual information associated to specific range of points in order to show the students how is their performance. The “ hints ” . Hints are provided to scaffold the learning process in order to avoid frustrations and advance forward the whole gamified in situ learning activity. Besides, when all questions, except one, have been correctly answered, the student will obtain a “ free hint ” . This means no points are subtracted when consulting the hint of the last question to be solved of a given puzzle.
- Since this research introduces a new approach to different subjects (teachers and students), and we aim at analysing the usefulness, comprehension and understanding, we follow a design-based research methodology (Barab et al., 2004; Collins et al. 1992; DBRC, 2003). This methodology involves continuous cycles of design, enactment, analysis, and redesign. One of the key points of following this methodology is that subjects became co-participants in the design and analysis, addressing complex problems in real contexts. In this sense, the development of design-based research occurs in authentic settings, involves multiple dependent variables, focuses on characterizing the situation in all its complexity, involves flexible design revision conducting rigorous and reflective inquiry to test and refine innovative learning environments. Thus, this methodology involves complex social interactions with participants sharing ideas, involves looking at multiple aspects of the design and developing a profile that characterizes the design in practice, involves different participants in the design so as to bring their differing expertise.
- Context : The puzzle-based game metaphor as an approach to create gamified in situ learning activities Participants : Teachers (designers) and students (end users) of secondary education Design : Game design task filling the templates containing the different key elements of the conceptual model to design the gamified situated learning activities Enactment : QuesTInSitu: The Game: http://youtu.be/BTSsXa_e-6M Analysis : Mixed evaluation method considering: Observations, tests, questionnaires, and log files (with students) Interviews and questionnaires (with teachers)
- Gamified in situ learning experience: The MNAC Activity associated to a subject, as a learning activity. Learning about different contemporary pictures of the MNAC. One teacher involved in the game design task. 72 students divided in two big groups: one using the gamified application, the other not. Game application: 4 levels (each level corresponds with each museum ’ s room) consisting of 20 questions (with 3 possible answers per question). The correct answers added 50 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. The incorrect answers subtracted 10 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. Accessing to the hints subtracted 50 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. The extra bonus, obtained when correctly answering all the questions for a given level, added 50 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. 19 hints were designed. These were descriptions about the subject matter related to the question. The level ’ s information was a text containing information about museum ’ s room. Feedbacks were written in an informal way, encouraging students either when making good or bad decisions. Learning experience 2: Discovering Vic Activity associated to a subject (part of its formative assessment). Learning about the city of Vic and its art history (unfamiliar city for most of the students). One teacher involved in the game design task. 72 students using the gamified application. Game application: 4 levels (corresponding to zone geographical zones of the city) consisting of 75 questions (with 4 possible answers per question). The correct answers added 1 point to the overall student ’ s punctuation. Incorrect answers subtracted 0.3 points at the first attempt, 0.5 points at the second attempt and 1 point at the third attempt (each wrong attempt accumulated the previous extracted points). Accessing to the hints subtracted 0.2 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. The extra bonus was independent of the number of questions per level. Thus, 1.5 extra points were obtained if all the questions were correctly answered at first attempt. Otherwise, 0.75 points were obtained if all the questions were correctly answered, but not at the first attempt. 25 hints were designed. Here, hints were small texts giving clues to the students. Each level ’ s information was just a short sentence of the geographical zone where the questions were located. Feedbacks were written in a formal way, just indicating if actions, or proposed solutions, were correct or not. Learning experience 3: Discovering l ’ Hospitalet Transversal activity in the school. Discovering and learning about the heritage of the city of l ’ Hospitalet (their own city). 7 teacher involved in the game design task. 64 students using the gamified application. Game application: 10 levels (corresponding to geographical zones of the city) consisting of 55 questions (with 4 possible answers per question). The correct answers added 250 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. The incorrect answers subtracted 100 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. Accessing to the hints subtracted 50 points to the overall student ’ s punctuation. The amount of extra bonus that could be obtained for each level depends on the number of questions contained in the level. This means, each question was equivalent to 100 points. So, if one level contains 5 questions, the students obtained 500 points more to the overall punctuation when completing the level. 52 hints were designed. These were suggestion to the students rather than clues (e.g. look at the bottom of the statue, ask the people nearby, etc.). The level ’ s information was a text containing information of the overall questions for the particular level (i.e. geographical zone) and the questions in particular. Feedbacks were written in an informal way, encouraging students either when making good or bad decisions.
- The puzzle-based game metaphor is perceived as an approach that can have educational benefits, being an entertaining approach that can motivate students. The proposed puzzle-based game metaphor has been found stimulating and a good approach to motivate students. Paying attention to the possibility of answering several times the questions, the teacher had concerns about knowing how many times the students have failed each question. Despite this methodology is better to help students reflect upon their mistakes; it is difficult to check what questions have been the most troubled
- In all the learning experiences, the majority of groups answered all the questions until reaching the solution. In the MNAC, students couldn ’ t decide; they were forced to answer all the questions. In Vic and l ’ Hospitalet, the students could decide what to do. While students from the MNAC did not like the approach, and they believed to not think better the solution, the students from Vic and l ’ Hospitalet, preferred this approach compared to having only one chance to solve the questions, and think and pay more attention when answering the questions.
- Regarding the punctuation, in Vic, the obtained punctuation was taken into account as a part of the history art subject. In l ’ Hospitalet, the punctuation was not taken into account as a part of any evaluation, but this not influenced in letting the questions without answered or incorrectly answered. Regarding the punctuation, the students from l ’ Hospitalet found this information as the most important, while the students from Vic experiment do not. This makes sense since, l ’ Hospitalet was an isolated learning activity that did not have any implications in the students ’ curricula, and the punctuation was the only outcome that students could obtain. However, the students participating in Vic, this experiment was as a part of other activities proposed by the teacher, and as a consequence, their outcome depended not only in the in situ learning activity but also in previous and post activities that the students had to perform. Results regarding punctuation mechanisms (adding and subtracting points when correctly or incorrectly answer questions) suggest that should be design following a more game-oriented approach based on obtaining higher amount of points. Students from Vic and l ’ Hospitalet agreed on the subtraction mechanisms. However, students from Vic experiment were discouraged each time they failed a question. On the other hand, students from Hospitalet experiment were not discouraged when failing the questions. Considering the learning context of both experiments it is logical these reactions since, the overall punctuation obtained by the students from Vic experiment had a repercussion in their subject about history arts, while the other students had not. Students from Vic and l ’ Hospitalet experiments agreed that the extra bonus and the points obtained when correctly answering the different questions were appropriate and motivating. Students for MNAC the extra bonus did not make sense to the students, since everyone obtained it because we forced to complete correctly all the questions of the different levels. In this case, no bonus extra will be obtained and, as a consequence, the students ’ efforts are not rewarded.
- Hints have been the most controversial mechanism. Overall, hits have been used very poorly in the three experiments, and the gathered data regarding this mechanism has been quite low. The main reason has been because the subtraction of points. Also students preferred to asking people or searching by the Internet. However, some tendencies have been detected. There is no a clear agreement from the students from l ’ Hospitalet experiment when asking about whether hints are useful or help to guess the correct solution. Despite they found logical to subtract points when accessing to the hints, they did not agree on the amount of points subtracted neither on the usefulness of the hints. This is reasonable since hints were designed in a way that were more like suggestions rather than clues, and students got upset about the obtained information and for losing points for this kind of information. On the other hand, the hints designed for the Vic experiment consisted in small descriptions about contextualised information of the questions. This information contained clues for answering the questions. In this case, hints have been perceived as useful to achieve the correct solutions. Also, students agree on subtracting points when accessing to the hints. However, there is a positive tendency of considering hints unnecessary. The main reason for this, it is because students could complete the whole game without consulting most of the designed hints. Regarding the hints, further research is still needed about how properly design this mechanism. Students found hints unnecessary because the content of the hints was considered unclear and misleading, and disagreeing in the subtraction points. Results suggest that in order to encourage the students the access to the hints, these should subtract less points than failing a wrong answer.
- Regarding levels ’ information, while students from l ’ Hospitalet experiment agreed on the helpfulness and the necessity of having the levels ’ information, the students from Vic, as well as from the MNAC experiment had doubts about whether it is needed or useful. This makes sense since the levels ’ information designed for Vic or MNAC experiment did not contain useful information to help answering the questions; this was only a introductory sentence about the zone where the questions were placed. In Hospitalet experiment, however, the levels ’ information was a descriptive paragraph not only about the geographical zone but also containing information useful to answers some of the questions. Students from all experiments agreed that feedback is necessary and motivating.
- The students using the puzzle-based game approach obtained slightly better outcomes in the post-test than the students using the test-based approach. In fact, the mean of the students using the puzzle game approach was one point higher (i.e. 7) than the others (i.e. 6). Also, the range of marks was more concentrate in one group than the other. While students using the puzzle-based game approach obtained between 4 and 8 points, the other students obtain between 2 and 8 points. Paying attention to the results, this indicates that all the students of the first group would pass the post-test, while the students of the second group won't. More specifically, four students using the test-based approach obtained less than 4 points in the post-test. Thus, considering these facts we can claim that it seems that using the puzzle game metaphor students can obtain better learning outcomes.
- Summarizing, in regards to the teachers ’ opinions, the conclusion are: The puzzle-based game approach can allow the design of fruitful gamified learning activities in situ Some concerns related to having the possibility of answering several times the questions arose. These are mainly about knowing the most troubled questions. In this regards, further research lines suggest to support somehow the teachers with visualizations about the students ’ performance. Problems understanding the “ level ” element. Problems designing hints suggesting that not all questions should have associated hints. Extra bonus valued as a good approach to motivate students.
- On the other hand, considering the students ’ opinions we conclude that: We do not have to force students to correctly answer all the questions for a given level to advance forward the game. Like in jigsaw puzzles, one could leave it without finishing it Punctuations, when the activity is contained in other activities, is not considered the most important information The approach is flexible in a way that allows the teachers to design their own punctuation depending on the activity ’ s purpose. When the application is presented to the students as a game, results show that teachers should follow a design based on higher punctuations. Otherwise, if the application is presented has a formal approach to evaluate students ’ knowledge, it seems that there is not a problem to design punctuations based on traditional tests. Does not make sense having bonus when forcing the students to answer all the questions. In this line, results suggest not to force the approach and obtain the bonus only when correctly answering all the questions of the different levels. Otherwise, no extra bonus will be obtained. Hints are use as textual information or clues helping the students to find the information. Hints are not consulted because subtract points, and students preferred to ask people or search by the internet. A careful design in relation to the points related to the hints should be crucial to promote the access to the hints. Levels ’ information design depends on the purpose. Some teachers prefer to describe concrete content while other just contextualizes the questions. Feedbacks are necessary and motivating, no matter in which way are designed. These results seem to be related to the purpose of the activity, contextual characteristics (teachers motivating their students, students age, socioeconomics factors, controlled environment vs. freedom, etc.), and the teachers ’ decisions for the game design.