A Novel Sensor-Based Methodology for Learner’s Motivation Analysis in Game-Based Learning

Learner’s motivation is one of the main aspects that need to be addressed for a successful learning process. Consequently, learner motivation assessment and measurement have attracted significant research interest in the e-learning area in general and game-based learning in particular. Traditional methodologies for learner motivation analysis rely on data collected through questionnaires. However, this approach does not fit well in the context of game-based learning, because an out-of-game questionnaire breaks the game user’s flow and immersion. This paper presents a novel electroencephalography (EEG) sensor-based methodology that supports real-time non-disturbing automatic measurement and analysis of learner’s motivation in game-based learning. An evaluation case study with participants playing an educational game was conducted in order to investigate the feasibility of the proposed sensor-based methodology and to compare the proposed methodology with the intrinsic motivation inventory-based questionnaire methodology. The results analysis has shown that the sensor-based methodology outperforms the traditional questionnaire-based methodology.The traditional questionnaire-based methodology is limited to analysing learner’s motivation on short game-playing durations, while losing its feasibility when analysing learner’s overall motivation over a long game-playing duration. Results have shown that learner’s motivatio