Mobile Multimodal Serious Games Analytics

Educational games are one prominent type of Serious Games that are designed for educational purposes. One goal of evaluating their benefits is ensuring that they meet these objectives. Some measures for this purpose are defined in fields like Learning Analytics and Technology-enhanced Learning. However, unlike other educational methods, meeting learning goals is not the only success measure of Serious Games. Contrary, complex requirements arise from their nature as games which are discussed in fields like Game User Research and Game Analytics and need to be considered. This thesis investigates how the use of new data collection opportunities enabled by smartphones as an interaction platform can benefit research in the field of Serious Games evaluation. Unobtrusive integrated sensors are used for observing user interactions in natural contexts. This can be vital for capturing factors that can help evaluate a Serious Game from multiple perspectives and with deeper insights. With the lack of theoretical frameworks covering this area of research, a need for establishing foundations regarding the capturing and use of data from different modalities for Serious Games evaluation was found. First, a model describing the different evaluation aspects of Serious Games and their relations is laid down. Based on a study of available frameworks, it classifies the four dimensions learning, gaming, using and context. Additionally, sets of feature states related to these dimensions, observable during evaluation, are defined. These are needed to examine aspects when traditional logging techniques are insufficient, and when additional data modalities from smartphone sensors are required. Based on a requirement analysis, a multimodal evaluation platform for Serious Games that supports remote mobile data collection is implemented as a proof of concept. Challenges in multimodal synchronization, linking of quantitative and qualitative data, and quality of data obtained in mobile settings are discussed. Possible solutions are provided. Finally, studies evaluating this platform and using it to evaluate educational games are carried out and demonstrate the potential of such techniques for Serious Games evaluation