Research into student affect detection has historically relied on ground truth measures of emotion that utilize one of three sources of data: (1) self-report data, (2) classroom observations, or (3) sensor data that is retrospectively labeled. Although a few studies have compared sensor- and observation-based approaches to student affective…

Research on epistemic emotions has often focused on how students transition between affective states (e.g., affect dynamics). More recently, studies have examined the properties of cases where a student remains in the same affective state over time, finding that the duration of a student's affective state is important for multiple learning…

Understanding the relationship between student behaviors and learning outcomes is crucial for designing effective collaborative learning environments. However, collaborative learning analytics poses significant challenges, not only due to the complex interplay between collaborative problem-solving and collaborative dialogue but also due to the…

Extensive research underscores the importance of stimulating students' interest in learning, as it can improve key educational outcomes such as self-regulation, collaboration, problem-solving, and overall enjoyment. Yet, the mechanisms through which interest manifests and impacts learning remain less explored, particularly in open-ended game-based…

Collaborative game-based learning offers opportunities for students to participate in small group learning experiences that foster knowledge sharing, problem solving, and engagement. Student satisfaction with their collaborative experiences plays a pivotal role in shaping positive learning outcomes and is a critical factor in group success during…

Stealth assessment in game-based learning environments has demonstrated significant promise for predicting student competencies and learning outcomes through unobtrusive data capture of student gameplay interactions. However, as machine learning techniques for student competency modeling have increased in complexity, the need for substantial data…

Although badges are among the most-used game elements in gamified education, studies about their optimal features to motivate learning are scarce. How should a badge be designed to represent an incentive for a specific goal like optimal exam preparation? This study examines usage data of a higher education learning app to determine whether the…

Games in service of learning are uniquely positioned to offer immersive, interactive educational experiences. Well-designed games build challenge through a series of well-ordered problems or activities, in which perseverance is key for working through ingame failure and increasing game difficulty. Indeed, persistence through challenges during…

Gamification frameworks can aid in gamification planning for education. Most frameworks, however, do not provide ways to select, relate or recommend how to use game elements, to gamify a certain educational task. Instead, most provide a "one-size-fits-all" approach covering all learners, without considering different user…

A challenge in digital learning games is assessing students' learning behaviors, which are often intertwined with game behaviors. How do we know whether students have learned enough or needed more practice at the end of their game play? To answer this question, we performed post hoc analyses on a prior study of the game "Decimal Point,"…