New educational technologies that utilize students' interaction data and visualizations provide a means to expand our understanding of learning processes. In this study, we apply two advanced and novel data visualization techniques, called the "Indivisualizer" and a "Sankey diagram," to explore how middle school students (N =…

We used a cluster-randomized controlled trial to examine the impacts of a technology- and game-based social-emotional program, the "Adventures Aboard the S.S. GRIN" ("Adventures"), on students' social skills development. Eighty-eight third-grade classrooms (N = 1645 third-grade students) across four California public school…

We apply an advanced data visualization technique, "Sankey diagram," to explore how middle-school students (N = 343) solved problems in a game-based algebraic notation tool. The results indicate that there is a large variation in the types of students' strategies to solve the problems, with some approaches being more efficient than…

Feedback in educational technologies can teach and engage students in math, but questions remain on how to present failure feedback that supports positive learning behaviors. We explore how error- and reward-based feedback influenced students' choices to replay completed problems in "From Here to There!," a math game-based educational…

Mission HydroSci (MHS) teaches water systems and scientific argumentation towards meeting Next Generation Science Standards. MHS is a game-based 3D virtual environment for enacting transformational role-playing, wherein students must learn new knowledge and competencies in order to successfully complete the game missions. MHS was developed for…

An overarching motivation driving my research has been to further our theoretical understanding of how readers successfully comprehend challenging text. This article describes the theoretical origins of this research program and my quest to understand comprehension processes through the use of technology. Coh-Metrix was developed to measure, and…

What is the affective quality of specific design features of game characters? The Integrative Model of Emotion in Game-based Learning (EmoGBL) describes common mechanisms of how emotion and learning processes interact to foster specific learning outcomes. In the present paper, we asked how color, shape, expression, and dimensionality of game…

We examined the use and effectiveness of an incentive system--one of the five elements of a theory-based motivational architecture in educational games that we proposed--in a computer-based physics game on students' learning and performance. The incentive system's purpose was to motivate students to access learning supports designed to facilitate…

This paper responds to a 2016 systematic literature review of the research on learning games by Ke (2016). The review paper unpacked the idea of intrinsic integration in learning games, analyzing important emergent themes. The key ideas and the value of this review are discussed in the context of the recent shift to virtual instruction. The…

Computer-based learning environments (CBLEs) provide unprecedented opportunities for personalized learning at scale. One such system, iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking) is an adaptive, game-based tutoring system for reading comprehension. This paper describes how efforts to increase personalized learning have…

The purpose of this research study was to evaluate iPersonalize, a gamified instructional approach developed by Fullerton School District (FSD) in California to encourage student engagement and promote achievement. An instructional approach is considered gamified when it incorporates computer game elements to augment existing classroom,…