User engagement in serious games

Abstract

In recent years, the use of games as educational tools, particularly serious games, has garnered significant attention for its ability to enhance student engagement. Now, with advancements in computational power and innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques, this project aims to create an educational maze game and website that bridges the gap between learning and entertainment. The core idea behind this project is to investigate the effectiveness of integrating AI techniques to provide users with a more engaging experience. On that end, the AI techniques investigated include: adapting a newly created maze game’s difficulty based on user performance as an attempt to bridge the gap between high‐scoring and low‐ scoring students thus creating a more competitive environment that caters to students of all abilities, as well as creating a review system where a user after completing a particular quiz, could test their knowledge with newly created review questions and answers based on the original questions of that particular quiz. In addition to this, this project empowers teachers with a user‐friendly platform where they can effortlessly transform traditional quizzes into captivating, interactive maze games. Using this platform teachers can through the integration of AI, create new wrong answers with a click of a button to simplify their workflow, as well as view student performance in detail such as the speed at which a student managed to answer questions, as well as mistakes made. Meanwhile, students themselves can review their performance post‐game and engage in additional exercises to reinforce their learning. Initial results of the first pilot study indicate that the use of AI in game creation can increase both learner and teacher engagement through a gamified approach to learning. This holds many implications that can be further evaluated and tested in diverse educational settings.