AVATARS in GAMEBASED LEARNING

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AVATARS in GAME-BASED LEARNING

• Yavuz Inal
• 21.12.2005

Current Issues in Technology Enhanced Learning
2
Overview

• Computer Games
• Game-Based Learning
• Avatars in Computer Games
• Historical Background of Avatars
• Avatars as Pedagogical Agents
• Reviews of 2 Studies
• Discussion for Future Researches

3
Computer Games
voluntary
enjoyable
unproductive
unreal
uncertain

• Characterised by six dimensions Fantasy,
  rules/goals, sensory stimuli, challenge, mystery
  and control.

4
Computer Games

• Why are computer games important?
• Being Source of Fun
• Draw Attention
• Keep Motivation High
• Improve Learning
• Capabilities
• Enhance Self-Esteem

5
Computer Games

• Main Characteristics of Computer Games (Prensky,
  2001)
• 1) Fun
• 2) Play
• 3) Rules
• 4) Goals
• 5) Interactivity
• 6) Outcomes and feedback

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Computer Games

• 7) Adaptive
• 8) Win states
• 9) Conflict/competition/
• challenge/opposition
• 10) Problem solving
• 11) Interaction
• 12) Representation and story

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Computer Games

• Why do people play computer games?
• fantasy, curiosity, challange, control (Malone,
  1981)
• dynamic visuals, rules, goal, interaction
  (Johnston, 1993)
• challenge, risk (Baranauskas, 1999)
• competition, challenge, social interaction,
  diversion, arousal, fantasy (Garris et al.,
  2002)

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Game-Based Learning

• The ability and the potential benefits of
  computer games in game-based learning environment
  to engage, motivate and allow the user have fun
  is directly related to design and quality of the
  content which will be embedded into the computer
  games (Pivec at al., 2004)

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Game-Based Learning

• In Game-Based Lening Environment
• Encourage greater academic, social and computer
  literacy skills (Natale, 2002)
• Think critically
• Learn more effectively
• Remind context of the courses efficiently

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Game-Based Learning

• From the first computer games to the last, game
  technology has been evolving from day to day
  because the computer and graphic technology have
  been changing
• Avatar technology, which is a human body
  representation in the virtual worlds

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Game-Based Learning

• Main usgae of avatars are to increase motivation
  of the players as pedagogical agents when they
  play computer games.

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Avatars in Computer Games

• Avatars are commonly the representation of the
  players in the virtual environments
• Mostly human-like or cartoon sample
• The two individual elements, player and
  character, can be imagined to be inert until they
  are joined together in virtual environments

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Avatars in Computer Games

• Avatar is a independent embodiment from the
  content of the environments (Sheth, 2003)
• They are also virtual characters making the
  communication between the user and the machine
  more natural and interactive

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Avatars in Computer Games

• Avatars usually require support from some
  technologies such as
• Bot,
• Chatbot
• Infobot, which are not an avatar in virtual
  environments.

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Avatars in Computer Games

• Avatar usages that make the virtual place more
  realistic than other character usage are proposed
  so as to make players feel more involved with the
  3D virtual environments
• They also changed the nature of the communication
  and interaction types in the virtual environment

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Avatars in Computer Games

• Avatars are gaining more importance where
  interactivity, learner engagement, cultural
  factors, communication, embodiment and motivation
  are important design considerations especially
  when web-based environments, and 3D virtual
  environments are considered

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Avatars in Computer Games

• Avatar usage becomes even more important in
  multi-user virtual environments, because players
  have to use them in order to communicate with
  each other
• This importance comes from the different aims of
  the multi user virtual environments having
  crucial advantages and functions, which are 1)
  perception, 2) localization, 3) identification,
  4) visualization of others' interest focus, 5)
  visualization of others actions, 6) social
  representation of self through decoration of the
  avatar

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Avatars in Computer Games

• Embodiment of the people in virtual environments
  by using avatars is one of the most important
  issues that should be analyzed
• It provides information regarding the entity and
  activity of the participants and gesture and
  facial expression which can be used for the
  expression of the emotion and the separation of
  mind and body (Benford et al., 1997)

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Avatars in Computer Games
Figure 1. Embodiment of Avatar (Frery et al.
(2002))
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Avatars in Computer Games

• Majority of the researches are focused on virtual
  environments and peoples attitudes toward them
• Bauman (2001),
• Castronova (2001),
• Eriksson and Grill (2005),
• Baylor et al. (2005),
• Cagiltay et al. (2006)

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Historical Background

• Avatar technology has appeared firstly in the mid
  of the 1980s in the world as marketing tools
• Today, concept of avatar has been changing from
  the real world to the virtual one

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Historical Background

• Avatar progression

23
Historical Background

• Liesegang (2002) classified avatars by their
  developmental and technological progression into
  three classifications such as
• Implicit Avatars
• Iconic Avatars
• Functional Avatars

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Historical Background

• Implicit Avatars
• There is no tangible avatar when the implicit
  avatars are considered and the character is an
  abstract form of the rule set, so the players are
  essentially limited to affect the game
  environment while they are in virtual
  environments.

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Historical Background

• Iconic Avatars
• They are essentially like an implicit avatar with
  a face, which is generally used in board, or card
  games. Players are usually given a chance to
  select one of different visual representations in
  computer games, and this may or may not express
  their current status in the game as well

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Historical Background

• Functional Avatars
• Players have chance to use a functional avatar
  which is usually capable of interacting with the
  game environment in a more sophisticated manner
  in the majority of games. The character often has
  elements, which is similar to the characters in
  traditional media forms such as back-story,
  motivations, and thoughts.

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Avatars as Pedagogical Agents

• When a virtual environment is implemented into
  the classroom for providing game-based learning,
  educators prefer usage of them to increase
  learners motivation in virtual environments.
• Thus, avatar usage as pedagogical agents in
  education is increasing nowadays

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Avatars as Pedagogical Agents

• Craig, Gholson and Driscoll (2002) stated one of
  the most important statements with using
  human-like agents is that they have possibilities
  and features to engage for facilitating more
  interaction and meaningful communication between
  learners and the virtual environment
• The presences of human-like avatars have a
  positive effect on learners meaningful learning
  progression

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Avatars as Pedagogical Agents

• While engaging learners by using human-like
  avatars as pedagogical agents, these characters
  not only can create more meaningful learning
  experiences (Baylor, 2000), but also help them
  acquire positively impact-learning performance
• Johnson, Rickel and Lester (2000) suggested that
  human-like avatars having many characteristics
  are ideal to serve as tutors, coaches, or guides
  in game-based learning environments to provide
  knowledge-based facilities to the learners.

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Avatars as Pedagogical Agents

• It is seen that potential of the avatars, as
  pedagogical agents are too significant for
  game-based learning or computer-based learning in
  educational settings.
• According to Baylor (2002), there is significant
  potential for pedagogical agents usage in virtual
  environments as educational tools to research
  instructional theory for some reasons

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Avatars as Pedagogical Agents

• 1) the researcher has more control over the
  learning environment and interactions than in a
  classroom setting
• 2) agents are independent objects in the system,
  lending to more flexibility and interactivity
• 3) while a computer agent can never simulate a
  real human instructor, agents can better
  operationalize the human aspect of instruction
  than other computer-based methods
• 4) agent-based systems provide the potential to
  capture a large amount of rich data, both
  quantitative and qualitative (while more data is
  not necessarily better, the possibilities to
  collect useful information during the
  instructional process is greatly enhanced)
• 5) through designing agent-based learning
  environments with multiple agents, it allows for
  investigating the effect of multiple perspectives
  or multiple mentors

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Study-1 (Cagiltay et al., 2006)

• To determine and analyze the features of the
  avatars created by students.
• What are the 3D characters that students can use
  to represent themselves in 3D virtual
  communities?
• What are the most common attributes of the
  avatars created by the students?
• What are the common characteristics of the
  choices?
• What are the specific preferences among the
  students?

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Study-1 (Cagiltay et al., 2006)

• 43 senior university students enrolled in
• Computer Education and Instructional Technology
  Department in
• Middle East Technical University,

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Study-1 (Cagiltay et al., 2006)

• Students created their favorite avatar(s) in
  order to build their own virtual identity in a 3D
  virtual environment by using Blaxxun Avatar
  Studio 1.0.
• These avatars are collected by the researcher to
  be analyzed.
• While analyzing the data, the researcher also
  conducted interviews with the voluntary students
  who gave their informed consent.

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Study-1 (Cagiltay et al., 2006)

• Avatars and their characteristics were analyzed
  by examining all their components including
• gender,
• clothes,
• shoes,
• accessories,
• appearanceetc.
• Further clarification via interviews

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Study-1 (Cagiltay et al., 2006)

• Main driving forces in creation of avatars are
• Popular culture elements
• Well known characters from Turkish movies
  (Yesilcam-Greenpine movies)
• Hollywood movies
• Anime
• Personal Appearance
• Individual Characteristics
• Elements of students Identity
• Female students ?Female avatars
• Male students ?Male avatars

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Study-2 (Baylor et al., 2005)

• In this experimental study where participants
  were purposefully frustrated, the interface agent
  message (apologetic, empathetic, or silent) was
  manipulated to investigate its impact on student
  attitude toward the task, attitude toward the
  agent, and attribution toward the cause of
  frustration
• 57 undergraduate students were participated

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Study-2 (Baylor et al., 2005)

• An animated interface agent, Survey Sam, was
  present as students answered survey items and
  were confronted with a frustrating obstacle an
  error message pop-up window that blocked them
  from answering the survey items

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Study-2 (Baylor et al., 2005)

• Results revealed that the presence of an
  affective message led participants to report
  significantly greater frustration, suggesting
  that the affective message reinforced and
  validated their frustration.
• However, and more importantly, they attributed
  the cause of their frustration to the program
  instead of to themselves. A comparison of message
  type indicated that participants receiving the
  empathetic message rated Survey Sam as
  significantly more believable and sincere.

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Discussion for Future Researches

• Studies conducted on Avatars for educational
  purposes showed that avatar usage in game-based
  learning increase students motivation and engage
  them more.
• Avatar preference gains more significance so that
  the most appropriate avatars should be designed
  for students.
• More studies should be done related to avatar
  preferences and usages in game-based learning
  activities...

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Thank you for your participation
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References

• Baranauskas, M., Neto, N., Borges, M. (1999).
  Learning at work through a multiuser synchronous
  simulation game. Proceeding of the PEG99
  Conference, Exeter, 999, UK(137-144). Exeter, UK
  University of Exeter.
• Baylor, A. L. (2000). Beyond butlers Intelligent
  agents as mentors. Journal of Educational
  Computing Research, 22(4), pp. 373-382.
• Baylor, A. L. (2002). Agent-based learning
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• Benford, S. D., Bowers, J., Fahlen, L. E.,
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  Avatars, Clones and Agents for Multi-user,
  Multisensory Virtual Worlds. Multimedia Systems,
  Berlin, Germany Springer-Verlag.
• Garris, R., Ahlers, R. Driskell, J. E. (2002).
  Games, Motivation, and Learning A Research and
  Practice Model. Simulation Gaming. 33, 441-468.

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References

• Craig, S. D., Gholson, B. Driscoll, D. M.
  (2002). Animated Pedagogical Agents in Multimedia
  Educational Environments Effects of Agent
  Properties, Picture Features, and Redundancy.
  Journal of Educational Psychology, 94(2), pp.
  428-434.
• Frery, A. C., Kelner, J., Moreira, J.
  Teichrieb, V. (2002). User satisfaction through
  empathy and orientation in three-dimensional
  worlds. CyberPsychology Behavior, 5(5),
  pp.451-459.
• Johnson, W.L., Rickel, J.W. Lester, J.C.
  (2000). Animated pedagogical agents Face-to-face
  interaction in interactive learning environments.
  International Journal of Artificial Intelligence
  in Education,2000, 11, pp. 47-78.
• Johnston, R.T., de Felix, W. (1993). Learning
  from video games. Computer in the Schools, 9,
  199-233.
• Liesegang, S. (2002). The Avatar Complex Model
  for Interaction in Digital Games. Available
  www.shaneliesegang.com/pdf/LiesegangAvatar.pdf
• Malone, T.W. (1981). What makes computer games
  fun? Byte, 6(12), 258-277.

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References

• Natale, M.J. (2002). The effect of a
  male-oriented computer gaming culture on careers
  in the computer industry. Computers and Society,
  32(2), pp. 2431.
• Pivec, M., Koubek, A. Dondi, C. (2004).
  Guidelines for Game-Based Learning. Pabst Science
  Publishers.
• Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Game-Based Learning.
  MC-Graw-Hill.
• Sheth, R. (2003). Avatar Technology Giving a
  Face to the e-Learning Interface. The Elearning
  Developers Journal, August 25, 2003.