Are the school teachers ready to start using smart Adaptive Video Games for Education? Elena Paunova-Hubenova Institute of Information and Communication Technologies Bulgarian Academy of Science BULGARIA

Challenges for creating relevant educational games: Designing a suitable scenario: interesting for the learners and suitable for introducing the subject matter; Involving teachers in game designing and development, even if teachers are not IT specialists. 1. Teachers are those who will use the created game. 2. They know what topics are interesting for students. 3. They can choose the learning matter and the best way of its presenting. Giving teachers the options to change the game's parameters; Personalization and dynamic adaptation according to the student's success, psycho-emotional state and style of playing. Introduction 1 of 2

APOGEE project: smArt adaPtive videO GamEs for Education Aim - to build up a platform for automatically generating 3D games with educational purpose It can be used by teachers, even if they are not IT specialists. It will be tested by. The generated games are 3D labyrinths Rooms’ number is assigned by the teacher, each containing mini-games representing a part of the learning material. Game can be personalized and a dynamically adapted. Topic of the demo version - Bulgarian medieval history Introduction 2 of 2

existing platforms and tools for creating educational games The platforms are compared by the following parameters: Available distribution Possibility for 3D graphics Possible (appropriate) genres Free edition available Programming skills required Other parameters that developers should take into account: learning resources that can be included, the possibility of personalization and open code. existing platforms and tools for creating educational games

Platforms and tools for creating educational games Platform/ Tool Programming skills required Free edition available Genres 2D / 3D Distribution Unity 3D Yes All 2D&3D Desktop, tablet, mobiles, VR&AR APOGEE platform No Labyrinth (maze) adventure 3D Desktop Unreal Desktop, console, mobile, VR&AR Gamemaker studio Adventure, Arcade, Defense, Puzzle 2D Desktop, console, mobile Construct 3 RPG, Platformer, Arcade, Puzzle Desktop, tablet, mobiles Scratch Minecraft RPG, Adventure Puzzle maker Word search, Criss- cross, Math puzzles, and more Purposegames Quiz, Matching Gamestarmechanic Quest Gamesalad Arcade, Maze, Puzzle, Platformer, Quiz Desktop, mobile Platforms and tools for creating educational games

METHODOLOGY: About the APOGEE project The APOGEE project was started to answer the need for customizable educational e-resources that could be used, modified and created by the teachers. The automatic generation of the game labyrinth with educational purpose will be made using a Unity3D-based maze builder. The future platform will be easily used by educators who are not specialists in IT. They will have to fill in a text file the wanted parameters. The platform will be provided to teachers to try to create games. The created games will be validated with the participation of students. METHODOLOGY: About the APOGEE project

METHODOLOGY: The questionnaires Two conducted surveys: for teachers (21 questions) respondents’ number: 208; for students (22 questions), respondents’ number: 665. uploaded online by means of Google Forms. Main ways of dissemination: personal contacts with teachers and students contacting the regional educational authorities. The teachers’ questionnaire was presented in a demonstration seminar with educators. Structured interviews were conducted with 17 teachers. METHODOLOGY: The questionnaires

METHODOLOGY: Respondents’ profile (teachers) Total number of responded teachers: 208 63% do not use educational video games, but they want to do it in the future; 21% already use educational video games; 15% do not use and do not want to use games in their teaching practice and 1% did not answer the question. Would you participate in creating electronic learning resources and/or educational video games? METHODOLOGY: Respondents’ profile (teachers)

RESULTS: Facility of the future platform according to teachers Question 15. “Teachers would not have technical problems themselves to describe educational video games-labyrinths by manually creating a text document template that is used for the automatically generation of the game.” Question 16. “Instead of manually creating a text document template, teachers could more easily describe an educational video game maze in a graphical online editor and then generate the game automatically.”   Q15 Q16 Definitely yes 14,90% 22,12% Rather yes 18,75% 25,96% Cannot judge 37,50% 28,85% Rather not 12,98% 8,17% Definitely not 11,06% No answer 2,88% 3,85% RESULTS: Facility of the future platform according to teachers

Question 19. “As a teacher, I would try to create a simple online video game maze on the subject I teach by using the future free platform of the APOGEE project” Question 20. “As a teacher, I would use online video game labyrinths on the subject I teach, created with the future free platform of the APOGEE project.” Question 21. “As a teacher, I would recommend to other colleagues to try to create and use a simple online video game maze on the subject they teach using the future free platform of the APOGEE project.” RESULTS: Teachers' willingness to create games, to use already created games and to recommend the platform

RESULTS: Presence of smart non-playing character Question 17. “Do you consider that the generated educational video games are suitable to include virtual players to help the learner and answer his questions in the subject area?” RESULTS: Presence of smart non-playing character

RESULTS: Appropriate parameters for dynamic adaptation Question 18. “Do you consider that the educational video games generated should be dynamically adaptable in terms of the player’s success, psycho- emotional state, and learning style?” RESULTS: Appropriate parameters for dynamic adaptation

Conclusion and future work The APOGEE platform helps the achieving of several positive effects: Teachers do not need to be IT specialists to create or modify a video game; The created games respond to the teachers’ needs; Teachers will be able to share already-created games with their colleagues; Students can learn new facts while playing and having fun with their classmates. A great part of Bulgarian teachers does not feel confident enough about their IT skills and therefore do not want to try to create e-resources or educational games themselves. The platform attracts educators and they are keen to create their own game. Some of them prefer to use already created games, instead of creating them. Teachers appreciate the future platform as a facilitation tool for creating educational video games. Their assessments for the presence of smart non-playing characters and dynamic adaptation of the game by different player’s parameters are positive. Future work: Several versions of the game will be generated by means of the platform and validated with students from the target group. Conclusion and future work

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research leading to these results has received funding from the APOGEE project, funded by the Bulgarian National Science Fund, Grant Agreement No. DN12/7/2017. http://www.apogee.online/index-en.html If you have any questions, feel free to contact us: eli.paunova@gmail.com games.apogee@gmail.com