Technical Reports
HPL-2008-92
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Games as Skins for Online Tests
Ramani, Srinivasan; Sirigiri, Venkatagiri; Panigrahi, Nila Lohita ; Sabharwal, Shikha
HP Laboratories
HPL-2008-92
Keyword(s): multiplayer and social game development, collaboration competition and community, foundation and theory for design
Abstract: Games play a dual role: they test the player's competence, and at the same time provide learning opportunities. They offer a simple form of a reward - the pleasure of playing, without serious consequences for failure. Tests can be converted into games. In this context, it is valuable to create rich "skins" in which tests can be clothed with no major effort. This paper reports research aimed at improving the scope of skins. We have primarily restricted ourselves to skins that accept a test consisting of objective type questions and use it to provide students with a gaming environment. A number of issues are addressed in the context of designing such a system, including collaboration, content creation, content grading, reward structure, team building and personalization. After a discussion of these issues, we proceed to describe features we were able to incorporate in a specific design inspired by the cricket metaphor, which we have implemented. We have started using this game for educational testing at a university level program in engineering.
7 Pages
Additional Publication Information: Submitted to Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning, November 17-19, 2008 Banff, Canada
External Posting Date: July 21, 2008 [Fulltext]. Approved for External Publication
Internal Posting Date: July 21, 2008 [Fulltext]