R&D: Developing Science Problem-Solving Skills and Engagement Through Intelligent Game-Based Learning Environments

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The project builds on the earlier developed Crystal Island and draws upon intelligent tutoring and narrative-centered learning technologies to produce a suite of intelligent game-based learning environments for upper elementary school science students. The games explicitly model student knowledge and problem solving and dynamically customize feedback, advice, and explanation as appropriate. Unlike its predecessor, the platform is multi-user so it can support collaboration; offer dynamically generated feedback, advice, and explanation; and provide a pedagogical dashboard that generates student progress reports.Students navigate rich storyworlds setup by engaging narratives, interact with a large cast of characters in the game, and manipulate artifacts in the environment in the course of solving problems. They are entering an intelligent, game-based learning environment that is a laboratory where researchers can investigating various approaches through which complex problem-solving skills can be most effectively acquired. Because such environments include multiplayer interaction and voice communication, research can study complex communication in the context of collaborative problem solving. With multiple students coordinating their efforts to solve problems, intelligent game-based learning environments create situations that require effective collaboration skills. Through these, engagement is also studied, which includes motivation, situational interest, presence, flow, goal-orientation, and self-efficacy.