Kyushu University

Design and Development of Visualization Approaches for Informal Learning Game Logs

This study addresses the "observation problem" in informal game-based learning, specifically the challenge of understanding how players' behaviors relate to their learning progress within open-ended educational games.

• The study targets the "observation problem" in informal game-based learning: prior cluster analysis of 185 players of Hist Maker, a mobile history puzzle game, found three behavior groups (Explore, Hint, Negative) but used too few parameters to show how behavior shifts as exploration advances.
• A line-chart and heat-map approach comparing average action frequencies across player groups found that trial-and-error behavior and reliance on database tools increase in later phases of progress, measured by the number of historical formulas acquired.
• Two averaging methods applied to the group-level data produced complementary views of group behavior, indicating that the choice of aggregation affects what patterns become visible.