2015 International Conference on Science in Information Technology (ICSITech)
Improving Web-based Problem Solving Skills Of Students With A Novel Game-Based Intelligent Tutoring System Danial Hooshyar*, 1, Rodina Binti Ahmad2, Moslem Yousefi3, Moein Fathi4, Shi-Jinn Horng5, Maral Hooshyar6, Amir Ramezani Dooraki7 1,2,4
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Center of Systems and Machines Intelligence, College of Engineering, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Kajang, Malaysia 5 Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan 6 Department of Industrial Engineering, Islamic Azad University Nour Branch, Iran 7 Technology Park Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1 Email :
[email protected],
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solving activities along with learning support could contribute to improving students’ learning performance [14-17].
Abstract—Game-based learning is considered as a very motivational tool to accelerate active learning of students. As such learning environments usually follow a computer-assisted instruction concept that offers no adaptability to each student, some idea from Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are borrowed and applied in educational games to teach introductory programming. Thus, we developed a Game-based Intelligent Tutoring System (GITS) in the form of a competitive board game. The board game revises the classic table game “Snakes and Ladders” to improve web-based problem solving skills and learning computer programming. Moreover, a mini-game, tictac-toe quiz, is applied in GITS to update the Bayesian network used for the process of decision-making in our proposed system. Our future work is to evaluate the GITS by conducting an experimental study using novices.
Many scientists have built computer games with educational purposes for various fields of study over the past decade [18, 19]. It has been said that integrating gamification in learning environment could improve learning performance of students while maintaining the entertaining aspect of games [20]. However, games with educational purposes usually follow computer-assisted instruction concepts that are rigid and are not equally suitable to each student [21]. Thus, some ideas from Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are borrowed and applied in educational games in order to address the above problem. By doing so, students are provided with personalized learning environment and their problem of losing learning motivation and enthusiasm are addressed when learners do not receive enough timely guidance and interaction. As a result, we developed a Game-based Intelligent Tutoring System (GITS) in the form of a competitive board game that revises the classic table game “Snakes and Ladders” to improve web-based problem solving skills and learning computer programming. The game board is divided into squares associated with gaming tasks that could be either mini-games or web-based information searching questions. The mini-game is a tic-tac-toe quiz for single players. This mini-game is used to update the Bayesian network used for the process of decision-making in our proposed system. Online formative assessment has also been included in the present system for self-enhancement and selfevaluation when students are involved in one-to-one instruction [21]. Because it is not possible to acquire basic computer programming skills from others through passive learning, and it is also different from hypothetical knowledge learning, developing such interactive game-based ITS should seriously be considered. Consequently, the research questions explored in this study are listed in the following section.
Keywords— game-based environment; intelligent tutoring system; web-based problem solving; novice programmers
I. INTRODUCTION Improving web-based problem-solving skills of students have been emphasized by several scholars by proposing different strategies and techniques to analyze students’ behavior toward web-based problem solving [1-7]. For instance, with the aim of helping instructors with evaluating students’ behavior towards web-based information solving, a system called Meta-Analyzer was developed by Hwang et el., [8]. Moreover, the learning behavior of students from two university music appreciation courses was examined by the study carried out by Chen [9] through web-based problem solving tasks. The study showed learning performance of student and their higher order thinking skills are considerably improved. Meanwhile, a new issue has come up with novice Internet users, showing difficulties in looking for information on the Web and effectively using that information [10, 11]. Besides, several researches indicated that learners might feel disappointed or even lose time looking for information to solve complicated problems with no support on the Internet or learning guidance [12, 13]. Therefore, web-based problem
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2015 International Conference on Science in Information Technology (ICSITech) mini-game dependently to update the Bayesian network, navigational menu and their level of knowledge or can be redirected by the snakes and ladders game to play the mini-game as a penalty.
II. THE PROPOSED GAME-BASED ITS ARCHITECTURE A Game-based Intelligent Tutoring System (GITS) was developed with the aim of improving web-based novice programmers’ problem solving skills and learning computer programming. The architecture of GITS is shown in Fig. 1. This multi-player board game comprises board game interfaces, Bayesian interface assessment, adaptive guidance, and knowledge bases.
Fig. 1. GITS architecture
After answering the pre-designed questions, the Bayesian network algorithm is updated and learners are directed to the entry page of GITS along with its navigational menu that offers study goals (Fig. 2). Students can then either begin the snakes and ladders game, refer to the following sub-section, or go through the learning materials by clicking on the light icon. The system consists of 29 nodes, where each node represents a programming concept, as shown in Fig. 3. Every square on the game board is connected to all 29 nodes.
Fig. 3. The entire programming concept in GITS.
A. Snakes & Ladders Game Snakes and ladders is considered a classic board game, whose major attraction is that some locations on the board display snakes and ladders; a dice is required to take turns and play the game. According to the total cells on the board, the board is numbered from 1 to 36 in GITS. In our proposed system, each square on the game board is connected to all 29 nodes, or programming concepts. Once students land on a particular square, the corresponding task, either a mini-game or a multiple-choice question, is triggered. The design purpose of the mini-game and multiple-choice questions, which is similar to that of traditional web-based problem solving activities, is to provide supplementary materials and carry out web-based problem solving tasks, respectively. A student’s game score will increase when they answer a question correctly and they are allowed to throw the dice and move forward in the game based on the outcome. The accumulated scores of all students on the board are shown during the gaming process, as shown in Fig. 2, so as to inform peers of each student’s gaming status. In case of individual students, if the time is up or the learning tasks are completed, the game ends. Guidance for searching respective information on the web are given to students which contributes to boost their problem-solving skills if they fail to answer a question correctly on a square without a snake or ladder, as illustrated in Fig. 4. The first game winner is one who reaches number 36 on the board before the others.
Fig. 2. GITS entry page with a navigational menu
A navigational menu serves to navigate through the programming concepts that are displayed as different light colors, where each color indicates the user’s knowledge level in that specific concept. When the learner clicks on the light icon, the corresponding learning materials will be provided as well as a mini single player. The students can either play the
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2015 International Conference on Science in Information Technology (ICSITech) his/her opponent’s token will be placed. Hence, the new game regulation prompts users to make more effort in responding to questions. III. CONCLUSIONS Nowadays, one-to-one personalized teaching is a hot topic in research of learning environments. Exploring new methods for modeling the learning process of students and extending the traditional architecture of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) as well as interaction enhancement are three important factors in e-learning. Therefore, a Game-based Intelligent Tutoring System (GITS) was developed with the aim of improving web-based problem-solving abilities as well as learning basic computer programming skills. Using GITS, the students will have support in fundamental concepts of computer programming, improving web-based problem solving skills, and enhancing their motivation. The decision-making process in our proposed system is handled by a Bayesian network. Students who use GITS get assistance in navigating online learning materials, similar to the work conducted by Liu et al. [22]. Nonetheless, unlike Liu et al.’s [22] work, GITS not only promotes the idea of navigating online learning materials and user interaction enhancement by applying snakes and ladders and tic-tac-toebased games, but it also offers an adaptive and personalized system. The system improves web-based problem solving skills with the aim of guiding students through the process of problem solving activities in an enjoyable and effective manner, besides suggesting learning goals and giving users appropriate reading sequences. In conclusion, other applications whose major concerns are looking for, abstracting and summarizing information in an enjoyable manner can generally employ the proposed approach in order to answer questions regarding specific problems, such as basic and fundamental concepts in computer science, engineering courses and social sciences.
Fig. 4. Interface information searching to answer the questions
If the student lands on a snake square, he/she is required to respond to the question before moving down the snake’s tail. In case the student answers the question wrongly, as a penalty he/she moves down the snake’s tail and gets re-directed to the corresponding concept in the navigational menu based on the question asked, as each square in the game is connected to all 29 nodes. In addition, in case of landing on a ladder square, the player cannot move up the ladder if they respond to the question wrongly; they will also be re-directed to the corresponding concept on the navigational menu. Thus, the Bayesian network decides which unknown concept students should be referred to exactly. By doing so, the student is directed to one of the concepts with a green light, as yellow light concepts are already labeled “known” in the Bayesian network and red light concepts are labeled “unknown” and their prerequisite concepts must be learned first. After going through the learning materials, the student will be asked to play the mini-game so as to be able to return to the main snakes and ladders game with his/her opponents (Fig. 2). It is worth noting that the Bayesian network automatically estimates these lights based on the pre-test questions and game playing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT This research has been financially funded by the University of Malaya with project number of RG327-15AFR in Malaysia.
B. Tic-Tac-Toe Game Playing tic-tac-toe quiz game is one way of providing the system with feedback and accordingly updating the Bayesian network. The mini-game regulations are identical to the conventional tic-tac-toe game, in which whoever locates three adjacent tokens in a row, column or diagonally, wins the game. Nonetheless, tic-tac-toe quiz game has some different regulations from the conventional tic-tac-toe. To name some, once user has their turn, they will receive a random multiplechoice test that was chosen from the database based on the learning contents. In order to raise the playfulness and complexity level of the game, the regulations are somewhat modified. In case the player answers the question correctly, their token will be placed, and if the player answers wrongly,
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