Agent Supported Serious Game Environment

Abstract

This study proposes and applies a novel concept for an AI enhanced serious game collaborative environment as a supplementary learning tool in tertiary education. It is based on previous research that investigated pedagogical agents for a serious game in the OpenSim environment. The proposed AI features to support the serious game are the following: a) a pedagogical game agent, b) non-playing characters, c) chat bots, and d) a game interface called “Progress Map”. This study aims to explore whether the utilization of AI features in game based collaborative learning in a tertiary education course can positively affect students’ attitudes towards the course and educational games, students’ game performance, as well as the students’ perception of their learning environment. Summarizing, even though the intelligent game environment does not affect students’ attitudes, neither towards the course nor towards the educational games, it has a positive impact on the performance of the teams and so it can be considered useful in collaborative game based learning. Moreover, the intelligent game environment improves the cohesiveness in the classroom after the completion of the game activity in terms of helping, supporting, and becoming connected to each-other.