Towards Affect Recognition through Interactions with Learning Materials

Abstract

Affective state recognition has recently attracted a notable amount of attention in the research community, as it can be directly linked to a student's performance during learning. Consequently, being able to retrieve the affect of a student can lead to more personalized education, targeting higher degrees of engagement and, thus, optimizing the learning experience and its outcomes. In this paper, we apply Machine Learning (ML) and present a novel approach for affect recognition in Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) by understanding learners' experience through tracking their interactions with a serious game as a learning platform. We utilize a variety of interaction parameters to examine their potential to be used as an indicator of the learner's affective state. Driven by the Theory of Flow model, we investigate the correspondence between the prediction of users' self-reported affective states and the interaction features. Cross-subject evaluation using Support Vector Machines (SVMs) on a dataset of 32 participants interacting with the platform demonstrated that the proposed framework could achieve a significant precision in affect recognition. The subject-based evaluation highlighted the benefits of an adaptive personalized learning experience, contributing to achieving optimized levels of engagement.