In recent years, researchers have reported positive outcomes and effects from applying computer games to the educational process. The preconditions for an effective game-based learning process include the presence of high learning interest and the desire to study hard. Therefore, educational video game design has to tailor gameplay to the style of the playing learner, i.e. to the psycho-cognitive abilities, attitudes, and skills of the individual player, in order to foster the player's motivation and creativity. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to draw a parallel between learning styles and styles of playing video games, and to investigate the correlations between these types of constructs. The article presents a new family of playing styles based on Kolb's experiential learning theory that is appropriate to be used for educational video games. This family is composed of four playing styles: Competitor, Dreamer, Logician, and Strategist, and corresponds to Honey and Mumford's learning styles based also on the theory of experiential learning, namely Activist, Reflector, Theorist, and Pragmatist. To measure the four playing styles, a 40-item questionnaire was designed. In order to verify the consistency, validity, and reliability of that questionnaire as an accurate tool for recognizing the four suggested player styles, a pilot study was conducted. The article reports the results obtained from the study, along with their analysis and applicability.

The possibility of adaptive learning content delivery in e-learning systems is one of the important factors for highly improving their quality. Therefore, the application field of adaptive e-learning is relevant and significant. This article presents the main results of a PhD thesis examining various aspects of this area. The aim of the dissertation is to propose a model and a platform architecture of an adaptive e-learning system and a corresponding prototype to be designed, implemented and tested in experimental conditions. On one hand, the developed prototype will assist a learner in accessing and using learning resources which are adapted according to his/her personal characteristics (in this case his/her learning style and level of knowledge). On the other hand, it will facilitate the author of the learning content and course instructor in the creation of appropriate learning objects and applying them to the suitable pedagogical strategies.

In recent years, the interest to the area of computer games for educational purposes increased due to their positive outcomes and effects in technology-enhanced learning. One of their chief merits is retaining the learning motivation and engagement of players during all time of the game. Therefore, it is necessary educational games to be able to adjust their features such as task difficulty, object speed, learning content, etc. according to the current emotional state of the player and, as well, to his/her playing style. In this paper, we present a dynamic mechanism for affective game adaptation based on both emotion and arousal estimation. The mechanism is implemented within an applied video game named "Rush for Gold" designed for implicit recognition of playing or learning styles. The paper outlines, analyzes and discusses results of an experimental study related to player's engagement in affective applied adaptation.

Purpose: This paper aims to clarify how affect-based adaptation can improve implicit recognition of playing style of individuals during game sessions. This study presents the “Rush for Gold” game using dynamic difficulty adjustment of tasks based on both player performance and affectation inferred through electrodermal activity and facial expressions of the player. The game applies linear regression for calculating playing styles to be applied for achieving a style-based adaptation in other educational video games. Design/methodology/approach: The experimental procedure included subject selection, demonstration, informed consent procedure, two game sessions in random order – one without and another with affective adaptation control – and post-game self-report. The experiment was conducted with participation of 30 master students and university lecturers in informatics. Findings: This study presents experimental results concerning the impact of affective adaptation over playing style recognition, game session time, task’s effectiveness, efficiency and difficulty and, as well, player’s assessment of affectively adaptive gameplay obtained by an adaptation control panel embedded into the game and by post-game self-report. Research limitations/implications: The proposed adaptive game limits recognised styles to such based on the Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory model. Another limitation of the study is the relatively small number of participants constrained by the extended experimental procedure and the desktop game version. Originality/value: The paper presents an original research on the effect of affect-based adaptation on a novel approach for implicit recognition of playing styles.

Authors: Boyan Bontchev and Dessislava Vassileva

In recent years, the number of adaptive applications for e-learning content delivery increased immensely. Usually, such applications have own authoring tool or use external one in order to create learning materials. However, very few authors of educational content use such systems. The reason is that the tools are rather complicated and follow modern e-learning standards, which leads to a need for content authors to fill multiple metadata for theirs learning materials, that requires much time. In this paper we present an authoring tool, which is a part of a platform for building edutainment (education plus entertainment) services - ADOPTA (adaptive technology-enhanced edutainment platform). This authoring tool provides inheritance mechanisms for learning object metadata descriptions, metadata for semantic ontologies, and good integration with instructor tool for creation of adaptive courseware.