How Pupil Data From Educational Games can be Presented to Teachers

Abstract: Educational games provide new possibilities for teaching and learning. Data from games can be used to inform teachers about their pupils’ progressions. By presenting such data in an efficient and useful manner, one might improve assessment and the way feedback is given. There is reason to believe that this would further increase the value of educational games. In this paper, two pioneering studies explore what kinds of data teachers are interested in extracting from games, and most importantly how this data should be presented. The first study involved teacher interviews, and the second involved teachers testing a prototype. These studies identified a current lack of data presentation and an enthusiasm about the potential use of such presentation. Teachers desire an efficient and easy-to-use overview, but also the possibility of viewing more details about individual pupils, preferably by visualising the data. The positive results open up a wide range of possible future studies, such as how a teacher would use the presented information in a real classroom.