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Abstract

The paper presents the development of a prototype mobile application suitable for children in the primary school stage using the approaches of game-based learning, adaptive learning, micro lesson learning, and behaviour-monitoring learning. The general architecture of a system for mobile game-based learning based on modules is presented. A mobile game design based on templates is proposed. Several software tools were used to implement the mobile application. The prototype was tested in a real learning environment.
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A MOBILE GAME-BASED LEARNING SYSTEM FOR
PRIMARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS
Margarita Gocheva*, Nikolay Kasakliev, Elena Somova
University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”, Plovdiv
Bulgaria
*Corresponding Author, e-mail: gocheva@uni-plovdiv.bg
Abstract: The paper presents the development of a prototype mobile
application suitable for children in the primary school stage using the
approaches of game-based learning, adaptive learning, micro lesson learning,
and behaviour-monitoring learning. The general architecture of a system for
mobile game-based learning based on modules is presented. A mobile game
design based on templates is proposed. Several software tools were used to
implement the mobile application. The prototype was tested in a real learning
environment.
Keywords: game-based learning, mobile learning games, adaptability
1. INTRODUCTION
The 21st century is a century of rapid development of information and
communication technologies (ICT). An era in which society uses modern technology
constantly. Rapid changes in the development of technology also affect the field of
education. Online teaching and learning are increasingly being implemented. Mobile
devices provide great opportunities for learners to learn anywhere and anytime,
without limitations in acquiring new knowledge and skills. Smartphones and other
mobile devices provide many advantages when used for learning: accessibility,
personalization, own pace of learning resources, easy communication and
collaboration with other participants in the learning process, etc. Mobile learning (m-
learning) makes learning more interesting, flexible and accessible and removes
traditional limitations.
On the other hand, games are an important part of every child's life. Games are
especially inherent in childhood when a person is more subject to learning and
upbringing. Therefore, the game approach is fundamental in the teaching
methodology of children of preschool and primary school age. Pedagogy has long
emphasized the role of games in learning and education, through which children
acquire new knowledge and skills while having fun. Educational games include
elements that make them a powerful motivational tool for learning. Combining m-
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90
learning and games can create an interesting learning and entertainment
environment.
The purpose of the study is to present a developed prototype of a mobile game-
based learning system suitable for primary school children. The proposed mobile
game application was intended for learning mathematics in the 3rd grade, which
could be applied alongside traditional learning in a classroom or at home.
Section 2 shows the state of the art in the field of modern innovative learning
approaches. Section 3 describes the model of mobile game-based learning and the
selected approaches to implement the learning. Section 4 describes the developed
mobile game application for primary school students. The architecture of the m-
learning system and the technical and software tools for implementation are
presented. The paper ends with a conclusion which focuses on the contributions of
the study and the future plans of the authors.
2. MODERN LEARNING APPROACHES
In the modern world, education follows the rapid pace of technological
development. Software systems are used to manage e-learning, specialized tools for
developing digital educational resources, applications for synchronous and
asynchronous communication that shorten the distance between learners and
trainers, etc. To minimize costs, more and more learning activities and resources are
hosted in the cloud [1, 2]. Attempts are being made to build free private clouds on
low-power consumer devices [3]. The use of cloud services is applied to support
mobile learning [4]. Mobile games are being developed to engage learners' attention
and make learning more fun, etc. Learning forms such as m-learning are becoming
more and more popular. M-learning helps students create social interaction,
promotes collaborative learning, and improves their learning, achievement, and
motivation [5]. Games are integrated into learning in various forms: game-based
learning [6], gamification, simulation games [7], mobile educational games, etc.
Mobile educational games, unlike other games, in addition to offering fun, should be
able to capture children's interests and make them think logically, think spatially,
draw conclusions, make connections to their daily lives and apply what they learn in
school.
M-learning can be very effective in learning mathematics, and there have been
many authors working in this area. [8] designs and develops a mobile app called Hi-
Math as a game-based learning experience for children in 3rd grade aimed at
acquiring basic numeracy skills. According to [9], mobile games reveal learning
material in an interesting way - images, sound effects, and movements complement
each other in an attractive way, making the student active, effective, and willing to
learn.
Adaptive e-learning is a modern educational approach that is designed to
provide a unique e-learning environment suitable for the needs of each student. The
aim is to identify the specific needs of a learner and to implement an appropriate
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pedagogical strategy to improve the learning process. The main characteristics of
adaptive learning are flexibility, motivation, engagement, personalization,
adaptation, feedback, accessibility, etc. The literature most commonly refers to three
types of e-learning system adaptability [10]: user interface-based adaptation,
learning flow-based adaptation and learning content-based adaptation. [11] presents
an adaptive mobile learning system that provides learners with adaptive content
according to their knowledge levels, learning styles, and heterogeneous learning
devices. A learning game is developed by [12] an adaptive mobile game for pupils
of the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd grade for practicing their skills in the multiplication
table.
As part of the adaptive learning process is the adaptive assessment applied in
Computerized Adaptive Tests (CAT), which adapts the complexity and number of
test questions to the learner’s level, to obtain greater accuracy in the assessment. For
example, [13] presents the Adaptive Formative Assessment in Context-Aware
Mobile Learning approach, where the goal is to provide learners with an adaptive
and personalized assessment taking into account the learner context based on the
CAT theory.
Micro learning is becoming a very popular learning trend. It can be defined as
very short and bite-sized lessons lasting no more than 5 minutes [14]. Authors [15]
believe that mobile micro learning applications are more effective, flexible and
enjoyable.
3. MODEL OF A MOBILE GAME-BASED LEARNING
A common model of mobile game-based learning suitable for primary school
children has been created. The model is based on a cyclical learning path containing
the following steps:
Practice learners solve problems presented as games;
Grading solved problems are graded automatically;
Rewarding different "bonuses" are received based on the evaluation;
Support learners receive support when they first fail to solve a task type;
Micro lessons learners receive micro lessons when repeatedly failing to
solve a given problem type;
Ranking learners are ranked at the end of the game.
The learner model is formed based on three sub-models: a learning model
(learning achievements), a game model (in-game achievements), and a behavioural
model (in-game reported data about the learner's behaviour).
A formal model of mobile game-based learning has been created, which is the
triple (G, S (d, t), A (d, t)), where G is the set of learning objectives, S is the set of
learning resources, and A is the set of learning activities, which depend on d, the
difficulty level, t, the time to implement the learning with the corresponding item.
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The approaches that have been chosen to be applied in the implementation of
mobile learning for the primary stage are game-based learning, adaptive learning,
micro lesson learning and active learning through behaviour monitoring.
As a next step, a classification of the types of game tasks (games) suitable for
mobile implementation is made, supporting the teaching of mathematics to primary
school children [16]. The classification contains 13 types of game tasks divided into
8 categories: Multiple choice, Alternative answer, Multiple answers, Ordering
objects, Matching, Filling in fields with multiple choice, Filling in fields in a
template and Open answer.
To implement the first approach, a study of the game elements and techniques
that exist in games and can be applied in mobile learning [17] was made. It shows
the experiences and emotions of the players before and after using the game elements
and techniques.
The application of adaptability is implemented both in the case of learner failure
and in the case of success. The adaptability offered is based on: different types of
tasks arranged in game levels, the difficulty of the tasks, the success/failure of the
learner and the time to solve the game tasks. The model is built to implement
adaptability of learning content and adaptability of learning process.
A mobile educational game with embedded micro lessons can be a successful
learning tool, especially for primary school students. In our mobile game model,
short text hints are provided on how to solve the problem (on the first failure), on the
second failure at the same level of the game a video example (micro tutorial).
Didactic, behavioural and functional models are proposed that can be used to
create both a stand-alone game application and a mobile game platform.
The didactic model allows the achievement of pre-set pedagogical goals in the
application of game-based adaptive learning, consistent with state educational
requirements and modern pedagogical approaches.
The behavioural model looks at the emotions and aspects of the child's
behaviour during play that could be detected and analysed like in [18].
The proposed functional model includes a description of an interaction model
(of the participants in the learning process) and a synchronization model (of the data
in the representation of a global ranking for all participants in the game). Two main
roles stand out the student and the teacher.
During a game, players' scores are recorded in a local database. When the game
is played by multiple participants on different devices, anywhere and anytime, the
need for synchronisation of results arises. For this purpose, in the proposed model,
an approach using web services is chosen. Mobile applications send requests to the
web server. The received requests are processed by the web server, which
communicates with the server database. The data is sorted by specific criteria
(according to the query) and returned as a response on demand to mobile devices. In
the proposed model, the ranking data is also visualized in a web application. From
it, the teacher will have access to all the information about the players.
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4. A MOBILE GAME-BASED LEARNING SYSTEM
To build the software prototype, several software modules have been
implemented, which are an integral part of the overall architecture. The architecture
of the developed prototype contains a "Game Environment" module with several
components (layers) that directly interacts with the "Synchronization" module,
which in turn interacts with the "Reports" module (Figure 1.).
Figure 1. The general architecture of the mobile game-based learning system
The "Game Environment" module is a game type Android application.
The "Synchronization" module implements a process in which participant
scores and game data are sent to a web server where they are processed and sent back
to the mobile devices to synchronize the data from all players.
The "Reports" module contains processed information obtained from the
synchronization module in the form of various sorted data lists that are available to
the teacher for evaluation and analysis.
4.1. "Game Environment" module
The game environment module represents the main module of the overall
development of the mobile game-based system. The module implements a game
environment designed for primary school children (3rd grade) and develops
mathematics skills. The module is implemented as an Android application and is a
project that contains multiple Java classes. The mobile app architecture contains
several layers that are interconnected, interact with the Android structural
framework, and function as a whole.
The "User Interface" layer implements a graphical interface that visualizes
all elements of the game.
The process of designing and creating the game design goes through two stages
creating sketches and creating templates on each screen.
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During prototyping, an experimental app model is created that presents ideas of
what the game would look like sketches with an arrangement of the elements that
each screen of the game would contain. Based on the classification of task types [16],
8 of them were selected for mobile implementation. They represent the 8 levels of
the game, which contain mathematical problems (missions) to solve.
Figure 2. Problem implemented by the template "Multiple answers from images" level 3
of the game
For the sketches at each level, a child-friendly interface is proposed for children
to design corresponding templates (Figure 2.). Thus, the game design is based on
templates [19] and is tailored to the age of the target group it is colourful and fun.
The images in which the tasks are generated are selected and specific game elements
are chosen to be used in each level: bonuses (coins), rewards (gold bars), timer
(related to the combo), badges, etc.
The "Functionality" layer contains all the functionality representing the game
logic. For the implementation of the prototype of the mobile educational game, a
standard approach is used based on levels. The game consists of 8 levels. The
learning activities are implemented through missions mathematical tasks that are
randomly generated by the system.
There are 3 types of difficulty (1, 2 and 3). The game starts with medium
difficulty (2) and a target time (60 seconds) for each level. An adaptive
methodology is applied depending on the correctness of the answer, the difficulty
of the mathematical problem and the time to solve it. Students form an individual
learning path that is unique to each due to the application of the adaptive approach
[20]. In case of wrong answers, students receive support: a hint on how to solve the
problem (short text with guidelines) on the first failure, and a video example in the
form of a micro lesson on the second failure at the same level of the game.
The rewards system gives many incentives to students: bonuses, rewards,
badges, combos, etc. For correct answers, students receive bonus coins that are
different for each difficulty level: 2 coins for medium level, 3 coins for high level, 1
coin for low level and 0 coins for failure. For every 6 coins, students receive 1 gold
bar as a prize. Any unused time in completing one mission is saved and offered as a
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combo (extra time) in solving the following tasks. The game ends with the final
ranking.
Once the game is completed, each participant's data is sent to a web server. The
data is synchronized and presented in the form of rankings to provoke the
competitive spirit in the learners. Sorted data is returned to mobile devices (on
demand) and sent to a web application for use by the educator.
The web application provides the tutor with data reported during the game. The
application receives information about the final game scores of the students as well
as information about the behaviour of the players during the game.
The mobile application is implemented with Java programming language.
Multiple classes and methods are defined to implement the game flow. On the other
hand, XML was used to define the user interface structure of the application. All 8
activities (8 levels) of the game are developed based on the made templates. The
interface of each activity is defined using a layout file via XML code.
The "Databases" layer contains the game DB where the game flow data is
stored. The database of the implemented prototype contains 9 tables. When the game
starts, the player's name and chosen avatar are saved. The current start date and time
of the game as well as the end date are also recorded. During the game, data is stored
about the level reached, current points and rewards won. The time spent at each level
is also reported in the DB as it accumulates for the final time score, and the remainder
of the unused time from each level is carried over to each subsequent level.
Information is also stored on the number and type of prompts for failure (first and
second failure in a level) and at which level the support was received.
Data recorded by the mobile device regarding the player's behaviour, such as
the number of switches to other applications during the game, the decibel noise level
during the game, sudden movements of the mobile device, and whether the player's
device is connected to a wireless network and the Internet, are recorded in the DB.
From this data, a behavioural model of the player can be constructed.
In the "Libraries" layer, the standard Android Studio library Gradle Scripts
was used in the prototype development. Each Android project uses Gradle to
generate an installation package an apk file from the .java and .xml files in the
project. To enable the transfer of data to the web server, another library, Volley, has
been added to enable reliable data transfer to the web server.
4.2. "Synchronization" module
After the game is over, each player should be able to see how they did against
all other players (global leader board) in addition to a local leader board. The
developed mobile application uses a web server (Apache HTTP server) to
synchronize data. Of the mobile applications that are in the so-called client (user)
layer of the architecture (Figure 3.) requests are sent to the web server using the
HTTP data transfer protocol. Internet (connectivity) is required during the game for
successful submissions. The received requests are processed by the web server in the
so-called server layer of the presented architecture. MariaDB database, independent
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development of MySQL, was used to store the server data in the so-called storage
layer. The data is sorted by a specific criterion and returned as a response on demand
to mobile devices. Finally, a synchronized ranking is displayed for all participants
on the user's mobile devices. For remote data storage in the server DB, 8 tables have
been created. These tables are equivalent to the tables in the local database and record
the data reported during a game. The recorded data is used in the synchronization of
the final ranking, as well as in the invocation of various reports by the teacher.
Figure 3. Synchronization module architecture
4.3. Module "Reports"
The "Reports" module is a web application for the teacher to track and control
the learning process. The developed web application aims to provide access to all
recorded game data to students during and after the game. The architecture of the
application follows the client-server model. The transfer of information between the
web browser and the web server is done using the HTTP protocol. The developed
web application has a responsive design.
After logging into the web application, the teacher has various reports available
during and after the game:
General Ranking presents a ranking of the players containing name, time and
points. The displayed data is sorted first by the number of points and second by
time (if the number of points matches).
Support received shows a report for all learners with their number of hints
received (1st and 2nd) and at which levels of the game they were received. The
tutor can see which math problems each student struggled on and get help
accordingly;
Game duration provides a reference with the current start and end date and
time of the game for each player.
Connectivity to networks indicates whether learners' devices had access to a
wireless network and the Internet;
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Player behaviour this report brings together the following information about
players:
- Switches to other apps during game play report the number of times the
student was distracted by other apps;
- Enhanced noise level the noise level is measured continuously during play
and is reported when the noise above 40 decibels is detected;
- Movements of the mobile device the sudden movements of the learner's
device are detected.
4.4. Implementation of the prototype
Android is the most used OS for mobile devices in the world. The possibility of
open architecture, multimedia and graphical visualization and a rich set of user
interfaces, gesture and touch controls, make Android a much-preferred platform for
mobile devices and highly suitable for developing and deploying m-learning
applications [21].
The following technical tools were selected for the prototype implementation:
Android Studio for the development environment, version Bumblebee | 2021.1.1
Patch 3 for Windows 64-bit with Java;
DB SQLite for local runtime data storage;
Apache HTTP Web Server for remote storage, including synchronization;
DB server MariaDB for remote data storage;
PHP version 7.4.29 and HTML 5 for web application development;
Microsoft Visio for the prototyping process;
Filmora Video Editor 11 for creating micro tutorials, which are short video clips.
4.5. Experiment
The prototype has been tested in a real classroom environment with 17 students
in 3rd grade and 10 teachers from Yane Sandanski School, Plovdiv, Bulgaria. All
participants initially tested the game and then completed a survey (the response rate
was 100%). The survey with questions (different for students and teachers) was
conducted to gather opinions, impressions, and recommendations. The research
methodology is based on surveys designed with Google forms. The survey questions
are divided into the following six sections: Practical applicability, Motivation,
Design, Accessibility”, “Support and feedback, and Open-ended questions.
A part of the students’ results: the "Practical Applicability" category shows that
94.1% of learners would prefer to use a mobile game in a math class. All (100%)
students respond that they like learning through a mobile game and would play it at
home. In the category "Motivation" all students (100%) expressed the opinion that
they like mobile game-based learning. 94.1% of them shared that receiving awards
motivated them, and the remaining 5.9% that it only somewhat intrigued them.
A part of the teachers’ results: according to the category "Practical
Applicability", all teachers believe that gamification is suitable for use in
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mathematics lessons at the primary stage (60% strongly agree, and 40% agree).
Absolutely all teachers believe that the game approach supports the effective
achievement of educational goals in mathematics at the primary stage. Teachers
think that the learning process supported by the mobile game develops students'
learning skills (60% of teachers strongly agree and 40% agree). They also support
adaptability as a good methodological approach in this age group (80% answered
that they agree strongly and 20% just agree). Category "Motivation" shows that all
teachers believe that the learning process supported by the mobile game awakens
students' interest in mathematics (80% strongly agree and 20% just agree).
5. CONCLUSION
The created game-based learning system is accessible from all types of mobile
devices, facilitates mathematics learning and provides learners with another
environment of learning resources and activities accessible anywhere, anytime. The
game is interesting, fun and encourages/challenges the learner to solve different
problems to improve their knowledge of mathematics. Adaptability is a main
distinguishing characteristic of the game. Built-in game elements motivate learners
and reinforce the drive to achieve better results. The implemented game can be used
for self-study at home by students or offered by teachers in class for an exercise. The
data that is tracked and reported during the game is available to the teacher by being
visualized in the web application, which allows convenient analysis of the game
information. The collected data could be used not only by the teacher but also for
future research aimed at implementing mobile learning based on games and studying
the child's behaviour during play.
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Information about the authors:
Margarita Gocheva, Assist. Prof., ORCID ID: 0000-0002-7739-5915, Department
“Computer Science”, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Plovdiv “Paisii
Hilendarski”, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria, E-mail: gocheva@uni-plovdiv.bg
Dr. Nikolay Kasakliev, Assoc. Prof., ORCID ID: 0000-0003-4010-144X, Department
“Computer Science”, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Plovdiv “Paisii
Hilendarski”, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria, E-mail: kasakliev@uni-plovdiv.bg
Prof. Dr. Elena Somova, ORCID ID: 0000-0003-3393-1058, Head of Department
“Computer Science”, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics, University of Plovdiv “Paisii
Hilendarski”, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria, E-mail: eledel@uni-plovdiv.bg
Manuscript received on 26 September 2022
Revised version received on 17 October 2022
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