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What Makes an Educational Robot Game Fun? Framework Analysis of Children's Design Ideas

Elaheh Sanoubari, John Edison Muñoz, Ali Yamini, Neil Randall, Kerstni Dautenhahn

TL;DR

This research investigates the concept of fun in educational games involving social robots to support the design of REMind, a robot-mediated role-play game aimed at encouraging bystander intervention against peer bullying among children.

Abstract

Fun acts as a catalyst for learning by enhancing motivation, active engagement and knowledge retention. As social robots gain traction as educational tools, understanding how their unique affordances can be leveraged to cultivate fun becomes crucial. This research investigates the concept of fun in educational games involving social robots to support the design of REMind:a robot-mediated role-play game aimed at encouraging bystander intervention against peer bullying among children. To incorporate fun elements into design of REMind, we conducted a user-centered Research through Design (RtD) study with focus groups of children to gain a deeper understanding of their perceptions of fun. We analyzed children's ideas by using Framework Analysis and leveraging LeBlanc's Taxonomy of Game Pleasures and identified 28 elements of fun that can be incorporated into robot-mediated games. We present our observations, discuss their impact on REMind's design, and offer recommendations for designing fun educational games using social robots.

What Makes an Educational Robot Game Fun? Framework Analysis of Children's Design Ideas

TL;DR

This research investigates the concept of fun in educational games involving social robots to support the design of REMind, a robot-mediated role-play game aimed at encouraging bystander intervention against peer bullying among children.

Abstract

Fun acts as a catalyst for learning by enhancing motivation, active engagement and knowledge retention. As social robots gain traction as educational tools, understanding how their unique affordances can be leveraged to cultivate fun becomes crucial. This research investigates the concept of fun in educational games involving social robots to support the design of REMind:a robot-mediated role-play game aimed at encouraging bystander intervention against peer bullying among children. To incorporate fun elements into design of REMind, we conducted a user-centered Research through Design (RtD) study with focus groups of children to gain a deeper understanding of their perceptions of fun. We analyzed children's ideas by using Framework Analysis and leveraging LeBlanc's Taxonomy of Game Pleasures and identified 28 elements of fun that can be incorporated into robot-mediated games. We present our observations, discuss their impact on REMind's design, and offer recommendations for designing fun educational games using social robots.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 21 sections, 3 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Designing REMind
  4. Methodology
  5. Procedure
  6. Recruitment & Participants
  7. Data & Analysis
  8. Quantitative Findings
  9. Qualitative Observations: Pleasures of Robot Games
  10. Sensation
  11. Fantasy
  12. Narrative
  13. Challenge
  14. Fellowship
  15. Discovery
  16. ...and 6 more sections

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Distribution of children's design ideas across 8 game pleasures. Numbers on the pie denote count of references. Percentages denote count relative to total references.
  • Figure 2: Sample ideas brainstormed by participants: (a): "Project images onto walls & things to see surroundings."; (b): "Idea 5: it can pretend to be in different historical ages. Sort of like a teacher but fun"; (c): " if you can choose the robot's personality".
  • Figure 3: "Bullying Detection Circuit": A prop to teach children about the three criteria for bullying. The pushbuttons trigger recorded messages explaining each criterion.