Generating Game Levels to Develop Computer Science Competencies in Game-Based Learning Environments [chapter]

Kyungjin Park, Bradford Mott, Wookhee Min, Eric Wiebe, Kristy Elizabeth Boyer, James Lester
2020 Lecture Notes in Computer Science  
Game-based learning environments hold significant potential for supporting K-12 computer science (CS) education by providing CS learning experiences embedded within engaging virtual worlds. However, many gamebased learning environments do not adaptively support individual students based on their specific knowledge and skills. Often, this is because creating game levels is highly labor-intensive, which limits the number of levels created to support student learning. Procedural content generation
more » ... (PCG) is a promising direction for addressing this challenge by dynamically creating game levels that address specific student needs without requiring extensive development effort. In this paper, we investigate a PCG framework driven by answer set programming (ASP), a variant of logic programming that utilizes well-formed logical rules to express constraints for valid game levels. We demonstrate how variations in CS learning objectives and game-playing skills can be incorporated into ASP-based rules to generate learner-adaptive levels in a middle-grades CS game-based learning environment. Evaluations of the generated levels suggest that the ASP-based level generator not only reliably generates desired CS educational game levels but also synthesizes a large set of diverse game levels. The findings suggest that the ASP-based PCG approach has considerable promise for creating highly engaging and adaptive game-based learning experiences for K-12 CS education.
doi:10.1007/978-3-030-52240-7_44 fatcat:cijhlh7mzfhwdincllz33mwkva