Romero, M., Usart, M., Popescu, M., Boyle, E. (2012). Interdisciplinary and international adaptation and personalization of the MetaVals Serious Game, SGDA 2012, Bremen.

1. 3rd International Conference on Serious Games Development and Applications
1
An interdisciplinary, international adaption and
personalization of the MetaVals Serious Game
Romero, M., Usart, M., Popescu, M., Boyle, E. (2012). Interdisciplinary and
international adaptation and personalization of the MetaVals Serious Game,
SGDA 2012, Bremen.

2. In collaboration with and grateful to...
Games and Learning Alliance (GaLA)
STELLAR Games Enhanced Learning (GEL) Theme
ESADE Law & Business School
Direction of Educational Innovation and Academic Quality (DIPQA)
Presentation by Margarida ROMERO, Ph.D. ESADE. Spain.
Study developed with
Mireia USART, Ph.D.C. ESADE. Spain.
Maria POPESCU, Ph.D. Carol I National Defence University, Romania
Liz BOYLE, Ph.D. University of the West of Scotland, UK

3. How we can develop a
Serious Game
supporting interdisciplinarity, international
adaptation and personalization ?
Main goal

4. INDEX
1. Serious Game (SG) for collaborative learning
2. SG as a methodology requiring personalization
3. Personalization in Serious Game
4. Personalization in SG : the MetaVals case study
5. Adaptation and personalization of MetaVals in ESADE (Spain),
UWS (UK) & Carol I (Romania)
6. Prospective uses of MetaVals and research perspectives
4

5. Learning
Collaborative
GBL
Game Based
Learning (GBL)
CSCL GBL /
Collaborative SG
Computer
Supported
Collaborative
Learning (CSCL)
Collaborative
Learning
Computer
Supported GBL.
Serious Game (SG)
Computer
Supported
Learning
Collaborative Serious Game 
Game Based Learning (GBL)
through Computer Supported
Collaborative Learning (CSCL)
Serious Game 
Computer-
Supported Games
for Learning
Serious Games for
Collaborative Learning1.

6. SG as a methodology
requiring personalization2.
Language
Game Dynamics
•Individual / Multiplayer
•Game rules adaptation
•Interface features adaptation
Domain-specific learning
objectives & content
(Interdisciplinary
adaptation)
Graphic Design
Serious Games
as a methodology
requiring
personalization

7. SG requires a certain degree of personalization (de Freitas, & Jarvis, 2006).
Personalization in terms of
- difficulty level of the task, considering the prior knowledge and the Zone
of Proximal Development (ZDP, Vygotsky, 1978) as a potential capability of
learning in a certain moment
- adaptation to the learners’ preferences for promoting engagement.
- avatar personalization for promoting the creation of an effective
engagement (Anderson et al., 2009)
Personalization in
Serious Games3.

8. MetaVals is a classification game, based on a decision-making activity
initially developed for a domain-specific context: an introductory finance
course (Padrós, Romero, & Usart, 2011; Romero, Usart, & Almirall, 2011).
In 2012, the University of West of Scotland (UWS) promoted the use of the
game in the context of a psychology course.
The new MetaVals release allowed to personalize the knowledge items
proposed to the students (domain-independent) and the look and feel.
 In order to facilitate the management of MetaVals game in different
contexts, an online management interface has been developed.
Personalization management of the different contexts, groups, users
and domain-specific knowledge settings.
Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.

9. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals Management
•Users’ management
•Dyads’ management
•Game play management
•Knowledge items grid
management
•Knowledge questions
management
•Answer values
management
•Answer values dataset
management

10. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals Management
• Language & Graphic Design

11. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals playing modalities adaptation
Virtual Learner #2
Low level High level
Learner
#1
Low
level
Prior knowledge level
symmetry (Low
knowledge level)
Prior knowledge level
asymmetry (Low/High)
High
level
Prior knowledge level
asymmetry
(High/Low)
Prior knowledge level
symmetry (High
knowledge level)
Table 1. MetaVals modalities of the prior knowledge symmetries within
the learners in the dyad.

12. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals playing modalities adaptation (II)
Table 2. Modalities of the MetaVals SG according to the
board/computer and real/virtual dyad.
Modality Paper / Computer Dyad Peer Recommended use
Onsite Paper Real
Computer Real
Virtual
Distance Computer Real
Virtual

13. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals personalization through the different stages of the game

14. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals personalization through the different stages of the game

15. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals personalization through the different stages of the game

16. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals personalization through the different stages of the game

17. Personalization in SG :
the MetaVals case study4.
MetaVals personalization through the different stages of the game

18. Use of MetaVals in ESADE
(Spain), UWS (UK), Carol I (RO)5.
Adaptation and personalization of MetaVals in Spain, UK & Romania
Adaptation /
Personalization
ESADE (Spain) UWS (UK) Carol I (RO)
Language Spanish & English English English
Content-domain Finance Psychology English as a Foreign
Language through
finance
Graphic Design ESADE Finance UWS personalisation ESADE Finance (by
default)
Students A total of 181 students
in 6 postgraduate
courses have used and
evaluated the
MetaVals game
(Padrós, Romero, &
Usart, 2011).
3rd year psychology
students. 4 learners
(M=31.75; SD=13.50),
self-reported previous
knowledge (M=3.50
(/10); SD=3.70).
Adult students. 5
learners (M=44.40;
SD=1.82). Under time
pressure settings, they
lost interest in
teacher’s guidance,
preoccupied with the
game time pressure.

19. Prospective uses of MetaVals
and research perspectives6.
The analysis of the results and their coherence in the different contexts will allow
improvements to the next MetaVals release, including a higher level of graphic design
personalization and the personalization of the number of items.
Adaptation /
Personalization
ESADE (Spain) UWS (UK) Carol I (RO)
Prospective research During the course
2012/2013 we expect
to collect 200 more
postgraduate students
in more than 5
different courses of
finance. Time
perspectives and
knowledge
convergence will be
analyzed.
A new data collection
involving 70 students
in their 3rd year of
psychology degree is
expected for October
2012.
The analysis of the
pilot study has lead to
presentations in ELSE
2012 and ICVL 2012.
Prospective research using MetaVals in Spain, UK & Romania

20. 20
Thank you for your attention
Romero, M., Usart, M., Popescu, M., Boyle, E. (2012). Interdisciplinary and
international adaptation and personalization of the MetaVals Serious Game,
SGDA 2012, Bremen.