JEM Inventor: a mobile learning game authoring tool based on a nested design approach

ABSTRACT

The expansion of mobile devices (e.g. tablets, smartphones) and their educational and recreational applications have contributed to the emergence of Mobile Learning Games (MLGs). MLGs show great potential for increasing engagement, creativity and authentic learning. Yet, despite their great potential for education, the use of MLGs by teachers, remains very limited. This is partly due to the fact that MLGs are often designed to match a specific learning context, and thus cannot be directly reused in other situations. In addition, the existing authoring tools are either simple to use but do not offer enough features for designing MLGs that meet the teachers’ needs, or much too complex to be used without programming skills. To tackle these problems, we propose JEM Inventor, a MLG authoring tool, based on a nested design approach, progressively revealing functionalities, depending on users' skills and needs. JEM Inventor and its nested design model were evaluated through two experimentations with more than twenty teachers, from a wide range of fields and expertise with the use of MLGs. We also conducted field experimentations with more than 1500 students in order to evaluate the quality of the MLGs created with JEM Inventor as well as their impact on learners.

KEYWORDS:

• Authoring tools
• serious games
• mobile learning
• location-based
• informal learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://www.strategyanalytics.com/ “44% of world will Own Smartphones in 2017” Linda Sui.

2 https://www.strategyanalytics.com/ “Global Business Tablet Forecast” Gina Luk.

3 https://en.yeeply.com/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-an-app/.

4 https://furetfactory.com.

5 http://aous-karoui.com/phd/log_detail.png.

6 http://aous-karoui.com/phd/q_exp1.

7 http://aous-karoui.com/phd/q_exp2.

8 http://aous-karoui.com/phd/q_online_1; http://aous-karoui.com/phd/q_online_2.

9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ntDVX-yr-M&t=1s.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aous Karoui

Aous Karoui is a PhD on computer sciences since September 2018. His research work is in the field of TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) and more specifically Serious Games and authoring tools. Thus, during his doctoral thesis, he worked on solutions to help teachers, to design and create their own serious games for field trips. In this context, he designed and developed JEM Inventor, an authoring tool based on a Nested Design Approach to help teachers create their own serious games and deploy them on Android devices.

Iza Marfisi-Schottman

Iza Marfisi-Schottman joined Le Mans University as Associate Professor in 2013. Her research interests are related to TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) and exploring innovative educational techniques such as Learning Games, situated learning with mobile devices, Human–Computer Interactions for learning and Mixed Reality.

Sébastien George

Sébastien George is Full Professor of Computer Science since 2013 at Le Mans University, in France. He teaches at the Institute of Technology of Laval. He is at the head of the team IEIAH (working in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning) at LIUM Laboratory. He received the PhD degree in computer science in 2001. Then he did a postdoctoral fellowship at the TeleUniversity of Quebec in Canada, before joining INSA Lyon in 2002. He is the co-author of more than 180 publications in scientific books, journals and conferences. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal STICEF (Sciences and Technologies of Information and Communication for Education and Training). His major fields of interest are computer-supported collaborative learning, authoring tools and assistance to human tutoring. He is particularly interested in applications integrating innovative Human–Machine Interactions in the context of education and training (serious games, mixed reality).