Statistical Algorithms for Assessing the Efficacy of Community-Generated Educational Games

The strength of the United States military is highly dependent upon the continued superiority of intellectual resources and technology in the battle arena. Emerging trends indicate that fewer students are pursuing education in the sciences and technology. In an effort to reverse this trend, researchers are working to engage students through interactive educational software. However, a recent U.S. Department of Education study suggests that current educational software is no more effective than traditional methods. Barron Associates propose a novel collaborative community approach to educational game development. Within this framework, educators will use an amateur-friendly game development platform to created games that fulfill current educational needs. The games will compete in Darwinian survival of the fittest allowing truly effective games to be set aside for pedagogical use. The centerpiece of this framework, and the focus of this research, will be Barron Associates’ Teaching Efficacy and Skill Tracking algorithm – or TEST. As students interact with video games, TEST will examine player scores and estimate each game’s educational effectiveness and each player’s skill level. This information will be used as feedback to help developers produce better games and to inform players of their progress.