Designing a comprehensive evaluation method for learning games - a general approach with specific application to iRead

The iRead project is developed by a Europe-wide consortium. It contains games that support reading acquisition for elementary school children in both L1 and L2 contexts. It is of interest to understand child motivation during the use of the games. In order to plan for the evaluation, the games are analyzed with respect to frameworks that are presented in the literature. To concentrate on the motivational aspects, needs are derived from a spectrum of psychological and learning theories. In addition, a model of motivation in work environments can be used as a foundation to relate game design elements to a larger psychological framework. The resulting analysis should provide a general guideline on how to evaluate game design decisions with respect to motivation. It will serve the project as a first step towards evaluating iRead games when they are deployed in the classroom.

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