Nour Esteban Loiseau
email: esteban.loiseau@univ-lemans.fr

El Mawas

Pierre Laforcade
email: pierre.laforcade@univ-lemans.fr

A meta-modeling approach for capturing recurrent uses of Moodle tools into pedagogical activities

Keywords: Instructional Design, Learning Management System, Visual Instructional Design Language, Modeling and Meta-modeling, Weaving Models

Teacher's expertise on using Learning Management Systems (LMS) is tightly coupled to how they design their online courses. The GraphiT project aims to help teachers in specifying of pedagogically sound learning scenarios that can be technically executable for automatically setting-up the related LMS course. We intend to provide teachers with LMS-specific instructional design languages and editors. To achieve this goal, we have to raise the LMS semantics in order to enrich the pedagogical expressiveness of the produced models. We propose a specific LMS-centered approach for abstracting the low-level parameterizations and turning these semantics into higher-level pedagogical building blocks. We present and illustrate our propositions focused on Moodle. In this paper, we focus on the first abstraction level: identifying pedagogical activities according to recurrent uses of Moodle activities.

Introduction

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are presently widely spread in academic institutions and are used not only for distant courses but also during or in complement to face-to-face learning sessions [START_REF] Garrisson | Blended learning: Uncovering its transformative potential in higher education[END_REF]. We conducted a study with 203 teachers which put forward their heavy form-oriented human-interfaces and their tools/services-oriented course design, leading to reduce their uses. In order to set up complex learning activities, teachers have to develop high-level skills on how to use the existing LMS. Such skills can be acquired through specific teacher education programs, often focusing on the features and technical aspects of the platform, but few courses deal with how to design pedagogically sound learning situations for this very specific LMS. Because of the multiple educational theories and approaches [START_REF] Ormrod | Human Learning[END_REF], as well as the lack of tools and processes dedicated to existing LMSs, teachers develop ad hoc and individual learning design techniques.

In such context, it is relevant to help teachers in focusing on pedagogical aspects and their instructional design set-up for the specific LMS they have at their disposal. Whereas improving their knowledge and abilities to use the platforms' features, a focus on the instructional design possibilities and how they can rely on the LMS features should encourage individual and collective understanding about the pedagogical uses of the targeted LMS.

For this purpose, we propose an LMS-centered design approach in opposition to the usual platform-independent approaches [START_REF] Alario-Hoyos | GLUE!-PS: An approach to deploy non-trivial collaborative learning situations that require the integration of external tools in VLEs[END_REF] [START_REF] Katsamani | Designing a Moodle course with the CADMOS learning design tool[END_REF]. The GraphiT project (Graphical Visual Instructional Design Languages for Teachers) tackles this issue. Its main objective is to investigate Model Driven Engineering (MDE) techniques for supporting the specification of LMS-centered graphical instructional design languages and the development of dedicated editors. This paper deals with one central challenge: raising the pedagogical expressiveness of LMSs learning design semantics by using MDE techniques.

To this end, we detail in section 2 our research context, including the presentation of the GraphiT project, as well as a position of our current results. Section 3 is dedicated to a survey and series of interviews we conducted with designers in order to collect needs and requirements for the Moodle LMS. A global presentation of our abstraction proposition is done in section 4: a 4-level abstract syntax, formalized as a metamodel, for the future learning design language. Section 5 focuses on the first-level and includes the proposition of a specific method to identify the pedagogical activities and their bindings to LMS tools. We also use the specific weaving language we developed to formally capture these bindings. Section 6 illustrates our propositions by a concrete learning scenario.

Research Context

Instructional design and LMS compatibility

LMS development is usually based upon an educative theory rationale, or some specific pedagogical approach. For example, Moodle claims a socio-constructivist pedagogy philosophy [START_REF] Dougiamas | Moodle: Using Learning Communities to Create an Open Source Course Management System[END_REF]. Widespread LMS generally follow such an orientation because of the various production and communication tools provided. LMSs are the activity-centered evolution of former learning-object-centered TEL-systems. Indeed, current LMSs provide designers with some numerous functionalities that can be used to realise various learning activities and are not restricted to providing resource access to students.

Nevertheless, activity-centered standards like the de facto IMS-LD [START_REF]IMS Learning Design specification[END_REF] fail to integrate existing LMSs. Experiments on extending Moodle to import IMS-LD learning scenarios proved that adapting existing LMSs requires some complex and heavy re-engineering (in particular integrating a dedicated runtime-engine) in order to overcome the limitations of the platform features and semantics [START_REF] Burgos | A First Step Mapping IMS Learning Design and Moodle[END_REF]. Educational Modeling Languages [START_REF] Berggren | Practical and Pedagogical Issues for Teacher Adoption of IMS Learning Design Standards in Moodle LMS[END_REF] fail to provide a support for operationalizing EML-conformed learning scenarios into existing LMSs. For now widely spread LMSs like Moodle still do not propose an IMS-LD compliance.

Moodle proposes its own format for importing questions into quizzes. Our idea is to generalise it to the whole instructional design aspects. Similarly to the SCORM [START_REF]Advanced Distributed Learning: The SCORM specification[END_REF] compliance about Learning Objects, the rationale of the GraphiT project is based on the idea that LMSs should make explicit their learning design format in order to facilitate the import/export of compliant learning scenarios, and, in addition, to foster the development of LMS-dedicated instructional design editors.

Some state-of-the-art learning design tools and languages

The project main goal is to study the possibilities and limitations about the pedagogical expressiveness of operationalizable languages. According to the classification of Educational Modeling Languages proposed by [START_REF] Botturi | A Classification Framework for Educational Modeling Languages in Instructional Design[END_REF], our objectives map to formal languages, i.e. with closed set of concepts and rules for composing the designs, with an implementation level of elaboration, i.e. the highest level of detail achieving maximum precision, with a visual notation system.

The Glue! architecture, including the Glue!PS editor [START_REF] Alario-Hoyos | GLUE!-PS: An approach to deploy non-trivial collaborative learning situations that require the integration of external tools in VLEs[END_REF], and the CADMOS editor [START_REF] Katsamani | Designing a Moodle course with the CADMOS learning design tool[END_REF] are two recent research works sharing our learning design criteria about pedagogical sound and executable learning design editors. They both propose an LMS-independent solution offering an LMS deployment feature towards the most widespread and used platform: Moodle [START_REF]Moodle Official Website[END_REF]. They both achieve the deployment by generating a Moodle course backup with all the information and mapping their own data model concepts to Moodle data model concepts; this backup is then imported and deployed within a Moodle course using the Moodle restoration process. Such approaches result in semantics adaptations and semantics losses during their internal mappings because of the gap between the instructional design language, the specific learning design capabilities as well as features of the targeted LMS.

Other research [START_REF] Abdallah | Models transformation to implement a Project-Based Collaborative Learning (PBCL) Scenario : Moodle case study[END_REF] shows that model transformations techniques from the MDE theories and tools can be useful to translate a designer-centered and LMSindependent learning scenario to a one that is LMS specific. Nevertheless, they also highlighted the complex transformation model to specify, the LMS metamodel to capture, the semantics losses during translation, and the requirement of an LMS-dedicated tool for embedding the scenarios into the LMS.

Model Driven Engineering within the Graphit project

The project methodology consists in exploring how Model Driven Engineering and more particularly Domain Specific Modeling [START_REF] Kelly | Domain Specific Modeling: Enabling Full Code Generation[END_REF] techniques and tools can be relevant and useful to help in developing learning design editors that (1) are focusing on learning design for a specific existing LMS, (2) are enough expressive for abstracting the LMS's implicit learning design, and (3) are machine-readable, or executable, to be fully traduce into first LMS implementation settings.

Briefly, MDE is a software development methodology which focuses on creating and exploiting formal domain models and meta-models, rather than on producing code [START_REF] Schmidt | Model-Driven Engineering[END_REF]. MDE is also a large research field about specifying / executing / transforming / composing (meta-)models. It comes with many specific tools to support all these activities. DSM can be considered as a specific MDE process. It involves the systematic use of domain-specific languages. These languages tend to support formal higher-level abstractions in contrast to semi-formal generalpurpose modeling languages like UML.

The approach and architecture we propose is different from other existing approaches. We propose an LMS-dependent architecture that only focuses on one existing LMS in order to provide an instructional design language that will be specified and tooled. Our idea is to conduct the platform abstraction in accordance with the formalisation of future learning scenarios. We do not aim at extending the LMS semantics with new add-ons/plugins, enriching it with more pedagogical-oriented features. Our objective is to support learning scenarios specification in conformance with the LMS semantics (its abilities as well as its limitations). Furthermore, we do not aim at only providing a notation layer on top of the LMS metamodel. The results of past experiments [START_REF] Loiseau | Specification of learning management system-centered graphical instructional design languages -A DSM experimentation about the Moodle platform[END_REF] show that the best solution (expressiveness/LMS compliance ratio) relies on extending the LMS metamodel. However, it requires a strong metamodeling expertise to reduce the developing cost while restoring the LMS compliance. This solution also highlights the importance to drive the expressiveness (and semantics) extension of the initial metamodel with the binding capacity. This paper focuses on our further results and propositions about this issue.

By extending the LMS metamodel we also extend the abstract syntax of the instructional design language and thus lose the LMS-compliance format. We plan to restore it by DSM (Domain-Specific Modeling) techniques (weaving and transformation models). We aim at guaranteeing that learning scenarios could be fully operationalized into the LMS without semantics losses. Our approach can take advantage of this LMS-dependance but it has also the disadvantage to be restricted to one LMS and one of its versions. The LMS instructional design semantics has first to be identified and formalized as a domain metamodel. This metamodel drives the elaboration of an XSD (XML Schema Definition) schema that will be used as a format reference for the API to develop. This API will be used through an import facility available to teachers-designers in their LMS courses. Its function is to parse the XML-based scenario and fill-up the LMS database. According to DSM techniques and tools (like the EMF/GMF ones for example [START_REF]Eclipse Modeling Project Official Website[END_REF]), the visual instructional design language will be composed of an abstract syntax (based on an extension of the LMS metamodel) from which the graphical, tooling and mapping models will be derived. The editor will also be developed using the code-generation feature of DSM tools. The produced scenarios have to be compliant with the initial LMS meta-model to be deployed by the API. We propose then to run two kinds of model transformations. The first one will consist of various, fine-grained transformations that will be during design-time: it will show some LMS mappings to teacher-designers in order to help and guide them in the design process. The second transformation, unique and large, will be used as an export feature (after design-time).

The main challenge of this project is to create enough abstraction from the LMS instructional design semantics to provide teachers with some pedagogicallysound higher design building blocks. The LMS expressiveness and limitations have to be overcome in order to offer teachers some instructional design mechanisms closer to their practices and needs about specifying and sequencing learning activities.

Although the GraphiT project deals with different LMSs for guaranteeing the reproducibility of its results, we focus primarly on the Moodle platform which is the most popular open-source LMS.

Collection and analysis of requirements and needs

We evaluated several theoretical sources [START_REF] Conole | Mapping pedagogy and tools for effective learning design[END_REF] as well as made practical exchanges with pedagogical engineerers in order to sketch our proposition orientations. Following, we decided to conduct a larger survey with complementary interviews to verify our initial assumptions, to collect feeback about our project orientations and positions, and to identify more precisely end-users' practices, needs and learning design tools requirements about the Moodle LMS.

Overview of the survey

We conducted an online survey that was diffused through international Frenchspeaking higher education institutions during a 4-week period. This survey addressed teachers and pedagogical engineers using existing LMSs. The survey was composed of 21 mandatory questions, most of them accepting multiple answers. Some questions were conditioned to the selection of previous specific answers. For example, the first 8 questions (relative to the global design of courses) are LMS-independent, whereas the other ones were only available to people using Moodle (the LMS we wanted to focus on). We received and analysed 208 results. We only sketch here the most noticeable and relevant points in relation to the focus of this paper.

74% of those polled use an LMS in addition to their face-to-face courses (32% only for this purpose), 52% for distant courses and 37% during the face-to-face sessions. Main uses of the LMS concern the document transmission (91%), collection of works (52%), support for collaborative activities (47%), evaluations (47%), and new pedagogical practices (58%). On average, half of those polled considered having explored the LMS alone. Those who did not consider themselves as novices (56%) stated that they had improved their LMS knowledge on their own at 73%.

Although half of Moodle users consider that the global user-interface of a course is easily understandable, only 33% consider that the form-oriented parameterization screens are understandable. From a learning design perspective, they sketch all (38%) or part (37%) of the learning scenario before setting-up the equivalent course upon Moodle. 43% of this sub-population have met some difficulties during this manual step and have felt constrained in adapting their initial scenarios and intentions (12% failed to adapt the scenario). A majority of Moodle designers use the basic functionalities like the move left/right (64%), the hide/show (84%) parameters. Half of the group graded students' productions and use Moodle's groups and groupings when required. 62% used the restrict access settings but only 34% the activity completion. 15 of 22 Moodle standard activities/functionalities (note that institutions can add/remove these blocks) are not well known by an average of 50% (sometimes more) of answerers, whereas the 7 others are regularly used. The Forum is largely preferred to the Chat feature to foster communication. For the setting-up of exercices, Assignment (47%) and Quiz (37%) are preferred to Hot Potatoes (15%) or Lesson (19%). The Wiki is the most preferred collaborative tool (23%) among others (Journal 8%, Workshop 8%).

Most relevant points from interviews analysis

From most relevant answerers that agreed to be contacted we conducted 20 one-to-one interviews, mostly by distant devices. Interviewees were selected depending on their instructional design expertise about the Moodle platform.

They agree that Moodle is useful for simple pedagogical objectives but is time-consuming for elaborating more complex learning situations. Settings screens are considered too complex and difficult to handle. These screens mix pedagogical and technical parameters, requiring to test and observe the pedagogical implications of all combinations. Some interviewees stated that they encourage to use default parameters and then, hinder the setting-up of more complex activities.

A majority of interviewees accept the idea of both an external learning design editor dedicated to Moodle and an import block available through the Moodle internal design space to automatically set-up the course (the external feature allowing offline designs and the graphical notation helping to visualize the scenario at design-time). They approve the approach, emphasising its relevance if templates or concrete cases about pedagogical uses of Moodle tools can be handled within the editor. They highlight the need for a language/editor covering large pedagogical uses but without being too generic. Some of them consider important to continue using the editor for adapting the scenario after the import step although they agree that a round-trip use of both editor and Moodle can be an obstacle.

One issue highlighted is that practitioners did not expressed common design practises, as we expected them to, mainly because of the heterogeneity of their Moodle expertises and pedagogical backgrounds. Nevertheless they have in common to think about Moodle tools according to their basic pedagogical uses. Indeed, they all point the heavy parameterizations of tools and resources and the need for having an abstract view of what are the pedagogical uses in order to help and guide them in selecting and configuring the right implementation activities.

Requirements for a learning design language and editor

From all these practitioners feedback we listed some specific requirements for our Moodle language/editor to develop. First, they mentioned the need for the graphical authoring-tool to allow designers to select pedagogical blocks on top of the LMS semantics as well as with Moodle building blocks to compose with. In their mind, the editor will not have to strictly follow a top-down process from abstracted specification elements to implementation one expressed in terms of Moodle; abstractions from Moodle and its own concepts should be mixed up together according to practitioners' expertise about instructional design (specification and implementation concepts mix). Secondly, they are interesting in the idea that mappings from pedagogical design blocks to Moodle concepts can be showed to practitioners (default mapping) and adapted if required (mapping adaptation). This design approach could help practitioners in the appropriation of the pedagogical constructs and guide them in designing more abstract learning scenario while mastering the translations into LMS elements.

Another design point highlighted (declarative non-visible information) is about the possibility to design and declare within the learning scenario some information that do not required to be mapped into LMS concepts or just mentioned as non-visible labels (for students/tutors) for the teacher him-self: information about the face-to-face sessions mixed up with the LMS-centered ones, about pedagogical strategies or pedagogical objectives, about activities to realize on the LMS at a specific runtime moment according to concrete data (enrolled students, dates, etc.). Finally, another design need was to help teachers in sequencing the course in more advanced structures (choices, sequences) with elements showed one-by-one according to their progress (advanced activity structures). Indeed, these can be done manually but it requires to parameterize many low-levels and technical-oriented properties (achievements, restricted access conditions...) that they would appreciate not to have to set up by themselves.

Abstractions based on the LMS metamodel

We plan to study how the LMS semantics about instructional design could be abstracted from two perspectives: a theoritical one, generalizable to different LMSs, and a practical one about the special case-study of the Moodle LMS. We chose to follow a bottom-up approach by focusing at first on the Moodle LMS. According to practitioners' needs, the abstraction could consist in raising the recurrent LMS uses supporting some learners and/or teachers activities. From an activity theory perspective [START_REF] Engestrom | Learning by Expanding: An Activity Theoretical Approach to Developmental Research[END_REF] [START_REF] Benson | Rules, roles and tools: Activity theory and the comparative study of e-learning[END_REF], such activities should involve LMS's bindings of subject, objects, tools/artefacts, community, division of labor and rules. Because our survey and interviews highlight a special need to ease the parameterization of Moodle tools and resources for setting-up activities, we decided to focus at first on raising these tools and resource semantics, and to study later the other aspects.

The following sections present these abstractions in relation with their formalizations for the Moodle LMS. The metamodel from Figure 1 can be considered as part of the general abstract syntax of the instructional design language to be developed. This part focuses on the abstraction of Moodle tools and resources.

Tool-or-resource-based pedagogical activities

We define an LMS-abstract pedagogical activity as an encapsulation of parameters a teacher has to set-up when using a tool (or resource) for a specific pedagogical use. From a single tool, for example a forum, a teacher can design several pedagogical use, depending on its configuration: to provide news to students, to set up group work, to propose a peer reviewing activity, etc.

Because several LMS functionalities can be used for the same pedagogical purpose, we have to find the discriminatory criteria that can guide to identify the right tool and default mapping (as well as the relations to objectives, resources, groupings, etc. that are involved in the right setting-up of the pedagogical activities).

To be used appropriately, this first abstract block requires a name, a description, and specific properties (the former discriminants), set at design-time by practitioners, that will drive the default mapping. For example an exchange activity, involving student communication, could either rely on a forum or a chat, depending on a synchronous property. The mappings will not be limited to the parameterization of a tool. It will also impact some other elements in relation with the tool/resource: grades, objectives, groupings, restriction access and achievements rules, etc.

Activity structures

According to [START_REF] Gedera | Using Activity Theory to understand contradictions in an online university course facilitated by Moodle[END_REF], successful implementation of an online course that is facilitated by an LMS needs careful planning, including structural strategies in the design of the course. In order to ease and assist the practitioners when assembling and setting-up combinations of activities or resources we propose then usual structural elements (selection, sequence, conditional activities, etc.). These blocks will be composed of activities or other activity structures. Every instructional design language feature some of them. In the case of Moodle they will be concretely translated as complex combinations of labels (stating the structure name, kind and use for users), shifted content (move left/right feature) according to the activity structure components in the learning scenario. After various translations and mappings until reaching the LMS low-level elements, all its content will be parameterized (restrict access, visibility, achievement...) with appropriate properties in order to set up the desired behavior.

Instructional Design Language Abstract syntax

The global architecture we propose for the abstract syntax of the Moodlecentered instructional design language is composed of four levels. Figure 1 illustrates our proposition with a graphical representation of the ecore domain model (the EMF metamodel format).

Level 1 fits the Moodle metamodel. Readers have to consider Figure 1 as a part of the whole metamodel. Only important structural relations and concepts are depicted because of our current interest. Level 1 elements (restricted to the Moodle activities -name for tools given by Moodle -and resources) can be directly used by teachers-designers and parameterized for building a learning session. From the Moodle metamodel point of view these elements require a global Course and a Section container to be attached to. In the extended metamodel they will be specified at first as child of level 4 elements. The model transformation, at post-design-time, will deal with restoring a model in full-compliance with the Moodle metamodel: creation of the global Course instance, Section instances, attachment of all the corresponding Moodle elements according to the orders and positions deductible from the source scenario.

Level 2 includes our pedagogical activities. They are composed of Level 1 elements, i.e. Moodle activities and resources. Level 3 captures the activity structures. The activity structures are composed of Level 3 elements specified during the design-time. Finally, the fourth level is the contextual level focusing on the global structure of the learning session in relation to the different face-to-face, complementary, distant sessions or other teacher-defined customized sessions.

Such Level 4 elements rely on the Moodle section concept. Indeed, Moodle only proposes sections into the space of the course for aggregating the tools and resources. However, designers have at their disposal an indentation feature (position property in the Moodle metamodel) to shift activities and resources in order to visually indicate their collective relationships. This position property will be used by the dynamical mappings, in order to position the corresponding elements in accordance to the source element position in the global learning scenario.

The relations with a red composition indicate that the content will not be displayed in the future concrete syntax (notation) as nested elements but will appear in another sub-diagram where the parent container will be the root canvas. Differently, the green composition indicates that content will be showed as nested elements of the parent container in the same diagram. Finally, the nextE reflexive relation allows, by inheritance, to provide a previous/next information to sequence the various elements within their dynamic pedagogical context (the ordering concerns the child elements sharing a same Level Element parent).

The leaf meta-classes from figure 1 (dark elements) sketch some examples of future elements. They are on purpose not showing their attributes (for ease of reading). However each of them owns specific properties in accordance with the different in-progress formal specifications we are studying about the Moodle instructional design semantics, pedagogical activities, and activity structures.

Overview of our instructional design tool

The proposed authoring-tool will directly propose to practitioners the level-4 elements in the tool palette. Indeed, these elements are required to map to Moodle sections in order to sequentially structure the course skeleton. Sessions that do not rely on Moodle features can also be described if designers need an overall view of a global module/course larger than the ones involving the use of an LMS. Other level-4 elements will then open an empty sub-diagram when double-clicked. It can then be used to arrange levels 3-to-1 elements from the new palette. Indeed, practitioners can then choose the method (top-bottom, bottom-up), the description level (specification versus implementation) and the elements to select, combine and adapt. Pedagogical activities can be opened up as another sub-diagram containing the default mapping to levels 1 elements. Every mapping can be adapted and modified by deleting/adding new elements (according to those accepted under the parent element) or modifying the elements properties. This layer-oriented notation and functionalities fit the practitioners' need depicted in section 3.3.

Main abstraction: pedagogical activities

Identifying pedagogical activities

In order to identify the most appropriate tool for a specific pedagogical activity, we followed these three steps: (1) analysis for each Moodle tools of its recurrent uses (bottom-up method), (2) identification of tools offering common uses (top-down method), and (3) specification of discriminating criteria to drive the selection of a suitable tool. Moodle 2.4 offers 7 resources (Book, Page, Label, IMS content package, File, Folder, and URL) and 13 activities (Forum, Database, Glossary, Assignment, Lesson, Quiz, Workshop, SCORM package, External tool, Choice, Survey, Wiki, and Feedback ). We have study their recurrent uses. We notice that some activities/resources can be diverted to serve for different uses. For example, everyone knows that the Forum is used for discussion reasons but it can also be used to allow students to introduce themselves in a course or to consult a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or to share documents between learners. After looking at all Moodle's activities/resources uses, we have identified those supporting the same uses. Three tools can be used to consult a FAQ: the Forum, the Wiki, and the Glossary.

We have then specified discriminating criteria to help a teacher in deciding which tool he must use if he has many choices. We chose m × n matrix A format to present these discriminating criteria (A has m rows and n columns, first row and column are headers and not part of the matrix data) according to seven rules :

R1 The pedagogical activity name is only from a teacher perspective if no students are concerned (= with parameter hide on). For example, for a survey, we choose the expression "answer a survey" (students viewpoint) instead of "create a survey" (teachers viewpoint). Note that A 11 presents this pedagogical activity. R2 Tools participating to the realization of the activity are the elements A 12 ...A 1n . R3 Discriminating criteria are the elements A 21 ...A m1 . R4 Discriminating criteria are expressed as much as possible as a pedagogical question designers have to answer by Yes or No. R5 Cells intersecting a discriminating criterion and a tool must embed all answers that can implied to choose this tool (Yes/No are both possible if this criterion is not directly discriminant for this tool, i.e. the tool can support both pedagogical cases). R6 A valid discriminating criterion must cause at least one different answers for one tool. R7 The matrix is terminated if there is no similar combination of answers for two tools.

An unachieved matrix indicates to experts that they have to add one more discriminating criteria and verify again the rule R7. Table 1 shows an example of identification matrix for the pedagogical activity (PA) "Answer a poll". Four Tools can support this activity: Quiz (T1), Choice (T2), Feedback (T3), and Survey (T4). Experts have found 7 discriminating criteria. Each criterion is presented in the form of a question: -(C1) More than one question? -(C2) Only multiple choice questions? -(C3) Pre-populated with questions? -(C4) Time limit? -(C5) Anonymous? -(C6) Graded? -(C7) Feedback after submission?

In table 1, we have three different answers that can imply these four tools: Yes, No, and Yes/No. For example with a survey (T4), we can have more than one question (A 25 = Yes), only multiple choice questions are allowed (A 35 = Yes), it is a pre-populated survey with questions (A 45 = Yes), it can not have a time limit/countdown timer for students' navigation (A 55 = No), it is always nominative (A 65 = No), it can not be graded (A 75 = No), and students can not have a feedback after their submissions (A 85 = No). Note that a designer can reply to C1, C2, C3, C4 , C5, C6, and C7 in any order. Some combinations cannot lead to a specific tool choice for two reasons: (1) a non-valid combination, or (2) a non-response to all questions. In the first case, the experts will be notified to adapt their pedagogical choices while in the second case they will be asked to precise more choices.

Such identification matrix has to be completed by additional information in order to precise the general (whatever the answers that guide the binding like a tool name) or contextualized (depending on some specific answers like a tool format) parameters for the related LMS activity or resource.

Formalization through model weaving

According to our Model Driven Engineering research framework, we can use model transformations to achieve the mappings specified by experts. The transformations will be run at design-time, to add mapped elements to the model and populate the sub-diagrams. Such transformations are complex (proportionally to the mapping complexity) and numerous, thus costly to write.

We on purpose propose to use the model weaving technique we studied in [START_REF] Loiseau | Model Weaving and Pedagogy Mapping Abstraction Levels in Instructional Design Languages[END_REF] to capture the mapping semantics in dedicated weaving models and automatically generate models transformations. From a practical viewpoint, thanks to the matrice and additional information from an LMS expert using our method and formalisms depicted in section 5.1, an engineer will formalize the mappings in a weaving model, using a tree based editor. He can then run a generic High Order Transformation (HOT) that will generate the concrete "mapping transformations". These final transformations can then be integrated within the graphical editor to be automatically run at design-time when teachers-designers will specify the pedagogical activity properties.

The weaving models can be expressed using a weaving language, based on a generic weaving metamodel we designed. This weaving metamodel defines the "syntax" of the mapping/weaving model. Each mapping (or binding) has one source element and one or several targets (chosen from the extended instructional design metamodel). Targets can have conditions on whether they have to be instantiated or not, attributes can be set to specific values (also with conditions). Figure 2 1. It specifies the corresponding translations for all possible combinations by using AND/OR/! operators. Such weaving model is realized by following the matrice formalism, tool by tool. Informations about the tools parameterizations are deduced from the additional informations given by experts.

We used languages and tools from the Epsilon [START_REF] Paige | The Design of a Conceptual Framework and Technical Infrastructure for Model Management Language Engineering[END_REF] project to build a software framework fulfilling our model weaving requirements. This project is compliant with the Ecore formalization of metamodels we already used to formalize the various metamodels we illustrated. This Ecore format is from the Eclipse Modeling Framework [START_REF]Eclipse Modeling Project Official Website[END_REF]. Weaving models are edited through ModeLink, a three pane editor displaying the source and target metamodels in side panels (which are the same in our use case). The final "mapping" transformations are expressed using Epsilon Object Language (EOL), and are generated through a Model-to-text transformation using EGL language. This last transformation replaces the HOT traditionally used in model weaving environments.

Example of a learning scenario

We on purpose propose to illustrate our proposal by formalizing a very simple but representative learning scenario for the Moodle LMS. We propose at first a brief textual description, then the equivalent specification as a model conformed to the dedicated metamodel we proposed in section 4 (Figure 4 is a screenshot of the EMF-tree-based model editor).

Description and formalization

The learning scenario is composed of two learning sessions. The first one is a lecture session for which the teacher only want to provide learners with a Resource consultation corresponding to his face-to-face course material. This pedagogical activity has the quantity property set to "one" and the location set to "local". These properties will lead the dynamic mapping process to add the File Moodle element to the scenario.

The second learning session is a practical work that the teacher wants to realize in face-to-face within a computerized classroom. He would like to use the Moodle platform for supporting a sequence activity structure embedding 4 sub-components. The first one is another Resource consultation. This time, the properties set to "many" (quantity) and "local" (location) by the teacher will lead the transformation process to add a Folder tool. The second sub-element is a Brainstorming pedagogical activity. Its orientation property set to "discussion" leads to propose a Forum tool. Similarly the third one is another pedagogical activity Report writing leading to a Wiki tool because of the collaborative property set to "true". Finally the fourth sub-component is a Guidance activity that aims at reminding the teacher to evaluate the synthesis in the wiki. Thanks to a public property set to "tutor" it leads the mapping process to set the corresponding Label to be invisible (visible="false") to students (it will only be displayed to the teacher).

The teacher can change at any time the activities properties, leading to other mapping adaptations. He can also manually delete the mapping elements, rearrange their order, or add some other elements. Figure 4 shows a global overview of the learning scenario elements including all the automatic mappings according to the various properties and values (not depicted within the figure).

Prototype of the learning scenario editor

We are currently working on the development of a prototype adding a notation layer on top of the abstract syntax we propose for the Moodle-centered instructional design language. We choose for now the Sirius tooling [START_REF]Sirius Project[END_REF] because it allows to quickly define custom multiview for workbenches with less technical knowledge compared to the well-known GMF tooling (from [START_REF]Eclipse Modeling Project Official Website[END_REF]). The notation, or concrete syntax for our instructional design language, is derived from the abstract syntax formalized as an Ecore metamodel. Sirius also facilitates the development of dedicated graphical tools by generating most of features (diagrams, trees, tables, etc.) from the sirius-specific model we build when using it. It reduces the cost and complexity of developing a graphical editors.

We succedeed in integrating the mappings transformations within this prototype. For now, when a user double-clicks on a session within the first level diagram (depicted in Figure 7), it opens a new diagram where he can mix elements from levels 1 to 3 according to his Moodle expertise (Figure 8). Pedagogical properties of level-2 elements can be set at this stage. When these level-2 elements are double-clicked, a transformation process is launched for checking all transformation rules automatically generated from the weaving models we produced. The execution of an eligible rule modifies at run-time the current scenario by adding the corresponding binding towards Moodle elements (level-1). Figure 9 shows resulting mappings. The result is part of the pedagogical scenario: it can be modified by adding/editing/removing new level-1 elements. Mappings can also be updated if a user changes the pedagogical properties of a level-2 element.

Conclusions

Tools uses as a first abstraction

We proposed a specific LMS-centered approach for raising the pedagogical expressiveness of its implicit learning design semantics. We discussed how the LMS low-level parameterizations could be abstracted in order to build higher-level building blocks capturing some recurrent resources or tools uses into pedagogical activities. We also presented a specific method for helping and guiding LMS experts to describe how these activities should be binded to appropriated tools or resources. In addition we propose a specific model weaving approach for formalizing these mappings. These resulting weaving models will drive at run-time and in real-time the automatic translations when using the authoring-tool. Based on a Moodle application, we present and illustrate our approach by formalising the abstract syntax of a Moodle-dedicated instructional design language following a specific 4-levels architecture. Thanks to illustrative examples and an overview of our current prototyping editor, we concretely argued and verified our propositions.

Ongoing work and future perspectives

We are working on integrating groups and pedagogical objectives in both learning design language and prototype editor. The objetives could be linked to Level 4-to-1 elements and mapped to Moodle outcomes, contained by the root Course, labels, or description fields depending on its status (goals/competencies for teacher or activities objectives for learners understanding). Also, roles or groups refer to the division of labour in the learning scenario. Mappings to the Moodle concepts of Group and Grouping are considered.

The 4-levels metamodel extension we propose breaks compatibility of the learning scenarios with the LMS format as it differ from the platform metamodel. We plan to restore it using a global model transformation (written with the Atlas Transformation Language), available as an export feature of the authoring tool.

We are planning an experimentation of the prototype with end-users (teachers), once it has reached a stable enough version. The main objective is the validation of the language, along with the design approach, more than the tool itself (ergonomy or user experience). By providing teachers with only general guidelines about the scenario to produce, we would like to evaluate how they are able to design a pedagogically sound course with the editor. We are interested in observing which abstraction levels and elements they will use, if they are following a top-down or bottom-up approach, if they will use the default-mapping feature and other specific features we propose.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. The abstract syntax of an instructional design language on top of the Moodle metamodel.

  is a screenshot of the weaving editor. It is used to formally specify as a weaving model the corresponding binding specified by LMS's experts. Concretely, the left part of the figure should concern level-2 elements of our instructional design metamodel for Moodle (1) whereas the right part should only concern level-1 elements, i.e. Moodle elements. Because our instructional design metamodel includes the Moodle one, source and target metamodels involved in the weaving are the same. The central part of the figure is the concrete tree-based editor for specifying bindings.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Screen caption of our weaving tool for formalizing the bindings.

Figure 3

 3 Figure 3 is an example of weaving model related to the binding example from the table 1. It specifies the corresponding translations for all possible combinations by using AND/OR/! operators. Such weaving model is realized by following the matrice formalism, tool by tool. Informations about the tools parameterizations are deduced from the additional informations given by experts.We used languages and tools from the Epsilon[START_REF] Paige | The Design of a Conceptual Framework and Technical Infrastructure for Model Management Language Engineering[END_REF] project to build a software framework fulfilling our model weaving requirements. This project is compliant with the Ecore formalization of metamodels we already used to formalize the various metamodels we illustrated. This Ecore format is from the Eclipse Modeling Framework[START_REF]Eclipse Modeling Project Official Website[END_REF]. Weaving models are edited through ModeLink, a three pane editor displaying the source and target metamodels in side panels (which are the same in our use case). The final "mapping" transformations are expressed using Epsilon Object Language (EOL), and are generated through a Model-to-text

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Example of resulting weaving model (tree-based representation of a concrete XML file).

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Example of simplified learning scenario composed of elements from the 4 levels.

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig. 5. Same example of simplified learning scenario with generated contextualized tools and resources bindings.

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig. 6. Example of weaving model specifying mappings from Figure 4.

Fig. 7 .

 7 Fig. 7. Screenshot of a session diagram (level 4) in our current prototype.

Fig. 8 .

 8 Fig. 8. Screenshot of an activities diagram (levels 3, 2 and 1) in our current prototype.

Fig. 9 .

 9 Fig. 9. Screenshot of a moodle diagram (level 1) in our current prototype.

Table 1 .

 1 Example of identification matrix.

	PA T1 T2 T3	T4
	C1 Yes/No No Yes/No Yes
	C2 Yes/No No Yes/No Yes
	C3 No No No	Yes
	C4 Yes/No No No	No
	C5 No No Yes/No No
	C6 Yes No No	No
	C7 Yes No Yes	No


Nour El Mawas

Irina Tal

Arghir Nicolae Moldovan
email: arghirnicolae.moldovan@ncirl.ie

Diana Bogusevschi
email: diana.bogusevschi@dcu.ie

Josephine Andrews
email: josephine.andrews@ncirl.ie

Gabriel-Miro Muntean
email: gabriel.muntean@dcu.ie

Cristina Hava Muntean
email: cristina.muntean@ncirl.ie

FINAL FRONTIER GAME: A CASE STUDY ON LEARNER EXPERIENCE

Keywords: Technology enhanced Learning, STEM, Educational Video Game, Primary Education, and Solar System

Teachers are facing many difficulties when trying to improve the motivation, engagement, and learning outcomes of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. Game-based learning helps the students learn in an immersive and engaging environment, attracting them more towards STEM education. This paper introduces a new interactive educational 3D video game called Final Frontier, designed for primary school children. The proposed game design methodology is described and an analysis of a research study conducted in Ireland that investigated learner experience through a survey is presented. Results show that: (1) 92.5% of students have confirmed that the video game helped them to understand better the characteristics of the planets from the Solar system, and (2) 92.6% of students enjoyed the game and appreciated different game features, including the combination between fun and learning aspects which exists in the game.

INTRODUCTION

With the advancements in technology and the need to drive engagement and enquiry in STEM subjects, there is an increased usage of game-based learning pedagogy. This technology-based teaching pedagogy is now applied at all levels of education, from primary school to the third level education. In 2015, 47% of K-12 teachers reported that they use game-based learning in their classrooms, and almost 66% of K-5 teachers mentioned the use of digital games in their curriculum [START_REF] Doran | Games, Videos Continue to Make Big Gains in Classrooms, Survey Finds[END_REF]. Currently increasing number of students are exposed to game-based learning in their formal, non-formal and in-formal education and this trend is expected to continue. For instance, the TechNavio's report published in August 2017 (TechNavio 2017) forecasts that K-12 gamebased learning market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 28 percent during the period 2017-2021.

Game-based learning involves the use of gaming technology for educative purposes where students explore concepts in a learning context designed by teachers. Game-based learning helps the students learn in an immersive and engaging environment. One aspect that made game-based learning usage so popular is its ability to teach students how to solve complex problems. Simple problems/tasks to be solved are given to the player at the beginning of the game and later on the tasks become progressively more difficult, as the player is progressing in the game and his/her skills and knowledge develop.

The growing importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) education is also driving the growth of game-based learning market. This is due to the fact that educational games encourage students to get involved in live projects or real-time activities so that they can learn by experimenting [START_REF] Ravipati | Trends: STEM Game-based Learning to See Surge in Immersive Tech[END_REF]). The game-based learning pedagogy also boosts students' confidence in STEM-related subjects, increase their interest in complex topics and helps teachers to deal with disengagement of young people from STEM.

The new 21st century STEM teaching and learning paradigm replaces the old approach in which the teacher is the only source of all the knowledge, everyone learns the same way, and the class is the only place in which knowledge is transmitted. The 21st century teaching and learning paradigm is dynamic, technology-enabled, student-centric and develops 21 st century competencies and skills such as digital literacy, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making and creativity.

In this context, the use of an educational game creates engaging classrooms in STEM subjects, demystifies the pre-conceived idea among students that science and technologies subjects are difficult, improves learning outcome and increases student motivation and engagement.

The research work reported in this paper is dedicated to STEM community and in particular to researchers, and teachers in primary schools who meet difficulties when engaging students in STEM courses.

The paper presents of a research study on learner experience when a new interactive educational 3D video game called Final Frontier, designed for primary school students, was used in the class. The educational game delivers knowledge on two planets from the Solar system: Mercury and Venus.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 proposes the theoretical background of the study and describes some existing educational games related to the Solar system. Section 3 details our scientific positioning, gives an overview of the Final Frontier game and defines the game design methodology. Section 4 presents research methodology of the case study and its results. Section 5 summarizes the paper, draws conclusions regarding the research study performed and presents future perspectives.

RELATED WORK

Game-based learning (GBL) represents an educational approach that integrates video games with defined learning outcomes. The appeal of using video games in education can be partially explained by the need to reach today's digital learners that have continuous access to entertainment content through the Internet. At the same time, games provide highly engaging activities that are stimulating, generate strong emotions, require complex information processing, provide challenges and can support learning and skill acquisition [START_REF] Boyle | The role of psychology in understanding the impact of computer games[END_REF]. The learning experiences and outcomes of educational games can be classified into several classes which include: knowledge acquisition, practising and processing (content understanding), knowledge application (skill acquisition), reflection (behaviour change) and knowledge anticipation (motivation outcomes) [START_REF] Jabbar | Gameplay Engagement and Learning in Game-Based Learning A Systematic Review[END_REF].

Previous research works have shown that gamebased learning can have positive effects on important educational factors such as student motivation and engagement (Ghergulescu and[START_REF] Ghergulescu | Measurement and Analysis of Learner's Motivation in Game-Based E-Learning[END_REF]Muntean, 2010a), learning effectiveness [START_REF] Erhel | Digital game-based learning: Impact of instructions and feedback on motivation and learning effectiveness[END_REF], as well as learning attitude, achievement and self-efficacy [START_REF] Sung | A collaborative gamebased learning approach to improving students' learning performance in science courses[END_REF]Hwang, 2013, Ghergulescu and[START_REF] Ghergulescu | ToTCompute: A Novel EEG-based TimeOnTask Thresholds Computation Mechanism for Engagement Modelling and Monitoring[END_REF]. Moreover, game-based learning has the potential to facilitate the acquisition of 21 st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication [START_REF] Qian | Game-based Learning and 21st century skills: A review of recent research[END_REF]. While there is much research evidence of GBL benefits, some studies failed to reproduce them or obtained contradictory findings. Tobias et al., argue that this may be due to lack of design processes that effectively integrate the motivational aspects of games with good instructional design to ensure learners acquire the expected knowledge and skills [START_REF] Tobias | Game-Based Learning[END_REF]. The authors also made recommendations for educational game design, such as to provide guidance, use first person in dialogues, use animated agents in the interaction with players, use human rather than synthetic voices, maximise user involvement and motivation, reduce cognitive load, integrate games with instructional objectives and other instruction, use teams to develop instructional games [START_REF] Tobias | Game-Based Learning[END_REF].

One common criticism of game-based learning studies is that they lack foundation in established learning theories. A meta-analysis of 658 game-based learning research studies published over 4 decades, showed that the wide majority of studies failed to use a learning theory foundation [START_REF] Wu | Investigating the learning-theory foundations of game-based learning: a meta-analysis[END_REF]. Among the studies that had a pedagogical foundation, constructivism appears to be the most commonly used as indicated by multiple review papers [START_REF] Li | Game-Based Learning in Science Education: A Review of Relevant Research[END_REF][START_REF] Qian | Game-based Learning and 21st century skills: A review of recent research[END_REF][START_REF] Wu | Investigating the learning-theory foundations of game-based learning: a meta-analysis[END_REF]. Other learning theories that were also implemented by different research studies include: cognitivism, humanism and behaviourism. Common learning principles employed by gamebased learning studies include among others: experiential learning, situated learning, problembased learning, direct instruction, activity theory, and discovery learning [START_REF] Wu | Investigating the learning-theory foundations of game-based learning: a meta-analysis[END_REF].

Few studies have proposed and/or evaluated educational games related to planets or the solar system [START_REF] Muntean | Final Frontier: An Educational Game on Solar System Concepts Acquisition for Primary Schools[END_REF]. HelloPlanet is a game where the player can observe and interact with a planet that has a dynamic ecosystem, where the player can simulate organisms, non-organisms, terrains, and more [START_REF] Sin | Planetary marching cubes for STEM sandbox game-based learning: Enhancing student interest and performance with simulation realism planet simulating sandbox[END_REF]. The game evaluation results from 41 primary and secondary school children, showed a statistically significant learning gain for both girls and boys, and an effect on interest in STEM for girls, but not for boys. The Space Rift game enables students to explore the Solar system in a virtual reality environment [START_REF] Peña | Space Rift: An Oculus Rift Solar System Exploration Game[END_REF]. However, the game evaluation involved only 5 students and was mostly focused on usability rather than educational aspects. The Ice Flows game aims to educate the users about the environmental factors such as temperature and snowfall on the behaviour of the Antarctic ice sheet (Le Brocq, 2017). However, the game was either not evaluated or the results were not published yet.

A recent systematic review of game-based learning in primary education has indicated that games were used to teach a variety of subjects, among which the most popular being Mathematics, Science, Languages and Social Studies [START_REF] Hainey | A systematic literature review of games-based learning empirical evidence in primary education[END_REF]. However, the review authors also concluded that more research studies are needed to evaluate the pedagogical benefits of GBL at primary level.

In this context, our research contributions are as follows: (i) proposal of an extended educational games design methodology, (ii) development of the Final Frontier educational game for teaching Solar system planets-related concepts, a topic that was not thoroughly covered by previous research studies, and (iii) evaluation of the game benefits when deployed to target primary school students.

THE FINAL FRONTIER GAME

Game Description

Final Frontier is an interactive 3D educational video game about space for children up to 12 years old. The game supports knowledge acquisition on Solar system planets (i.e. Mercury and Venus were targeted in this study) through direct experience, challenges and fun. The topics coved by the game are part of the Geography curriculum, section "Planet Earth and Space", defined for the primary school in Ireland. The game has different levels, each level containing different models and landscapes. In each level, the game requires meeting a game objective (i.e. mission), collection of stars and meteorites and has constrains e.g. coolant time. Information regarding the number of stars and meteorites collected, coolant time and game level mission is displayed on the screen.

Once a level is completed, the player must answer correctly a multi-choice question in order to be able to progress to the next level. The player is allowed to try to answer the question multiple times if a wrong answer is provided.

The game starts by bringing the player on a spaceship where he game mission is explained. There are two activities that the player has to complete during the first activity, the player is instructed to visit the first planet, Mercury. The game goal related to this planet is to explore the environment and to collect five meteorites hidden in the craters that exist on Mercury (see Figure 1). The player may use the jetpack to get in and out of the craters. An avatar provides extra information (facts) about the planet during the play time.

Figure 2 illustrates how the level mission as well as the number of meteorites and stars a player has collected are displayed on the screen for the entire duration of playing a level.

Once the mission on Mercury was completed, the player returns to the spaceship, in the puzzle room where he/she must answer a question (e.g. What is the closest planet to the Sun?). A screenshot of this game activity is presented in Figure 3. The aim of this mini quiz is to check player's knowledge about Mercury. The player interacts with the game environment when answering the question by picking up the correct object (e.g. planet Mercury) and placing it beside the Sun.

Once this question is answered correctly, the player is awarded a key that is used to open a door on the spaceship and progress to the next level.

The second level is associated with another activity which requires the player to explore the planet Venus and complete a given task. The mission is to traverse the Venus environment without letting their cooldown bar get to zero. Buildings called igloos may be used to recharge their coolant supply (see Figure 4). Next, the player is teleported to the Venus planet surface. There are four buildings (igloos) that the player may enter while crossing the terrain. The cooldown bar depletes when traversing the planet surface, which is very hot (Figure 5), but regenerates when the player enters any of the buildings. While traversing the terrain, the player may collect stars that are added up to the overall stars score. Facts about Venus are displayed during the play time.

Once the player reaches the fourth igloo, he/she is returned to the spaceship, into the puzzle room and asked to complete the second puzzle. A multi-choice question about Venus (see Figure 6) must be answered correctly in order to complete this level.

The puzzle asks the player to identify which planet is the hottest in the Solar system. Three planets are displayed. The player must walk towards the planet that represents the correct answer. Once this is done the game is complete. The overall number of collected starts is also displayed.

Game Design Methodology

The methodology for designing the Final Frontier game is based on that described in [START_REF] Marfisi-Schottman | Tools and Methods for Efficiently Designing Serious Games[END_REF]. However, two steps related to the learning puzzle such as the general description of the learning puzzle and detailed description of the learning puzzle were added. The authors believe that recall is a very important step in the learning process. Moreover, the recommendations on efficient game design proposed by [START_REF] Tobias | Game-Based Learning[END_REF] were taken into account.

The game design methodology proposed in this research is composed of the following steps:  specification of the pedagogical objectives,  choice of the game model,  general description of the scenario and virtual environment,  general description of the learning puzzle,  choice of a software development engine,  detailed description of the scenario,  detailed description of the learning puzzle,  pedagogical quality control, and  game distribution.

Specification of the pedagogical objectives: the proposed 3D interactive educational game shall be used to teach concepts on the solar system in primary schools. The first step of the conception phase consists of defining the concepts that must be learned by the students. For this reason, the authors worked with teachers from European primary schools that teach the Geography subject to make sure that the designed game covers the required topics specified in the curriculum. The pedagogical objectives of the game were defined and presented in Table 1.

Choice of the game model: Once the pedagogical objectives were defined, Adventure was selected as the game model for the Final Frontier. The Adventure game model involves the player assuming the role of the protagonist in the game, exploring the environment and completion of puzzles in order to progress. Collectable objects such as stars and meteorites are also included. The jetpack allows the player to go higher than the jump. The puzzle embedded in the game requires the player to complete various tasks in order to progress through the game. The collectable stars are used to guide the player and encourage him/her to explore the environment. The meteorites are used on the Mercury planet as a collectable to gauge the players' progress. The cooldown feature is used on Venus and gives the player a challenge, as they go through the level.

The game design has considered three areas: the spaceship where the game starts and finishes and where the player goes back to after visiting a planet; planet Mercury which the player visits during the first activity; and planet Venus that hosts the second activity to be completed.

The Adventure game model is one of the most popular among children. The children get more immersed and motivated when they play adventure games over other types. Moreover, the Adventure game model involves a linear story that can be easily defined in the game. Various gameplay features such as jetpack, puzzle solving, collectable stars and meteorites, cooldown bar were also defined in this game mode.

General description of the scenario and virtual environment: the aim of this part is to structure the pedagogical scenario and match it up with a fun based scenario. The main focus was to make the game familiar to the learners. The characters are simple human characters so the player can easily interact with. The story of the game is that the player is on a field trip, and he/she visits some planets. The player is assigned a task to do on each planet and learns implicitly facts about the planet while playing.

General description of the learning puzzle: When the player completes a given task, he/she is brought back to the spaceship to solve a puzzle and when successful, to progress to the next level. The puzzle learning was added because it was believed that active recall is a principle of efficient learning. Many studies demonstrate the role of active recall in consolidating long-term memory e.g. [START_REF] Spitz | Consolidating facts into the schematized learning and memory system of educable retardates[END_REF].

Choice of a software development engine: concerning the game development engine, Unreal Engine 4 or Unity, two of the most popular game development engines, can be used. Unreal Engine 4 was used in this game development due to its graphic potential, especially as it was aimed to give to the player the most realistic environment of the planets.

Detailed description of the scenario: this step involves the illustration of each scene with all the details and interactions to be integrated into the game.

Detailed description of the learning puzzle: the game has two puzzles that correspond to the two planets. Once the puzzle is answered correctly the player is allowed to go to the next planet. The player is allowed to try to answer the puzzle multiple times if a wrong answer was given.

Pedagogical quality control: the developed game was shown to the teacher to validate it and to approve the pedagogical quality of the game. Feedback was considered and the game was improved.

Game distribution: Once the teacher was satisfied and the game was approved, the game was ready to be distributed to the students in the class.

CASE STUDY

The goal of the research study was to investigate learner experience when the Final Frontier game was used in the class to teach scientific knowledge of the planets from the Solar system to primary school children.

This section presents the evaluation methodology applied, case study set-up and results analysis for of the collected data.

Research Methodology

The evaluation included a group of children who were taught by using the Final Frontier game. The learning activity took place in class, during the normal hours of study. A total of 53 children of age 9-10 years from Saint Patrick Boys National School located in Dublin, Ireland took part in the case study. Team members from the National College of Ireland and Dublin City University (DCU) have prepared and helped perform the tests.

The evaluation meets all Ethics requirements. Prior to running the case study, the Ethics approval was obtained from the DCU Ethics Committee and all required forms were provided to the children and their parents, including informed consent form, informed assent form, plain language statement and data management plan. These documents include a detailed description of the testing scenario, as well as information on study purpose, data processing and analysis, participant identity protection, etc.

The flow of the evaluation is illustrated in Figure 7 that presents in details the steps followed by the researchers. It can be seen that prior to beginning the evaluation, the consent forms signed by parents were collected. Then the children introduced to the research case study and asked to review and sign the assent form. The children had roughly 20 minutes to play the game or till they finished the game before doing a survey. The case study investigated the learner experience with the game and the game usability. A learner satisfaction questionnaire assessing student level of experience and game usability was collected. Standard emojis were associated with each answer to the questionnaire's questions.

Results Analysis

Learner Experience

Learner experience in using the Final Frontier game was investigated and evaluated by questions Q1 to Q6 in the survey. The experience was analysed in terms The overall learner experience of children was excellent (see Table 3). 92.5% of children confirmed that the video game helped them to better understand the characteristics of the two planets. 88.8% of children thought that the video game helped them to learn easier about planets. 98.1% of students enjoyed the lesson that included the video game. 84.9% of children agreed on the fact that quizzes embedded in the game helped them better remember what they have learned. 70.1% of children disagreed that the video game distracted them from learning. 96.2% of children expressed that they would like to have more lessons that include video games.

Note that for clarity reasons, in Table 3, SD refers to Strongly Disagree, D refers to Disagree, N refers to Neutral, A refers to Agree, and SA refers to Strongly Agree.

Game Usability

The game usability of the Final Frontier was also analysed through Q7, Q8 and Q9 from the survey.

An analysis of the answers provided for Q7 and Q8 shows that 92.6% of children mentioned that they have enjoyed the game, in particular the fun aspect, learning aspects, stars and meteorites collection, avatar, use of jetpack, and interactive puzzle room.

Regarding Q9, 94% of children mentioned that they prefer computer game-based learning during the normal teaching class, which is an outstanding result for the deployment of this game.

CONCLUSIONS

This study addresses the problem of motivating, engaging, and improving learning experience of students in the STEM field. A novel 3D interactive video game (Final Frontier) was designed and tested with children from a Dublin-based primary school. The game supports knowledge acquisition about two Solar system planets: Mercury and Venus through direct experience, active recall, challenges and fun.

The game design methodology of Final Frontier was described in this paper. An analysis of the results collected in a case study conducted on a group of 57 students was also presented in the paper. Learner experience with the game, and game usability were investigated through a survey. An analysis of the survey questionnaire results shows that a large majority of children were satisfied with the game usability: 92.6% of children enjoyed the game. The survey also shows that children have appreciated various game features including the fun aspect, learning aspects, stars and meteorites collection, avatar, use of jetpacks, and interactive puzzle room that existed in the game.

The overall learner experience of children was excellent, 92.5% of children confirmed that the game helped them to learn better about the two planets.

Future work will aim to expand the research study on the Final Frontier game as well as on the game methodology. Further research will include all planets of the Solar system to the game. The learning impact of the game will also be assessed.

Research has shown the benefits of integrating adaptation based on learner quality of experience and learner profile in the learning process [START_REF] Muntean | End-user Quality of Experience oriented adaptive e-learning system[END_REF], Muntean et al. 2010b).

Thus, the adaptive feature will also be designed and developed in the game in order to address the problem of learners' diversity, their difference in terms of prior knowledge and learning experience.

The Final Frontier 3D interactive computer game introduced in this paper will be deployed through the NEWTON platform (NEWTON 2016) and tested in different European primary schools. Case studies that will investigate the benefits of the educational game in different European schools will be organized and an analysis of the results across countries will be performed.

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: The goal of the mission to Mercury.

Figure 2 :

 2 Figure 2: The player using jetpack on Mercury.

Figure 3 :

 3 Figure 3: Puzzle room and the question about Mercury.

Figure 4 :

 4 Figure 4: The objective of the mission to Venus.

Figure 5 :

 5 Figure 5: The player on Venus planet.

Figure 6 :

 6 Figure 6: Puzzle room and the question about Venus.

Figure 7 :

 7 Figure 7: Evaluation process.

Table 1 :

 1 LOs of the Final Frontier game.

	Planet	LOs
	Mercury	-Closest planet to the sun (LO1)
		-Planet with the most craters (LO2)
		-Smallest planet (LO3)
	Venus	-Hottest planet due to the greenhouse
		effect (LO1)
		-Spins opposite direction to Earth
		(LO2)
		-High Gravity cannot jump very high
		(LO3)

Table 2 :

 2 Survey questions.

	Question	Answer/Scale
	Q1. The video game	-Strongly Disagree
	helped me to better	-Disagree
	understand the	-Neutral
	characteristics of different	-Agree
	planets.	-Strongly Agree
	Q2. The video game	-Strongly Disagree
	helped me to learn easier	-Disagree
	about planets.	-Neutral
		-Agree
		-Strongly Agree
	Q3. I enjoyed this lesson	-Strongly Disagree
	that included the video	-Disagree
	game on planets.	-Neutral
		-Agree
		-Strongly Agree
	Q4. The quizzes that I did	-Strongly Disagree
	in the game helped me	-Disagree
	better remember what I	-Neutral
	learned.	-Agree
		-Strongly Agree
	Q5. The video game	-Strongly Disagree
	distracted me from	-Disagree
	learning.	-Neutral
		-Agree
		-Strongly Agree
	Q6. I would like to have	-Strongly Disagree
	more lessons that include	-Disagree
	video games.	-Neutral
		-Agree
		-Strongly Agree
	Q7. What did you like	Students to provide
	most about the game?	their feelings toward the
		experience
	Q8. Comments /	Students to provide
	Suggestions (optional)	their comment if they
		wished
	Q9. What way of learning	-Teacher based learning
	you would like (tick one	-Computer game based
	answer)?	learning

Table 3 :

 3 Children answers on the user experience survey.

		SD	D	N	A	SA
	Q1	0	0	7.5%	60.5%	32%
	Q2	0	0	11.2% 45.4% 43.4%
	Q3	0	0	1.9%	19.1%	79%
	Q4	0	1.9%	13.2% 52.9%	32%
	Q5	45.4% 24.7%	15%	3.7%	11.2%
	Q6	1.9%	0	1.9%	7.5%	88.7%
	of number of Strongly Agree / Agree answers for
	Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q6 and Strongly Disagree /
	Disagree for Q5.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is supported by the NEWTON project (http://www.newtonproject.eu/) funded under the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, Grant Agreement no.688503.