Downtown, a Subway Adventure: Using Learning Analytics to Improve the Development of a Learning Game for People with Intellectual Disabilities

Abstract

In this paper we analyze the process of designing and developing a Serious Game intended to train people with intellectual disabilities in moving around a city using the public transportation system. The first step in our investigation is to understand the cognitive, psychological and motor abilities of our users and their specific needs. Secondly, we translated the characteristics of the players into user requirements, with adapted mechanics to improve the understanding and to increase the probability for the user to be able to carry out the tasks to perform in the video game. Finally, due to the specific characteristics of our final users a Learning Analytics module has been included in the game to collect relevant information about how users are actually playing and to infer how the learning process of every user is occurring. We also discuss the next steps in our research and the future work related with it: design a range of experimental tests to verify the adequacy of the video game as a learning tool for this type of users.