From pen-and-paper content to educational math game content for children: A transfer with added difficulty

The use of educational games is nowadays well-known, although its effectiveness in terms of learning and motivation has not been firmly corroborated yet. In this research, the focus is on the use of adaptive item sequencing in an educational math game (Monkey Tales) as a way to provide learning content that is adapted to the knowledge level of the learner or player. One way to provide this is adjusting the difficulty level of the content that is presented hence allowing for optimal learning during gameplay. In order to realize this, accurate estimates of the learners’ skills are necessary, as well as accurate estimates of variables in the gaming environment that determine how much difficulty learners may experience while completing the items. The goal of this study is to compare difficulty ratings from users and experts in order to acquire reliable estimates of the difficulty of the math rules offered in Monkey Tales. The results suggest a double format effect: not only the gaming format adds difficulty to educational content, but also the format by which educational content is presented in a game is likely to add difficulty which affects learners’ in-game performance.