Gaming and Confrustion Explain Learning Advantages for a Math Digital Learning Game

Digital learning games are thought to support learning by increasing enjoyment and promoting deeper engagement with the content, but few studies have empirically tested hypothesized pathways between digital learning games and learning outcomes. Decimal Point, a digital learning game that teaches decimal operations and concepts to middle school students, has been shown in previous studies to support better learning outcomes than a non-game, computer-based instructional system covering the same content. To investigate the underlying causes for Decimal Point's learning benefits, we developed log-based detectors using labels from text replay coding of the data from an earlier study. We focused on gaming the system, a form of behavioral disengagement that is frequently associated with worse learning outcomes, and confrustion, an affective state that combines confusion and frustration that has shown mixed results related to learning outcomes. Results indicated that students in the non-game condition engaged in gaming the system at nearly twice the level of students in the game condition, and gaming the system fully mediated the relation between learning condition and learning outcomes. Students in the game condition demonstrated higher levels of confrustion during the self-explanation phase of the game, and while confrustion was not related to learning outcomes in the game condition, it was associated with better learning outcomes in the non-game condition. These results provide evidence that digital learning games may support learning by reducing behavioral disengagement, and that the effects of confusion and frustration may vary depending on digital learning context.