About

This site is the home of the NCSU Game2Learn Lab research group directed by Dr. Tiffany Barnes. Here you can find the latest information on the research projects the lab has been working on.

Research

Lead by Dr. Tiffany Barnes, the Game2Learn group researches the impact of games and data-driven adaptation on learning through a number of innovative approaches. We build games and interactive tools for learning in math and computing, building social networks, promoting exercise, and visualizing interaction data from games and learning environments. We are particularly motivated by finding ways to embed data-driven artificial intelligence and educational data mining techniques into game and learning environments to support learners and improve our understanding of learning. We investigate these data-driven techniques to support learning primarily in our Deep Thought logic tutor, but we are extending our techniques for novice programmers in the Bots programming game and the Snap programming environment. We are particularly excited to be building new collaborations to apply our data-driven automatic hint generation and student work visualization and analytics to new games and tutors for physics and probability. Check the research page for more information.

Opportunities to Participate

The Game2Learn Lab has many students and is always looking to recruit hard working, skilled and motivated students. There are numerous ways for you to become a member of the Game2Learn research group. If you are an undergraduate student interested in doing a senior project for Dr. Barnes, please see the open positions section below. For Masters or Doctoral students interested in working in our laboratory, check the research projects page and contact Dr. Barnes directly with information about which project interests you the most. Also for post-doctoral students interested in educational software, educational data mining, or other similar topics found on the research page, contact Dr. Barnes for additional information and the currently available opportunities for working with the Game2Learn research group.

RET (Research Experience for Teachers)

The CS research focus is socially relevant computing and analytics including serious games, interface design, critical infrastructures, novice programming environments, intelligent tutoring systems, machine learning, and data analytics. The RET immerses 14 participants (8 in-service, 3 pre-service, 3 REU) in a vibrant community in teams of 4-5 to contribute to ongoing research. Plans for developing curricular modules linked to the research experiences include workshops on equitable and culturally relevant CS curricula, and intensive workshops with peer feedback for development of modules. Plans for sharing modules with K-12 teachers include teacher presentations and sharing in national digital libraries. Activities include orientation, mentor training, weekly workshops, 2 research/curricula presentations/RET. Our objective is to create a collaborative culture, promote individual research contributions, and create culturally responsive and inclusive curricular modules.Teachers to be recruited include high school STEM/CS teachers serving schools with significant representation from underrepresented groups, through NC Dept. of Public Instruction. We will recruit pre-service teachers from NCSU College of Education and other education departments, and CS REUs from STARS Computing Corps. The intended impact on participating teachers is to increase their CS knowledge, efficacy, research and presentation skills; and to increase retention and engagement of their students. The intended impact on broadening participation of underrepresented groups in CS is to create high levels of student engagement particularly for females, African-Americans/Blacks, Hispanics/Latinx and new knowledge about CS and careers. Plans for academic-year follow-up and outreach activities and dissemination include RET Teams and mentors support teachers in classroom implementation; pre-service teachers observing classes; and two workshops to reinforce pedagogical and research knowledge gained.

Supported by NSF REU Site: Socially Relevant Computing and Analytics
Award Number:2055528
Contact Information:
Dr. Tiffany Barnes tmbarnes@ncsu.edu
Dr. Veronica Catete vmcatete@ncsu.edu

Spring 2018 Lab Paint and Play