Game the system

Baker et al (2006) defines gaming the system as "Attempting to succeed in an interactive learning environment by exploiting properties of the system rather than by learning the material".

Within intelligent tutoring systems such as Cognitive Tutors, this is usually done by systematic guessing or hint abuse.

Gaming has been observed in other types of learning environments as well, including educational games (Miller, Lehman, & Koedinger, 1999; Magnussen & Misfeldt, 2004; Rodrigo et al, 2007), simulation environments (Rodrigo et al, 2007), and graded-participation newsgroups (Cheng & Vassileva, 2005).

For more information, see Ryan Baker's webpage on gaming the system.

PSLC Studies Involving Gaming the System

• How Content and Interface Features Influence Student Choices Within the Learning Space (Baker, Corbett, Koedinger, & Rodrigo)

Bibliography

• Baker, R.S.J.d., Corbett, A.T., Roll, I., Koedinger, K.R. (to appear) Developing a Generalizable Detector of When Students Game the System To appear in User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction. pdf
• Baker, R.S.J.d., Corbett, A.T., Koedinger, K.R., Evenson, E., Roll, I., Wagner, A.Z., Naim, M., Raspat, J., Baker, D.J., Beck, J. (2006). Adapting to When Students Game an Intelligent Tutoring System. 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, 392-401. pdf
• Baker, R. S., Corbett, A. T., Koedinger, K. R., & Wagner, A. Z. (2004). Off-Task Behavior in the Cognitive Tutor Classroom: When Students “Game the System”. ACM CHI 2004: Computer-Human Interaction, 383-390. pdf
• Baker, R.S.J.d., Walonoski, J.A., Heffernan, N.T., Roll, I., Corbett, A.T., Koedinger, K.R. (to appear) Why Students Engage in "Gaming the System" Behavior in Interactive Learning Environments. To appear in Journal of Interactive Learning Research. pdf
• Cheng, R., Vassileva, J. (2005) Adaptive Reward Mechanism for Sustainable Online Learning Community. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, 152-159.
• Magnussen, R., Misfeldt, M. (2004) Player Transformation of Educational Multiplayer Games. Proceedings of Other Players. Available at http://www.itu.dk/op/proceedings.htm
• Miller, C.S., Lehman, J.F., Koedinger, K.R. (1999) Goals and learning in microworlds - An exploration. Cognitive Science, 23 (3), 305-336.
• Murray, R.C., vanLehn, K. (2005) Effects of Dissuading Unnecessary Help Requests While Providing Proactive Help. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, 887-889.
• Rodrigo, M.M.T., Baker, R.S.J.d., Lagud, M.C.V., Lim, S.A.L., Macapanpan, A.F., Pascua, S.A.M.S., Santillano, J.Q., Sevilla, L.R.S., Sugay, J.O., Tep, S., Viehland, N.J.B. (2007) Affect and Usage Choices in Simulation Problem Solving Environments. Proceedings of Artificial Intelligence in Education 2007, 145-152.

pdf

• Walonoski, J.A., Heffernan, N.T. (2006a) Detection and Analysis of Off-Task Gaming Behavior in Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, 382-391.
• Walonoski, J.A., Heffernan, N.T. (2006b) Prevention of Off-Task Gaming Behavior in Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, 722-724.