Work in progress — Towards an emotional learning model for intelligent gaming

Recent research defines achievement emotions as emotions that are strongly related to learning and achievement contexts, where behaviors and outcomes arise during activities. Game-based learning environments reward the mastering of skills and abilities. This paper is focused on a qualitative and quantitative approach to recognizing the learner´s achievement emotions. Learners´ emotions are inferred from two sources: from observable behavior and from answers to questions in a game dialogue. The analysis and design involved in the creation of this affective student model are the central focus here. PlayPhysics, an emotional games learning environment, is being implemented for teaching Physics at undergraduate level. When our results are finalized our affective student model will be incorporated into PlayPhysics. To ensure accuracy of the recognition method, a preliminary prototyping study has been conducted. The results from this prototyping phase are presented and discussed.