Designing a Competitive Game for Promoting Students´ Effort-Making Behavior by Virtual Pets

Learning companion applications in the educational field make learning activity more diverse. Studies of animal companion have suggested that the different elements would affect learners in better quality of effort-making. This study enlarges the competition element in the existing animal companion system. With this competitive game to help low-capable children build confidence and make greater efforts. According to three design principles, we develop new games to cultivate students\´ belief that "The more effort the students make in preparation time, the easier the students win the game in the competition". This belief could let them believe that diligence may change the destiny. Future work will examine the competitive game\´s usability and further adjustments in the system design.