Applying learning analytics to simplify serious games deployment in the classroom

In this paper we present our approach to introduce educational videogames as class exercises in face-to-face education. The main objective is to simplify teachers' task when using games by providing real-time information of the actual students' use of the games while in the classroom. The approach is based on defining the educational goals for the exercise/game precisely, designing a game that captures these goals, establishing relations between game interactions and educational goals and finally, create data capturing and visualizations of the relevant information to support the teacher. We applied this approach to a real case study, creating an educational videogame about the XML markup language that substituted the usual exercises in a Web Technologies class. This was tested with 34 computer science students with positive and promising results.