What you see is what you get? – Relating eye-tracking metrics to students' attention to game elements

Abstract

Though engineering digital game inclusion in undergraduate classrooms has steadily increased over the last two decades for in-person courses, their use has exponentially increased in remote and contactless higher education learning environments. Studies exploring student technological acceptance of and content mastery from the use of engineering digital games have provided mixed results in terms of student enjoyment, engagement, and game effectiveness. The majority of these studies have relied on pre- and post-questionnaires to assess differences in students' gaming experiences and performance in the game and learning environment. However, quantitative methods such as the measurement of physiological responses during gameplay have been less explored for the exploration of student engagement and education. The goal of this work is to explore how a set of eye - tracking metrics can be related to gamer attention to in-game stimuli and game interface areas of interest.