Micro-adaptivity: protecting immersion in didactically adaptive digital educational games

The idea of utilizing the rich potential of today's computer games for educational purposes excites educators, scientists and technicians. Despite the significant hype over digital game-based learning, the genre is currently at an early stage. One of the most significant challenges for research and development in this area is establishing intelligent mechanisms to support and guide the learner, and to realize a subtle balance between learning and gaming, and between challenge and ability on an individual basis. In contrast to traditional approaches of adaptive and intelligent tutoring, the key advantage of games is their immersive and motivational potential. Because of this, the psycho-pedagogical and didactic measures must not compromise gaming experience, immersion and flow. In the present paper, we introduce the concept of micro-adaptivity, an approach that enables an educational game to intelligently monitor and interpret the learner's behaviour in the game's virtual world in a non-invasive manner. On this basis, micro-adaptivity enables interventions, support, guidance or feedback in a meaningful, personalized way that is embedded in the game's flow. The presented approach was developed in the context of the European Enhanced Learning Experience and Knowledge TRAnsfer project. This project also realized a prototype game, demonstrating the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of micro-adaptivity.