Empowering Digital Learners: A Self-Managing Learning Process Framework for Digital Game-Based Learning System (DGBLS)

Abstract

Motivation drives our learning behaviors. Our abilities to intentionally control our motivation to learn, however, remain largely limited because motivation is a subliminal and synthetic mental state derived from the interactivity between our prior experiences and the learning environment. In a digital game-based learning system (DGBLS), learners are always bombarded by a colossal amount of cognitive, social, and affective stimuli that afford and affect the interactivity, which can easily trigger learners’ motivational responses and leads to the consequences of not being able to manage their motivation. As a result the intended learning processes can be interrupted. Although learners cannot control their motivation in this case, they can manage their interactivity with the DGBLS to select and process stimuli that are relevant to the learning tasks. Therefore this chapter intends to propose a process framework to empower learners to autonomously manage their interactivity with the DGBLS in order to stay focused on the learning tasks. Specifically this framework will draw literatures on learners’ motivational processing and cognitive processing pertaining to learning in the DGBLS.