Mentoring Students in Educational Computer Games

November 28, 2011

When students engage in educational computer games, do they fare better talking with a mentor face-to-face or chatting online with a ‘virtual’ mentor? In her recent dissertation, former WCER researcher Elizabeth Bagley finds that mentoring via online chat is indeed a viable method for mentoring in the context of such educational games. A bolder interpretation of the results suggests that since mentoring in virtual and face-to-face conditions produced similar effects on players, this kind of mentoring could be automated and still retain the quality of interactions and players’ level of engagement.