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Understanding players' mental models are crucial for game designers who wish to successfully integrate player-AI interactions into their game. However, game designers face the difficult challenge of anticipating how players model these AI agents during gameplay and how they may change their mental models with experience. In this work, we conduct a qualitative study to examine how a pair of players develop mental models of an adversarial AI player during gameplay in the multiplayer drawing game iNNk. We conducted ten gameplay sessions in which two players (n = 20, 10 pairs) worked together to defeat an AI player. As a result of our analysis, we uncovered two dominant dimensions that describe players' mental model development (i.e., focus and style). The first dimension describes the focus of development which refers to what players pay attention to for the development of their mental model (i.e., top-down vs. bottom-up focus). The second dimension describes the differences in the style of development, which refers to how players integrate new information into their mental model (i.e., systematic vs. reactive style). In our preliminary framework, we further note how players process a change when a discrepancy occurs, which we observed occur through comparisons (i.e., compare to other systems, compare to gameplay, compare to self). We offer these results as a preliminary framework for player mental model development to help game designers anticipate how different players may model adversarial AI players during gameplay. 

This Work-in-Progress Research paper focuses on digital game-based learning (DGBL), which refers to the use of a virtual environment to support students’ learning. In this exploratory study, we examine how students engage with GeoExplorer, a digital game-based learning environment that simulates Cone-Penetration Testing (CPT), an on-site test used in geotechnical engineering to investigate soil properties that students typically don’t have access to. In GeoExplorer’s CPT activity, students participate in a virtual internship in which they examine several sites with varied types of soil. This paper investigates DGBL environments by leveraging Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to ask the following research questions: (1) How do "freedom" and autonomy within GeoExplorer encourage students’ new emergent learning strategies? and (2) How do emergent learning strategies in GeoExplorer support students’ confidence as they self-guide their learning? Ten open-ended semi-structured interviews were performed with civil engineering students from three U.S.-based institutions. The data are analyzed using narrative analysis and a grounded theory approach. Our preliminary findings indicate that, while GeoExplorer is intended as a complement to in-person learning, it serves both as a complement and supplement to the online learning that helps to engage students during the pandemic. Students share that a felt sense of "freedom" within GeoExplorer encourages them to engage in different emergent learning strategies, such as repetition and trial and error. Students also describe that these emergent learning strategies promote knowledge retention and understanding, and further support their confidence in performing CPT. Our preliminary findings provide opportunities for students to practice autonomy and develop competency – two out of three basic psychological needs in SDT – in their educational processes. 

This Work-in-Progress paper focuses on the qualitative aspects of a larger mixed-methods study about GeoExplorer, a game-based learning aspect of a mixed reality educational environment where students participate in a mock internship with the goal to complete a geotechnical mission involving Cone Penetration Testing, a civil engineering field technique students traditionally get very little exposure to due to its complexity and cost. This work seeks to understand how mixed reality learning environments, specifically game-based learning, support (i) creation of individualized hands-on learning opportunities, particularly during the pandemic-driven remote learning paradigm, and (ii) students' development along various noncognitive axes - confidence and motivation. Methods of narrative analyses and grounded theory are used to identify emergent themes in interviews with 10 undergraduate civil engineering students who experienced GeoExplorer in their required geotechnical engineering courses. Our preliminary findings indicate that the GeoExplorer activity was perceived by students as a novel learning experience, particularly welcomed in a time of remote learning, that motivates them to engage more with content and creates individualized hands-on experiences. Students describe how the activity affects their perceived confidence, often gendered, regarding their ability to perform civil engineering fieldwork. Further analyses of these findings may shed light on the ways in which mixed reality learning environments support equitable learning opportunities for all students.