It came as a bit of a surprise to me, but a part of the research conducted by one of our Master’s students has been accepted for publication! I believe it is a remarkable achievement for a Master’s student to have their work accepted into an international SSCI journal, the Journal of Educational Technology and Society (Impact factor 2.086, Google Scholar Metrics in Educational Technology: Rank 4 (2020)), while still enrolled. I would like to thank the reviewers, as well as the Guest Editors for the special issue “Precision Education – A New Challenge for AI in Education,” Dr. Stephen Yang and Dr. Hiroaki Ogata, for their guidance.

Feng, X., and Yamada, M. (2021). An Analytical Approach for Detecting and Explaining the Learning Path Patterns of an Informal Learning Game, Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 24(1), 176-190 (SSCI, Impact factor: 2.086)

I am truly delighted that the paper was accepted by ET&S, a journal with significant international impact. The student worked very hard. Having a Master’s student publish in an SSCI journal might lead one to expect them to pursue a doctoral program, but since this student came to Japan to study with the goal of working in the game industry, they will be starting a job in the Japanese game industry this coming April. That is also a cause for celebration. Congratulations!!

The main content of the research involves analyzing the learning paths in a game where players learn knowledge elements related to world civilizations (specifically China and Japan) in a concept-map style. We represented these learning paths using Levenshtein distance and classified them through cluster analysis to compare the common and distinct learning paths between players with high learning outcomes and those with lower outcomes. While learning analytics research in game-based learning is quite common globally, I believe there are few studies that delve as deeply into analyzing individual operation paths (or learning paths, in the context of learning games). I believe this analytical process can be applied to various games and educational material analyses. I look forward to seeing its many applications.

We will continue to conduct research that can contribute to the improvement and development of such educational and learning environments. Thank you for your continued support.