Matching educational game players in a computerized learning environment

• US 7,849,043 B2
• Filed: 04/12/2007
• Issued: 12/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: O'Kelley, Patrick, Ganapathy, Mythreyee, Woolf, Susan D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Holmes; Michael B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kim; David H
• Application Number:
  US11/786,701
• Publication Number:
  US 20080256015A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,335 Days
• Field of Search: 706/48, 463/23, 463/42, 434/118, 434/322, 434/327, 434/335, 434/350, 434/353
• US Class Current: 706/48
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/12 involving interaction between a plurality of game devices, e.g. transmisison or distribution systems protocols for networked virtual reality, networked games H04L29/06034
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/30 Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/537 using indicators, e.g. showing the condition of a game character on screen
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/67 adaptively or by learning from player actions, e.g. skill level adjustment or by storing successful combat sequences for re-use
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/795 for finding other players; for building a team; for providing a buddy list
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/798 for assessing skills or for ranking players, e.g. for generating a hall of fame computing the game score A63F13/46
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/80 Special adaptations for executing a specific game genre or game mode
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5566 by matching opponents or finding partners to build a team, e.g. by skill level, geographical area, background, play style
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/558 by assessing the players' skills or ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/07 providing for individual presentation of questions to a plurality of student stations

Abstract

A system for matching users of learning application programs is provided. As one example, a learning service program can assess the performance of a user based on their interaction with at least one learning application program. Where the user requests an interactive session with other users for a particular learning application program, a learning service program can perform matching of the plurality of users according to the users'"'"' assessed abilities in the learning activities involved to achieve multi-user interaction that promotes learning by each of the users.

Claims

1. A method of matching users of interactive learning application programs, the method comprising:

at a learning service program, receiving performance data for each of a plurality of users from a plurality of different learning application programs, the performance data corresponding to at least one skill;

receiving a request to perform matching of the plurality of users for multi-user interaction from a requesting learning application program, the request including data indicating a multi-player game type selected from a plurality of different multi-player game types of the requesting learning application program;

at the learning service program, selecting a matching mode from a plurality of different matching modes for matching the plurality of users based on the multi-player game type received from the learning application program, each of the plurality of different matching modes having different matching criteria;

determining an inter-application assessed learning level for the at least one skill for each of the plurality of users based on the performance data aggregated from the plurality of different learning application programs; and

matching the plurality of users according to the matching mode based on the inter-application assessed learning level for each of the plurality of users, to thereby produce a match result including one or more matched groups of users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to perform matching is received from a requesting learning application program, the method further comprising:

sending the match result to the requesting learning application program; and

displaying the match result on a graphical user interface of the requesting learning application program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching mode is a parity matching mode, according to which the learning service program is configured to match users of substantially equal learning levels for head-to-head or cooperative game play.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

recommending a handicap level to achieve substantial equality in learning levels among matched users, in the parity matching mode.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching mode is a mentor matching mode, according to which the learning service program is configured to match users of disparate learning levels into one or more groups, each group including at least one mentor and at least one mentee, the mentor having an assessed learning level that is higher than an assessed learning level of the mentee.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the matching mode is a team matching mode, according to which the learning service program is configured to match users into two or more teams of users with substantially equal aggregate team learning levels, the aggregate team learning levels being aggregated from learning levels of users on each team of users.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein matching the plurality of users based on the inter-application assessed learning level for each user further includes matching the plurality of users based on a matched user profile characteristic of each of the plurality of users.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the matched user profile characteristic is selected from a group consisting of native language, target language, country, grade level, age, and gender.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one skill is determined by referencing an application-specific game schema of the requesting learning application program in a game configuration file stored at a location accessible to the learning service program.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the learning service program includes a local learning service program executed on a user device, the method further comprising:

at an online learning service program having an associated matching engine, receiving requests from users to engage in a multi-user online interaction via a learning application program;

wherein the matching is performed in response to the requests.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining users who are logged into the online learning service program and who have access to play the learning application program;

wherein the matching is performed among a plurality of users who are logged into the online service program.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one skill is one of reading, speaking, writing, spelling, listening, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.

12. A system for matching users of learning application programs, the system comprising:

a learning service program configured to receive performance data for each of a plurality of users from a plurality of different learning application programs, the performance data corresponding to at least one skill, to receive a request from a requesting learning application program to perform matching of the plurality of users for multi-user interaction via the requesting learning application program, the request including data indicating a multi-player game type selected from a plurality of different multi-player game types of the requesting learning application program; and

to select a matching mode from a plurality of different matching modes for matching the plurality of users based on the multi-player game type received from the learning application program, each of the plurality of different matching modes having different matching criteria;

an assessment engine associated with the learning service program configured to determine an inter-application assessed learning level for the at least one skill for each of the plurality of users based on the performance data aggregated from the plurality of different learning application programs; and

a matching engine associated with the learning service program, the matching engine being configured to match the plurality of users according to the matching mode based on the inter-application assessed learning level for each of the plurality of users, to thereby produce a match result including one or more matched groups of users;

wherein the learning service program is configured to send the match result to the requesting learning application program.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the learning service program is a local learning service program executed on a user client device, the system further comprising:

an application programming interface configured to transmit communications between the learning service program and the requesting learning application program.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the matching engine is executed on the user client device, and is associated with the local learning service program.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising an online learning service program executed on a server system configured to communicate over a computer network with the local learning service program executed on the user client device;

wherein the matching engine is a component of the online learning service program, and is configured to send the match result to the requesting learning application program via the local learning service program.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the matching engine is configured to determine the at least one skill by referencing an application-specific game schema of the requesting learning application program in a game configuration file stored in non-volatile memory accessible to the matching engine.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one skill is one of reading, speaking, writing, spelling, listening, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing.

17. A computerized learning system for matching users of learning application programs, the system comprising:

an assessment engine configured to determine an inter-application assessed learning level for at least one skill for each of a plurality of users based on performance data corresponding to the at least one skill aggregated from a plurality of different learning application programs, and store the inter-application assessed learning level in a learner profile for each of the plurality of users; and

a matching engine configured to receive a request from a requesting learning application program via an application programming interface, the request being to perform matching of the plurality of users for multi-user interaction via a learning application program, the request including data indicating a multi-player game type selected from a plurality of different multi-player game types of the requesting learning application program, the matching engine being further configured to process the request by determining a plurality of available users who are available for game play, reading the inter-application assessed learning level from the learner profile for each of the available users, comparing the inter-application assessed learning level according to a matching mode selected from a plurality of different matching modes based on the multi-player game type, each of the plurality of different matching modes having different matching criteria, to thereby produce a match result including one or more matched groups of users, and sending the match result to the requesting learning application program.