Development and Assessment of an UML Profile for Digital Educational Games Modeling

Abstract

UML (Unified Modeling Language) is a general purpose language for software modeling, moreover, is the language most known and used for graphical representation of models. Just the elements preexisting in the UML (Unified Modeling Language) may not be sufficient to facilitate understanding of specific domain models. An example of specific problem domain is the Digital Educational Games (DEGs). In this paper, we describe the UP4EG, a UML profile for DEGs modeling, using UML class diagrams. The UP4EG gathers many stereotypes and tagged values divided into six packages that represent the main elements that a DEG should present. From an experimental study on the proposed profile with computer science students, it was realized that number of errors and the time spent for the identification of the main elements of a DEG can be improved when this profile is used in the modeling of this type of software.