Discovering Educational Game Design Through ‘Conversation Starters’: Teachers’ and Game Designers’ Perspectives

Abstract

Educational game (EG) design process has its complexities which are recognised differently at player-end. The need to understand teachers’ perspectives and views about identifying what makes games educational (whether they use or prefer EGs or digital games), the problems and barriers encountered in their practice while using EGs, any design challenges that hinder their use and the ‘pains and gains’ of using EGs in their classroom is crucial. In parallel, these inquiries should also be investigated from game designers’ perspectives to visualize both stakeholders’ needs. Therefore, this paper presents the data of six teachers’ and six game designers’ views during the co-discovering design thinking workshop method on the above inquiries, based in the Australian context. This paper presents the first co-discovering technique called the ‘conversation starters’, where both stakeholders discussed their current practices relevant to EGs along with the probes listed above. The data is thematically categorized, coded, and analysed using NVivo. The results are presented through the constructivism paradigm, which is grounded by theory of experience (Dewey, 1938) and the participatory design method. The intentions are to provide insights for game designers in designing EGs, this can enable teachers and game designers designing EGs towards understanding some issues and expectations from teachers to help their designing process of EGs.