STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARD THE USE OF TEACHER-CREATED EDUCATIONAL GAMES IN A SECONDARY EDUCATION SETTING

Abstract

Substantial research has been devoted to educational video games, which has provided broad empirical evidence that playing educational video games can lead to positive impacts in terms of motivation and learning outcomes. However, there is still a lack of studies examining the acceptance and learning effectiveness of educational video games created by teachers using authoring tools. This paper contributes to filling this gap in the literature by examining secondary school students? perceptions toward the use of educational video games created by teachers using an authoring tool. A student survey was used as data collection instrument. A total of 62 students (47 seventh grade students and 15 eighth grade students) assessed 5 different teacher-created educational games. The results show that students had a very good overall opinion of the games, and that they found them engaging, easy to use and beneficial for their learning. The results also show that students agreed that the games made learning fun and that they prefer the game-based learning approach over traditional teaching materials. In conclusion, this paper provides evidence that teachers can easily create educational video games toward which students have positive attitudes if they are provided with suitable authoring tools.