The Role of Digital Educational Game Design Learning Environment: An Empirical Study

Abstract

According to the National Key Result Areas (NKRA), education is one of the essential areas which have been highlighted in rising international educational standards and qualities among Malaysian students for the needs of the twenty-first century in terms of their educational performance. However, most students are still facing issues in performing well in this area especially the young learners. For example, the level of illiteracy and innumeracy in Malaysia is growing from time to time. This is due to the lack of creativity and effectiveness in teaching that particular subject, and then students do not feel motivated and attracted in the learning environment. Therefore, this research proposes digital educational games to be used as the most relevant approach in cultivating students’ motivation in the learning environment as it is capable to attract the player to be actively immersed in the game play. The main purpose of this research is to cultivate motivation in improving students’ achievement in the learning environment especially young learners by modeling and identifying the most suitable digital game approach. In order to foster the interest in the learning environment, it should be started in early education as in preschool level. Hence, the method that will be applied to design and develop the games is the digital game-based learning (DGBL) model. The data from the study will be collected and analyzed by using pre- and post-experiment through tests and observation on the two groups of preschool students which represent each of the digital educational games. The investigation will display the findings from the said experiment and determine the appropriate digital educational games in cultivating students’ motivation to improve students’ performance in the educational area.