The Student Perspective

Abstract

This chapter explores the attitudes and experiences of students involved in a game-based learning intervention designed to measure the effects of playing selected video games on the attainment of certain skills, known as graduate attributes. Interviews with participants provide a deeper understanding of how the three attributes in question (communication skill, adaptability, and resourcefulness) were developed, but also offer insight into how other attributes, not easily measured by quantitative means, might have been exercised. The interviews began with an open question: do you think the games played might have helped develop any skills or competencies? The remainder of the interview was structured around the host university’s stated graduate attributes, with each considered in turn. Most participants were positive about video games’ capacity to develop a range of graduate attributes, with potential increases in confidence, communication skill, and critical thinking ability featuring prominently in discussion. Participants were also positive about the potential for games to provide experience of collaborating with others, and to enhance their ethical and social awareness. There were some notes of scepticism, however, particularly around the transferability of skills beyond games.