Educational Computer Games Research Articles

Learning through video games: The impacts of competition and cooperation

The purpose of this study was to explore four different methods of instruction: a traditional slideshow control group, and three groups using an educational video game played either individually or facilitated with a competitive or cooperative social structure. The instructional tool was an educational video game designed to teach a personal finance lesson on credit scores through individual play. The research questions focused on differences in participant performance, engagement, and attitude. The participants in the study consisted of adults from traditional extension and outreach audiences associated with a land-grant university located in the intermountain western United States. The results of this study indicated that, with one exception, there were no significant differences in outcomes between the four different methods of instruction. The broad interpretations of this study are that educational outcomes of using educational video games may not vary greatly based on social context when using precise definitions of competition and cooperation. Importantly, this affords educators the general freedom to choose among a number of social educational structures without fear of significantly compromising educational outcomes.

Competitive Agents and Adaptive Difficulty Within Educational Video Games

The entity players compete with is an important element of competitive mechanisms. However, this crucial element is barely investigated within educational video games, as educational psychology research focuses mainly on supportive role models (e.g., pedagogical agents, intelligent tutorial systems). Nevertheless, the influence on learning must be explored, as interaction with an opponent might accompany the whole learning process. Thus, an experiment was conducted comparing three forms of social competition with an emphasis on external valid applications. More specifically, playing against a human competitive agent, playing against an artificial competitive agent, and playing against an artificial leaderboard were compared. Additionally, methods of adaptive difficulty adjustment were included within these groups to harness the potential of artificial systems. The results of the study (N = 102) revealed a beneficial effect of adaptive mechanisms on learning performance and efficiency. Furthermore, a difference in play behavior could be observed. The participants reported a lowered feeling of shame, increased empathy, and behavioral engagement when facing competitive agents. In contrast, calculations revealed no significant impact on mental strains by potentially demanding social competitors. These results highlight the potential for the future development of adaptive game systems and help choose the optimal implementation of social competition within different educational video games.

Implications of considering Response Process Data for Greater and Lesser Psychometrics

ABSTRACT This paper characterizes the ways in which increased attention to response process data has implications for psychometrics. To do so, this work draws on two organizing frameworks that have heretofore not been associated: evidence-centered design, and the distinction between greater and lesser statistics. Overlaying these frameworks leads to a conceptualization of greater and lesser psychometrics. This provides a conceptual space for articulating the ways in which response process data have implications for lesser psychometrics through measurement models, as well as greater psychometrics through student models, task models, and the social and personal contexts in which assessment takes place. To illustrate the key points and motivate discussions of where future research is needed, I draw from experiences with three assessments that have involved response process data: a task assessing the measurement of geometric area, a performance-based assessment of computer networking, and an educational video game targeting rational number addition.

Teaching Digital Circuit Design With a 3-D Video Game: The Impact of Using In-Game Tools on Students’ Performance

Contribution: This article presents the design of in-game tools to support learning within an educational video game and investigates the impact of tool usage on engineering students' performance in an introductory digital circuit design course. Background: Despite the level of appeal of video games to college students, there is a lack of empirical evidence of how to design effective games to address educational goals. One component of games that can serve as a support mechanism to help players be successful in the game is the in-game tools. This article investigates the impact of three types of instructional in-game tools on engineering students' performance on digital circuit design tasks. Research Questions: To what extent do different types of in-game tools (content-specific instructional guidance tool, scaffold, and productivity tool) contribute to players' performance on digital circuit design tasks? Methodology: This article presents the design of an educational video game to teach digital circuits design. It presents three discrete types of in-game tools and investigates their impact on students' learning performance. For this investigation, multiple regression analysis was used to show the relations between the tools and learning performance (N=176 ). Findings: The results show the player use of tools that provide content-specific instructional guidance and scaffolding for troubleshooting is correlated with their learning performance. The productivity tool did not significantly contribute to the learning performance of the students.

What’s the math in Minecraft? A Design‑Based Study of Students’ Perspectives and Mathematical Experiences Across game and School Domains

This paper presents empirical findings from a qualitative study on Minecraft as a mathematical tool and learning environment. Even though Minecraft has been used for several years in classrooms around the world, there is a lack of detailed empirical studies of how students learn subject‑related content by working with the game. This study is based on a design experiment with an inquiry‑based teaching unit for fifth graders, which focused on using the coordinate system embedded in Minecraft, as a means to navigate and explore the game in order to solve mathematical problems. Based on student interviews, we explore how the students experienced and switched to new perspectives on mathematical knowledge through their participation in the teaching unit. Using thematic analysis, we explore data from six group interviews. The theoretical framework is based on domain theory, dialogical theory and notions of students’ mathematical agency. The key analytical findings regard the students’ experience of the coordinate system as part of both the academic domain of mathematics and their everyday domain of playing Minecraft, how they actively use the coordinate system to improve play in Minecraft and how they experience new ways of participating in mathematics. The article concludes by offering design principles for the future use of computer games in mathematics education.

Mathematics 3.0 fraction squares, an educational video game for ludic use in classroom

When we talk about video games we associate it with in entertainment, but its use also has extensive benefits in educational area: promote skills, help review curricular and allows you to keep track student progress. Mathematics 3.0, are two software prototypes: one for the teacher and another one for the student, with this it, then seeks to promote skills in the resolution of numerical fractions at primary school in a playful way. This paper shows the results obtained in this project using the Prototype methodology.

Investigating the impact of an adventure-based 3D solar system game on primary school learning process

Teachers face many difficulties in the motivation, engagement, and improvement of learning outcomes for students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). In this paper, we present a research study on the learning experience of a new interactive educational 3D video game called Final Frontier, designed for primary school students. This game supports student knowledge acquisition on two Solar System planets Mercury and Venus, and a satellite - Moon through direct experience, interactive challenges and fun. This article compares the learning impact of the computer game-based learning approach with a classic teacher-based learning approach. User experience with the game and game usability are also evaluated. A case study that involved 53 children was conducted for the evaluation. Among the most important findings, include the facts that the experimental group that used the game in their learning activity have performed much better than the control group and the students had a great learning experience when using the Final Frontier game.

Motivation Outcomes in Math-Related Videogames

This study examined the relationship between elementary students’ domain-specific and game-specific motivations in the context of educational videogames. Using a quasi-experimental design, thirty (N = 30) sixth grade students were assigned to two groups based on their level of motivation for the domain of math (higher math motivation vs. lower math motivation). They then played a videogame involving mathematics fifteen times over a two-week period. During this time, participants’ in-game performances were recorded, along with their levels of motivation for the videogame and the domain of math. The results showed that the participants played the game at the same level of skill regardless of their initial level of motivation for the domain of math. Similarly, participants expressed high levels of interest, effort, pressure, and value for the game despite their varied levels of math motivation. However, the two groups reported significantly different levels of perceived competence involving the videogame. Further still, participants with lower levels of motivation for math reported a significant decrease in their self-reported ability perceptions in math, which did not occur for participants with higher levels of motivation for math. The study concludes with a discussion of the relationship between learners’ domain-specific and game-specific motivations and the implications for future game-based learning research.

The effect of educational computer games on students’ academic achievements and attitudes towards English lesson

This study aims to determine the effects of educational computer games on the tenth grades students’ academic achievement and attitudes towards the course. The research was conducted with 60 tenth-grade students attending an Anatolian high school during the school year of 2019–2020. The study was designed as a quasi-experimental design with a pre and post-test experiment and control group. The subjects were taught through traditional teaching activities based on the English education program in the control group while educational computer games were used as teaching activities in the experiment group. The academic achievement test (Kr-20 = 0,83) and attitudes towards English scale (Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.95) were conducted as the pre and post-test. Data analyses showed that the experimental group performed better than the control group in academic achievement test. However, there is no statically significant difference between two groups in term of attitudes towards English. The results suggest that computer game can be used in education as an ICT tool to increase students’ academic success in English learning.

Condiciones pedagógicas del trabajo para formar el habla gramaticalmente correcta de los niños de edad 5 y 6 años por medio de juegos didácticos de ordenador.

En el artículo se describe un estudio detallado del desarrollo del habla de los niños en el jardín de infancia, y se analizan las condiciones pedagógicas sin las cuales la asimilación por los niños de 5 y 6 años del sistema gramatical del habla materna mediante juegos didácticos sería menos eficaz. En los juegos didácticos de ordenador se empleaban diapositivas hechas en Microsoft Office 2019 (PowerPoint) y ordenadores portátiles convertibles con la diagonal de 14 pulgadas y las pantallas táctiles. El empleo de los ordenadores elevó la eficacia de los juegos didácticos realizados.

MP24: Contagion: An innovative approach to learning the Orange Book and Choosing Wisely Canada guidelines around antimicrobial treatment

Innovation Concept: The Orange Book (OB) identifies drugs approved on the basis of safety and effectiveness by the FDA and serves as the gold standard reference for correct pharmacological therapies. It ties in closely with Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) modelling good stewardship in antimicrobial prescriptions. The book focuses on passive didactic learning instead of active learning, which was shown to have a greater influence on prescribing behaviour. Educational video games, a form of active learning, have been shown to improve clinical skills in medical training. Contagion is a role-playing video game providing an active way of teaching antimicrobial components of the OB and CWC guidelines. Method: Phase I of Contagion was qualitatively tested on students and physicians at McMaster University for teaching effectiveness, applicability to real-life scenarios, and enjoyability. Post-game play 12 participants scored different aspects of the game on a Likert scale. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: The player is a rural physician treating infections in various communities. Each round, the player is given a crate of antibiotics. As communities are infected, the player is provided with clinical symptoms the patients present with. The player must identify the pathology and then correctly treat the communities. The player can treat empirically or order tests to identify the infectious organism. The player strategically navigates which communities to treat as there are limited actions per turn and the player must prevent communities from dying or infecting neighboring regions. Communities tend to build antibiotic resistance over time making first-line treatments unviable, thus careful strategizing and stewardship is essential. Active learning will occur when players are tasked with finding the correct answer to different presentations. After each turn, players will learn about the infecting organism, its phenotypes, and common infectious symptoms. This is considered passive learning. Conclusion: Contagion was well-received by physicians and medical students as an active learning tool to teach the OB and CWC guidelines. On preliminary user testing Contagion scored 5 in effectiveness in teaching treatments and 4.6 in teaching stewardship. An objective of this project is to perform large scale testing across schools to demonstrate the effectiveness of the learning components of the game. We hope to eventually create a tool that can be incorporated in continuing medical education for physicians.

Estudiantes universitarios y videojuegos: Cultura del medio percibida, uso y preferencias en función del género

Este trabajo analiza la cultura del medio percibida, el uso y las preferencias hacia los videojuegos de un grupo de 610 estudiantes universitarios, centrándose en el impacto del género en dichas cuestiones. Se trata de un estudio de naturaleza cuantitativa basado en un diseño de encuesta (en particular una encuesta transversal) y en el posterior tratamiento estadístico de los datos. Los resultados muestran que los estudiantes, en esta etapa de su vida, juegan a videojuegos y consideran tener cierta cultura del medio, aunque existen diferencias importantes entre hombres y mujeres. Los posibles motivos de estas diferencias, que se extienden a otras cuestiones como las plataformas en las que juegan o los géneros y juegos preferidos, son explorados en la parte final del artículo. En ella mostramos que, más allá de sus posibilidades como medio emergente, los videojuegos son productos culturales permeables e insertos en un contexto de inequidad de género. El trabajo pretende ser un punto de partida para el diseño de proyectos y políticas educativas que utilicen los videojuegos en educación superior aprovechando toda la diversidad que el medio puede llegar a ofrecer.

Enhanced Virtual Laboratory Experience for Wireless Networks Planning Learning

Online education is benefiting from advanced digital resources that now can offer interactive activities. Videos, animations, virtual and remote laboratories, and online games are just some examples of these activities. Educational standards and Virtual Learning Environments VLEs allow the integration of all these materials into learning objects that can be deployed in online courses or MOOCs. Virtual Laboratories provide an opportunity to train students and give to them the confidence for future interactions with real laboratory settings, with advantages such as: cost, portability, concurrency, and safety. Educational video games can improve the students' knowledge acquisition and develop abilities such as: mental speed, reaction, connection between thoughts and movements and concentration. This paper shows the implementation of a virtual laboratory learning experience that includes the use of video games, multimedia content and virtual simulations. The objective of this resource is to help in the learning of wireless network planning problem and improve the students' knowledge in the field of wireless networks key concepts. The virtual laboratory allows students to solve simple problems of antennas distribution and progressively increase the level by adding constraints and including new concepts in the design of the network.

Los videojuegos en la educación: Beneficios y perjuicios

Desde el ámbito de la educación, se plantea un cambio de paradigma hacia un proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje más innovador. Concretamente, incluyendo en las aulas videojuegos como recurso docente con la finalidad de conseguir una educación de calidad más entretenida, eficaz y motivadora para el estudiantado. El objetivo principal de esta investigación es analizar si existen diferencias significativas entre las personas consumidoras de videojuegos sobre los beneficios o perjuicios que estos aportan especialmente en educación o si, por el contrario, existe una opinión generalizada positiva o negativa sobre la influencia de los videojuegos en el comportamiento de las personas usuarias. Para el análisis de las perspectivas de los videojuegos se ha llevado a cabo un estudio exploratorio, seguido de un estudio correlacional mediante encuesta donde se ha empleado el análisis clúster y el análisis factorial de correspondencia. En este estudio participaron 400 personas del conjunto nacional de España con edades comprendidas entre los 11 y 64 años. Entre los resultados obtenidos se destaca la creación de varios grupos de personas con diferencias significativas en sus actitudes sobre los videojuegos, en unos casos muy positivas y en otros, algo más conservadoras. Estos resultados permiten concluir que la opinión de las personas consumidoras acerca de cómo los videojuegos pueden influir en el desarrollo personal son más positivas, abriendo las puertas a un uso en la educación y en otros sectores.

Study of Some Key Elements of Design and Selection of an Educational Video Game Conducive to the Moroccan Secondary School Learners: The Motivational Profile and Pedagogical Coherence

Educational video games are being used increasingly in teaching physics. They offer learners a fun and convivial learning environment. However, the use of an educational video game genre that is ill-suited to a type of learning situation or inconsistent with the learners' motivational profile influences the effectiveness of its use in the classroom. In this context, this article deals, on the one hand, with the coherence between the genre of video games and the type of learning situation found in the context of the competency-based approach. On the other hand, it presents the results of a survey to describe the Moroccan learners' motivational profile in video games. The results show that the games should be adapted to each type of learning situation, designed and chosen to meet the learners' interest and avoided when learners are not interested in the genre of the games. It is also pointed out that most of learners prefer to use video games at the level of the explanation of the lessons and the exercises. In light of this research, we have made a number of recommendations for choosing and designing an educational video game.

An Investigation of Digital Game-Based Learning Software in the Elementary General Music Classroom

Game-based learning, or the process of adapting an educational concept into a game-based structure, has been studied by researchers for nearly a century. Over the last several decades, new technologies have allowed digital media to create a multibillion-dollar entertainment industry commonly known as video games. Video games have become a tool for many educators who have the potential to engage students to learn musical concepts and skills. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of digital game-based learning in comparison to other teaching methods for music education and to explore the perspectives of young students regarding video games both in school and in their personal lives. Eighty-two (n = 82) fifth- and sixth-grade students in a northeastern U.S. elementary school completed a study consisting of a pretest/posttest control group design. Results showed that students who had access to educational video games combined with the assistance of an instructor achieved higher mean scores than students who had access to either video games without instruction or instruction without video games. These findings suggested that educational video games may potentially be used as an effective tool in the music classroom to teach musical concepts and skills.

Do Skills and Challenge Affect Perceived Learning? Mediating Role of Engagement

Gamification, the usage of elements relating to game design to non-game activities, has gained considerable attention from academia and industry. It is uncertain as to whether students require skills and challenges to engage them in the game for enhancing their learning. Thus, the objective of this article is to examine the mediating role of engagement in the relationship between skill and perceived learning as well as between challenge and perceived learning in game-based learning environments. Data was gathered using a survey of Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) players. A total of 233 young Indian players participated in the study. The results showed that engagement fully mediates the relationship between skill and perceived learning as well as between challenge and perceived learning. This study contributes to the literature on game-based learning by providing evidence for the educational video games to be one of the effective means of learning. Results of the present study imply that the educational game designers can design challenging games to engage the students.

Validation and Psychometric Properties of the Gameplay-Scale for Educative Video Games in Spanish Children

The knowledge of evaluation instruments to determine the level of gameplay of schoolchildren is very important at this time. A systematic review has been carried out in this study. The aim of this paper is to investigate the psychometric properties of a study of a sample of Spanish gamers. Two hundred and thirty-seven children (mean age: 11.2± 1.17 years, range: 10-12 years, 59.5% female) completed the Gameplay-Scale to discover their opinions after a game session with a serious educational game. The final scale consisted of three factors. The fit for factor 1 (usability) was 0.712, the fit for factor 2 was 0.702 (satisfaction), the fit for factor 3 was 0.886 (empathy) and the overall fit was 0.868. A positive and direct relationship could be observed between all the dimensions of the developed scale. The greatest correlation strength is shown between satisfaction and empathy (r = 0.800; p < 0.005), followed by satisfaction and usability (r = 0.180; p < 0.05) and the association between empathy and usability (r = 0.140; p < 0.05). In summary, the results of the present study support the use of the Gameplay-Scale as a valid and reliable measure of the game experience of youth populations. These results demonstrate strong psychometric properties so that the Gameplay-Scale appears to be a valid instrument for children in different contexts where an educational video game is used, analyzing its usability/“playability” in terms of learning to use it, game satisfaction, and empathy.

Games Education Within the Broader Liberal Arts

According to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), there are currently 519 games programs at higher education institutions in the United States (Entertainment Software Association 2019). The Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA)’s 2019 “Survey of Program Graduates” finds that ‘520 institutions offered 1200 + game-related programs and degrees in 2018’ (Phelps et al. 2019, p. 14). Although some of these programs are professionally oriented undergraduate and graduate game design, game studies, game arts, and/or game development programs, others are situated within broader disciplines like computer and information sciences, engineering and engineering technologies, and visual and performing arts programs (Steinkuehler et al. 2015, p. 3). Given the geographic distribution of the institutions that offer games programs, the geographic concentration of game industry jobs, and the distribution of the respondents to the survey, I believe it is a fair assumption that there are more students enrolled in academic games programs in the U.S. than there are available entry-level jobs in the games industry. Given that situation, this paper attempts to answer the question: “What are games courses for in a broader interdisciplinary media arts program at a liberal arts college?” It is part autoethnography, part case study, and part position paper, as it acknowledges the specific circumstances of my own game design education and experience. As such, it is a story of my open-ended games education followed by my tacit acceptance and self-imposition of the hegemonic culture of games as primarily economic production. Then, as I went into teaching, a story of my subsequent burnout, eventual reflection on, and acceptance of my academic origins and the origins of my current academic program. I conclude by offering a possible framework for situating a games curriculum as a liberal art by using William Cronon’s essay “Only Connect…: The Goals of a Liberal Education” (1998) as a framing device.

Saray: A Solfege Learning Computer Game Based on Voice Analysis

Introduction: The methods and tools used for learning are rapidly changing. One of the most interesting fields in educational tools are computer games. “Saray” is a solfege training video game, through which the players take solfege rehearsals in form of challenges while tracing a folklore story. The game receives the player's voice through the microphone. Materials and Methods: Based on the algorithm and the written code, the player's voice was analyzed, and its fundamental frequency was extracted. The obtained frequency was entered into comparative calculations with pre-written patterns. If the user's voice frequency was within the defined range, the user would be successful and would earn the score. Results: Solfege exercises took the form of intra-game challenges from basic to advance levels. Behind the scenes, all input sounds were processed. The frequency of the input sounds was analyzed to implement this process. The result of the analysis was compared to pre-designed didactic patterns that were confirmed by the music master. The result of this comparison revealed the correct or incorrect user feedback in the game. Conclusion: Exercising in the form of games motivates players to spend more time for training, and has high impact because of the attractiveness of video games.