Learning Game Design Research Articles

Using Virtual Reality with and without Gaming Attributes for Academic Achievement

A subcategory of computer-assisted instruction (CAI), games have additional attributes such as motivation, reward, interactivity, score, and challenge. This study used a quasi-experimental design to determine if previous findings generalize to non simulation-based game designs. Researchers observed significant improvement in the overall population for math skills in the non-game CAI control condition, but not in the game-based experimental condition. The study found no meaningful, significant differences in language arts skills in any of the conditions. This finding has implications for the design of future learning games, suggesting that a simulation-based approach should be integrated into the gaming technology.

Harnessing Children's Play to the Business of Learning

SUMMARY The writing of this article was stimulated by the recent book edited by Bruner, Jolly & Sylva, Play: its role in development and evolution, and more immediately by a review of that book pointing to the lack of an educational technology for utilising the learning which occurs in play. The theoretical gains made by Bruner and his co‐authors are first evaluated: emphasising the importance of process in play, its value for minimising the humiliation of failure, the extraordinary persistence of children in spontaneous play. The motivation of play is discussed with reference to Berlyne's concept of ludic behaviour, and that of competence or effectiveness induced by White and Stott. In agreement with Bruner, the latter is seen as the chief motivation of children's play. The types of relationship within which children seek effectiveness are analysed, and examples are given of their application in the design of learning games. These games are viewed broadly as conditioning schedules, programming the child's experiences to facilitate concept‐formation and to use the concepts acquired as tools for solving problems. Educational games are seen as offering advantages for ‘natural learning’, as conceived by Coleman, within the regular curriculum. A warning is added against a reversion to unstructured play: games should be components of a well articulated curriculum with clearly defined goals.