Mininauts : a serious game platform for enhanced instruction in reading comprehension for primary school students

This study presents the design, and results, from a serious game led intervention supporting reading comprehension in two Tasmanian classrooms. A series of mini-games were designed to support student’s with in-class reading comprehension activities, with structured feedback opportunities presented between each game session. Learning content was enabled through an innovative Teacher Portal, where the game could be administered, and student progress could be monitored. An experimental design was utilised, with a pre- and post-testing methodology to determine if significant changes were affected over the course of an eight-week term. The results of this study found that all cohorts experienced a significant increase in reading comprehension scores between the pre- and post-tests; participants who interacted with a more gameful version of the serious game performed significantly better at reading comprehension skills when compared to their peers. It was also identified that feedback periods between game sessions were well received by participants but there were no significant differences between cohorts with respect to feedback mechanisms. Demographic factors were also explored, and the opinions of students were gathered and analysed with respect to reading comprehension achievement. This study concludes with a statement as to the viability of the tool in classrooms, along with manners in which it could be improved and upgraded in the future. Future research opportunities are also discussed

Ambient Educational Mini-games

This system paper describes two educational mini-games (a multiple-choice quiz and a geography-related game) that combine learning and ambient technology. Their innovative feature is that they offer physical interaction through printed cards on a tabletop setup, where a simple webcam monitors the table’s surface and identifies the thrown cards. Following a brief discussion of ambient technology integration in the environment, the overall concept of these games is described and potential future improvements are outlined