A behavioural framework for designing educational computer games

Research has indicated that computer games can be innovative and powerful tools for education. Indeed, combining psychological research and games design principles offers a framework for developing educational games that promote learning while maintaining high motivation of the players. If designed correctly, it appears that games can utilize the inherent motivation demonstrated by game players to teach skills that are of immediate practical benefit. The current paper explores “the edges of gaming” in terms of proposing a novel theoretical and methodological framework for the design of educational games

The students’ perceptions on mobile games as learning media in sma 2 bae kudus in academic year 2019/2020

Mobile Games adalah bentuk materi otentik yang interaktif dan menarik yang saat ini menerima banyak perhatian dari pendidik. Mereka menawarkan potensi dalam meningkatkan kemampuan siswa. Penelitian telah menunjukkan permainan yang diintegrasikan ke dalam ruang kelas utama mendukung keterampilan belajar dan berpikir tingkat tinggi, dan dapat sangat membantu dalam mengembangkan profesional masa depan Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk; (1) mendeskripsikan persepsi siswa tentang permainan mobile sebagai media pembelajaran di SMA 2 Bae Kudus pada tahun akademik 2019/2020; (2) mengetahui alasan siswa lebih menyukai game mobile sebagai media pembelajaran. Ini adalah penelitian kualitatif deskriptif. Peneliti menggunakan kuesioner untuk mengumpulkan data. Partisipan dalam penelitian ini adalah 29 siswa kelas XI SMA 2 Bae Kudus tahun akademik 2019/2020. Dan untuk menganalisis data, penelitian ini menggunakan persentase. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa menurut siswa, dalam aspek motivasi siswa adalah aktivitas game mobile memberikan manfaat lebih, itu membuktikan siswa percaya bahwa aktivitas game mobile mendapatkan banyak manfaat. Sedangkan dalam aspek sikap siswa adalah Lebih fleksibel bagi siswa untuk menentukan waktu belajar mereka sendiri. Ini membuktikan bahwa siswa dapat memiliki waktu belajar mereka sendiri. Jadi para siswa tidak akan menggunakan hanya satu waktu belajar. Dan aspek perkembangan kognitif siswa adalah aspek terakhir adalah Permainan ini menantang pemahaman siswa tentang subjek. Ini menunjukkan bahwa permainan ini menantang pemahaman siswa dalam subjek. Kesimpulan penelitian ini adalah siswa SMA 2 Bae kudus berfikir bahwa dalam aspek motivasi siswa yang paling penting adalah game memberikan banyak keuntungan. Sedangkan pada aspek sikap siswa, siswa berfikir bahwa mobile game lebih fleksibel untuk siswa menentukan waktu belajarnya. Aspek terakhir adalah perkembangan kognitif siswa, paling penting adalah game menantang para siswa untuk memahami pelajaran. Terakhir, peneliti berharap penelitian ini bisa digunakan guru bahasa inggris sebagai masukan untuk membuat siswa menikmati kelas tanpa tekanan. Jadi pembelajaran akan berjalan lancar dan siswa akan menyukai guu bahasa inggris mereka

Web based computer games as an educational tools: mapping the Malaysian surrounding issues

The advancement of computer and web technology has enabled the growth of one of the most popular application nowadays: online computer games. Thousands of online games are available on the internet consists of different genre, graphics and patterns which enable gamers around the world play their favourite games alone or simultaneously. The engagement and immersion provided by games is no doubt is very high. For this matter, the games should be exploited as a medium for teaching and learning because we may never have experienced same level of engagement in our conventional teaching and learning medium among our students. However, designing and developing educational computer games is a multidisciplinary activity involving computer expert, educational expert, art designers and story creator. Therefore, the process of creating such games is never be easy especially if we want to achieved something the best in terms of good game play and by the same time gaining lot of learning benefits. This study will define the issues and elements needed in this multidisciplinary activity. This will be as a guide in the design and development of an online computer games for teaching and learning purposes

Multiplayer Serious Games Supporting Programming Learning

Computational thinking (CT) is crucial in education for providing a multifaceted approach to problem-solving. However, challenges exist such as supporting teachers' knowledge of CT and students' desire to learn it, particularly for non-technical students. To combat these challenges, Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) has been introduced in classrooms and implemented using a variety of technologies, including serious games, which have been adopted across several domains aiming to appeal to various demographics and skill levels. This research focuses on a Collaborative Multiplayer Serious Game (MSG) for CT skill training. The architecture is aimed at young students and is designed to aid in the learning of programming and the development of CT skills. The purpose of this research is to conduct an empirical study to assess the multiplayer game gameplay mechanics for collaborative CT learning. The proposed game leverages a card game structure and contains complex multi-team multi-player processes, allowing students to communicate and absorb sequential and conditional logics as well as graph routing in a 2D environment. A preliminary experiment was conducted with four fourth-graders and eight sixth-graders from a French school in Morocco who have varying levels of understanding of CT. Participants were split into three groups each with two teams and were required to complete a 16-question multiple-choice quiz before and after playing the same game to assess their initial structural programming logics and the effectiveness of the MSG. Questionnaires were collected along with an interview to gather feedback on their gaming experiences and the game’s role in teaching and learning. The results demonstrate that the proposed MSG had a favourable effect on the participants’ test scores as the scores of 4 of the teams increased and 1 remained the same. All students performed well on the sequential and conditional logics, which was significantly better than the achievement of the Bebras test of the graph routing. Furthermore, according to the participants, the game provides an appealing environment that allows players to immerse themselves in the game and the competitive aspect of the game adds to its appeal and helps develop teamwork, coordination, and communication skills

Designing and Development of an Oral Health Educational Game and Evaluation of Its Effect on 8-12-Year-Old Children’s Oral Health: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Objectives Health education for school-age children is a specialized component of the oral health promotion program. This study aimed to design and develop an oral health educational game and assess its effect on the oral health of children aged 8 to 12 years. Methods In this experimental study, 40 patients aged 8-12 years referring to a private dental clinic were selected by using convenience sampling and were then randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received oral health training by using a game; while, the control group received oral hygiene instructions. The simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) with two components of debris index (DI-S) and calculus index (CI-S) was measured before the intervention, and at one week, and one month after the intervention to assess the effect of oral health skills. Data were analyzed by the Chi-square test, independent sample t-test, and Fisher's exact test. Results The DI-S scores in the experimental group at one week and one month after the intervention were significantly lower than the values in the control group (P=0.003 and P=0.001, respectively). The OHI-S scores in the experimental group at one week and one month after the intervention were significantly lower than the values in the control group (P=0.012 and P=0.007, respectively). No significant difference was noticed in the follow-up CI-S scores at one week and one month after the intervention (P>0.05). Conclusion The game designed in this study would improve the children's oral health skills; hence, it can be used to promote oral health in children

Heuristic usability evaluation on games: a modular approach

Heuristic evaluation is the preferred method to assess usability in games when experts conduct this evaluation. Many heuristics guidelines have been proposed attending to specificities of games but they only focus on specific subsets of games or platforms. In fact, to date the most used guideline to evaluate games usability is still Nielsen’s proposal, which is focused on generic software. As a result, most evaluations do not cover important aspects in games such as mobility, multiplayer interactions, enjoyability and playability, etc. To promote the usage of new heuristics adapted to different game and platform aspects we propose a modular approach based on the classification of existing game heuristics using metadata and a tool, MUSE (Meta-heUristics uSability Evaluation tool) for games, which allows a rebuild of heuristic guidelines based on metadata selection in order to obtain a customized list for every real evaluation case. The usage of these new rebuilt heuristic guidelines allows an explicit attendance to a wide range of usability aspects in games and a better detection of usability issues. We preliminarily evaluate MUSE with an analysis of two different games, using both the Nielsen’s heuristics and the customized heuristic lists generated by our tool.Unión Europea PI055-15/E0

Flow and cooperative learning in civic game play

Flow theory offers an individualistic explanation of media enjoyment, while cooperative learning theory posits a social explanation for enhanced learning in groups. This classroom-based experimental study examines whether game players can experience both conditions and the influence of each on several types of civic knowledge, skills, and dispositions. We find that high quality cooperative learning contributed to acquiring civic knowledge and skills. In contrast, flow was more influential for developing dispositions to empathy and interest in learning more about the game topics. Thus, we conclude that players can experience flow while engaged in cooperative learning, but that these two conditions may support different kinds of civic learning

Video games and collaborative learning. Experiences related to Primary Education

[ES]Los videojuegos no son solamente una forma de entretenimiento, sino que también pueden ser utilizados como recurso educativo para el aprendizaje. En este sentido, el objetivo de este artículo es llevar a cabo una revisión sistemática sobre experiencias e investigaciones del uso de videojuegos en la etapa de Educación Primaria (es decir, con alumnado de 6 a 12 años), pero, de manera particular, experiencias con un enfoque de aprendizaje colaborativo, y también con una evaluación pre y post del aprendizaje que muestre si los alumnos consiguieron ganancias de aprendizaje. Para conseguir dicho objetivo, el artículo está dividido en cinco secciones que muestran los principales aspectos relacionados con este tema: videojuegos en educación, aprendizaje colaborativo, la metodología para la revisión sistemática, resultados y conclusiones. Como resultado, 8 estudios cumplían los criterios de inclusión y fueron seleccionados para el análisis. En este sentido, mostramos que los videojuegos pueden ser utilizados bajo un enfoque de aprendizaje-trabajo colaborativo, en contraste a la idea extendida de que los videojuegos generan personas aisladas, sobre todo en el caso de los menores y, además, en general, los alumnos consiguen mejoras en su aprendizaje. En conclusión, los videojuegos pueden ser un buen recurso para el proceso de aprendizaje y, por ejemplo, pueden ser utilizados dentro de un enfoque de aprendizaje colaborativo pero es necesaria más información sobre esto debido a los límites que mostramos al final del artículo, como, por ejemplo, la necesidad de más estudios con evaluación pre y post de los logros de aprendizaje y que usen grupos de control y experimental

Student's opinions on online educational games for learning programming introductory

Use of educational games is an approach that has potential to change the existing educational method. This is due to games popularity among younger generation as well as engagement and fun features of games compared to conventional learning method. In addition, games are among the most widespread media amongst younger generation or so-called "digital natives" apart from movie, music and internet technology. Game play activities is an important issue to be thoroughly understood due to the facts that many of them are addicted to game play activity. In contrast, conventional learning approaches are not interesting enough to the younger generation. Thus, integration of games technology into education is potentially believed to increase student interest and motivation to learn. This study developed and evaluates an online educational game for learning Programming Introductory course at a university in Malaysia. A total of 180 undergraduate students from computer and engineering background participate in the study. Findings shows that about 80% of students have positive attitude towards the games with around 84% of them find that the games is a fun way to learn, at the same time, an average of 80% agreed that the game provide them with opportunity to learn. Furthermore, about 75% of the students agreed that the game make them able to do self-assessment for Programming course. It was interesting to find that almost 85% of the student said that they will want to use educational games as their future learning approach. Despite many more evidence will be needed especially in Malaysia context, this study is important to rationalize that games can be one of the new learning approaches in the future

An approach to evaluating the user experience of serious games

The use of serious games to support learning continues to expand across a range of educational and training settings. Hence, a need exists to understand more fully how users experience such games. This study seeks to describe and assess an approach to the evaluation of user-experience applied within the context of a specific serious game developed to address the training needs of people working in social enterprises. Drawing on an extensive literature review, the development of a survey instrument to capture the multi-dimensional nature of user-experience is explained as is the evaluation process employed. Findings from surveys of individuals working in social enterprises are analysed and discussed. The results demonstrate the value of the proposed method of user-experience evaluation. Recommendations for practice and further research are outlined, identifying in particular the importance of qualitative insights in the evaluation process and the need for greater understanding of the inter-relationships between the various dimensions and attributes of user-experience in serious games