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Racing Academy: A preliminary evaluation of an online racing car simulation game for supporting students learning of engineering
This paper reports a study which evaluates an online racing car simulation game designed to support undergraduate students learning. A game based learning community was created to support undergraduate students learning of engineering at the University of Bath. One hundred and sixty one students (146 males and 15 females), aged between 18 and 22, average age 18, participated in the study. The results indicated that there was a significant increase in the students’ knowledge of engineering. They also felt that Racing Academy was motivating. They found it enjoyable, they felt competent playing the game and they put effort into the game. The analysis of the qualitative data is ongoing and will be focussed on investigating whether the students felt that Racing Academy helped their learning. Preliminary analysis suggests that the students did feel that Racing Academy supported their learning, but that further work is needed to fully embed Racing Academy into the course
Digital games, gender and learning in engineering: do females benefit as much as males?
The aim of this paper was to explore whether there is a gender difference in the beneficial effects of Racing Academy, which is a video game used to support undergraduate students learning of Mechanical Engineering. One hundred and thirty-eight undergraduate students (15 females and 123 males) participated in the study. The students completed a pre-test a week before they started using Racing Academy. The pre-test consisted of a test of students’ knowledge of engineering, and a measure of students’ motivation towards studying engineering. A week after using Racing Academy the students completed a post-test which was identical to the pre-test, except it also included a measure of how frequently they used Racing Academy and how motivating the students found playing Racing Academy. We found that after playing Racing Academy the students learnt more about engineering and there was no gender difference in the beneficial effect of Racing Academy, however there is some evidence that, female students found Racing Academy more motivating than male students. The implications for the use and design of video games for supporting learning for both males and females are discussed