Teachers as game designers: using a game in formal learning in a Singapore primary school

Researchers have offered, in recent years, compelling reasons for considering the potential of digital games to support learning and in response policy-makers and educators around the world have demonstrated a commitment to exploring their practical use in school. There remain, however, many questions about how games can best support learning, particularly in formal education. This paper examines the implications of formal game-based learning for teachers developing their own digital learning games, exploring two guiding overarching research questions. What strategies are employed by teachers to manage intergenerational, technological, operational and pedagogic tensions in the classroom? And to what extent is the notion of being a “designer” visible in their professional practice? The paper suggests that there are multiple ways of “being a designer” for teachers, and that the notion of “designer” may be a more problematic representation of teacher agency and identity than currently visible in the literature.     

Cultivating critical game makers in digital game-based learning: learning from the arts

Digital games have the potential of being a transformative tool for applying constructionist principles to learning within formal and informal learning settings. Unfortunately, most recent attention has focused on instructionist games. Connected gaming provides a tantalizing alternative approach by calling for the development of games that are both instructive and modifiable by learners. If game design is to be used as a pedagogical tool in this manner, emphasis should be placed on the concurrent development of critical makers. In this paper, we advance the notion of connected gaming through positing a conception of a critical maker. To accomplish this, we look to the arts as a domain where pedagogical approaches are in place from which the game-based learning community can draw insights from, along with an overview of the potential challenges and opportunities that may accompany any attempt to develop critical makers.     

Effects of an instructional gaming characteristic on learning effectiveness,efficiency, and engagement: using a storyline for teaching basic statistical skills

The study explored instructional benefits of a storyline gaming characteristic (GC) on learning effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement with the use of an online instructional simulation for graduate students in an introductory statistics course. A storyline is a game-design element that connects scenes with the educational content. In order to examine the interactions between the storyline GC and human performance, a storyline was embedded in a simulation. The goal of the simulation was to engage students in problem-solving and data analysis in the context of basic statistics by using real-world examples. The authors developed two different versions of the simulation: (1) Simulation+No GC, and (2) Simulation+Storyline GC. Both versions shared the same instructional content but differed in the presence or absence of a storyline GC. The results indicated that adding a storyline to a simulation did not result in significant improvements in learning effectiveness, efficiency, or engagement. However, both instructional methods (simulation and simulation with a storyline) showed significant learning gains from pre- to post-test. The findings of this study offer future directions for embedding a storyline GC into learning content.     

Multimodality,learning and decision-making: children's metacognitive reflections on their engagement with video games as interactive texts

This study examines how 31 middle-school children conducted multimodal analyses of video games. Over four consecutive days, students played video games for 30 minutes and then wrote written reflections about the multimodal symbols within the game and how these symbols influenced their interpretation and decision-making processes during gameplay. Students produced 124 reflections in total, which were analysed via template analysis to determine how children metacognitively reflected on different types of multimodal symbols and used those symbols to comprehend the games and make decisions. Results illustrate how students engaged in metacognitive semantic and syntactic processes with a variety of multimodal symbols, such as written language, dynamic visuals and abstract symbols, during gameplay that aided their understanding of the games and influenced their decisions. This study contributes to the limited empirical research on video game literacies and illustrates children's meaning-making processes while engaged with video games as multimodal interactive texts.     

Integrating a moral reasoning game in a blended learning setting: effects on students' interest and performance

A new approach to moral education using blended learning has been developed. This approach involves 10 scenarios that are designed as a web-based game and serves as a basis for group moral-consequence-based reasoning, which is developed based on a hypothetical-deductive model. The aim of the study was to examine the changes in students' blended learning interest and reasoning ability in a time series experimental design. After playing the game with the 10 initial scenarios during the first week of the study, participants were subjected to five blended learning sessions that required them to discuss the consequences of one of the 10 scenarios using hypothetical-deductive reasoning. After six weeks, the data from the 110 participants were analyzed using time series statistics. The results indicated that players were highly interested in the game, although their interest had a tendency to decrease slightly over time. Repetitive game play (i.e. practice) was positively associated with the players' moral reasoning performance. The study results may lend support to the design of a game with additional or more highly complex content for players to further develop students' consequential reasoning ability.     

Effects of an augmented reality-based educational game on students' learning achievements and attitudes in real-world observations

Augmented reality (AR) has been recognized as a potential technology to help students link what they are observing in the real world to their prior knowledge. One of the most challenging issues of AR-based learning is the provision of effective strategy to help students focus on what they need to observe in the field. In this study, a competitive gaming approach is proposed to support AR-based learning activities conducted in real-world contexts. An experiment has been conducted on an elementary school ecology course to explore the effectiveness of the proposed approach in comparison with the conventional AR-based mobile learning approach in field trips. The experimental results show that the AR-based gaming approach can improve not only students' learning attitudes, but also their learning performance on the field trip. Accordingly, discussions and some suggestions for future work are provided.     

Video game discourses and implications for game-based education

Increasingly prevalent educational discourses promote the use of video games in schools and universities. At the same time, populist discourses persist, particularly in print media, which condemn video games because of putative negative effects on behaviour and socialisation. These contested discourses, we suggest, influence the acceptability of games and limit critical analysis of their effectiveness as pedagogic tools. This article focuses on the representation of video games in media discourse. We present insights from a small-scale study of the construction of video game discourses in the UK print media in 2013, and discuss three areas that emerged. First, the assumptions inherent in the representation of the ‘video game’; second, the implied lack of agency in the behaviour of ‘the gamer’; and third, the way in which blame is manipulated. Finally, we consider the implications for game-based education.     

The bothersome crow people and the silent princess: exploring the orientations of children as they play a digital narrative game

This study builds on and extends our understanding of literacy through exploring children's encounters with a digital narrative game. The research analyses different stances or orientations that children take as they progress through the game and how they draw on schematic understandings about narratives and digital gaming to support their game‐play. The study extends previous research exploring how children make meaning from visual texts and how we draw on resources across and between modes to understand narratives. Taking a socio‐cultural approach, the research suggests a framework of possible orientations that children take as they engage with the storyworld of the game, showing how this is at times strategic and critical, and at other times immersive and reactive.     

Impact on student teachers' conception of learning and teaching from studying a course in educational psychology

This study investigates changes in the conceptions of learning and teaching among undergraduate student teachers. A qualitative content analysis of essays using metaphors to describe learning and teaching written by 256 students at the beginning and end of an educational psychology course was used as the main research procedure. It was found that there was an increase in the share of students that see learning and teaching from a cognitive-constructivist perspective and a decrease in the share that see learning and teaching from a behaviourist perspective by the end of the course. In addition, the study revealed that the coherence in the nature of the metaphors describing learning and teaching increased by the end of the course. However, there was practically no increase in the number of essays describing learning from a socio-constructivist perspective, a fact that points to a need to pay more attention to the manifestations of learning in different communities of students, that is, to a relevant knowledge that teachers need in their everyday work.     

Application of experiential learning to improve student engagement and experience in a mechanical engineering course

ABSTRACT

This paper introduced how a mechanical engineering course was redesigned by applying experiential learning theory to improve student engagement and learning experience. Design of machine elements has been considered by students to be a difficult course. Traditional teaching methods tend not to be effective in engaging students. Experiential learning is a philosophy of learning by doing. In applying an experiential learning approach to the course, the design project and workshop activities were restructured in such a way that students were engaged in direct experience and focused reflection to construct knowledge. By exploring a physical gearbox model, working on subtasks for the design project, having group discussions, raising questions, getting feedback, and moving forward for next subtasks, students experienced the learning cycles of ‘DO, OBSERVE, THINK, and PLAN’ many times. Course survey results showed that application of experiential learning helped to improve student engagement and learning experience significantly.     

Anatomy adventure: A board game for enhancing understanding of anatomy

Certain negative factors such as fear, loss of concentration and interest in the course, lack of confidence, and undue stress have been associated with the study of anatomy. These are factors most often provoked by the unusually large curriculum, nature of the course, and the psychosocial impact of dissection. As a palliative measure, Anatomy Adventure, a board game on anatomy was designed to reduce some of these pressures, emphasize student centered and collaborative learning styles, and add fun to the process of learning while promoting understanding and retention of the subject. To assess these objectives, 95 out of over 150 medical and dental students who expressed willingness to be part of the study were recruited and divided into a Game group and a Non‐game group. A pretest written examination was given to both groups, participants in the Game group were allowed to play the game for ten days, after which a post‐test examination was also given. A 20‐item questionnaire rated on a three‐point scale to access student's perception of the game was given to the game group. The post‐test scores of the game group were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than those of the non‐game counterparts. Also the post‐test score of the game based group was significantly better (P < 0.05) than their pretest. The students in their feedback noted in very high proportions that the game was interesting, highly informative, encouraged team work, improved their attitude, and perception to gross anatomy. Anat Sci Educ 7: 153–160. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Informed learning design: teaching and learning through engagement with information

ABSTRACT

While higher education teachers are able to use information in sophisticated ways to learn and communicate within their disciplines, they may not be accustomed to teaching their students to use information creatively and reflectively to support their work in a course. This article introduces informed learning design, a curriculum design model by which teachers specifically enable students to learn course content through intentional engagement with information. Drawing from informed learning pedagogy and the variation theory of learning, the design model outlines an instructional pattern for enabling student awareness of critical aspects and features of the object being studied related to both information use and course content.     

Encouraging student engagement in a blended learning environment: the use of contemporary learning spaces

Research shows that some non‐traditional students find the university environment alienating, impersonal and unsupportive. The ‘Quickstart’ project combines traditional lectures and seminars with a sequence of carefully designed online tasks, aimed at lessening the impact of the start of year uncertainties for new students. One thousand students across two geographic locations participated in the programme. The project was evaluated by considering three sources of data: data generated by server statistics of 40,358 successful requests for pages in the first four weeks of teaching; student anonymous responses to an online end of course questionnaire as well as extracts from their reflective journals; and the student experience as viewed through the eyes of a researcher in the classroom. Findings offer insights into how the students blend classroom time with their own time; and student perceptions of their own learning experiences. A collaborative learning experience involving travel to a contemporary learning space (the Tate Modern Art Gallery) mitigated the possible isolating effect of the use of technology; instead the technology enhanced the discussion and participation in activities. The students visited the Tate Modern and then facilitated their discussions by sending each other SMS text messages; they bonded very quickly in the seminar groups, where weekly online tasks that had been prepared individually ‘outside’ the classroom were the focus of group discussion and debate ‘inside the classroom’; their end of semester reflective writing showed very clearly how valuable the early ‘friendship’ groups had been for them settling into university life.     

The relationship between student engagement with online content and achievement in a blended learning anatomy course

Blended learning has become increasingly common in higher education. Recent findings suggest that blended learning achieves better student outcomes than traditional face‐to‐face teaching in gross anatomy courses. While face‐to‐face content is perceived as important to learning there is less evidence for the significance of online content in improving student outcomes. Students enrolled in a second‐year anatomy course from the physiotherapy (PT), exercise physiology (EP), and exercise science (ES) programs across two campuses were included (n = 500). A structural equation model was used to evaluate the relationship of prior student ability (represented by grade in prerequisite anatomy course) and final course grade and whether the relationship was mediated by program, campus or engagement with the online elements of the learning management system (LMS; proportion of documents and video segments viewed and number of interactions with discussion forums). PT students obtained higher grades and were more likely to engage with online course materials than EP and ES students. Prerequisite grade made a direct contribution to course final grade (P < 0.001) but was also mediated by engagement with LMS videos and discussion forums (P < 0.001). Student learning outcomes in a blended anatomy course can be predicted the by level of engagement with online content. Anat Sci Educ 11: 471–477. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Perceptions of instructional quality: impact on acceptance and use of an online learning environment

ABSTRACT

Given the growing use of online learning environments in higher education, it is important to further unravel how students’ use is influenced by their perceptions towards these learning environments. This study includes the perceived quality of the instructional design based on the First Principles of Instruction of Merrill and students’ acceptance based on the constructs perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the technology acceptance model (TAM). The aim of this study is twofold: a first aim is to investigate the influence of the perceived instructional quality on students’ acceptance and the second aim is to investigate the impact of students’ acceptance and the perceived instructional quality on the quantity (i.e. course activity) and quality (i.e. course performance) of use. In this study, a Moodle-based online learning environment for learning French as a foreign language was studied. Participants were 161 university students. Structural equation modeling (SEM) indicates that the perceived instructional quality has a significant positive influence on students’ acceptance. Furthermore, students’ perceived instructional quality has a positive influence on the quality, but not on the quantity of use, whereas students’ acceptance of the online learning environment has no impact on the use of the learning environment.     

Investigating the relationships between informal learning and player involvement in digital games

In the last few years, digital games have become increasingly popular with both ‘hardcore’ and ‘casual’ audiences. At the same time, it has been argued that games can be powerful learning environments, since they are seen to encourage active and critical learning through participation in affinity groups and semiotic domains but there is a need for further empirical evidence to explore how this participation occurs and how prevalent it actually is. In addition the effectiveness of games within education indicates mixed results, though it has been suggested that this may indicate that learning through immersive worlds involves a more complex understanding of learning, one that is not so easy to tie to specified learning outcomes. It would seem the area would benefit from research that seeks to develop our understanding of how player involvement and learning come together in this context. This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey carried out in order to explore these issues. The initial findings suggest that how a player identifies as a gamer relates to what they think they gain from their gaming experiences with respect to learning.     

Voice in Digital Education: The Impact of Instructor's Perceived Age and Gender on Student Learning and Evaluation

Instructor evaluations are influenced by implicit age and gender bias, with lower ratings and negative feedback given to instructors believed to stray from stereotypical age and gender norms. Female instructors exhibiting typically male-associated qualities such as leadership and authority, are often negatively impacted. Implicit bias also influences evaluation of digital resources and instructors, regardless of students' positive learning outcomes. As digital learning resources become the norm in education, it is crucial to explore the impact of implicit bias at various educational levels. In this study, undergraduate and graduate students were randomly exposed to one of five digital tutorials; four experimental tutorials presenting identical anatomy content with narrators of different gender and age, and a control tutorial featuring origami (paper folding) instructions without audio. Learning outcomes were measured by pre-quiz vs. post-quiz comparisons using repeated measures MANOVA. Implicit bias was analyzed by evaluation response comparisons using repeated measures MANOVA and three-way MANOVA. Post-quiz scores increased significantly in the four experimental groups (P < 0.05) but not in the control (P = 0.99). The increased performance was not statistically different across the four experimental groups (P > 0.26), suggesting that learning occurred irrespective of the instructor gender and age. Students' evaluations were consistently higher for the experimental resources than the control. There was no significant difference in evaluations across the four experimental groups but compared to the control, younger male and younger female narrators received significantly higher ratings for approachability, acceptance, inclusivity, and care for student learning. The study highlights important considerations for digital resources development and interpretation of student evaluations.     

Impact of compulsory participation of medical students in a multiuser online game to learn radiological anatomy and radiological signs within the virtual world Second Life

Competitive game-based learning within Second Life enables effective teaching of basic radiological anatomy and radiological signs to medical students, with good acceptance and results when students participate voluntarily, but unknown in a compulsory context. The objectives of this study were to reproduce a competitive online game based on self-guided presentations and multiple-choice tests in a mandatory format, to evaluate its development and student perceptions compared to a voluntary edition in 2015 (N = 90). In 2016 and 2017, respectively, 191 and 182 third-year medical students participated in the game as a mandatory course activity. The mean (±SD) score of the game was 74.7% (±19.5%) in 2015, 71.2% (±21.5%) in 2016, and 67.5% (±21.5%) in 2017 (P < 0.01). Participants valued positively the organization and educational contents but found the virtual world less attractive and the game less interesting than in the voluntary edition. The experience globally was rated with 8.2 (±1.5), 7.8 (±1.5), and 7.1 (±1.7) mean points (±SD) in a ten-point scale, in the 2015, 2016, and 2017 editions, respectively (P < 0.05). Competitive learning games within virtual worlds like Second Life have great learning potential in radiology, but the mean score in the game decreased, acceptance of virtual world technology was lower, and opinion about the game was worse with a compulsory participation, and even worse when dropouts were not allowed. Under the conditions in which this study was conducted, learning games in three-dimensional virtual environments should be voluntary to maintain adequate motivation and engagement of medical students.     

Video gaming as digital media,play, and family routine: implications for understanding video gaming and learning in family contexts

While a number of studies have investigated learning associated with video gaming in out-of-school settings, only recently have researchers begun to explore gaming and learning in the contexts of home and family life. This paper discusses three different frameworks within which we can situate video games and learning at home: (a) video gaming as digital media, (b) video gaming as play, and (c) video gaming as family routine. Each framework brings different issues related to learning into focus, and contributes new insights into the role gaming plays in the lives of children, adults, and families as a whole.     

Design and Evaluation of Digital Assignments on Research Experiments within Food Chemistry

Laboratory classes are regarded as an important learning activity, but they also have shortcomings: laboratory classes are often an inefficient learning activity for students and often do not sufficiently support students in developing research specific cognitive skills. It is hypothesized that some of such skills can be achieved more effectively with digital assignments than with laboratory classes. Therefore, three digital assignments have been designed, developed and evaluated. The assignments have three goals: (1) providing a situation in which students can practice research specific cognitive skills and (2) offering a research method which students can also use in a real laboratory situation and (3) providing the possibility to come across a number of common pitfalls. The assignments are described in detail. Results of a first evaluation of the use of the assignments indicate that the students consider the assignments challenging and valuable. The examination results demonstrate that students are quite capable of making a research design. Although students indicate to have learned a useful research method, students do not apply the method in the laboratory classes.