Meng-Tzu Cheng

Assessing twenty‐first century skills through a teacher created video game for high school biology students

As twenty‐first century skills become a greater focus in K‐12 education, an infusion of technology that meets the needs of today’s students is paramount. This study looks at the design and creation of a Multiplayer Educational Gaming Application (MEGA) for high school biology students. The quasi‐experimental, qualitative design assessed the twenty‐first century skills of digital age literacy, inventive thinking, high productivity, and effective communication techniques of the students exposed to a MEGA. Three factors, as they pertained to these skills, emerged from classroom observations. Interaction with the teacher, discussion with peers, and engagement/time‐on‐task while playing the MEGA suggested that students playing an educational video game exhibited all of the projected twenty‐first century skills while being engrossed in the embedded science content.

Students’ learning outcomes and learning experiences through playing a Serious Educational Game

This study attempted to examine students’ learning outcomes and their learning experiences through playing a Serious Educational Game. A mixed-method research design was employed collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. A total of 98 middle-school students ranging from sixth to eighth grades participated through paper-and-pencil instruments, interviews and video recordings as data sources. A series of paired t-tests was used to analyse whether there were differences in learning outcomes and attitude changes toward methamphetamine use. The results showed that students learned more neuroscience content after exposure to the game (p < 0.01) and their attitude toward methamphetamine use became more negative (p < 0.01). Moreover, they actively performed several cognitive and metacognitive strategies to help the learning activity to best fit individual learning styles and to make the cognitive processes more efficient while interacting with the Serious Educational Game.

Drugs and the Brain: Learning the Impact of Methamphetamine Abuse on the Brain through a Virtual Brain Exhibit in the Museum

Drugs and the Brain: A Serious Game, a prototype museum exhibit, was designed to employ virtual models of the brain into a video game format. It was done to create a fun and engaging way of conveying knowledge and concepts about neuroscience, as well as the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain. The purpose of this study is to evaluate this prototype exhibit that promises to educate participants from various age, ethnicity, and gender backgrounds, and to establish a stronger concept of drug abuse prevention among children. A quantitative methodology using the pre‐ and post‐experimental designs was conducted on 175 museum visitors. A series of two‐sample paired t‐tests and subsequent ANOVAs were performed to examine the difference between pre‐ and post‐tests and to determine if there was a difference in the results in age, gender, ethnicity, and race. Results showed that both the understanding and attitudes of the participants toward the impact of methamphetamine abuse on the brain improved significantly (p < 0.01).

Learning through playing Virtual Age

Video games possess many unique features that facilitate learning. Meanwhile, teaching about evolution is never an easy task due to the existence of some barriers to its learning. Virtual Age, therefore, has been developed in an attempt to harness the power of gaming to increase student understanding of biological evolution. The aim of this study was to examine whether Virtual Age is effective for learning about evolution and to further explore the interplay of student concept learning, gaming performance, and in-game behaviors. A total of 62 7th graders took part in the study, and significant findings were revealed. The students did learn by playing Virtual Age, and their long-term knowledge retention was promising. The in-game behaviors, such as times and duration of viewing the relevant information embedded in Virtual Age, were significantly related to gaming performance (game score), which subsequently influenced learning outcomes. Moreover, the results of cluster analysis indicated that three clusters of low learning outcomes/low gaming performance, high learning outcomes, and high gaming performance emerged. Overall, Virtual Age is an effective game for learning about evolution based on its sound and sophisticated design. Implications derived from the study and suggestions for future work are proposed. We examine whether Virtual Age is effective for evolution learning.We investigate situated gaming-learning interactions through Virtual Age play.Students did learn through Virtual Age play and knowledge retention was promising.Student in-game behaviors were related to gaming performance and learning outcomes.There were relations between prior domain knowledge, use of avatars, and learning.

Is immersion of any value? Whether, and to what extent, game immersion experience during serious gaming affects science learning

Many studies have shown the positive impact of serious gaming on learning outcomes, but few have explored the relationships between game immersion and science learning. Accordingly, this study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of learning by playing, as well as the dynamic process of game immersion experiences, and to further identify whether, and to what extent, immersion affects science learning through serious gaming by using the techniques of cluster analysis. A total of 63 seventh-grade students participated in the study, and a quasi-experimental research design was employed. The results demonstrated that the students gained a holistic understanding of the relevant scientific concepts because their performances on the scenario-based science assessment were significantly improved across serious gameplaying occasions, and the effect of learning was retained long term. Moreover, serious gaming provided students with the experience of immersion insofar as the students indicated a greater degree of immersion in the game over time. Furthermore, two core clusters presenting meaningful patterns, high gaming performance/high immersion and high science learning/low immersion, were revealed. Finally, various interpretations and implications of the obtained data are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measuring Student Perceptions: Designing an Evidenced Centered Activity Model for a Serious Educational Game Development Software

As educational games become more pervasive, the evolution of game design software is inevitable. This study looked at student perceptions of teacher created Serious Educational Games as part of a project striving to create a game development software where teachers and students create games as part of educational activities. The objective was to use evidence from student perceptions to inform further development of the software. A mixed method design ascertained data from 181 male and 178 females from 33 teacher created games. Results indicate that the software is relatively effective by the supporting documentation and training lacked in several areas. This information led to the creation of a commercial game development software set for release in 2010.

Analyzing gameplay data to inform feedback loops in The Radix Endeavor

The purpose of this study is to explore some of the ways in which gameplay data can be analyzed to yield results that feed back into the learning ecosystem. There is a solid research base showing the positive impact that games can have on learning, and useful methods in educational data mining. However, there is still much to be explored in terms of what the results of gameplay data analysis can tell stakeholders and how those results can be used to improve learning. As one step toward addressing this, researchers in this study collected back-end data from high school students as they played an MMOG called The Radix Endeavor. Data from a specific genetics quest in the game were analyzed by using data mining techniques including the classification tree method. These techniques were used to examine the relationship between tool use and quest completion, how use of certain tools may influence content-related game choices, and the multiple pathways available to players in the game. The study identified that in this quest use of the trait examiner tool was most likely to lead to success, though a greater number of trait decoder tool uses could also lead to success, perhaps because in those cases players solving problems about genetic traits at an earlier point. These results also demonstrate the multiple strategies available to Radix players that provide different pathways to quest completion. Given these methods of analysis and quest-specific results, the study applies the findings to suggest ways to validate and refine the game design, and to provide useful feedback to students and teachers. The study suggests ways that analysis of gameplay data can be part of a feedback loop to improve a digital learning experience. Situated gaming-learning interactions in The Radix Endeavor were examined.Data mining techniques, including the classification tree method, were employed.Different play patterns for users who eventually or never succeeded were revealed.The trait examiner was a key tool in the quest completion process.Usage patterns can provide meaningful data to designers, teachers, and students.