Designing Educational Games

Gamification ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 576-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Tang ◽  
Martin Hanneghan

Play has been an informal approach to teach young ones the skills of survival for centuries. With advancements in computing technology, many researchers believe that computer games1 can be used as a viable teaching and learning tool to enhance a student's learning. It is important that the educational content of these games is well designed with meaningful game-play based on pedagogically sound theories to ensure constructive learning. This chapter features theoretical aspects of game design from a pedagogical perspective. It serves as a useful guide for educational game designers to design better educational games for use in game-based learning. The chapter provides a brief overview of educational games and game-based learning before highlighting theories of learning that are relevant to educational games. Selected theories of learning are then integrated into conventional game design practices to produce a set of guidelines for educational games design.

Author(s):  
Stephen Tang ◽  
Martin Hanneghan

Play has been an informal approach to teach young ones the skills of survival for centuries. With advancements in computing technology, many researchers believe that computer games1 can be used as a viable teaching and learning tool to enhance a student’s learning. It is important that the educational content of these games is well designed with meaningful game-play based on pedagogically sound theories to ensure constructive learning. This chapter features theoretical aspects of game design from a pedagogical perspective. It serves as a useful guide for educational game designers to design better educational games for use in game-based learning. The chapter provides a brief overview of educational games and game-based learning before highlighting theories of learning that are relevant to educational games. Selected theories of learning are then integrated into conventional game design practices to produce a set of guidelines for educational games design.


Author(s):  
Stephen Tang ◽  
Martin Hanneghan

Play has been an informal approach to teach young ones the skills of survival for centuries. With advancements in computing technology, many researchers believe that computer games1 can be used as a viable teaching and learning tool to enhance a student’s learning. It is important that the educational content of these games is well designed with meaningful game-play based on pedagogically sound theories to ensure constructive learning. This chapter features theoretical aspects of game design from a pedagogical perspective. It serves as a useful guide for educational game designers to design better educational games for use in game-based learning. The chapter provides a brief overview of educational games and game-based learning before highlighting theories of learning that are relevant to educational games. Selected theories of learning are then integrated into conventional game design practices to produce a set of guidelines for educational games design.


2013 ◽  
pp. 1738-1752
Author(s):  
Wee Hoe Tan ◽  
Sean Neill ◽  
Sue Johnston-Wilder

This paper compares the results of two surveys conducted between July 2009 and January 2010 with 45 subject matter experts (SMEs) and 41 game experts in the UK. The surveys examine the attitudes and attitude differences of the participants towards teachers who use games in the classroom and studios that produced educational games. The findings revealed respondents’ attitudes were statistically significantly less positive—comparing ideal conditions to usual practice—for the issues studied. The SMEs were unaware of the problems faced by educational game studios, which could lead to a scenario where games are made fun at the expense of learning outcomes or vice versa. In issues related to educational games, the SMEs were found to be certain only about aspects of related directly to teaching and learning while the games experts were confident only for game design and development. This revealed a need for collaboration between SMEs and game experts rather than independent production when designing and developing GBL solutions.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wee Hoe Tan ◽  
Sean Neill ◽  
Sue Johnston-Wilder

This paper compares the results of two surveys conducted between July 2009 and January 2010 with 45 subject matter experts (SMEs) and 41 game experts in the UK. The surveys examine the attitudes and attitude differences of the participants towards teachers who use games in the classroom and studios that produced educational games. The findings revealed respondents’ attitudes were statistically significantly less positive—comparing ideal conditions to usual practice—for the issues studied. The SMEs were unaware of the problems faced by educational game studios, which could lead to a scenario where games are made fun at the expense of learning outcomes or vice versa. In issues related to educational games, the SMEs were found to be certain only about aspects of related directly to teaching and learning while the games experts were confident only for game design and development. This revealed a need for collaboration between SMEs and game experts rather than independent production when designing and developing GBL solutions.


Author(s):  
Kristian Kiili ◽  
Harri Ketamo ◽  
Michael D. Kickmeier-Rust

The challenge of educational game design is to develop solutions that please as many players as possible, but are still educationally effective. How learning happens in games is methodologically very challenging to point out and thus it is usually avoided. In this paper we tackle this challenge with eye tracking method. The aim of this research is to study the meaning of cognitive feedback in educational games and evaluate the usefulness of eye tracking method in game based learning research and game design. Based on perceptual data we evaluated the playing behavior of 43 Finnish and Austrian children aged from 7 to 16. Four different games were used as test-beds. The results indicated that players’ perception patterns varied a lot and some players even missed relevant information during playing. The results showed that extraneous elements should be eliminated from the game world in order to avoid incidental processing in crucial moments. Animated content easily grasps player’s attention, which may disturb learning activities. Especially low performers and inattentive players have difficulties in distinguishing important and irrelevant content and tend to stick to salient elements no matter of their importance for a task. However, it is not reasonable to exclude all extraneous elements because it decreases engagement and immersion. Thus, balancing of extraneous and crucial elements is essential. Overall, the results showed that eye tracking can provide important information from game based learning process and game designs. However, we have to be careful when interpreting the perceptual data, because we cannot be sure if the player understands everything that he or she is paying attention to. Thus, eye tracking should be complemented with offline methods like retrospective interview that was successfully used in this research.


2018 ◽  
pp. 472-481
Author(s):  
Antonio Santos

Although it could be assumed that playing games lifts intrinsic motivation and that this must have an effect on the cognitive processes of the player, it is still not known how to develop an educational game with the same positive effects. Thus, the challenge for GBL is rather significant in determining how to design and develop good educational games and how to integrate them into the teaching and learning process so that students' motivation and learning are qualitatively improved. This chapter's main objectives are to describe some of the current GBL models proposed by the literature used to analyze, design, and integrate games in education and, on the other, to propose and describe a methodology developed by the author to create educational games. The assumption is that this type of information could aid instructional designers and educators—and even commercial game designers—interested in developing good GBL experiences.


Author(s):  
Antonio Santos

Although it could be assumed that playing games lifts intrinsic motivation and that this must have an effect on the cognitive processes of the player, it is still not known how to develop an educational game with the same positive effects. Thus, the challenge for GBL is rather significant in determining how to design and develop good educational games and how to integrate them into the teaching and learning process so that students' motivation and learning are qualitatively improved. This chapter's main objectives are to describe some of the current GBL models proposed by the literature used to analyze, design, and integrate games in education and, on the other, to propose and describe a methodology developed by the author to create educational games. The assumption is that this type of information could aid instructional designers and educators—and even commercial game designers—interested in developing good GBL experiences.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-130
Author(s):  
Nindian Puspa Dewi ◽  
Indah Listiowarni

Games are media that can be used in the learning process to stimulate students in teaching and learning activities in the classroom. The game used is a game that has been adapted to the needs of learning in the classroom called game based learning or educational games. English subjects are difficult to learn by elementary students at SDN Bujur Barat II, so the use of learning media is needed to attract students' interest in learning the subject. In this study, an educational game was made based on the SD English curriculum consisting of writing, reading, listening, and speaking, which was built using the Ionic programming language and the PHP Framework.


Author(s):  
Raiane Santos Martins ◽  
Filipe Raulino ◽  
Aquiles Burlamaqui ◽  
Akynara Burlamaqui

The use of games in education has become an increasingly present practice in contemporary society. For so-called "digital natives", learning through electronic games becomes more significant. Digital educational games are often seen as boring, non-motivational, that fail to bring in some essential elements that promote engagement, making the learning goal is not achieved either. Game Design is a game project. It describes how the game should be, defining its mechanics and interactions between player and the virtual world of the game and how they can affect the game environment. In order to document the design of a game, there is the Game Design Document (GDD), whose one of the main objectives, besides registration, is to help in communication between the different production teams of a game, allowing the game designer a broad view of that is being produced. However, because it is a large document that brings in detail all the main elements for the production of a game, it turns out to be little used, especially if the focus is the elaboration of small games, which are the majority of the digital educational games that exist. For these short games, which can often be worked out within a few hours, there are Short Game Design Document (SGDD). The SGDD, unlike GDD, will describe the elements of the game in a simplified way possible, whereas the game to be drawn from it is also a simple game. Thus, the proposal of this work is to elaborate a model of SGDD for educational games (the SGDDEdu), specifying elements of art, sound, mechanics and game programming, as well as educational elements in accordance with the new BNCC (National Curricular Common Base) of Elementary School, so that there is a standardization and better categorization of educational games aligned with the proposed pedagogical objectives and the skills and competences described in each level of education. This work will be developed from the study and analysis of some models of already existing SGDD and the BNCC of Elementary School in general, causing in SGDDEdu. The research will be applied with teachers and educators requesting that they specify an educational game in the SGDDEdu template. With this, we intend to verify if the SGDDEdu has relevance and if it facilitates in the production of digital educational games, providing the teaching and learning process through the games, as well as trying to identify how the NCCB can contribute in the development of educational games. Keywords: Educational games, Game Design, SGDD, BNCC


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyung Yoon

UNSTRUCTURED This paper is a case study on the design of an educational game for the prevention of cyberbullying and an analysis of its educational effect. I selected a game titled “Angry Daddy,” which was developed based on the request of Korean government authority and analyzed the mode of development of the game and its educational effect. For this research, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used. Moreover, advice regarding the game design was obtained from many experts belonging to various fields. Based on the analysis of the game design and its educational effect, it was confirmed that the following factors are important to design an educational game meant for the prevention of cyberbullying and to enhance its educational effect: First, cooperation between content experts and game development experts is essential to develop an educational game. Second, it should be verified whether the contents and the format of the game are appropriate by analyzing the play test results of the target audience. Third, it is essential to prepare a manual to guide teachers to apply the game to the field. Fourth, it was confirmed that educating students on sensitive topics like cyberbullying is very effective when educational games that make them feel and experience the outcomes of bullying are utilized. This research is expected to be helpful for future design of educational games and the research and development of the format of cyberbullying prevention education.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document