Catching the virus – a peer-to-peer game that encourages active participation in microbiology lectures

An important part of learning within lectures and classrooms is active participation, but this is sometimes difficult in larger lecture rooms. Questioning students is also not very fruitful in larger rooms for many reasons and invariably results in a wall of silence. Playing active-learning games changes the student–teacher dynamic and energizes the lecture room, making the lecture more memorable and worthwhile for the students. In our microbiological lectures, particularly lectures on virology and immunology, students play the ‘catch-the-virus’ game. As all students are in the game together, there is a competitive edge, and students forget about the anxiety of the the lecture theatre. Importantly, because of the nature of the game, the entire lecture room is involved, including students in the back rows. Interestingly, the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and its impact on student lives, makes the catch-a-virus game even more poignant.

Digital Games for Teaching and Learning of Mathematics in Nigeria Schools

Fractions are among some concepts in mathematics that pupils in Nigeria primary find difficult to learn, and teachers find difficult to teach. These problems require solutions because mathematics knowledge is germane for technological advancement and national development. Pupils need to be actively involved in constructing their knowledge and digital mathematics learning games could be helpful. Thus, this study investigated the effects of digital mathematics games on primary pupils' achievement in fractions concepts. An appropriately validated pupil fractions achievement test (PFAT) was used to collect data for the study. Data collected were analyzed using t-test. It was revealed that pupils exposed to digital mathematics games performed significantly better than those exposed to conventional method. There is significant difference between achievements of male and female pupils exposed to game-based strategy.

The Importance of Teacher Bridging in Game-Based Learning Classrooms

Advances in game-based learning and educational data mining enable novel methods of formative assessment that can reveal implicit understandings that students may demonstrate in games but may not express formally on a test. This chapter explores a framework of bridging in game-based learning classes, where teachers leverage and build upon students' game-based implicit learning experiences to support science classroom learning. Bridging was studied with two physics learning games in about 30 high-school classes per game. Results from both studies show that students in bridging classes performed better on external post-tests, when accounting for pre-test scores, than in classes that only played the game or did not play the game at all. These findings suggest the teachers' role is critical in game-based learning classes. Effective bridging includes providing teachers with common game examples along with actionable discussion points or activities to connect game-based learning with classroom content.

Multiple Intelligences and Digital Learning Game Design

Empirical research that draws a framework on how the theory of MI could be incorporated in (learning) games is non-existent. Furthermore, the theory of MI fits well into the concept of individualization, as it distinguishes between individuals in terms of their abilities. In light of this, the chapter reports on the first evidence-based set of mappings between this theory and fundamental constructs of games known as mechanics. These mappings can be utilized by designers in the individualization paradigm of player-centered game design as guidelines on what mechanics to include in their design when targeting an audience with specific MI profiles. Such individualization can potentially positively affect the game experience of players while establishing the proper frame for affecting learning. As such, these mappings, available in form of a recommendation tool, act as guidelines on how to design (learning) games while considering the intelligences of the target audience.

A Protocol for Reviewing Off-the-Shelf Games to Inform the Development of New Educational Games

This chapter shares a protocol for reviewing games and documents the process in which it was used by an educational game design team for evaluating existing games to inform the design and development of new games for early algebra. While the design team has used their own learning games design model to develop several games—all of which included some kind of immersive learning and review activity—there has been no documentation provided on the specific processes used to review games as part of that immersion. Observations offer structured means for assessing existing games in a particular space and are thus valuable to identify how best to pursue the alignment of learning objectives with teaching content and game mechanics in the development of educational games.

An Architecture for Bidirectional Learning Games

Dynamic personalization of learning trajectories that integrate different perspectives and variable scenarios is a viable way to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of training and education. Serious games offer a designated platform for this, by aggregating learner interactions, and using these to dynamically configure, adjust and tailor the game to individuals and contexts. An architecture is presented to support the creation of serious games for specific scenarios, in a faster, more effective and efficient manner. Following a research-by-design approach, the architecture is simultaneously developed and applied in case studies, with the experiences infused as enhancements for subsequent design iterations.

Fostering digital literacy and German language with the use of digital learning games in the middle school

In this article, fostering the German language using digital learning games plays the central role. The endless possibilities of digital media and tools for language acquisition offer teachers and learners the opportunity to learn a foreign language creatively, playfully, in a fascinating way and with a certain degree of facilitation in teaching. Through our research we tried to prove the priority of digital media in the field of education and formation. We selected as the target group of the research the pupils of two fifth grades, who learn German as a foreign language in a Romanian school. The use of the chosen learning game led to a considerable increase in the participation of the students in German lessons, created a suitable learning atmosphere in the room and increased the motivation of the participants. The results of this research prove what we expected for the relationship between German lessons and the use of digital learning games in the classroom.

Learning games creation: IMIE model

In this article, we propose a new model for the learning games design, which aims to enrich and solve the problems of existing models. From the work carried out around the models of educational games, we carefully identify a series of steps to follow, taking into account the simplicity, ease of adaptation and the integration of several factors interest such as the integration of a set sub-models treated pedagogically define the pedagogical side in the game, also the distribution of the intervening necessary for each of the stages to ensure better collaboration between them, for the purpose to helping the creators to trace their path from the start of the creation, in order to achieve the best example of games with an adequate oscillation pedagogical-fun, that will meet the requirements of existing classical teaching methods.