Usefulness of Digital Serious Games in Engineering for Diverse Undergraduate Students

The use of educational digital games as supplemental tools to course instruction materials has increased over the last several decades and especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Though these types of instructional games have been employed in the majority of STEM disciplines, less is known about how diverse populations of students interpret and define the value of these games towards achieving academic and professional pursuits. A mixed-method sequential exploratory research design method that was framed on the Technology Acceptance Model, Game-Based Learning Theory and Expectancy Value Theory was used to examine how 201 students perceived the usefulness of an intuitive education game that was designed to teach engineering mechanics used in designing civil structures. We found that students had different expectations of educational digital games than games designed for entertainment used outside of classroom environments. Several students thought that the ability to design their own structures and observe structure failure in real-time was a valuable asset in understanding how truss structures responded to physical loading conditions. However, few students thought the educational game would be useful for exam (14/26) or job interview (19/26) preparation. Students associated more value with engineering games that illustrate course content and mathematical calculations used in STEM courses than those that do not include these elements.

Factors That Enable or Hinder the Implementation of Game Development Activity in Learning Environments

This study aims to investigate the factors that enable or hinder the implementation of game development activity in the instructional process. One instructor and 15 gifted students between the ages of 11 and 15 took part in the study. The students developed computer games related to science topics using MS Kodu game engine within the implementation process. According to the findings, it is seen that instructional practices have great importance, and the instructor plays a key role in the activity. Making and playing games have been the greatest motivation resource for students. In addition, the social environment can be an important tool in sustaining students' motivation levels. The students' negative attitudes toward educational game topics and non-computer activities hinder the successful implementation of the activity. The MS Kodu game engine might be appropriate for novice designers but not be enough for teaching programming concepts. Team-based game development activity is believed to be useful for developing advanced games and increasing the level of interaction between students.

Educational Games Design

Video games are widely and increasingly adopted in the educational field thanks to their inherent engaging, immersive, and adaptive capacities. Yet, one of the greatest problematic in educational games design remains how to create ludic and adaptive experiences without going astray from the targeted learning objectives. In creating adaptive educational games, modeling the learner/player is a prerequisite. This chapter highlights the importance of educational standards in learning content design and proposes an adaptive mechanism “AMEG” based on IMS learning design and artificial intelligence that model learners using game metrics and adapt the gameplay as well as the learning content. As a practical experimentation of the mechanism, MathQuests, an educational game that helps in teaching mathematical operations for first year middle school students was created.

MIDI-AM Model to Identify a Methodology for the Creation of Innovative Educational Digital Games

Educational game applications' production considers technical, pedagogical, and aesthetic resources guided by the type of device used, interfaces, and themes. In addition, it considers users' tastes and preferences, trends in society, and the environment. However, no evidence in the recent literature allows developers to identify entire patterns or structures in serious games production. This chapter analyzes university experiences and research related to the design, development, and use of ludic games application for mobile devices' MIDI-AM model series games as tested in local environments. These games are aimed at children in their first years of primary school education. The MIDI-AM model is proposed as a methodology that considers a technical and aesthetic platform to guide serious game applications' production and monitoring. These are suggested as supporting tools for the traditional teaching-learning process.

Counter-Hacking the Subconscious Mind

This chapter addresses the destructive impact of the media sphere on human perception. Humanity is currently facing an avalanche of cataclysmic events which have been abused by the media sphere to provoke fear and psychosis. This toxic propaganda has gradually infected the subconscious mind with false belief systems and negative habitual thinking patterns. To provide a broader perspective on some of the core working principles of conscious and subconscious perception and the role of the brain, there is a discussion about levels of consciousness, brainwaves, the RAS (reticular activating system), and neuroplasticity. The application of these principles enables the development of a benign and practical method for counter-hacking the subconscious heart-mind as an antidote for the catastrophic influence of the media sphere on human perception. The concepts of this methodology can be integrated into a PEG (psychecology educational game). Such a game holds the potential to increase global coherence by providing a timely yet symptomatic antidote for toxic intention in the media sphere.

Applying a Developmental Lens to Educational Game Designs for Preschoolers

Preschool-aged learners process information differently from older individuals, making it critical to design digital educational games that are tailored to capitalize on young children's learning capabilities. This in-depth literature synthesis connects features of digital educational game design - including visuals, feedback, scaffolding challenge, rewards, and physical interactions to how young children learn. Preschoolers' interests and abilities (e.g., limited attention-span, early reading skills, etc.) are different than older users. As such, developmental science should be used to guide the design of educational games from aesthetic decisions that capture preschoolers' initial interest (e.g., meaningful characters) to carefully select end-of-game rewards (e.g., leveling up). This article connects learning and developmental science research to the design of digital educational games, offering insights into how best to design games for young users and how to select developmentally appropriate games for children.

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.

Exploring the Educational Potential of a Game-Based Math Competition

The main aim of this article was to investigate the educational potential of a game-based math game competition to engage students in training rational numbers. Finnish fourth (n = 59; Mage = 10.36) and sixth graders (n = 105; Mage = 12.34) participated in a math game competition relying on intra-classroom cooperation and inter-classroom competition. During a three-week period, the students were allowed to play a digital rational number game, which is founded on number line estimation task mechanics. The results indicated that students benefited significantly from participating in the competition and playing behaviour could be used to assess students rational number knowledge. Moreover, students were engaged in the competition and the results revealed that intrinsically motivating factors such as enjoyment and perceived learning gains predicted students' willingness to participate in math game competitions again. This article provides empirical support that educational game competition can be an effective, engaging, and a fair instructional approach.