What is the impact of using digital games in education? ⢠Games .... âGamification is generally considered to be the use of game design elements in non-gaming.
The Power of Games for Learning: A review of research on game-based learning (2010-2015)
Conceição Costa, Sara Henriques, Kathleen Tyner, Carla Galego Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias - Portugal University of Austin-Texas
Game-based learning A Mediatized world demand a bundle of literacies – Media Literacies Information literacy, Visual literacy, Multimodal literacy, Computer literacy/ICT literacy, Media and information literacy
Promoting and enhancing media literacy is of growing importance in a context of digital media convergence – Media Education •
Risks, Safety, Benefits, Affordances, Social skills, Cognitive skills, Cultural skills, Health effects, etc
What about DIGITAL GAMES? •
Games have been used in education and their learning capabilities have been widely debated
•
Games can be integrated in teaching in different forms, from commersial games, learning games, students creating their own games.
Game-based learning • What is the power of digital games for learning? • What is the impact of using digital games in education?
•
Games involve: collaboration, competition, sharing, searching for information, knowledge, creating, sharing (learning communities)
•
Games can promote multiple literacies and creativity
GAMILearning Project Digital Games as a reflective tool that children can use to establish and develop their own critical understanding of media. Main Goals • To explore the value and effectiveness of game-based learning activities in educational contexts; • To identify key aspects for engagement and successful learning in game-based activities; • To understand the power of game-based activities to promote learning, knowledge and information literacy skills among children; • To promote Media and Information Literacy (MIL) through student critical analysis and creative production of games;
GAMILearning Project Research questions
Can we promote and develop MIL skills, such as critical understanding, awareness, creativity, participative actions, interactive practices and empowerment, by facilitating the use of game-based activities in educational contexts?
What is the relationship between effective learning, motivation, engagement and game-based activities for educational purposes?
GAMILearning Project Media Literacy In a digitally mediated society, media literacy is a bundle of sociocultural competencies (Livingstone et al., 2013) that include:
• • •
Operational skills (such as encryption and computing); Editorial skills (including reading, writing and production of multimedia); Organizational skills (navigating, sorting, filtering and evaluation). (Frau-Meigs, 2014)
Literature Review General Objective • Analyze the latest scientific publications in the area of games for education
Specific Objectives - Research Questions • • • • • •
What are the most discussed theories? What are the most cited authors? Where are these studies taking place? What are the terms and the most common keywords/ concepts? What are the most used methods - the most relevant and common research problems, hypothesis, methods of analysis, data collection methods? Game models and design qualities?
Procedure Coding system:
Sample Scientific databse online platforms: SAGE Publications, ACM publications, iEEE, Google Scholar, Science Direct Criterias Between 2010 -2015 Peer-review papers
TOTAL= 52 papers
NVIVO Analysis
Coding system guide
Results / Data General info
-
Most papers were produced by two authors (mean = 3.8 authors author from 2 to 18);
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Location: USA 38%; Europe 29%, Canada 6%, China 6%
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75% states theories in the area of games for education: game-based learning, gamification theory, serious games and game theory are the most common.
Results Results//Data Data Most Mostcommon commontheories: theories: Sources N
References N
%
Game-based learning
14
28
27
Gamification
6
10
12
Learning by playing/ doing
4
5
8
Constructionism
3
5
6
Motivation Theories
3
3
6
Peer assessment-based game
2
4
4
Four Dimensional Framework of Learning
1
1
2
Game development approach
1
1
2
Game theory
1
1
2
* Percentage of sources where the theory/word/framework/approach is reported **Number of time this theory/word/framework/approach is reported in the total sample *** Percentage of coverage in the text of the total sample
Results / Data Game–based learning/ Digital GBL
“In the field of digital game-based learning there has been much focus on the development of educational games—games designed specifically to teach….” (Arena, 2012, p.68).
“(…) showing that fruit can be plucked from this region of the digital-game-based learning space (i.e., involving pre-instructional gameplay paired with a formal curriculum) strengthens the basic argument for digital game-based learning” (Arena, 2012, p.70).
“One suggestion is to design educative exercises embracing from the very beginning the concept of gameful design (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011) to make them more interesting for students. Additionally we shall consider a more systematic approach for the design and evaluation of gamified learning. We shall take previous work on evaluation frameworks in game-based learning, e.g. (de Freitas & Oliver, 2006), as a starting point. This will enable us to extract more solid conclusions about the reality of gamification in education” (Dominguez et al, 2013, p.391).
“Among various computer-supported learning approaches, digital game-based learning has been recognized as a promising approach for motivating students to learn” (Hwang, Hung & Chen, 2014, p.130).
“Digital game-based learning has been recognized as a potential approach that provides students with interactive and enjoyable learning opportunities. Educators have indicated that, in educational computer games, the teaching content is presented in a vivid and interesting way, and hence attracts students to learn” (Hwang, Hung & Chen, 2014, p.131).
Results / Data Gamification theory
“Gamification is the process of game-thinking and game mechanics to engage users and solve problems. It is a strategy to infuse ordinary activities or processes with principles of motivation and engagement based on the gaming concept. Gamification can be used in applications and processes to improve user engagement and learning.” (Nah et al, 2013, p. 99).
“The main goals of gamification of education are to increase cognitive absorption or engagement, as well as learning achievement.” (Nah et al, 2013, p.105).
“Gamification is generally considered to be the use of game design elements in non-gaming contexts” (Decker & Lawley, 2013, p.233).
“Gamification offers the unique opportunity to combine content area instruction, literacy, and 21st-century learning skills in a highly engaging learning environment” (Kingsley & GrabnerHagen, 2015, p.51).
“Gamification may involve the teacher gamifying an activity or teaching a concept by including mechanics such as achievement badges, levels, and XPs for mastering a given level, thus increasing student engagement without ties to any one specific game. Students are, therefore, learning content and practicing literacy skills as if they were playing a game, making the educational experience both challenging and fun” (Kingsley & Grabner-Hagen, 2015, p.52).
Results / Data Serious games
“Cognitive characteristics of videogames that create the so called “cycles of expertise” (Gee, 2003) that further derive into “flow experiences” (Csikszentmihalyi, 2008) are in the very nature of the medium, and cannot be exported to traditional educative content by any way without entering in the field of edutainment or serious games” (Dominguez et al, 2013, p.391).
Most of the times, it appears linked to Gamification theory, as an extension or another way of referring to the same theory.
Learning by doing
“Learning by playing has a very long tradition in the theory and practice of pedagogy and psychology (cf. [9]). Also, computer games have been into existence for quite a long time. The combination of both, namely learning by playing a computer game (digital game based learning) has rapidly become subject to research activities”. ‘‘learning by doing’’ approach that engages students in developing educational multimedia software or educational games”.
Reflective learning, learning from breakdowns
Results / Data Authors Gee Chen Hong Huang Hwang Squire Brown Lee Chang Kafai Prensky San Csikszentmihalyi
Count 41 35 29 29 29 29 26 26 25 22 21 21 20
Weighted Percentage (%) 0,08 0,07 0,06 0,06 0,06 0,06 0,05 0,05 0,05 0,04 0,04 0,04 0,04
Results / Data Keywords Word
game learning students education research study educational knowledge design computer science development play school training players participants student
Count
5587 3442 1581 1089 824 804 791 716 654 648 599 531 528 527 489 478 465 462
Weighted Percentage (%) 1,41 1,42 0,65 0,45 0,34 0,33 0,33 0,30 0,27 0,27 0,25 0,22 0,22 0,22 0,20 0,20 0,19 0,19
Word
Count
gaming
5968
learn
3868
students’ educators
2428 2117
Studying Designs
1157 1039
computing
1031
Development
1027
plays
1008
Weighted Percentage Similar Words (%) 2,47 game, game’, game’’, gamed, gameful, gamefulness, games, games', games’, gaming, 'gaming 1,60 learn, learned, learning, learning’, learning’’, learns 1,00 student, students, students', students’ 0,87 educ, educate, educating, education, education’’, educational, educationally, educative, educator, educators 0,48 studie, studied, studies, study, studying 0,43 design, designated, designation, designed, designer, designers, designing, designs 0,43 comput, computation, computational, computationally, compute, computed, computer, computers, computers’, computing 0,42 develop, developed, developer, developers, developing, development, developments, develops 0,42 play, play’, played, playful, playfully’, playfulness, playing, playing’, plays
Resultados
Results / Data Research Questions/ Problem Most common research questions 1. The search for the perfect game - effectiveness of game designs Develop a guide with best practices, game models and designs to reach ‘the perfect game’ – motivating, attractive, challenging, engaging and able to foster learning. How games should be designed? What/ how is best game design, game mechanics, game elements and practices to promote learning? How relevant are game design and mechanics to the game suceed? How may game mechanics support learning?
2. How to foster learning, motivation and engagement in learning activities and through the use of games? These studies analyse the power of games to promote particular learning contents, motivation and engagement and also skills acquisition and development, testing how games can support learning goals. How gamification promotes skills and knowledge. Contents varied from teaching geometry, civic education, drug prevention, saving energy, media literacy, etc through the use of games, arguing Play as an educational activity. Game basedlearning.
Results / Data Research Questions/ Problem Most common research questions 3. The impact and benefits of playing educational games for learning formal education contents. These studies analyse the power of serious games in formal educational context and use mostly an experimental research design based on baseline and endline analysis, examining the eficiency and effectiveness of particular games for particular learning contents and assessing its impact on knowledge acquisition.
4. The use of commercial/ recreational games to promote formal learning/ traditional school content. These studies explore whether commercial games (with no educational goals) can lead to learning gains. They explore mostly how these games can facilitate, motivate and prepare students to learn particular school curricular contents.
Results / Data METHOD Sample -
32 to 261 individuals (mean 129): students, teachers, professors, instructers, professionals in the area of education 88% of studies where developed in schools/ educational contexts
Method: -
Experimental 55% Mix Quali & Quanti 38% Qualitative 22% Quantitative 22% Theorectical Positional Paper 7%
Results / Data METHOD Data Collection Methods Source N Survey questionnaires Textual analysis Interviews Multiple choice test Knowledge test Focus group Participative observation Usability Think-aloud
% 25 11 10 9 7 5 4 2 1
45 20 18 16 13 9 7 4 2
Conclusions - Evidence of the power of games to support learning and educational gains, both in formal and informal contexts. - Strategies on how to integrate gameplay effectively in the learning environment. - Identification of best practices, methods and instruments most commonly used in this area. - Guide for future research in the area of games for learning.
Thank you
