Source reference
Stege, L., Lankveld, G., & Spronck, P. (2011). Teaching High School Physics with a Serious Game. International Journal of Computer Science in Sport, 10(1), 1-12.
Article type
Experiment
First citation
The video game E and Eve’s electrical Endeavors was developed by Eindhoven University of Technology to develop skills and acquire knowledge about electrical engineering (Stege et al., 2011).
Summary
An experiment was conducted to see if serious games or if traditional text are more effective. In the study done effectiveness in answering questions and motivational effect are both being examined. In conclusion males acquired more knowledge through video games. Females showed no difference in text or video games. however, electrical engineering is not often a subject of interests for woman.
In-depth summary
Entertainment games are used for pleasure while educational games are used to develop skills and knowledge. Serious games are games that have the purpose of educational games but look like entertainment games. When researching educational games it is seen that playing games motivates children which leads to better results. Educational games knowledge is clearly stated while in serious games knowledge is taught through game mechanics. In this article the serious game of E and Eve’s Electrical Endeavors was used to teach high school students electrical engineering. This game was compared to a high school textbook on its’ ability to teach students about transistors. In the study done effectiveness in answering questions and motivational effect are both being examined.
Serious games are faced with the issue of being not educational enough or not entertaining enough. Video games have been making their way into the classroom more and more. Studies done on video games in the classroom have shown that realism in video games has a positive influence on knowledge gain. It is also seen that games develop collaboration skills. The reason why their is so much hope behind serious games is it is believed that games will motivate children. Traditional schooling methods do not motivate children. Engaging students is needed to make them active learners. However, games might not be the best medium.
The experimental setup done divided high-school students into two groups; one group used a video game to learn transistors while the other group used the traditional method through text to learn transistors. The effectiveness of being able to answer the same questions on the materials was later tested, and so was the student’s motivation.
The video game E and Eve’s electrical Endeavors was developed by Eindhoven University of Technology to develop skills and acquire knowledge about electrical engineering. To complete the game players must move wires to escape. While moving the wires, players have to deal with issues involving resistance, transistors, and power shares. The students who played the game only completed two of the ten chapters involved with the game; allowing them to learn the instructions in chapter one and complete the level about transistors in chapter two.
187 students were used in the experiment. 47% of the students were male and 53% of the students were female, 7 participants did not indicate their gender. The average age of the students were 15. In the game group there were 48 male participants, 44 female, and 5 participants who did not report their gender. In the text group there were 37 male participants, 51 female, and 2 participants who did not report their gender.
Through this experiment it was discovered that the game group had significantly more successfully answers than the text group. However, students playing the video game reported being less motivated than the students who used the text. When examined closer it was concluded that text better motivates females; Games and text have no difference in motivation for males. realizing gender playing a role in the results, gender was examined further. Male students stereotypically do better in physics than females. When comparing male students only on their scores it was seen that video games made a big significance in score change. For female students, the game had no benefit. Despite females not benefiting from the games and the game group not reporting higher motivation 78.8% of students reporting wanting serious games to make their way into the classroom.
While reporting from students stated that video games were not motivational, surveyors expressed that the kids playing the video games got right to work while the kids required to read text were not motivated at all. The text group had more complaints and asked more questions. Students were randomly placed in groups but most students stated they would rather play the game.
In conclusion males acquired more knowledge through video games. Females showed no difference in text or video games. however, electrical engineering is not often a subject of interests for woman.
Evaluation (strengths and weaknesses)
Strengths: Gender was looked at closely and variables that could cause difference in gender results made sense.
Weaknesses: There were three weakness in the experiment as a hole making the conclusion about serious games not a firm conclusion instead a hint for future research. The weaknesses were there was no pre-test of prior knowledge, there was no control group, and collaboration was allowed.
Relation to my research question
This article relates to my topic because it is an example of traditional teaching being compared to serious games and its effectiveness for students. It also showed promising results which helps my report.
Significant quotes
However, serious games can be distinguished from educational games in that they are designed to look more like commercial video games than their counterparts (Stege et al., 2011, pg. 1)
In general, in educational games knowledge is represented explicitly, while in serious games knowledge is represented implicitly in the game mechanics (Stege et al., 2011, pgs. 1-2)
The game we used is called E and Eve’s Electrical Endeavors. It is an online serious game, that was developed by the Eindhoven University of Technology. The purpose of the game is helping players to develop skills and acquire general knowledge about electrical engineering (Stege et al., 2011, pg. 3)
We may cautiously conclude, however, that serious games (at least the one we used in our research) have the potential to be more effective in education than textbooks, in particular for male students (Stege et al., 2011, pg. 9)
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