Paper :
Combining Software Games with Education: Evaluation of its Educational Effectiveness
Author :
Maria Virvou, George Katsionis, and Konstantinos Manos
Year :
2005
Summary :
Strong motivation is really needed in process of learning. For stimulate students have strong motivation in learning, one of the ways they (the authors) take is using computer games. The reason why they take computer games as educational games because so many computer games appealing to students and it is amusing.
With this new way, not all parents and teachers agree because they think that educational games have no beneficial, and not-very-educational and not very-entertaining learning activites. However, some parents and teachers agree because can teach children fast learning, delight, produce engagement, and improve thinking. As a result, many researchers have developed games for educational purposes.
From the view above, they developed one virtual reality educational games called VR-ENGAGE. VR-ENGAGE teaches students about geography. They evaluate students on a VR-ENGAGE. The main focus on this evaluation is the effectiveness of VR-ENGAGE in improve education.
The story of VR-ENGAGE is to find the missing pages of the book of wisdom, which is hidden. VR-ENGAGE consists of four components, domain knowledge, the students modelling component, the tutoring component, and the user interface. By playing this game, students can improve their knowledge about geography, hierarchy concepts, negotiations (improve discourse and plausible), and provide a justification.
The evaluation that was conducted on VR-ENGAGE focused primarily on evaluating the educational effectiveness of the gaming aspect of the educational software. The experiment took place in classrooms. The experiment consisted of four parts. All four parts were conducted in parallel, they were 9-10 years old and atteded the fourth grade of elementary schools, and had been taught on geography. All four parts were similarly set up and involved a comparison between VR-ENGAGE and the ITS (Intelligent Tutoring System) with the simple User Interface.
First experiment involved all 90 childrens. Second, Third, and Fourth experiment also involved 90 childrens based on the mark that these student had received in geography in the previous term. The term-marks that the students of the fourth grade of elementary schools receive range from A to C, A given to students with good performance, B with mediocore performance, and C with poor performance. Each group randomly divided into two sub-groups of the same number of children. The first sub-group of each group would use VR-ENGAGE and the second would use the ITS with simple User Interface. Before using version of educational software, they were asked to work on a pre-test and post-test using paper and pencil with 100 questions. The comparison of students' result in the pre-test and post-test was used to draw conclusions about the educational effectiveness of VR-ENGAGE as compared to the simple ITS.
The evaluation result of first experiment that VR-ENGAGE had achieved its aim of being at least as effective as conventional educational software in the learning outcomes and was in fact better. Second experiment for poor performance, which had used VR-ENGAGE, benefited the most of all sub-groups from the educational games. Third experiment for mediocore performance, which had used VR-ENGAGE, had also benefited more than the simple ITS since they made fewer mistakes (even not statistically significant). The last experiment for good students who had used VR-ENGAGE benefited in a similar way with they that had used the non-game ITS.
After the experiment, the students interviewed about the VR-ENGAGE. They were fascinated by the idea of a game in a classroom and they were more enthusiastic about the software that they had used that the other group of students. The teachers also had opinion of this educational game. They thought that those who had used the game seemed so immersed that their behaviour in class had changed completely and they had appeared to be bery satisfied and interested in the educational content.
My Opinion:
Recently years, so many software games produced. Not all of games support the education. Many students prefer to play rather than study. In the age of students, their brain need more time for play, can't study in a long time. This good idea by create educational games, because this is how students can play also study.
With good educational games, makes students improve their behaviour in life and how they study, about strategy, improve their knowledge that they get from school, and still have many advantages. However, this way still have disadvantages, but if parents can control their children about how long they can play, I think still have advantage.
Combining Software Games with Education: Evaluation of its Educational Effectiveness
Author :
Maria Virvou, George Katsionis, and Konstantinos Manos
Year :
2005
Summary :
Strong motivation is really needed in process of learning. For stimulate students have strong motivation in learning, one of the ways they (the authors) take is using computer games. The reason why they take computer games as educational games because so many computer games appealing to students and it is amusing.
With this new way, not all parents and teachers agree because they think that educational games have no beneficial, and not-very-educational and not very-entertaining learning activites. However, some parents and teachers agree because can teach children fast learning, delight, produce engagement, and improve thinking. As a result, many researchers have developed games for educational purposes.
From the view above, they developed one virtual reality educational games called VR-ENGAGE. VR-ENGAGE teaches students about geography. They evaluate students on a VR-ENGAGE. The main focus on this evaluation is the effectiveness of VR-ENGAGE in improve education.
The story of VR-ENGAGE is to find the missing pages of the book of wisdom, which is hidden. VR-ENGAGE consists of four components, domain knowledge, the students modelling component, the tutoring component, and the user interface. By playing this game, students can improve their knowledge about geography, hierarchy concepts, negotiations (improve discourse and plausible), and provide a justification.
The evaluation that was conducted on VR-ENGAGE focused primarily on evaluating the educational effectiveness of the gaming aspect of the educational software. The experiment took place in classrooms. The experiment consisted of four parts. All four parts were conducted in parallel, they were 9-10 years old and atteded the fourth grade of elementary schools, and had been taught on geography. All four parts were similarly set up and involved a comparison between VR-ENGAGE and the ITS (Intelligent Tutoring System) with the simple User Interface.
First experiment involved all 90 childrens. Second, Third, and Fourth experiment also involved 90 childrens based on the mark that these student had received in geography in the previous term. The term-marks that the students of the fourth grade of elementary schools receive range from A to C, A given to students with good performance, B with mediocore performance, and C with poor performance. Each group randomly divided into two sub-groups of the same number of children. The first sub-group of each group would use VR-ENGAGE and the second would use the ITS with simple User Interface. Before using version of educational software, they were asked to work on a pre-test and post-test using paper and pencil with 100 questions. The comparison of students' result in the pre-test and post-test was used to draw conclusions about the educational effectiveness of VR-ENGAGE as compared to the simple ITS.
The evaluation result of first experiment that VR-ENGAGE had achieved its aim of being at least as effective as conventional educational software in the learning outcomes and was in fact better. Second experiment for poor performance, which had used VR-ENGAGE, benefited the most of all sub-groups from the educational games. Third experiment for mediocore performance, which had used VR-ENGAGE, had also benefited more than the simple ITS since they made fewer mistakes (even not statistically significant). The last experiment for good students who had used VR-ENGAGE benefited in a similar way with they that had used the non-game ITS.
After the experiment, the students interviewed about the VR-ENGAGE. They were fascinated by the idea of a game in a classroom and they were more enthusiastic about the software that they had used that the other group of students. The teachers also had opinion of this educational game. They thought that those who had used the game seemed so immersed that their behaviour in class had changed completely and they had appeared to be bery satisfied and interested in the educational content.
My Opinion:
Recently years, so many software games produced. Not all of games support the education. Many students prefer to play rather than study. In the age of students, their brain need more time for play, can't study in a long time. This good idea by create educational games, because this is how students can play also study.
With good educational games, makes students improve their behaviour in life and how they study, about strategy, improve their knowledge that they get from school, and still have many advantages. However, this way still have disadvantages, but if parents can control their children about how long they can play, I think still have advantage.
