Abstract:

Game-based learning has transformed learning for children and adults alike and has been applied to formal, informal settings and professional training too. Though games are not the only way to improve learning and engagement, there exists substantial literature on pedagogical approaches, research methods, applications, and evaluation techniques for learning with games. The aim of this research is to explore how the use of game design principles and mechanics can be effectively integrated with curriculum requirements to augment student learning and subject engagement beyond the classroom.

The curriculum of interest here is logic gates and their operations as part of Key Stage 4 of the Computer Science curriculum in England. The age range at KS4 is 14–16-year-olds. The goal of the game is to help students understand simple Boolean logic, for example: AND, OR and NOT, and apply it to logic gate circuits. The game is divided into different levels of difficult to enable participation and attempts at problem-solving for students with mixed abilities.

The game application was designed with three specific learning objectives:
(1) Produce a logic circuit to solve a given problem or to implement a given written logic statement.
(2) Recognise and use standard symbols to represent logic gates.
(3) Produce truth tables for given logic circuits.

The application uses puzzle design as a design approach across three different categories where problem-solving grows with complexity: easy, medium and challenging. It utilises eight different puzzle design principles to enable scaffolding whilst learning. The complexity between the categories is defined by the number of gates required where easy levels have between one and three gates, medium levels between four and five gates, and challenging levels six+ gates.

A pilot user study was conducted to evaluate the game's effectiveness and impact. A survey was designed to collect qualitative surveyed data on player motivation, game play quality, subject understanding, and user satisfaction. Participants were selected based on a range of technical abilities, including current Computer Science teachers, previous GCSE (KS4) Computer Science students, and users with no educational Computer Science experience.

The teacher “strongly agreed” that the levels build up in difficulty gradually, the tutorials provided an understanding of what each gate does, understand what the function of each gate is, as well as being able to identify all six gates used. The teacher however, “disagreed” that because of the game they increased their knowledge of logic gates. For the students all users stated the game “improved” their ability to produce a logic circuit to solve a given problem or to implement a given written logic statement. This demonstrates a difference in expectations between students and teachers. All users stated that they would have found this game useful at GCSE level, enjoying the interactive experience. All users would also recommend that GCSE teachers use the application within their curriculums.

Keywords:

Game-based learning, problem-solving, scaffolding of learning.