Abstract:

While the benefits of learning by doing have long been established in the natural sciences, experiments and games have not gained traction in the social sciences (economics, psychology, political science, and sociology). Social science classes often rely on the chalk-and-talk lecture model, and educators who are interested in teaching with games have limited resources, technology, and know-how. These impediments prevent them from incorporating games into their lectures. Such educators must either conduct a time-consuming paper-and-pencil experiment or ask students to pay around $90 per class for gaming software. More importantly, available solutions lack of scalability, curriculum-based exercises, instructions for the teacher, best practices for implementation, and helpful ways of interpreting the game data. Also, current solutions also do not take into account the 21st century classroom, such as MOOCS or online classes. Finally, most gaming platforms lack a context or story that students can use to make connections to the real world, leaving students unengaged and uninterested in activities.

MobLab, a new educational game provider, allows educators to quickly and easily run social science games in their class. MobLab’s system is flexible enough to run games with just a few students in the same classroom or thousands of students across the globe. It has been built to minimize setup time for the educator and enhance learning for the students. MobLab allows educators to customize games and easily deal with unpredictable student participation. Because MobLab leverages 3G/4G networks, students can participate on their smartphones, tablets, or on laptop computers over a local wireless network. Additionally, MobLab has designed game interfaces that best engage students and relate to their real world experiences.

This paper presents how MobLab, a new pedagogical tool for educators in the social sciences, can transform classes from traditional lectures to engaging learning experiences for students through the use of interactive and strategic games. First, we discuss the current landscape of running games in class and challenges faced by educators. Second, we introduce MobLab along with how it addresses the weaknesses in currently available solutions. Finally, we present a method of how to teach using games, using our Cournot game and the topic of oligopolies as an example.

Keywords:

Game-based learning, interactive games, flipped classroom.