Abstract:

Game software designers of popular recreational games manage to get new players to learn lengthy and complex games. There is an argument to be made that creating the ideal learning environment is possible with the technology available today, but it is evident that these ideal learning environments have not been developed to their full potential in an educational setting and are instead being used for player enjoyment.

There are many sound principles of learning built into good recreational games and these are all principles that could and should be applied to educational games. These principles are not only what makes games engaging, but also what motivates players to keep playing and learning about the game world and game mechanics. Playing the games triggers deep learning, which is itself part of the fun. Educational games have proven to be engaging and to be effective learning tools but how do you measure the quality of the game? This paper reports on the first phase of a project where this phase aimed at developing a tool to measure the quality of educational games.

Gee (2005) provided thirteen principles of learning built into successful games divided into sections on Empowered Learner, Problem-solving, and Understanding. The Empowered Learner section aims to get the player involved in the game and the game world and wants to increase engagement by ensuring that the player is in a position where they are empowered and enabled to achieve a specific goal. This section lists principles of Co-design, Customize, Identity and Manipulation, and Distributed Knowledge. The section on Problem-solving entails a well-defined problem in an environment that is pleasantly frustrating and will motivate the player to use all the skills that they have acquired in the game to achieve their goals and includes the following principles: Well-ordered Problems, Pleasantly Frustrating, Cycle of Expertise, Information “On Demand” and “Just In Time”, Fish Tanks, Sandboxes and Skills as Strategies. Finally, the section on Understanding entails that the user gains knowledge about the game environment and that they can formulate solutions to problems because of this knowledge about the game world and the level of understanding that they have. This section includes the two principles of System Thinking and Meaning as Action Image.

For this paper, Gee’s thirteen principles of successful games were used as a point of departure and these principles along with other relevant literature were analysed and synthesized in terms of firstly, its relevance to learning, followed by its relevance to games. The results were used to develop a 29-item rating tool that measures the quality of educational games. The stronger any game rates on each of the items on the list, the better its score as a learning tool.

Educators, researchers, and parents can in the process of selecting an educational game utilise the measuring tool to determine if an educational game meets the learning principles built into successful games which can result in empowered learners with enhanced understanding and problem-solving skills.

Keywords:

Educational games, principles of learning, player engagement.