Abstract:

Ever since the turn of the century, there has been much discussion about the construction of computer games in education to either complement traditional education pedagogy, or substitute passive teaching methods which were deemed to be ineffective in engaging students. Despite the extensive discussions and studies conducted on educational games, to date, success has not been achieved in implementing educational games in classrooms. Through an analysis of two educational games which have been tested for applicability in the Singapore secondary school education system, Quest Atlantis and Virtual Singapura, we will discuss why such games are unable to capture the students’ attention. As a result, educators would prefer to continue with traditional teaching methods instead of using computer games in the classroom because these educational games utilise curriculum time, yet are unable to engage the students better. Therefore, we propose to improve human computer interaction (HCI) in educational games in order to improve the gaming experience for students. Although HCI is not a definite, complete solution to all the problems faced in the development and implementation of games in education, it has the potential to alleviate a pressing problem faced during earlier educational game development—inability to capture the attention of students. We suggest how HCI can be implemented to develop more engaging games in education, and hopefully contribute to the progress of pervasive implementation of computer games in classroom teaching and learning.

Keywords:

Human Computer Interaction, Game-Based Learning, Education Pedagogy, Learning Effectiveness, Video-Diary Method.