Abstract:

The self-regulation of learning in Superior education is gaining interest from educators, however, considering the technological moment that humanity lives, there is no clear evidence about scientific studies linking self-regulation with emerging technology at the university. Therefore, in the present research work, the central purpose was to analyze the association between self-regulation strategies and student learning achievements in learning contexts based on digital games. In this study, a correlational design was used; 86 students of higher education participated in the study, who were enrolled in Research Methodology Courses during the first semester of 2017 at the Universidad Técnica de Machala, Ecuador. The students received classes in Research Methodology based on a serious game adapted to support self-regulated learning. At the end of the intervention with serious game, the students were interviewed with a guide called “Entrevista de Autorregulación Basada en Juego Serio” (EABJS), ten strategies of self-regulation were considered in this interview guide (Self-evaluation, Organizing & transforming, Goal setting & planning, Seeking information, Keeping records & monitoring, Environmental structuring, Self-consequence, Rehearsing & memorizing, Seeking social assistance, Reviewing records), the interviews were recorded, transcribed, codified and analyzed, in order to identify how many times the self-regulation strategies were used by the students; In addition, a test was used to assess students learning outcomes within the Research Methodology subject, to identify learning achievements categorized as follows: very low, low, medium, high and very high. The data analysis was performed with the Spearman’s rank-order correlation (nonparametric). The results showed a moderate positive correlation between the use of self-regulation strategies within the serious game and the students' learning results, which was statistically significant (rs (7) = .558, p = .029). It is concluded, as an approximation, that as more often students use self-regulation strategies in a serious game environment, they are more likely to obtain better scores.

Keywords:

Self-regulated learning, serious games, learning achievements.