The proposed project, sCool, is an adaptive game-based learning experience designed for STEM education. In this work, we present a new iteration of sCool in efforts to further examine contributing factors of engagement, usability, and comprehension. The newly developed game experience for acquiring object-oriented programming skills is divided into two parts: concept learning and practical challenge. The concept learning part teaches students theoretical lessons of programming through fun gameplay. The practical challenge part allows students to practice programming by completing tasks. This project presents several new game types for both the concept learning and practical challenge parts. The development of these game types spreads across two phases. The first phase introduces two new game types and focuses on extending sCool to support learning object-oriented programming and improve student’s learning comprehension. The second phase builds off of the first phase, introducing another new game type to improve the object-oriented programming learning experience and the game’s overall usability and engagement. During the first phase, three experiments were conducted in a classroom setting with a computer science teacher. Conducting a study involving a total of 39 school students and three teachers, we are able to successfully display an enhanced understanding of different programming concepts. During the second phase, a single experiment was held remotely among a wide group of people, and the participants were self-guided by an instruction document and the sCool application. Conducting a study with 25 participants, we are able to show a significant improvement in the game’s usability and engagement. For future works, further evaluations in-classroom and over a longer course will be useful in assessing the new game type’s effectiveness in teaching object oriented programming. Furthermore, the game should be expanded to support learning more complex concepts in object oriented programming.

Mathematics is a subject many children find challenging and uninteresting. This is highly problematic because of its use in work and everyday life. Some schools are implementing game-based learning to increase the younger students’ positive relation towards mathematics. An example of a game that uses learning through play is Magical Garden. It teaches mathematics to children between four and six but intends to expand to slightly older children. This thesis investigates the possible effects of and how to integrate the gamification elements badges and leaderboards into the game Magical Garden. To realise this, an extension of Magical Garden was developed as a party game that teaches ten-pairs. User tests were conducted in a first-grade class where they played through different versions of the mini-game and answered correlated surveys. After evaluation of the collected data, the result indicated that the gamification elements were enjoyed by most students and could lead to increased learning capabilities. However, it is worth noting that the user tests only included 18 children. Extended research is therefore required.

This degree project is a study investigating the views Swedish upper secondary English teachers have towards the use of video games as a medium through which to teach. The aim of the study was to gain insight into teachers’ views and what aspects they believed could encourage and/or inhibit the use of video games in the English foreign language (EFL) classroom. To achieve this aim, a sociocultural perspective was used along with a mixed method consisting of a survey study and semi-structured interviews. The survey was used to gain an idea of how teachers who have used video games in their classroom view the medium and the interviews were used to further analyse these views. The results show that in general teachers have a positive attitude towards the use of video games in the EFL classroom. The aspects of motivation and engagement were found to be important factors for successful learning with video games and the participating teachers generally agreed that video games can help students reach the overarching aims of the English subject. One of the greatest inhibitors found among the teachers was the logistical aspect. This included costs, time, and technological difficulties, and was something the teachers found both made the use of video games in the classroom difficult and which at times could make it ineffective. The aspect of assessment was also investigated, where it was found that most teachers did not believe video games could constitute a valid form of assessment in and of itself, but rather as an aid towards other forms of assessment.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(人間・環境学) / 甲第24687号 / 人博第1060号 / 新制||人||248(附属図書館) / 2022||人博||1060(吉田南総合図書館) / 京都大学大学院人間・環境学研究科共生人間学専攻 / (主査)准教授 PETERSON Mark, 准教授 中森 誉之, 教授 勝又 直也, 准教授 Mills Daniel James / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Human and Environmental Studies / Kyoto University / DFAM

The aim of this systematic literature review is to examine the empirical evidence within the field of Digital Game-based Learning (DGBL) concerning teachers’ beliefs and experiences about digital games in relation to the different barriers that prevent them from using them in the classroom. The search yielded a total of 152 results, from which a total of 27 articles were included in the present study. A thematic analysis was used to interpret the data which led to the formation of a variety of codes, sub-themes, and themes. The results go into detail into all of these, detailing different intrinsic and extrinsic barriers, teachers’ positive and negative beliefs in conjunction with the influence of demographic factors as well as education. The discussion is based on the relationships that arose between the themes and sub-themes which is further supplemented by the theories on beliefs and barriers in relation to technology integration which are presented in the background section. The results show that there is a bi-directional relationship between teachers’ beliefs and the barriers they face in the use of digital games in education as compounding barriers lead to or exacerbate negative beliefs while positive beliefs can lead to certain barriers being overcome. Both pre-service education and professional development have proven successful in improving teacher beliefs and confidence, however, the influence of extrinsic barriers results in many teachers believing that the use of digital games is too difficult or impossible in practice. Finally, the influence of demographic factors such as age, gender, and experience are discussed, with the latter being especially influential in terms of teachers’ beliefs.

Young people in Sweden today spend a significant amount of time in front of computers playing games, and gaming has gained a negative reputation both in the public domain as well as within the field of education. The aim of this overview is to see whether gamification, the use of video games or parts of video games, can be a valuable tool for educators to increase student motivation, engagement and knowledge of history. Two main areas are in focus in this overview. The first area focuses on whether gamification can be used to increase student motivation, engagement and understanding of history. The second area focuses on how the previously mentioned goals can be achieved through gamification, and what teachers wanting to use gamification have to take into consideration to make the use of it successful.  To conduct this research, the databases Libsearch and SwePub have been used alongside books from Malmö Universities library.  This overview led me to the conclusion that gamification can be a valuable asset, and there are instances where it has been proven to contribute to student motivation, engagement and knowledge of history. However, the technology used when implementing gamification can be considered difficult to use by some. Regarding the use of gamification, this overview shows that multiple factors matter when using gamification. These are factors that teachers must take into consideration for the gamification to be a useful and successful tool.

To increase student engagement in their classroom, the author created an art curriculum using gamification methods that incorporates elements of tabletop role-playing games. The Role-playing Art Curriculum is a key element of this thesis. Possible research approaches involving game-based learning and gamification were examined to point toward future research and reflection regarding games and game-like content into an art curriculum. Action research methods were used to create and run the Role-playing Art Curriculum. The author concludes that the gamified curriculum took extra preparation and required more management to run then other traditional art curriculums.

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The impact of the learner flow experience (LFE) on learning outcomes has been studied for over four decades in a variety of formal and informal instructional settings, including the digital game-based learning (DGBL) environment. Since 2011, the examination of the LFE and its impact on learning outcomes has expanded to computer science-related disciplines, as well as other research communities. During this expansion, an increase in the number and definitions of terms related to the LFE has occurred. Likewise, the number of assessment tools used to capture evidence of the flow experience in learners playing DGBLs has increased. This integrative review examined 66 peer-reviewed articles published between 2011 and 2021, which reported the results of empirical studies seeking to identify and measure the learner experience of flow during DGBL gameplay. More specifically, this study sought to understand how the LFE and its dimensions were conceptualized and assessed in those articles. To do this, the relevant data was extracted from the articles, and, via iterative processes of analyses, the information related to the conceptualization and assessment of the LFE during DGBL game play was identified, analyzed, and organized. The study's findings demonstrated that the number of terms used to describe the LFE dimensions increased during the time period studied, and that there is seemingly little consensus with regard to the conceptualization of the terms or their use in the assessment instruments applied. However, this study also revealed that these terms and the methods by which they were assessed may be examined within the theoretical structure defined by Csikszentmihalyi in 1990, in which he codified nine dimensions to explain the flow experience. These dimensions are: (1) balance of skills and challenge; (2) clear goals; (3) swift, unambiguous feedback; (4) merging of action and awareness; (5) concentration on the task at hand; (6) sense of control; (7) distorted sense of time; (8) loss of ego; and (9) autotelic experience. Organizing the research question findings within this structure enabled the identification of themes of and synonyms for the nine flow dimensions with the addition of the construct flow experience. To encourage future researchers' ability to interpret, compare, and contrast studies of the experience of the LFE during gameplay in the DGBL learning environment, a set of researcher guides was developed following an iterative process of comparisons and analysis across the research questions' findings. These guides present a description of each of the flow dimensions, associated key words and/or key phrases, synonyms for the dimension, and statements or questions used to solicit information from learners regarding their experience of each of the flow dimensions, organized by theorist. The goal for these researcher guides is that they will be used as references for future studies of the impact of flow on learning outcomes for DGBL players through providing a common vocabulary and set of assessment items. They also may help encourage and enhance collaboration between instructional designers and DGBL game designers in creating effective DGBLs that increase learning or user engagement and enjoyment through the fostering of conditions that enable the LFE phenomenon. / Doctor of Philosophy / Many adults recall losing track of time during play as children. Achieving the feeling of being in "the zone" during play or competition was anticipated and relished. As adults, the desire to recapture that state of being blissfully unaware of time, focused only in the moment and free from any concerns frequently drives sales of sporting equipment, leisure activities, and electronically-based games. This experience, called the flow state, can happen when engaging in a wide variety of activities, including learning. Research has shown that if a student reaches the flow state while learning, they learn more and derive greater satisfaction throughout the learning process. This has also been found to be the case for students engaging with digital game-based learning (DGBL) applications. But how do we know if a DGBL player has entered the flow state? Researchers in the fields of instructional design and game design have asked and sought to answer this very question. This study examined the works of these researchers to understand specifically how the flow state was defined and measured in their studies. As a result of this study, researcher guides were created to explain how the learner flow experience and its component dimensions are identified and described, as well as to provide questions that could be posed to students to help evaluate if the flow state was achieved during DGBL gameplay. The goal for these guides is that they will be used as references for future studies of the impact of flow on learning outcomes for DGBL players through providing a common vocabulary and set of assessment items. They also may help encourage and enhance collaboration between instructional designers and DGBL game designers to create effective, enjoyable games for learning.

Teaching and learning mathematical functions and graphs pose significant challenges for teachers and students. Students often have difficulty in understanding a functional relationship between two quantities such as distance and time, temperature and precipitation, and gas price and number of gallons. Teaching students to have quantitative thinking about functions can help them understand the rate of change for complicated functions and later succeed in learning Calculus. Traditional educational methods such as static graph images and some learning tools usually have some limitations. Teaching students the dynamic changes of quantities within the static picture has serious difficulties. Compared to the learning tools, the game-based learning increases interest when students are learning complicated functions. This thesis presents a game-based learning application called Functions Fun, which runs on iPad tablet computers. The game is created to teach / learn the following functions: Linear, Quadratic, Exponential, Logarithmic, Trigonometric, and Polynomial with degrees over four. Each function is covered under a game level. The game setting is a jungle environment. Each game level has its own scene, challenging the player to take an action while teaching a function and its graphical representation. Functions Fun enables students to play and learn functions and graphs in a more effective and entertaining manner. / Master of Science / Teaching functions and graphs plays an important role in mathematics education. Teachers and researchers emphasize the need for students to form the quantitative thinking habits when they are learning different function graphs. This thesis presents Functions Fun, an iPad educational game that aims to help secondary students to understand function graphs by varying two quantities x and y such as distance and time, temperature and precipitation, and gas price and number of gallons. Adventure game is chosen as the game genre and six real-life models related to the following six functions are created: Linear, Quadratic, Exponential, Logarithmic, Trigonometric, and Polynomial with degrees over four. Each function is covered under a game level. The game setting is a jungle environment. Players are rewarded for their accomplishments. Through game effects and animations, students can have a better understanding of how the value changes of variables x and y influence the shape of graphs.