The study explored instructional benefits of a storyline gaming characteristic (GC) on learning effectiveness, efficiency, and engagement with the use of an online instructional simulation for graduate students in an introductory statistics course. In addition, the study focused on examining the effects of a storyline GC on specific learning outcomes, i.e., factual, conceptual, and application knowledge. In order to study the interactions between the storyline GC and human performance, a storyline was embedded in an instructional simulation. The goal of the simulation was to engage students in problem solving and data analysis in the context of basic statistics and allow students to practice the newly acquired skills for analyzing real-world examples. The author developed two different versions of the instructional simulation: (1) Simulation+No GC and (2) Simulation+Storyline GC. All versions had the same instructional content but differed in presence or absence of a storyline GC. Sixty-four graduate students with basic statistical knowledge participated in the study. Students were randomly assigned to two intervention conditions: (1) Simulation+No GC, and (2) Simulation+Storyline GC. Each of the intervention groups completed an online instructional module that required approximately two hours for a learner without a substantial background in the subject matter. During the instructional module, participants were engaged in: (1) an online instruction presenting statistics concepts to-be-learned, (2) a pretest assessing students' prerequisite and prior knowledge of the subject matter, (3) a simulation-based practice, (4) a posttest assessing the taught skills and concepts, and (5) demographic and engagement surveys. The results indicated that adding a storyline to a learning simulation did not result in significant improvements in learning effectiveness or efficiency. The analysis of students' performance scores for factual, conceptual and application knowledge did not reveal any significant differences between the interventions as well. However, students' performance from both interventions combined significantly improved from pre- to posttest. Both interventions (simulation and simulation with a storyline) showed significant learning gains related to application knowledge, thus supporting previous research showing a positive effect of simulations and games on developing higher cognitive skills. With regard to engagement, significantly higher engagement levels were observed among the students from the Simulation+No GC than the Simulation+Storyline GC group. The findings of this study suggest that adding a storyline may distract students from an instructional task and pose a higher level of extraneous cognitive load that might be detrimental to learning outcomes. Moreover, students' preferences as well as the nature of the storyline and the storytelling system can affect students' engagement in the learning process. Designing games with adaptive instructional gaming characteristics that reflect students' preferences may improve students' performance and engagement. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / November 14, 2011. / games, gaming characteristics, simulations, statistics education, storyline / Includes bibliographical references. / Tristan E. Johnson, Professor Directing Dissertation; Patrice Iatarola, University Representative; Valerie Shute, Committee Member; Gershon Tenenbaum, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183042 |
| Contributors | Novak, Elena (authoraut), Johnson, Tristan E. (professor directing dissertation), Iatarola, Patrice (university representative), Shute, Valerie (committee member), Tenenbaum, Gershon (committee member), Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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