Ignacio Alvarez

Ignacio Alvarez

Professor and Principal Engineer in Intelligent Systems

Are educational video games all they are cracked up to be

Published in ‘International Journal of Learning Technology’, 2011

Abstract

This paper investigates the benefits of learning from educational video games compared to learning by reading from a text document. The participants were exposed to Lewis and Clark expedition via a video game or text document. During the learning task, playing the game or reading, participants wore a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) device to gather their level of engagement. After the learning sessions, post-experiment questionnaires were used to assess the amount of information retained after each session. The results of this study suggests that the educational video games might not be significantly engaging, and also that learning by reading a handout may be better for retaining information. Furthermore, this paper briefly discusses the BCI device, and how it can be used to measure engagement of the participants.

Key Contributions

  • Research methodology development
  • Experimental design and analysis
  • Technical implementation and validation

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Citation

@inproceedings{andujar2011educational, title={Are educational video games all they're cracked up to be?: A physiological approach for measuring engagement in educational video games vs. conventional learning techniques}, author={Andujar, Marvin and Ekandem, Josh and Alvarez, Ignacio and James, Melva and Gilbert, Juan}, booktitle={eLearn: World Conference on EdTech}, pages={539--544}, year={2011}, organization={Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)} }
Andujar, M., Ekandem, J., Alvarez, I., James, M., & Gilbert, J. (2011). Are educational video games all they're cracked up to be?: A physiological approach for measuring engagement in educational video games vs. conventional learning techniques. eLearn: World Conference on EdTech, 539-544.