The Effectiveness of Massively Multiplayer, Game-Based Learning in Science Education

The University Of Central Florida Board Of Trustees, Orlando FL

Investigators

Abstract

The unpalatable pedagogical experience of large lecture classes may be a significant factor in first year college students dropping out of engineering. Approximately 50% of prospective engineers are weeded out in large lecture courses their very first year in college (Seymour and Hewett, 1997). Students appear to be leaving because they are not engaged in the content. One way to address this problem is to develop and implement technology-based teaching environments that are more engaging and motivating to students, either as a substitute for, or adjunct to, lecture-based instruction. Video games hold promise in this regard because they are inherently engaging and have the potential to be effective teaching tools. Despite the growing popularity of the notion that video games can be used to teach science content, the idea has been subject to little (if any) scientific scrutiny. Hence, we seek in this project to examine the pedagogy that underlies educational games, and begin rigorous testing of a particular gaming format that appears to be promising. Specifically, our purpose is to examine the effectiveness of a massively multiplayer game for teaching college freshman physics concepts. Our main hypothesis is that an engaging multiplayer game can serve as an effective adjunct to traditional teaching methods, resulting in improved learning of targeted materials and enhanced motivation to remain in science and engineering. In addition, we will manipulate various features of the game design itself to determine whether (and how) several theoretically derived propositions about learning apply in this environment. The project will extend a commercial-grade multiplayer physics game that has already been under development for three years, and use it to teach introductory physics concepts to college students. We expect that a game-based approach to physics instruction will result in students learning more physics content, retaining more physics content, becoming more motivated to learn and showing better inclination to study science and engineering. These hypotheses will be tested by experiments conducted in introductory physics classes at the University of Central Florida and through releasing six versions of the game to the public and tracking game play.