Dear colleagues,
I'm conducting a study in order to discuss the research challenges in the process of evaluating educational games. So, I will be happy for the opportunity to discuss with you about the main challenges you perceive about the educational game's evaluation.
Please, let me know, in your opinion, what is the biggest research challenge in the evaluation of educational games?
Hi Wilk
Assuming that your evaluation process is meant to assess the efficiency of the educational game, that is, to what extent the game contributes to reaching a certain learning objective then the biggest research challenge is ensuring that all other possible variables are isolated through an adequate methodology and the only variable that affects the end result is, in fact, the game.
From the outcome point of view player engagement and learning are the two parameters typically evaluated. From the design qualities point of view cohesion between gameplay and content can be evaluated. However I think it would be interesting do a backward study and find out qualities of a successful educational games. This may also bring out aspects such as positioning, promotion and propagation of the game.
I believe that it is especially challenging to design meaningful and theoretically-informed treatment- and control-conditions when evaluating educational games. Instead of comparing a game-based treatment condition vs. a non-game-based "conventional" control condition (which can be a rather fuzzy comparison), it often makes more sense to compare different design-variants of the same game. I recommend to read the following article, explaining different approaches:
Mayer, R. E. (2011). Multimedia learning and games. In S. Tobias & J. D.
Fletcher (Eds.), Computer games and instruction (pp. 281–305). Char-
lotte, NC: Information Age.
Dear Wilk Oliveira dos Santos,
I'm currently researching about educational games evaluation in my PhD.
In my research gate profile you can find our recent results about this research topic.
In addition, our contributions are available here:
http://www.gqs.ufsc.br/meega-a-model-for-evaluating-educational-games/
Regards, Giani.
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