An investigation of game behavior in the context of digital game-based learning: An individual difference perspective

Effects of game-based learning integrated with the self-regulated learning strategy on nursing students' entrustable professional activities: A quasi-experimental study

BACKGROUND

In the field of nursing education, the expertise and knowledge required to perform Leopold's Maneuvers are critical, forming an integral part of Entrustable Professional Activities for nursing students. As a result, mastering Leopold's Maneuvers has become a core component of nursing education. Despite this, the prevailing didactic methods in many nursing courses tend to limit interactive and contextual learning experiences, which can hinder students' ability to engage deeply with the subject matter. This lack of engagement may subsequently affect both the effectiveness of students' learning and students' clinical judgment capacity, essential elements in the competencies of Entrustable Professional Activities.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental design was employed in this study, involving a total of 55 nursing university students, with 28 participants in the experimental group and 27 in the control group. The research incorporated game-based learning integrated with the self-regulated learning strategy, and employed a pretest, posttest, and questionnaires to assess students' learning performance, self-efficacy, and learning motivation. The experimental group participated in game-based learning with the self-regulated learning strategy, whereas the control group experienced game-based learning without the integration of self-regulated learning. Learning performance was analyzed using an independent samples t-test, while Analysis of Covariance was employed to compare the self-efficacy and learning motivation of the two groups.

RESULTS

The findings showed that the integration of game-based learning with the self-regulated learning strategy can significantly improve students' learning performance, self-efficacy, and learning motivation.

CONCLUSION

As an integral part of Entrustable Professional Activities, Leopold's Maneuvers were integrated into an interactive game-based learning environment, coupled with the self-regulated learning strategy in nursing education. This approach aimed at cultivating core competencies among nursing students. This study has demonstrated its efficacy in engaging students effectively, serving as a dynamic resource for immersive learning in Leopold's Maneuvers, aligning well with the design considerations for promoting Entrustable Professional Activities in nursing education.

Comparisons of creativity performance and learning effects through digital game-based creativity learning between elementary school children in rural and urban areas

BACKGROUND

Creativity is an important ability for problem-solving in both personal life and academic learning. Few creativity studies have investigated the development of children's creativity in disadvantaged rural areas or compared the rural-urban differences through digital game-based creativity learning. Understanding such differences can help provide resources for promoting learning equality in creativity.

AIMS

This study aimed to compare the rural-urban difference in elementary school children's creativity performance and their learning effect through digital game-based creativity learning.

SAMPLE

Participants were 261 3rd and 4th graders and 194 5th and 6th graders from 6 elementary schools.

METHOD

Two digital game-based creativity learning systems were employed to conduct a five-class experimental instruction. A creativity test and a questionnaire were also used.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that the urban middle graders, but not the upper graders, outperformed their rural counterparts in the creativity test before game-based learning. Nevertheless, all children got a higher score on the creativity test after the game-based learning, suggesting the employed creativity learning systems could be vehicles for improving elementary school children's creativity. However, the rural children gained less from the learning than the urban children, which may be due to weaker competencies in self-regulated learning. Further studies can employ an inventory to verify this and also consider providing more scaffolding of self-regulated learning to more disadvantaged students during digital game-based creativity learning. Additionally, the results of this study reflect the importance of self-determination and rewards in learning motivation. Appropriate rewards may encourage persistence in taking on challenges.

Evaluating the Feasibility of a Multiplayer Role-Playing Game as a Behavioral Health Intervention in Adolescent Patients With Chronic Physical or Mental Conditions: Protocol for a Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Numerous studies have revealed that adolescents with chronic physical or mental conditions (CPMCs) are at an increased risk for depression and anxiety, with serious direct and indirect negative effects on treatment adherence, family functioning, and health-related quality of life. As game-based approaches are effective interventions in treating anxiety and depression, we propose to explore the use of a multiplayer role-playing game (RPG) as a potential intervention for social isolation, anxiety, and depression.

OBJECTIVE

The objectives of this study were to (1) determine the feasibility of using Masks, a multiplayer RPG, as an intervention for social isolation, anxiety, and depression in adolescents with CPMCs; (2) evaluate the viability of the research process; and (3) gauge participation in and engagement with RPG-based interventions.

METHODS

This study is a remote synchronous game-based intervention for adolescents with CPMCs aged 14-19 years. Eligible participants completed a web-based baseline survey to assess anxiety, depression, and social isolation and to identify their gaming habits. After completing the baseline survey, they participated in 5 moderated Masks game sessions. In Masks, players assume the roles of young superheroes; select their character types, superpowers; and perform actions determined by the game's rule system and dice rolls. All game sessions were played using Discord, a communication platform commonly used by gaming communities. Games were led and moderated by game masters (GMs). After each game session, participants completed surveys to assess changes in anxiety, depression, and social isolation, and their attitude toward the game and the user experience. The participants also completed an exit survey after all 5 game sessions (modified version of the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire, and 17 open-ended questions). The GMs rated each game session and reported on gameplay, player behavior, comfort, and engagement levels of the players.

RESULTS

As of March 2020, six participants were recruited for the pilot study to participate in moderated web-based game sessions of Masks; 3 completed all game sessions and all required assessments. Although the number of participants was too low to draw generalizable conclusions, self-reported clinical outcomes did seem to indicate a positive change in depression, anxiety, and social isolation symptoms. Qualitative analysis of postgame survey data from participants and GMs indicated high levels of engagement and enjoyment. Furthermore, the participants provided feedback about improved mood and engagement related to weekly participation in Masks. Lastly, responses to the exit survey showed interest in future RPG-related studies.

CONCLUSIONS

We established a workflow for gameplay and evaluated a research protocol for evaluating the impact of RPG participation on isolation, anxiety, and depression symptoms in adolescents with CPMCs. Preliminary data collected from the pilot study support the validity of the research protocol and the use of RPG-based interventions in larger clinical studies.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

RR1-10.2196/43987.

The Effect of Digital Game-Based Learning on Learning Motivation and Performance Under Social Cognitive Theory and Entrepreneurial Thinking

This study aims to investigate the effects of students’ learning motivation and learning performance in a digital game-based learning setting and the structure of competition. This study uses Social Cognitive Theory, which emphasizes the bidirectional effects between personal factors, environmental factors, and behavior. We use the emotional state as the personal factor, social support as the environmental factor, learning performance as behavior. We also use self-efficacy and learning motivation as the mediating factors in the model. Data samples were collected from approximately 600 students in junior high schools in Taiwan. The students learned via either application or conventional lectures in three groups. The Control Group (CG) learned the course through a conventional learning approach. The Experimental group 1 (EG1) learned by a digital game, while Experimental Group 2 (EG2) learned through the digital game in combination with a structure that involved competing and entrepreneurship with classmates. The result of this research shows that the emotional state negatively affects learning motivation and self-efficacy, that self-efficacy will positively affect learning motivation, social support will positively affect self-efficacy, and self-efficacy and learning motivation will both positively affect learning performance. In addition, this research certifies previous works that entrepreneurs prefer to be more aggressive in competitions, have a high demand for accomplishment motivation, and are more likely to facilitate competitive over non-competitive environments.

Do technological knowledge and game-based learning promote students achievement: lesson from Indonesia

Continuous managing the quality of education in the Covid-19 pandemic has been a unique challenge, and the government has acknowledged to shift from conventional to screen adopting technology. This research attempts to examine the relationship between technological understanding, game-based learning, and students' achievements. This work engaged a quantitative approach with SEM-PLS to gain a deeper understanding of the connectivity among variables. The participants were senior high school students from several places in East Java of Indonesia. The findings indicate that technological knowledge, educational competence, computer skills play an essential role in supporting technology-based learning. However, this study notes that game-based learning in distance learning cannot act as a mediator in enhancing the students’ achievement. This study offers policy-makers the use of game-based learning in the learning process during synchronous learning using technology.

BiLSTM and dynamic fuzzy AHP-GA method for procedural game level generation

The use of games in daily life, especially in education, has been in an incline during the COVID-2019 pandemic. Thus, game-based learning environments have caused an increase in the need of game contents, but generation of the game contents and levels is a time-consuming and costly process. Generated game contents and levels should be balanced, dense, aesthetic and reachable. Also, the time as well as the costs spent should be decreased. In order to overcome this problem, automatic and intelligent game content and level generation methods have emerged, and procedural content generation (PCG) is the most popular one of these methods. Artificial intelligence techniques are used for procedural game level generation instead of traditional methods. In this study, bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process-genetic algorithm (FAHP-GA) methods were used to generate procedural game levels. This proposed hybrid system was used in a developed educational game as a case study to create game levels. The performance of the proposed study was compared to the other multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, and also further statistical analyses were investigated. The results showed that the BiLSTM-based FAHP-GA method can be used for procedural game level generation effectively.

An Analysis of Game Design Elements Used in Digital Game-Based Language Learning

Considerable changes have occurred in language learning with the introduction of gameful approaches in the classroom and the increase in the popularity of language applications like Duolingo. A review of existing studies on such approaches to language learning shows that gamification tends to be the most popular approach. However, this popularity has been achieved at the expense of other gameful approaches, such as the use of digital games. To gain a clearer picture of the developments and gaps in the digital game-based learning research, this paper examines and categorizes observations about game elements used in published papers (n = 114) where serious and digital games were tested in language education settings. Game element analysis reveals that (1) the most frequently occurring elements in digital game-based language learning (DGBLL) are feedback, theme, points, narrative, and levels; (2) even though there was significant variance in the number of elements observed in DGBLL, both the bespoke and off-the-shelf games show similar high-frequency elements; (3) DGBLL has been applied to vocabulary acquisition and retention in many cases, but lacks implementation and testing in input and output language skills; (4) although there is some consensus on the most frequent elements, the design patterns of common elements according to age group and target language skill show considerable variance; (5) more research is needed on less common design elements that have shown promise in encouraging language acquisition. The synthesis of information from the collected papers contributes to knowledge regarding DGBLL application design and will help formulate guidelines and detect efficacy patterns as the field continues to grow.