The design, development, and evaluation of a serious game that gamifies the Apollo lunar exploration missions are presented. The gamification methodology and underlying implementation are motivated by the goal of game-based learning for youth and young adults and the intention to promote their interest in STEM learning. The game is a multidisciplinary composition that simulates a set of lunar roving activities including planning a traversing route, loading communication and science equipment on the lunar rover, and driving the rover to explore the lunar surface. Accurate 3D terrains and spacecraft models are created and used in the game to maintain the high realism of the environment. Every gameplay step reflects real scientific procedures and behaviors that the astronauts performed in the past on the Moon. A usability study is conducted to gather feedback from a group of participants of different ages and with different game experience. The results of the study show the success of fostering great user engagement in STEM learning.
Virtual reality (VR) technologies have opened new possibilities for creating engaging educational games. This paper presents a serious VR game that immerses players into the activities of lunar exploration missions in a virtual environment. We designed and implemented the VR game with the goal of increasing players’ interest in space science. The game motivates players to learn more about historical facts of space missions that astronauts performed on the Moon in the 1970s. We studied usability and engagement of the game through user experience in both VR and non-VR versions of the game. The experimental results show that the VR version improved their engagement and enhanced the interest of players in learning more about the events of lunar exploration.
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