Customization in educational computer games and its effect on learning: Experimental study with primary school children

Abstract

The instructional effects of customization features in child learning games have rarely been examined. This value‐added study addresses the existing gap with regards to user‐initiated cosmetic customization of environment elements (i.e., non‐avatar customization). Participants (N = 143; Mage = 9.41) studied a biological topic for about 20 min: either using the experimental version of a learning game with customization features, or from a control version without them. Null results were found as concerns between‐group differences: both for motivation‐related variables and learning outcome measures. These findings indicate that user‐initiated cosmetic customization features can be omitted by game designers, especially in settings where children are assigned specific instructional materials from which to study.

Supporting Upper Elementary Students in Learning AI Concepts with Story-Driven Game-Based Learning

“…Game-based learning holds great potential for supporting students with engaging and effective learning experiences, particularly for elementary grade students (Chen, Lu, and Lien 2021). Recent research shows that using educational games significantly improved elementary students' critical thinking skills (Hussein et al 2019a), helped students learn spelling and understand new vocabulary (Javora et al 2021), and motivated students to complete learning activities (Cai et al 2022). A story-driven game-based learning environment has also been investigated for improving students' content knowledge and problem solving in the context of elementary science education.…”

Make It Fun for Everyone!

“…Kim et al [45] agree with this opinion and explain that customization is a very critical sense to enjoyment. Customization will include any color changes to game elements, choice of background pictures, avatar customization but it may also include selection of background music sounds, and other features [47]. Shaw et al [46] do add to this opinion finding that in the context of games, players ability to customize characters leads to greater feelings of presence and psychophysiological indicators of emotion.…”

Barriers and Hindrances to the Effective Use of Games in Education: Systematic Literature Review and Intervention Strategies

“…Despite the potential of GBL, the implementation of these types of interventions in real educational settings has faced multiple barriers and constraints that reduce their possible impact. Barriers related to the cost of equipment (Moizer, et al, 2009), the inequities in access to technology (Hsu, et al, 2011), entertainment risks to education activity (Rowan, 2016;Baalsrud et al, 2013), the available time required to implement games in one day lesson (Justice and Ritzhaupt, 2015;Baek, 2008), teachers gender and their motivation and abilities to deal with technology (Hamlen, 2010;Justice and Ritzhaupt, 2015), lack of game customizations (Embi, 2008;Javora et al, 2021), difficulties to get game analytics and to analyze the student progress (Hauge et al, 2014), educators and parents worried about using games in education (Barko and Sadler, 2013;Koh et al, 2011), are a portion of the constraints caused by the adoption of games in education. To maximize the potential of GBL, it is crucial to identify and address these barriers and develop effective intervention strategies.…”