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Is Less Actually More? The Usefulness Of Educational Mini-games

Is Less Actually More? The Usefulness Of Educational Mini-games
Is Less Actually More? The Usefulness Of Educational Mini-games
Interest in educational gaming is on the rise once again, and particular interest has started to peak in the area of lightweight educational mini-games. But are these games really as useful as people suggest, or are they simply too shallow to convey sufficient pedagogical meaning? And how do we assess how well these games measure up as educational resources? This paper first generates a “conclusive” list of educational requirements from a structured review of other researchers proposed requirements. It then presents details of the three most interesting educational mini-games taken from an investigation of around 30. Whilst some games were able to offer immersive, curiosity-provoking experiences full of relevant information, many of the games were shallow, formulaic, and lacking in information. Finally, conclusions and future work are proposed, including the packaging of mini-games into compendia to add depth, the use of mini-games in blended learning scenarios, and mechanisms to harvest the relatively simple player interactions to assist learner assessment. These findings aim to help educators make a more informed decision as to whether these games are right for their educational aims.
minigames, gaming, education, learning
Frazer, Alex
66c98099-aae4-47f1-ade1-b6bec4a072f8
Argles, David
7dd3d276-b2b2-4fb2-a0e8-4058bb01fc37
Wills, Gary
3a594558-6921-4e82-8098-38cd8d4e8aa0
Frazer, Alex
66c98099-aae4-47f1-ade1-b6bec4a072f8
Argles, David
7dd3d276-b2b2-4fb2-a0e8-4058bb01fc37
Wills, Gary
3a594558-6921-4e82-8098-38cd8d4e8aa0

Frazer, Alex, Argles, David and Wills, Gary (2007) Is Less Actually More? The Usefulness Of Educational Mini-games. The 7th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, Niigata, Japan. 18 - 20 Jul 2007.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Interest in educational gaming is on the rise once again, and particular interest has started to peak in the area of lightweight educational mini-games. But are these games really as useful as people suggest, or are they simply too shallow to convey sufficient pedagogical meaning? And how do we assess how well these games measure up as educational resources? This paper first generates a “conclusive” list of educational requirements from a structured review of other researchers proposed requirements. It then presents details of the three most interesting educational mini-games taken from an investigation of around 30. Whilst some games were able to offer immersive, curiosity-provoking experiences full of relevant information, many of the games were shallow, formulaic, and lacking in information. Finally, conclusions and future work are proposed, including the packaging of mini-games into compendia to add depth, the use of mini-games in blended learning scenarios, and mechanisms to harvest the relatively simple player interactions to assist learner assessment. These findings aim to help educators make a more informed decision as to whether these games are right for their educational aims.

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More information

Published date: 2007
Additional Information: Event Dates: July 18-20, 2007
Venue - Dates: The 7th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, Niigata, Japan, 2007-07-18 - 2007-07-20
Keywords: minigames, gaming, education, learning
Organisations: Web & Internet Science, Electronic & Software Systems

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 264175
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/264175
PURE UUID: 222ef67c-ccd2-4d2e-bbc4-b498cf2e2c13
ORCID for Gary Wills: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-5771-4088

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Jun 2007
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:51

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Contributors

Author: Alex Frazer
Author: David Argles
Author: Gary Wills ORCID iD

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