A wide variety of media can be used in learning, including distance learning, such as print, lectures, conference sections, tutors, pictures, video, sound, and computers. Any one instance of distance learning will make choices among these media, perhaps using several.

Multimedia in Learning

Computer-assisted learning is known to be an effective tool for improving learning in both adults and children. Recent years have seen the emergence of the so-called ‘serious games (SGs)’ that are flooding the educational games market. In this paper, the term ‘serious games’ is used to refer to video games (VGs) intended to serve a useful purpose. The objective was to review the results of experimental studies designed to examine the effectiveness of VGs and SGs on players' learning and engagement. After pointing out the varied nature of the obtained results and the impossibility of reaching any reliable conclusion concerning the effectiveness of VGs and SGs in learning, we stress the limitations of the existing literature and make a number of suggestions for future studies.

Serious Games as New Educational Tools: How Effective Are They? A Meta-Analysis of Recent Studies.

Via a systematic review of the literature on learning games, this article presents a systematic discussion on the design of intrinsic integration of domain-specific learning in game mechanics and game world design. A total of 69 articles ultimately met the inclusion criteria and were coded for the literature synthesis. Exemplary learning games cited in the articles reviewed and developed by credible institutions were also analyzed. The cumulative findings and propositions of the game-based learning-play integration have been extracted and synthesized into five salient themes to clarify what, how, where, and when learning and content are embedded in and activated by gameplay. These themes highlight: (a) the types of game-based learning action—prior-knowledge activation and novel-knowledge acquisition, (b) the modes in which learning actions are integrated in game actions—representation, simulation, and contextualization, (c) the blended learning spaces contrived by game mechanics and the game world, (d) the occurrence of meta-reflective and iterative learning moments during game play, and (e) the multifaceted in-game learning support (or scaffolding). Future directions for the design and research of learning integration in digital games are then proposed.

Designing and integrating purposeful learning in game play: a systematic review

This paper will review theoretical approaches for research on mathematics-related affect from the 1990s until today. In order to organise this field, a metatheory of the affective domain is developed, based on distinctions along three dimensions: 1) cognitive, motivational and emotional aspects of affect; 2) rapidly changing affective states versus relatively stable affective traits; and 3) the social, psychological and physiological nature of affect. Using ideas from enactivism and other system theories, the third dimension is elaborated. The embodied perspective brings forth on the one hand the evolutionary basis of human affect, and on the other the individual developmental perspective. Classroom microculture and cross-cutting social variables (e.g., gender and ethnicity) are identified as two different ways of theorising the social dimension of mathematics-related affect.

Exploring new dimensions of mathematics-related affect: embodied and social theories

Today serious games are having an important impact on areas other than entertainment. Studies show that serious games have a potential of creating learning environments to better reach the educational and training goals. The game design characteristics and game elements are need to be explored in detail for increasing the expected benefits of the gaming environments. In this study, the effect of competition, one of the design elements of game environments, on learning is analyzed experimentally. The study is conducted with 142 students. The results of this study show that when a competition environment is created in a serious game, motivation and post-test scores of learners improve significantly. The results of this study are expected to guide the serious game designers for improving the potential benefits of serious games. We examine the effect of competition on learning in a game.Competition enhances learning and motivation.As motivation increases, higher accuracy is observed in the game questions.Higher accuracy increases post-test scores.

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The effect of competition on learning in games

This paper presents an educational game in mathematics based on an apprenticeship model using a teachable agent, as well as an evaluative study of how the game affects (1) conceptual understanding and (2) attitudes towards mathematics. In addition, we discuss how collaborative and competitive affordances of the game may affect understanding and motivation. 19 students played the game in pairs once a week during math lessons for 7 weeks (the game-playing group) while another 19 students followed the regular curriculum (the control group). Math comprehension scores increased significantly for the game-playing group but not the control group (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in attitude change between the two groups. Post hoc analyses indicated that game-playing primarily affected students’ confidence in explaining math to a peer, but not their enjoyment of doing so. Collaborative and competitive activities seem to carry a strong motivational influence for students to play the game.

A teachable-agent-based game affording collaboration and competition: evaluating math comprehension and motivation

We use eye tracking as a method to examine how different mathematical representations of the same mathematical object are attended to by students. The results of this study show that there is a meaningful difference in the eye movements between formulas and graphs. This difference can be understood in terms of the cultural and social shaping of human perception, as well as in terms of differences between the symbolic and graphical registers.

Reading mathematics representations: an eye-tracking study

The article reports and discusses a long-term qualitative study of forty 8-10 year old students who regularly played a math game during math lessons for 9 weeks. The goal was to explore the relations between (i) some of the pedagogical principles that underlie the game and (ii) the playing practice in terms of what actually takes place when students play the math game during regular math lessons. The article discusses indications of matches and mismatches between pedagogical principles and playing practice as they appear in analyses of observations and video recordings. The result highlights the difficulty of predicting areas in which possible mismatches appear between the intentions of the pedagogues and designers of educational technology, and the actual use of the technology by the students. This also applies to educational materials that have already been pilot tested and used on a smaller scale. We emphasize the need to observe actual use for extensive periods of time, i.e. to go beyond short-time user testing. (Less)

https://lucs.lu.se/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/lindstrom_gulz_haake_sjoden_journal_2011_proof.pdf

Matching and Mismatching between the Pedagogical Design Principles of a Math Game and the Actual Practices of Play.

How students read mathematical representations: An eye tracking study

We present a new measure for evaluating focused versus overview eye movement behavior in a stimulus divided by areas of interest. The measure can be used for overall data, as well as data over time. Using data from an ongoing project with mathematical problem solving, we describe how to calculate the measure and how to carry out a statistical evaluation of the results.

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Paulina Lindström

Papers

A teachable-agent-based game affording collaboration and competition: evaluating math comprehension and motivation

Reading mathematics representations: an eye-tracking study

Matching and Mismatching between the Pedagogical Design Principles of a Math Game and the Actual Practices of Play.

How students read mathematical representations: An eye tracking study

A method for quantifying focused versus overview behavior in AOI sequences