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International Conference on Computer Supported Education

CSEDU 2017: Computers Supported Education pp 300–324Cite as

Uncovering Failures of Game Design for Educational Content (and How to Fix Them)

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 865))

Abstract

More than 800 users from a cross-section of ages and gender were asked about the games they play and what motivates them to play these. The answers were cross-matched with game features. Based on this match and subjective answers of those surveyed, a pattern emerges for the essential ingredients of addictive games across these demographics, as well as an anti-pattern. With the derived pattern and anti-pattern several games and real-world scenarios can be designed and existing ones analyzed. Examples show how the pattern or anti-pattern can be applied and elucidate which key ingredients tend to be missing.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Academic or educational content for our purposes refers to content defined in the context of school.

  2. 2.

    This calculation is based on N-1 Chi-Square test as recommended by [10], using the 2-tailed p-value.

  3. 3.

    https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Science, Cooperative State University of Baden Württemberg, Erzberger Str. 121, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Kay Berkling, Heiko Faller & Micha Piertzik

  2. Divison of Learning Communication and ICT, University of Gothenburg, Forskningsgången 6, 412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Wolmet Barendregt

  3. UCL Institute of Education, UCL Knowledge Lab, University College London, 23-29 Emerald Street, London, WC1N 3QS, UK

    Laura Benton

Authors
  1. Kay Berkling
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  2. Heiko Faller
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  3. Micha Piertzik
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  4. Wolmet Barendregt
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  5. Laura Benton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kay Berkling .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Paula Escudeiro

  2. University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy

    Gennaro Costagliola

  3. University of Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Susan Zvacek

  4. School of Engineering, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, United Kingdom

    James Uhomoibhi

  5. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

    Bruce M. McLaren

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Berkling, K., Faller, H., Piertzik, M., Barendregt, W., Benton, L. (2018). Uncovering Failures of Game Design for Educational Content (and How to Fix Them). In: Escudeiro, P., Costagliola, G., Zvacek, S., Uhomoibhi, J., McLaren, B. (eds) Computers Supported Education. CSEDU 2017. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 865. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94640-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94640-5_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94639-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94640-5

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