How does an online game based learning environment promote students' intrinsic motivation for learning natural science and how does it affect their learning outcomes?

In this study, mixed research methods were adopted to examine the online game-based learning environment for "Go Go Bugs". The purpose of this study was to determine if an online game-based learning environment can engage and motivate students to learn more natural science by using game features than the control group, which had the same learning environment, but no game features. This experiment examined the engagement by participants' frequencies of returning to the learning environment after school hours, within a time period of two weeks. The results of the comparison of pre- and post- surveys showed significant improvement in increasing participants' interest in learning natural science in a game-based learning environment over that of the non-game-based learning environment. Both quantitative and qualitative results from this study indicated that this game-based learning environment successfully motivated participants in exploring natural science and engaging in the learning activities. However, there was no significant result showing that the game-based learning environment improves students' learning achievement more than with the non-game-based learning environment.

[1]  Edward L. Deci,et al.  The hidden costs of rewards , 1976 .

[2]  James Paul Gee,et al.  What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy , 2007, CIE.

[3]  K. Montgomery,et al.  Children's media culture in the new millennium: mapping the digital landscape. , 2000, The Future of children.

[4]  Steve Jones,et al.  Let the games begin , 2003 .

[5]  Mitchel Resnick,et al.  Moose crossing: construction, community, and learning in a networked virtual world for kids , 1997 .

[6]  D. Perkins,et al.  The Thinking Classroom: Learning and Teaching in a Culture of Thinking , 1994 .

[7]  Nancy Maushak,et al.  Utilizing Edutainment to Actively Engage K-12 Learners and Promote Students' Learning: An Emergent Phenomenon. , 2001 .

[8]  Philip Bell,et al.  The knowledge integration environment: theory and design , 1995, CSCL.

[9]  David Lubar.  It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature!: Computer Wit and Wisdom , 1995 .

[10]  Amy Bruckman,et al.  Community Support for Constructionist Learning , 2004, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[11]  S. Turkle.  Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet , 1997 .

[12]  Eugene F. Provenzo,et al.  Video Kids: Making Sense of Nintendo , 1991 .

[13]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  Toward a Theory of Intrinsically Motivating Instruction , 1981, Cogn. Sci..

[14]  Carol S. Dweck,et al.  Motivational processes affecting learning. , 1986 .

[15]  Lloyd P. Rieber,et al.  Seriously considering play: Designing interactive learning environments based on the blending of microworlds, simulations, and games , 1996 .

[16]  S. M. Arnsten.  Intrinsic motivation. , 1990, The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association.

[17]  Kurt Squire,et al.  Cultural Framing of Computer/Video Games , 2002, Game Stud..

[18]  M. Malbrán.  The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning , 2007 .

[19]  R. Nisbett,et al.  Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the "overjustification" hypothesis. , 1973 .

[20]  Lloyd P. Rieber,et al.  The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning: Multimedia Learning in Games, Simulations, and Microworlds , 2005 .