An Initial Analysis Of Student Engagement While Learning Engineering Via Video Game

The paper presents data from a multi-year study during which a video game is introduced into a dynamic systems and control course for mechanical engineering undergraduates. The video game, EduTorcs, provides challenges in which students devise control algorithms that drive virtual cars and virtual bikes through a simulated game environment. Elsewhere, the authors presented results showing that students taking the game-based course exhibit a better conceptual understanding of course content. Data on student engagement presented in this paper offer a possible explanation of why. On most measures, students taking the game based course have a more positive experience than students who took the more traditional version of the course from the same instructor before the game was introduced. Data were collected through a technique called the Experience Sampling Method and analyzed through the lens of flow theory.