Promoting elementary mathematics learning through digital games: Creation, implementation and evaluation of an edutainment game to promote basic mathematical operations

With the advent of new technologies, a new generation of learners named "digital natives" has emerged, consequently the learning styles are continuously and/or improving in order to adapt to the evolving digital environment. Since the 1970's, digital games have expanded to swap "classic" games, and the general public is increasingly becoming addicted. Several authors believe that games because of their characteristics can be used as an effective educational tool. Through integrating a games-based pedagogical activity into a digital environment, it becomes possible to simplify the learning of challenging and more difficult concepts in a joyful activity. Researchers agree that it is not an easy task to learn mathematics. Would it then be less difficult through a games-based approach? Our work focuses on the creation and the implementation processes of an educational game to support learning of elementary mathematics at the primary level. It aims at creating a serious game prototype, following an appropriate instructional design model with well-defined pedagogical objectives, and conducting a systematic evaluation of the prototype both technically and pedagogically. Prior to the creation of the game, we conducted a survey involving 22 Moroccan teachers in primary and secondary schools, having a long teaching experience ranging from 22 to 38 years. 38% of those teachers declare that most students are lacking basic computational and autonomy skills. We then designed, developed and implemented a beta-prototype, that we tested in an under-study class of 32 students, then we compared levels of motivation, autonomy, concentration, interaction, and performance.