Game-based Learning in Computer Engineering: A Workshop

Abstract

Gamification has gained popularity in the last years, it is used in primary and secondary schools, as well as in companies and universities (Call, 2021). Along with this growth in popularity the number of available computer tools that facilitate the implementation of quizzes, competitions, simulations, WebQuests etc. has also grown. Play engages students and enhances learning, however not all sorts of games are equally fruitful. As in (Dave Eng, 2019), we make a distinction between gamification and game-based learning (GBL). An example of gamification is a contest where students get points for solving the usual exercises of the subject matter. An example of game-based learning is an escape room where students get involved in studying and solving subject matter problems to get the required hints to continue the game. In this sense, game-based learning is an instance of problem-based learning (PBL) [Lima, 2017]. An interesting reflection on GBL can be found in [Valero, 2018]. The main objective of GBL is to provide an active learning environment, where students need to learn and apply the subject matter in order to participate and eventually solve the game. Compared with frontal lectures, active learning has been shown to provide higher motivation and deeper learning [Call, 2021] [Lopez-Fernandez, 2021]. From a general point of view, we can say that learning takes place in five stages [Bofill, 2007]. Namely: motivation, information retrieval, understanding, application (or practice) and reflection or feed-back. GBL, then, reinforces the autonomous realization of each of these stages. An escape room is a game where players must solve different puzzles and riddles in order to finish the game (in order to escape from the room). Escape rooms have been used extensively in education, since they allow for the organization of subject matter exercises in a pleasant way [Veldamp, 2020].