Save
Email
Print
ShareJuly 8, 2013 — To measure the effectiveness of Monkey Tales, a study was carried out with 88 second grade pupils divided into three groups. One group was asked to play the game for a period of three weeks while the second group had to solve similar math exercises on paper and a third group received no assignment. The math performance of the children was measured using an electronic arithmetic test before and after the test period. When results were compared, the children who had played the game provided significantly more correct answers: 6% more than before, compared to only 4% for the group that made traditional exercises and 2% for the control group. In addition, both the group that played the game and that which did the exercises were able to solve the test 30% faster while the group without assignment was only 10% faster.
The quality of experience was also measured and showed that pupils found Monkey Tales more enjoyable (which was confirmed by a parent survey), that the game was described as being 'fun', 'exciting' and 'fantastic' up to 80% more often than the paper exercises, and that 60% of the children wished to play more, while only 39% wished to solve additional exercises. Broadly speaking, it can be concluded that the game showed better results both in terms of motivation and learning efficiency. Further research should reveal how these additional learning outcomes are achieved by the game. Possible reasons are the continuous feedback players receive during gameplay, that the game is more motivating, that it adjusts the difficulty level to the player or -- more generally -- that it trains additional cognitive skills such as working memory and attention.
Serious games
Serious or educational games are becoming increasingly important. Market research company iDate estimates that the global turnover was €2.3 billion in 2012 and expects it to rise to €6.6 billion in 2015. A first important sector in which serious games are being used, is defence. The U.S. Army, for example, uses games to attract recruits and to teach various skills, from tactical combat training to ways of communicating with local people. Serious games are also increasingly used in companies and organizations to train staff. The Flemish company U&I Learning, for example, developed games for Audi in Vorst to teach personnel the safety instructions, for Carrefour to teach student employees how to operate the check-out system and for DHL to optimise the loading and unloading of air freight containers.
Games in education
The interest in serious games is also growing in education. The underlying idea is that children often have to acquire large amounts of knowledge and master complex skills to be able to play "entertainment games." If educational games could be equally enjoyable or "intrinsically motivating," children would be learning for pleasure. Monkey Tales is a game that was developed according to this philosophy by the educational publisher die Keure and game developer Larian Studios. This three-dimensional adventure game exists in different versions for children from the second to the sixth grade and is designed to practice mental math in a playful way by solving puzzles and mini-games. Until now, no independent scientific research had been conducted into the effectiveness of Monkey Tales however.
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is based on materials provided by Ghent University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
more 
