Racing Academy: A Case Study of a Digital Game for Supporting Students Learning of Physics and Engineering

Richard Joiner (University of Bath, UK), Ioanna Iacovides (University College London, UK), Jos Darling (University of Bath, UK), Andy Diament (Penwith Further Education College, UK), Ben Drew (University of West of England, UK), John Duddley (Barnfield Further Education College, UK), Martin Owen (Medrus, UK), and Carl Gavin (Manchester Business School, UK)
Copyright: © 2013 |Pages: 523
EISBN13: 9781466642829|DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2848-9.ch026
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Abstract

Racing Academy is a digital game, which is specifically designed to engage and motivate students in science and engineering. The aim of this chapter is to report a case study where the authors evaluated how effective Racing Academy is at supporting students’ learning of science and engineering. The study involved 219 students from five different courses in three further and higher educational institutions. They were given a pre-test a week before they started using Racing Academy. It consisted of an assessment of the students’ knowledge of engineering or physics and motivation towards engineering or physics. A week after they had used Racing Academy, they were given a post-test, which was the same as the pre-test, but it also included a measure of how motivating they found Racing Academy. The project found that after playing Racing Academy there is an increase in students’ knowledge and understanding in all five of the courses in which Racing Academy was used. The students found Racing Academy motivating to play, and 95% thought that Racing Academy was successful. The implications of these findings and the lessons learnt are discussed.
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