Effectiveness of Interactivity in a Web-based Simulation Game. Huifen Lin National Kaohsiung Normal University Taiwan

Transcription

1 Effectiveness of Interactivity in a Web-based Simulation Game Huifen Lin National Kaohsiung Normal University Taiwan

2 Introduction o Web-based video/simulation games as a mainstream of leisure life o Edutainment (video) games o Commercially developed games adapted or modified for educational purposes o Interactive and multimodal features in most computer-based games

3 Interactivity o The level and quality of communication between an individual player and the digital gaming system through different forms of activities (Ritterfeld, Shen, Wang, Nocera, & Wong, p. 692, 2009). o Can affect how knowledge is learned (Moreno & Mayer, 2005) n Activate prior knowledge n Facilitate meaningful learning

4 Operational Definition o A dichotomous variable which includes two levels, i.e. interactive versus non-interactive o With the difference being that the former involves communication between an individual player and the simulation gaming system, while the latter does not involve such communication

5 Cognitive Load o Frequently addressed, especially in multimedia based learning o Plays an essential role in determining the effectiveness of instruction o Cognitive load induced by the learning tasks should not exceed a learner s working memory

6 Problem statement o Research conducted on the potential of games on second/foreign language learning is limited o A dual-task approach, i.e. reaction time, adopted in this study, is believed to be able to directly and objectively measure cognitive load o Inclusion of a control group without access to the web-based game

7 Purpose of the study o To investigate to what extent EFL students can learn and recall vocabulary presented in a web-based simulation game based on the level of interactivity between the game and the players. o To explore if the levels of interactivity would have differing effects on cognitive load

8 Research Questions o Is there a relationship between the level of interactivity (interactive versus non-interactive) in a web-based simulation game and EFL vocabulary learning as measured by an immediate vocabulary test? o Does the level of interactivity in a web-based simulation game affect EFL vocabulary retention as measured by a delayed vocabulary retention test? o What is the effect of the level of interactivity in a webbased simulation game on cognitive load? o Was there a difference between the attitudes of players versus watchers of the web-based simulation game?

9 Participants o Forty-six (N=46) undergraduate students (40 males and 6 females, aged 20-23) enrolled in a university of technology in southern Taiwan o Major in information science technology o Speak Mandarin Chinese as their first language o Had received approximately 6 years of formal English as a Foreign Language instruction prior to the study o The language proficiency of the participants is between low and low- intermediate

10 The web-based simulation game overview o A web-based simulation game, Trade Ruler o Developed by the Nobel Prize Foundation o Used to manipulate the effect of interactivity o Reasons for the game selection n the level of English is appropriately challenging for the target participants n the content of the game involves general business concepts; no professional knowledge is required to play the game, so subject matter knowledge that might hinder students playing of the game could be controlled. n The game consists of attractive visuals and sound that embody a typical gaming environment

11 Interactivity in Trade Ruler o Five types of interactivity commonly found in multimodal learning environments: dialogue, controlling, manipulating, searching and navigating(moreno and Mayer,2007) n Dialogue-learners are able to propose enquiries and receive answers or feedback to the enquiries n Controlling- to determine the pace or order of material presentation n Manipulating-learners are able to set parameters for a simulation or move objects around the screen n Searching and navigating-mimic ordinary Internet experience

12 Research settings o Pretest-postest control group design o Participants accessed the web-based simulation game in a laboratory setting. o No time limit was imposed on the gameplay; instead, students were encouraged to play the game for as long as they felt necessary to master the language used in the game. o Students were informed that the purpose of the game-play was to learn English rather than simply playing the game for fun o Each desktop in the laboratory was installed with a screen recording device to track the entire process of the gameplay. Every participant was wearing a headset with a microphone when playing the game.

13 Research procedures o Pretest- General English proficiency test o Treatment groups n Watcher-watched their peers playing the game from a monitor connected to the game-play station. n played the web-based game from a personal desktop. o Posttest n cognitive load questionnaire n an immediate post-treatment English vocabulary test n a delayed vocabulary retention test two weeks later

14 Instruments o Cognitive load measurement n How much mental effort did you invest in playing/watching the game? n How easy or difficult was the game to play/watch? n How much mental effort did you invest in studying the game s language? n How easy or difficult was the game s language to understand?

15 Instruments o English vocabulary test-pilot study n Two EFL instructors were asked to initially play the game and generate a list of vocabulary that they thought appropriate for the participants to learn through the gameplay. n The list of vocabulary was then pilot tested with a group of 10 students n The result of the pilot test suggested that a total of twenty-seven unique words were appropriate for this level of EFL students.

16 English vocabulary test-formal study o Involve 27 words identified from pilot study o Were presented in different randomized order in the two tests o Evaluated via a variety of question types n Definition supply n multiple-choice questions n cloze

17 Attitude Questions o Two 9-point Likert scale questions o Addressing enjoyment and usefulness n Do you like this game (enjoyment)? n Do you think it is useful to learn English through this game (usefulness)?

18 Results 1.Is there a relationship between the level of interactivity (interactive versus noninteractive) in a web-based simulation game and EFL vocabulary learning as measured by an immediate vocabulary test? o the player group outperformed the watcher group in all but the definition supply section of the test. Inferential statistics, however, showed that none of the differences were statistically significant

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20 Results 2. Does the level of interactivity in a web-based simulation game affect EFL vocabulary retention as measured by a delayed vocabulary retention test? o the only significant differences were found in the multiple choice section of the test, t(22)=2.354, p=. 028, Cohen s d = 0.48, CI=-0.11/1.06, showing a small effect. The player group also outperformed the watcher group overall as demonstrated in the total score of the retention test, t(22)=2.489, p=.021; Cohen s d = 0.23, CI=-0.35/0.81, showing a small effect.

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22 Results 3. What is the effect of the level of interactivity in a web-based simulation game on cognitive load? o none of the observed differences reached statistical significance at the.05 level

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24 Result 4. Was there a difference between the attitudes of players versus watchers of the simulation game? o Overall, the watcher group consistently showed more enjoyment of the game and also regarded the game as more useful for learning English than the player group. However, the differences in both questions between the two groups were not statistically significant

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26 Conclusion o o o o Level of interactivity, or physical interactivity as examined in the present study, did affect vocabulary retention but not vocabulary learning This current study did not find an immediate effect of interactivity afforded in a web-based simulation game environment on learning foreign language vocabulary Being able to physically interact with the web-based simulation game in this study did not bring any immediate beneficial effects for vocabulary learning compared to not being allowed to play the game The results revealed no significant differences in any of the types of cognitive load between the player and watcher groups although overall, the players reported more mental effort and difficulties in playing the game and comprehending the game s language than the watchers. Since both groups performed equally in the vocabulary learning test, it seems that the cognitive load created by the two levels of interactivity was similar, and thus resulted in similar performance

27 Discussions o Students might not appreciate game play imposed with a learning purpose-nurturing a positive attitude toward using games for learning purposes and not simply for pleasure o Prior experience or knowledge can be an important factor in an interactive multimodal environment in which various presentations of input compete for the capacity of the cognitive system-pre-training should be given o Sources of language input need to be comprehended before they can be processed, internalized and applied in real communication settings (Gass, 1997)-the provision of supplementary materials