This paper reports on a game-based learning study conducted in two suburban western Canadian schools. Contextualizing that study, questionnaires and interviews explored students’ prior videogame play habits and prior experience with coding (e.g. using Scratch Jr.). Additional data sources included teacher interviews, and both participant observation and audiovisual recordings of students’ classroom play sessions, to help us understand how at-home play impacted classroom game-based learning activities and outcomes, and to see what students could create using game design software on the Nintendo Switch. We found that nearly all students reported having played with Nintendo Switches prior to the study, meaning students experienced few to no skill barriers to engagement in game-based learning activities, however few participants reported having done any coding in or outside of school. Of interest and importance was in increase in both student videogame experience in general, and girls’ game experience, knowledge and skills in particular. Boys still reported more unregulated video game play than girls, however all girls reported playing video games—an unexpected divergence from previous studies of gender and gameplay. Further, the study found that despite few experiences with coding, most participants were able to use a drag and drop coding interface using the software Mario Maker 2, to create their own games. This study shows how video game play and making in classrooms can contribute to students' design thinking, including understandings how games are designed, what makes them playable, and how to troubleshoot when their designs do not work.
 

Authors:
Jennifer Jenson, The University of British Columbia, Canada
Nora Perry, University of British Columbia, Canada
Suzanne de Castell, Simon Fraser University, Canada

About the Presenter(s)
Professor Jennifer Jenson is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at The University of British Columbia in Canada

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