This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)
This engineering education research award to Northern Illinois University will employ researchers to develop and assess the effectiveness of a "minimal" game for use in a sophomore level Engineering Dynamics course. Since virtual reality games and complex simulated environments are interesting to teens and young adults, and game players are motivated to spend time solving challenging complex problems in the games, it is logical to try to create similar environments for engineering education. Although students using games may be more engaged and may learn the material at a deeper level, the specific aspects of complex educational games that are important for improved learning outcomes are not known. The simpler "minimal" game will be developed as an instrument to systematically isolate specific aspects of the video game to determine how and why these aspects improve learning. This research addresses important questions about the effectiveness of games developed for educational use in engineering and will provide guidance for future development. It will contribute significantly to basic understanding of the effects and roles of educational video games which will improve learning and better prepare students for engineering jobs.
