The long-anticipated wait for the results of a year-long game-based learning validation study is finally over, and the findings reveal that calculus game Variant: Limits™ had a positive impact on student engagement, motivation and knowledge acquisition. Teachers from Norway, Poland, Portugal, Italy and Greece recently shared their feedback and observations during a webinar, hosted by European Schoolnet.

Here is the webinar replay:

Teachers involved in the pilot study were charged with implementing Triseum’s Variant: Limits into their classrooms, challenging both themselves and their students to experiment with this alternative educational model. Triseum provided professional development, tools and support for the study.

Outcomes proved the game’s ability to engage and motivate students in ways teachers hadn’t seen before. During the webinar, instructors were asked the following questions and provided some insightful take-aways:

How did you connect Variant: Limits to goals of your lesson plans?

• Students could explore the calculus concepts in pairs, which fostered collaboration.
• Students created their own presentations after experiencing the game, which formalized their understanding of the content and furthered their learning by teaching others.

How did you use Variant: Limits to engage students?

• The game has the ability to draw students in through its attention-holding graphic design. Students self-organized into study groups and initiated a dialog about calculus without being asked to do so.
• Students socialized in new ways (especially quieter students) and built self-confidence.

Were students were more involved in mathematics following the implementation of the game?

• Yes! Students developed an investigative spirit, critical thinking skills and more enthusiasm for calculus.
• Students found that Variant: Limits made practice more fun.

What lessons did you learn from using Variant: Limits in your classrooms?

• The biggest impact was on students whose attention tends to wander and students who don’t typically earn top scores.
• The student vs. game mentality created a positive challenge and students’ skills evolved into long-term mathematical knowledge.

How has your class changed after Variant: Limits?

• Students became more active researchers, learned how to exercise their imaginations, and gained more independence and ownership in the learning experience.
• They now have a solid understanding of how to construct models, test ideas and evaluate results.

Both the executive summary and the complete report, which also followed teachers and students using Triseum’s art history game, ARTé: Mecenas™, are available here. The study was conducted in partnership with Triseum and European Schoolnet and the results were evaluated by the University of Würzberg.

It’s that time of year again, that time when school is winding down and we post summer reading lists so our students stay engaged while working, relaxing, traveling and doing all of the things that summer brings. But summer reading lists are just for students. Summer is the perfect time for us as educators to catch up on those must-reads too.

The sheer number of game-based learning books and resources is on the rise, which is no surprise given the emergence of academic games. Game-based learning can transform the education process through creative, immersive and collaborative experiences. It is the very definition of innovation and it is gaining momentum.

Whether you are just beginning to explore academic gaming trends, making a case for game-based learning at your institution, or using games in your classroom, here are some must reads:

• Game-Based Learning in Action: How an Expert Affinity Group Teaches With Games (Matthew Farber)
• Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to Game-Based Learning(revised edition, Matthew Farber)
• What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (James Paul Gee)
• Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age (Kurt Squire)
• The Game Believes in You: How Digital Play Can Make Our Kids Smarter (Greg Toppo)
• Teacher Pioneers: Visions From the Edge of the Map(Contributors, edited by Caro Williams-Pierce)
• Knowledge Games: How Playing Games Can Solve Problems, Create Insight, and Make Change (Karen Schrier)
• Learning, Education, and Games Series (Karen Schrier)
• Gamify Literacy: Boost Comprehension, Collaboration and Learning (Contributors, edited by Michele Haiken)

Game-based learning is inspiring teachers and students alike. If you have questions about game-based learning, where it works or how you can get involved, let’s connect at info@triseum.com. Stay tuned for my summer reading list part II where I’ll include books and resources centered around game-based learning design.

“Ideas Worth Spreading” – it is the theme of legendary TED talks heard around the world, and it is what inspired my recent game-based learning talk at the TEDx TAMU event, a local version that brought together innovators to discuss, share, explore and connect.

Chances are we all engaged in games early on in our education experiences. Childhood education relies on games to teach and learn, and why not? Games encourage students to try new things, and continue to try until they grasp concepts, not to mention they introduce the element of fun into the learning process.

That said, something happens after Kindergarten when it is decided that games are no longer an effective means, but rather 25 kids sitting in rows with a teacher at the head of the classroom is a better option. This “sage on the stage” model carries through post-secondary education, but instead of 25 kids, we’ve got hundreds of students sitting in large lecture halls in colleges and universities around the world. Effective? Engaging? Motivating? Fun? While I’m not a doctor or psychologist, I think not. Yet this has been the norm for far too many years to count.

Our world is changing. Technology is introducing new and more modern ways to do things. So why are so many classrooms still reliant on the old ways?

There are the naysayers who will argue games don’t belong in the classroom. I don’t prescribe to that. Games are not out to replace the teacher or the tradition, they are simply another medium, like books, videos and study guides designed to help students master a subject. Yet, games bring deeper context to the student. Research tells us games are effective, and students tell us that they are engaging, motivating and fun.

Games have the power to drive subject matter mastery. An example that I think paints a great picture is a 100 meter dash. Imagine you are running a race, and you stop at the 90 meter mark. You don’t finish the race, and in fact you don’t even place because you don’t finish. Yet you completed 90 percent of the track. Now consider this – 90 percent still gets you an A in the classroom. In the real world, we don’t do things at 90 percent, so why is this an acceptable measurement in education?

Let’s explore the effectiveness of games. An IRB approved research study with Triseum and Texas A&M University in Fall 2016 showed that after approximately two hours of playing our art history game, ARTe: Mecenas, students in the experimental group had a knowledge gain of 24.7 percent from pre-test to post-test. That’s almost a 25 percent improvement, and the only differentiator was the game.

In another informal study conducted by a math teacher in Italy, her students played our calculus game, Variant: Limits, and achieved a 100 percent success rate, compared to the previous year’s class who had an 80 percent success rate. Of this year’s students, no one failed, and they even experienced an average grade growth rate of 10 percent compared to students from a year ago. Effective? I think so.

How about the engagement and motivational factors when it comes to games? We have found that when students are assigned our games as homework, they play an average of 10 times between 2-4 hours each time. You would be hard pressed to find another kind of homework assignment that students are so willing to do and even repeat again and again.

I also had a student tell me that she hated calculus. She was paying a tutor $300 per month to keep her engaged and learning. After playing Variant: Limits, her entire attitude shifted. She couldn’t believe how much fun she was having learning. It changed the entire way she looked at math.

There are so many stories just like this, stories of improved learning outcomes, stories where students just can’t get enough of their homework, and stories where students have truly transformed they way think about their courses and their potential for success.

We all start our educational journeys with games, yet that time seems to be short lived. Games have the power to transform the way we teach and learn throughout our advanced years too. Games add value to the learning process. They are effective, they are engaging, they are motivating and they are fun. Now that’s an idea worth spreading.

To listen to my full TEDx Talk, please visit: https://www.tedxtamu.com/andre-thomas. 

STEM Discovery Week has wrapped, and what an inspirational celebration of science, technology, engineering and math it was! The buzz and excitement were fantastic. Specifically, the event gave us an opportunity to build on the game-based learning dialog and the contributions it is making to STEM education.

In case you didn’t have a chance to tune in to “It’s a game changer! How to motivate and engage students with game-based learning,” the replay is available here. I was thrilled to be joined by Panagiota Argyri, author, mathematics teacher and Game-Based Learning Teacher of the Year award winner. Not only were we able to show the impact games are having on the teaching and learning experience, but it also opened up an important conversation with faculty.

I believe one of the biggest take-aways when it comes to game-based learning is its emphasis on interactivity. For the last 100+ years, education has been reliant on the “sage on the stage” mentality where students are forced to absorb information rather than apply it. Games, on the other hand, emphasize the practice of learning by doing.

This concept of active learning was part of Panagiota’s discussion, where she highlighted her experience utilizing Variant: Limits, our calculus game, in the European Schoolnet Game-Based Validation Study. In addition to learning by doing, she noted that the game hit all of the theories she believes impact the learning process, including motivation, cultivation of self confidence, productive and analytical thinking, and increased knowledge.

What was really fascinating to us was the Q&A portion of the webinar where faculty seemed eager to pursue and confirm the game-based learning process. I’d like to share some highlights from our dialog.

How are games used in the teaching process?
We have seen numerous teaching models that incorporate games. At Triseum, we don’t necessarily prescribe a specific approach to teachers, rather the game is another tool for them to use to engage students in the content. Some teachers assign our games as homework, others use them in the classroom. We even have instances where the game has become the center of the class, much like a book, but far more interactive. In all of these scenarios, our games are giving teachers another avenue to connect with their students in whatever way they think is the most productive.

How much time should be spent playing games?
To this question, I respond, how much time should your students spend on homework? The answer is likely different for each and every student. I believe they should play for as long as it takes them to master the subject. For some students, this might be 10 minutes, and for others it might be 2 hours. We have seen instances where students play for far longer than they are assigned because the game was so engaging and fun. To this, I ask the question should we ever limit the time students spend learning and mastering a subject, especially when it is of their own choosing?

How do games affect teacher/student interactions?
I think we can all relate to our students coming in to class wanting to talk about a Facebook post or the latest Game of Thrones episode, but when games are part of the equation, now we are seeing students coming into class wanting to talk about the subject matter itself. For me as a teacher, there is nothing more powerful than a student coming into class excited about the subject, wanting to relive their interactions with it the night before. Students are becoming so much more engaged as a result of games. Keep in mind that most students don’t consider themselves to be gamers, but 97% of students play games for 4+ hours each week. Game-based learning gives them an opportunity to learn via a medium that they are already comfortable with, which in turn keeps them thinking about the content, asking questions and initiating conversations.

How is student feedback measured in a game?
We have tools in place to measure learning. For example, Panagiota mentioned that after playing Variant: Limits, her students had increased their mathematical knowledge and were also prepared to solve math problems that were 2-3 levels higher than their current curriculum. While that is instrumental to our mission, we also spend a great deal of time surveying students to find out if our games are fun and if they are enjoying this method of learning. Panagiota also shared some positive feedback from her students who had engaged with Variant: Limits. Students told her they nearly forgot they were learning and they thought that learning through experience was better than trying to understand theory. One student also remarked that the game helped develop her critical thinking, imagination and deductive skills.

Without a doubt, game-based learning is gaining momentum, and we can’t wait to see where it takes us!