McDowall, S. (2015). What makes learning through games so engaging?Retrieved from http://www.nzcer.org.nz/blogs/what-makes-learning-through-games-so-engaging-written-sue-mcdowall
“Something happens when students start playing games and I want to understand what that is.”
Game designers know what makes digital games engaging and there is a tonne of literature on how games are designed to hook in and motivate players.
Games provide a sense of autonomy and creativity
Students liked the feeling of autonomy they had when playing digital games, with the power they had to shape the direction of their game play.
They liked the perception that they could “influence what happened”.
The opportunities provided by the games to co-construct character and narrative direction seemed to contribute to students’ immersion in the game
Students liked having the power to do things in games that they could not do on their own in their everyday lives,
Associated with students’ sense of autonomy was a sense of creativity.
Games provide challenge
Students found the challenging nature of games engaging.
They observed that games required focus, concentration, and “hard thinking” and that this was part of their appeal.
Games provide purpose
The students we spoke with described having a strong sense of purpose when playing digital games, and of being deeply invested in that purpose.
Students described how the learning they engaged in while gaming often did not feel like learning, because the learning was a by-product of the doing, rather than the end goal. Learning often happened incidentally in the pursuit of the goal.
For some students the goal or purpose was larger than one game. It involved mastering a genre or getting better at games in general. They saw the skills learnt in one game of type of game as transferable to another.
How does learning through games compare with learning through school?
Students described having less autonomy and less choice with their school learning where much of what they were expected to learn, and how they were expected to learn it, was already “set” by the teacher.
Students saw the learning they did when playing games as more active and interactive than the more passive experience of school learning, which often involved listening to teachers.
They liked the way in which they could learn from experience or learn by doing – through trial and error – while playing digital games.
Students saw the learning they did when gaming as incidental to something they were doing. This led to the feeling of not realising they were learning. In contrast at school the learning was the goal.
Students saw the learning they did when gaming as more challenging than the learning they did at school.
They contrasted the “hard thinking” they did when gaming with the more superficial thinking their school work often required. The lack of challenge was what made school work “boring”.
Students did not always seem to understand the purpose of much of their school learning, especially when they experienced skills and content taught in isolation, as ends in themselves.
Students were not always aware of why they were learning them or how the skills and content they were learning would be of use to them. This led some students to conclude that the skills and knowledge being taught at school was “pointless”.
Students saw game learning as involving short term goals that required a gradual increase in skill and knowledge which made learning easier that school learning.
What school learning feels like game learning?
Creative writing, free choice reading, or art – activities that, like games, are more open-ended with multiple ways of making meaning or solving problems.
The learning they did when playing games with the learning they did in science, observing that both required learning through trial and error, and through problem solving.
Gee argues that good games are motivating because of the ways in which they are designed to trigger learning and in ways that are not always available in schools (2013).
Student responses affirm that young people are capable of articulating the features of games that hook them in and maintain their motivation.
“How can we harness that sort of motivation for learning in other contexts?”
Teachers talked about the “hum” of gaming and how to create spaces in the classroom “where the hum can thrive”.
Could we adopt some of the engaging aspects of game play into our classrooms? And what would this look like?