Learning through Playing: The Relationship between Learning Outcomes and Experiences
Abstract: This study reports on the development of a serious educational game (SEG) entitled HUMUNOLOGY and empirically and preliminarily examines student perceptions toward the use of HUMUNOLOGY and learning outcomes. A total of 65 Taiwanese middle school students participated in this study and a quasi-experimental approach with a one-group pretest/posttest research design was used. These students learned through playing HUMUNOLOGY for two weeks. The results of the paired t test shows that after using HUMUNOLOGY, students performed significantly better on knowledge assessment than pretest (t=-8.21, p<0.01), implying students did learn from playing HUMUNOLOGY. Moreover, the results of the pretest, perceived ease of use, as well as peer learning and help-seeking behaviors were the three positive variables of predicting a student’s learning achievement on the posttest. The only negative one was perceived playfulness.