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Effectiveness of using a video game to teach a course in mechanical engineering
ARTICLE

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Computers & Education Volume 53, Number 3, ISSN 0360-1315 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

One of the core courses in the undergraduate mechanical engineering curriculum has been completely redesigned. In the new numerical methods course, all assignments and learning experiences are built around a video/computer game. Students are given the task of writing computer programs to race a simulated car around a track. In doing so, students learn and implement numerical methods content. The design of the course, around a video game, is rooted in commonly accepted theories of how people learn. The article describes a study to assess the effectiveness of the video game-based course. Results show that students taking the game-based course, on average, spend roughly twice as much time, outside of class, on their course work. In a concept mapping exercise, students taking the game-based course demonstrate deeper learning compared to their counterparts taking traditional lecture/textbook-based numerical methods courses.

Citation

Coller, B.D. & Scott, M.J. (2009). Effectiveness of using a video game to teach a course in mechanical engineering. Computers & Education, 53(3), 900-912. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved August 7, 2024 from .

This record was imported from Computers & Education on January 29, 2019. Computers & Education is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.05.012

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