Understanding Learning Engagement During Game Play: A Theory- and Data-Driven Exploration

• In Event: 33.026 - Learning and Engagement Through Gaming

Abstract

Questions remain about how play and learning engagements occur cohesively within a learning game setting and how we conceptualize the motivated process of learning engagement during game play. In this analytical paper, the exploration on game-based learning engagement followed an iterative, two-stage process. The first stage was theory-driven. The literature on motivations of play, game and cognitive engagement, and game-based learning is reviewed and analyzed. Discussions related to a theoretical understanding of how learning engagement is activated and sustained during game play were distilled. The second stage was data-driven. An in-situ, descriptive case study was conducted to further examine various affective and cognitive facets of learning engagement during students’ game-play experience.

Authors

• Fengfeng Ke, Florida State University

• Kui Xie, The Ohio State University

• Ying Xie, Northern Illinois University