Teaching Complex Problem Solving Through Digital Game Design

• In Event: Games, Simulations, and Gamified Environments

Abstract

Society is facing increasingly complex problems. Hence, it is essential that learners develop the ability to solve complex, dynamic problems. As a design task, game-design is a promising method of teaching complex problem solving. In this study, students who attended an afterschool game-design course showed significant improvements in their complex problem solving skills, as measured by an interactive microworld (Genetics Lab), system exploration, t(10) = 2.787, p = .019, d=.734; system knowledge, t(10) = 2.437, p = .035, d=.84; system application, t(10) = 2.472, p = .033, d=.746. The results of the current study extend earlier findings where researchers observed game-design to be an effective method of teaching problem-solving skills and add that teaching of complex problem solving is also possible.

Authors

• Mete Akcaoglu, Georgia Southern University

• Philipp Sonnleitner, University of Luxembourg

• Charles Brent Hodges, Georgia Southern University

• Antonio P. Gutierrez, Georgia Southern University