Abstract

Despite some ongoing debates over the positive or negative impact of digital games, educational games are powerful tools to increase engagement and improve learning outcomes. Scientific concepts about the weather are complicated for younger learners and deep learning often requires long-term cultivation. This thesis presents a novel interactive educational simulation called the Science of Meteorology with Interactive Learning Experience (SMILE). In it, students interact with a touchscreen monitor to change weather conditions and learn about clouds and weather science. The relationship between engagement and learning outcomes and the effectiveness of the experience is evaluated using a formal user study. Online data collection was completed after IRB approval during the summer of 2020 with 23 students between the ages of 8 and 12. Student knowledge of clouds and weather science was tested via 12 related questions before playing with SMILE. Furthermore, the impacts of the designed simulation on engagement level were evaluated by the Game Engagement Questionnaire (GEQ), including 19 questions developed by Brockmyer et al. (2009). This study showed a significant improvement in student knowledge where the average of test scores increased 57% for the post-test. The findings show that GEQ needs some modification to measure engagement in different game genres and for different age ranges.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2021

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Murray, John

Degree

Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

School of Visual Arts and Design

Degree Program

Emerging Media; Digital Media

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0008526; DP0024202

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0024202

Language

English

Release Date

May 2021

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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