Digital Game Making and Game Templates Promotes Learner Engagement in Non-computing Based Classroom Teaching

This paper outlines an intervention utilising digital game making as a teaching delivery method for curriculum-based learning. Research has demonstrated that digital game making can provide a powerful means of engaging learners by leveraging the popularity of video games and can be particularly effective at engaging the unengaged, including those with learning difficulties. Past work has tended to focus on smaller scale, specific evaluations and not examined the potential of digital game making in subject based teaching in real settings. This work seeks to address this gap by defining a digital game making intervention that utilises game templates to teach United Kingdom based curriculum topics. Four schools were recruited who provided seven classes of students (N = 157) to take part in the study; these included mixed ability classes and two classes comprised of learners with Special Education Needs and Disabilities. In conjunction with teachers, digital game making sessions were scaffolded around game templates. These were implemented into teaching practice to deliver a curriculum topic taught over an eight-week period. An evaluation strategy was developed that utilised a mixed methods approach to evaluate learner engagement, collaboration and inclusion across sessions. This included quantitative data captured using an in-class observation tool, and teacher interviews yielding qualitative data analysed using Thematic Analysis. This paper provides an initial exploration and evidence that digital game making can be used to teach a number of topics outside of computing. Findings from analysed data demonstrate that such approaches provide more engaging and inclusive learning experiences in the classroom.