58 students from seven public schools participated in the study by playing the learning game FactorReactor.
Recent research from NYU highlights that games can increase student interest in even difficult subjects and making those games ones where students compete can boost their performance.
The research found that students who played competitively tended to answer more math problems and score higher than those who worked together or played by themselves.
“We found support for claims that well-designed games can motivate students to learn less popular subjects, such as math, and that game-based learning can actually get students interested in the subject matter — and can broaden their focus beyond just collecting stars or points,” Jan Plass, NYU professor and one of the study’s lead authors, told Science Daily.
Key Findings
- Students playing competitively solved 45% more math problems than those playing by themselves.
- Students reported enjoying the game more when they played competitively (19% increase) or collaboratively (20% increase).
- All students improved math skills after playing the game no matter whether they played competitively or not.
The research also provides provocative fodder for game designers considering different kinds of game mechanics.
The authors conclude, “Our results demonstrate that game designers need to earnestly consider the differential effects of competitive and collaborative modes of a game in skill fluency development. Although both modes of social play increase situational interest and future intentions to play, only the competitive mode resulted in increases in game performance compared with individual play, whereas collaborative play resulted in the adoption of less efficient problem-solving strategies.”
That is, building games that encourage competition between students sparked better scores within the game than those playing by individually or collaboratively.
The research also contends that learning game designers must guard against becoming too focused on the learning outcome of a game, writing, “This research also highlights that many of the outcomes of learning with game-like environments are of an affective nature and that such affective outcomes of motivation and interest have to be considered in addition to the cognitive learning outcomes of a game.”
Translated into plain English, designers must be sure to be as focused on making the game engaging and interesting if they want to achieve the learning they want the game to convey.
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