title: Learning by gaming - evaluation of an online game for children.
abstract: Playing computer games is widely popular among children and teenagers as an entertainment activity; meanwhile, playing computer games also provides a learning opportunity. For example, the rules of the game have to be learned by the player in order to improve his/her performance. Based on that principle, the City eHealth Research Centre (CeRC) developed a web game for 13-15 year olds, whereby the player becomes an investigator who attends the scene of an incident that involves microbes. There are four missions in total, each involving a mystery that the player needs to solve and learning objectives that need to be taught - such as antibiotic resistance and the importance of hygiene. This paper presents the results from a game evaluation that took place between July of 2009, in four UK schools (Glasgow, Gloucester, London), with 129 students; whereby 98% of the students commented positively about playing the game. Subsequently, CeRC has improved the game and developed an interactive educational games portal (www.edugames4all.com) for different age groups of web game enthusiasts.
authors.affiliation: City eHealth Research Centre (CeRC), School of Community and Health Sciences (SC&HS), City University London, Northampton Square, UK. lisa.lazareck@city.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lisa J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Lazareck
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Farrell
authors.forename: Patty
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kostkova
authors.forename: Donna M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lecky
authors.forename: Cliodna A M
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: McNulty
authors.forename: Dasun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Weerasinghe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000465:Algorithms; D002648:Child; D003140:Communicable Disease Control; D004352:Drug Resistance, Microbial; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007858:Learning; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D011381:Programming Languages; D012984:Software; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods; D006113:United Kingdom; D018910:Video Games