Elsevier

Computers & Education

Volume 173, November 2021, 104293
Computers & Education

Effects of a concept mapping-based two-tier test strategy on students’ digital game-based learning performances and behavioral patterns

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104293Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A Concept Mapping-based Two-tier Test Gaming approach was proposed.

  • A quasi-experimental design was applied to examine ninth-grade students.

  • Students' learning motivation, flow experience, and cognitive loads were probed.

  • The proposed approach significantly improved the students' learning achievement.

  • The students' learning behavior patterns were analyzed and compared.

Abstract

This study explored the effects of a Concept Mapping-based Two-tier Test Gaming (CM-TTG) approach on learning achievement. Specifically, the two-tier test was employed as a learning diagnosis tool, and concept maps were utilized as the learning strategies to improve the students' learning achievement. To investigate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a quasi-experimental design was applied to compare the learning achievement, learning motivation, flow experience, and cognitive loads of ninth-grade students using the CM-TTG approach and those using the conventional two-tier test-based gaming approach; moreover, the behavioral patterns of the experimental group and the control group using the different approaches as well as low- and high-achievers in the CM-TTG were analyzed as well. The results of the study showed that the concept-mapping strategy used with the two-tier test digital game-based learning could significantly improve the students' learning achievement. There were no significant differences in the learning motivation, flow experience, or cognitive loads of the two groups. Besides, the average scores of the two groups' learning motivation and flow experience were above 3.0, and those of their cognitive load ratings were below 3.0. It is inferred that the CM-TTG approach did not have a significant impact on the students' cognitive load, learning motivation, or flow experience. However, an examination of the participants' learning behavior patterns in the experimental group revealed that there were distinct differences between high-achieving and low-achieving students, as the former would actively build connections between concept maps and learning tasks to help them achieve the learning goals, while the low-achieving students would feel lost in the game without enforced instructions. Finally, through interviews, we analyzed and synthesized key factors impacting the students’ learning achievements with the CM-TTG approach to serve as a reference for future research.

Section snippets

Author contribution

Feng-Ying Li: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis. Gwo-Jen Hwang: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing. Pei-Ying Chen: Investigation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Yu-Jung Lin: Formal analysis, Software, Data curation.

Digital game-based learning

Digital game-based learning (DGBL) refers to the use of digital games as a means to facilitate learning by integrating learning content into computer games, or to use computer games to achieve educational purposes (Erhel & Jamet, 2013). Perini, Luglietti, Margoudi, Oliveira, and Taisch (2018) noted that DGBL can not only engage learners in procedural learning, but can also deepen their understanding of textbook content so as to solve more complicated problems (Chen & Lin, 2016).

Kiili (2005)

The CM-TTG approach

Using the RPG Maker, which is a role-play game implementing tool developed by the Japanese company Enterbrain in 1992 for making RPGs without programming knowledge, we developed a DGBL system that integrated both concept mapping and two-tier testing. It was used to facilitate student learning of “Food Master” based on the learning content of “Healthy eating habits” in the food additives unit of the Home Economics course for ninth-graders, in which they became familiar with all kinds of food

Participants

The participants were four classes of ninth-grade students from a junior high school in northern Taiwan (between 14 and 15 years old). A total of 97 students persisted through the study. A quasi-experimental design was employed, with 50 students (24 males, 26 females) in the experimental group, and 47 (25 males and 22 females) in the control group. The former adopted the CM-TTG approach, while the latter used the two-tier test integrated DGBL without concept mapping. The students had previous

Learning motivation

The present study employed ANCOVA using the learning motivation pre-questionnaire as the covariate to analyze the two groups' learning motivation. According to the test of homogeneity regression, there was no significant difference between the two groups' questionnaire of learning motivation (F (2, 93) = 2.86, p = 0.06). One-way ANCOVA was then employed. The results are shown in Table 2. The adjusted means and standard error of the experimental group were 3.51 and 0.14, whereas those for the

Discussion and conclusions

In this study, the CM-TTG approach is proposed and a quasi-experiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach in the “Healthy eating habits” course. The results showed that the proposed method improved the students' learning achievement more than the approach. On the other hand, there were no significant differences between the learning motivation, flow experience, or cognitive loads of the two groups. Moreover, the analysis results of the participants’ learning

Acknowledgements

This study is supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under contract numbers MOST-109-2511-H-011-002-MY3 and MOST-108-2511-H-011-005-MY3.

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