STTR Phase I:Use of Serious Games to Improve Learning Outcomes in Engineering Programs

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase 1 project combines the game-based learning scenario development and business entrepreneurship expertise of Toolwire Inc., with the instructional material development and evaluation expertise of the Laboratory for Innovative Technology and Engineering Education (LITEE) at Auburn University. They worked together to develop a pilot version of an engineering design Smart Scenario that included information on the Challenger STS 51-L case study. This was implemented in introductory engineering classes and an evaluation showed that the students perceived that they learned the subject matter deeply due to the gaming nature of this pilot. This evaluation reinforces results from earlier research that shows that serious games have the ability to improve student engagement, positively affect learning, and help retain students in engineering. This project will design and develop serious games in the four topics of engineering design, communications, ethics, and industrial safety for use in introductory engineering classes. These games will be implemented in introductory engineering classes. The evaluation methodology will use a Presage-Pedagogy-Process-Product-model using control and experimental classes. Data will be collected based on constructs designed to measure the variables in the 4-P model. The intellectual merit of this proposal is that it develops, implements, and tests a set of games that emphasize developing capabilities in addition to content, brings real-world problems into classrooms, uses gaming-technologies to mediate learning, includes assessment methodology in the games, and provides students multiple iterations to learn the concepts, thereby changing the approach to both teaching and learning in an introductory course. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is its ability to directly provide massively effective parallel education in engineering by being scalable to different levels of classes, using compelling scenarios that lead to deep learning, triggering brain chemistry through games that better engages students in learning while being available anytime, anywhere through secure, web-based services. This combination of highly engaging ?active learning by doing? on advanced technology platforms achieves lower costs of delivery, greater long-term adoption of material in workforce development, improved user experiences and lower dropout rates. These serious games produce continuous experiential learning cycles for both students and teachers alike in both classroom and workplace contexts.