The effect of uncertainty on learning in game-like environments

Abstract

Considering the role of games for educational purposes, there has an increase in interest among educators in applying strategies used in popular games to create more engaging learning environments. Learning is more fun and appealing in digital educational games and, as a result, it may become more effective. However, few research studies have been conducted to establish principles based on empirical research for designing engaging and entertaining games so as to improve learning. One of the essential characteristics of games that has been unexplored in the literature is the concept of uncertainty. This study examines the effect of uncertainty on learning outcomes. In order to better understand this effect on learning, a game-like learning tool was developed to teach a database concept in higher education programs of software engineering. The tool is designed in two versions: one including uncertainty and the other including no uncertainty. The experimental results of this study reveal that uncertainty enhances learning. Uncertainty is found to be positively associated with motivation. As motivation increases, participants tend to spend more time on answering the questions and to have higher accuracy in these questions.

Introduction

One of the serious problems in education is the failure of schools to motivate students (Lepper, Sethi, Dialdin, & Drake, 1997). Learning tasks in schools have been criticized to be boring, too easy, or decontextualized (Miller & Backman, 2004; Salomon & Perkins, 1998). In order to motivate students, serious games have been used for educational purposes for decades. Considering this potential of games, educators have been keen on creating more game-based learning environments (Dickey, 2005). In addition, computer and video games are suggested to increase the motivation and engagement of players because they include elements such as play, fantasy, curiosity, challenge, competition, cooperation, and learner-control (Barab, Thomas, Dodge, Carteaux, & Tuzun, 2005; Cordova & Lepper, 1996; Malone, 1981). However, insufficient research has been conducted to examine the effect of these individual elements on motivation and learning. One of the features of games that has yet remained unexplored is uncertainty (Howard-Jones & Demetriou, 2009). Studies in the literature show that uncertainty increases the level of engagement (Howard-Jones & Demetriou, 2009). Nevertheless, to our knowledge, no study has examined the impact of uncertainty on learning and the causal relationship between uncertainty and learning outcomes. For this reason, this study attempts to better understand this effect on learning in game-based environments. In the following section, literature review on games, flow theory, motivation, indicators of motivation in game-based learning, and uncertainty are covered.