Evaluating the Learning Process: The “ThimelEdu”
Educational Game Case Study
Stamatios Papadakis
1a
, Apostolos Marios Trampas
2
, Anastasios Kristofer Barianos
2
,
Michail Kalogiannakis
1b
and Nikolas Vidakis
2c
1
Department of Preschool Education, Faculty of Education, University of Crete, Greece,
2
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, Heraklion, Crete, Greece
mkalogian@uoc.gr, nv@hmu.gr
Keywords: Game-based Learning, Serious Games, eLearning, Learning Process, ThimelEdu.
Abstract: Digital games are an important part of most adolescent’s leisure lives nowadays and are expected to become
the predominant form of popular culture interaction in our society. Many educators see digital games as
powerful motivating digital environments, due to their potential to enhance student engagement and
motivation in learning, as well as an effective way to create socially interactive, constructivist learning
environments and educational processes based on each learner’s needs. The present work focuses on how
students acquire knowledge about the subject of the Greek ancient theatre through an interactive 3D serious
game, compared with the traditional teaching process.
1 INTRODUCTION
Our century is characterized by the continuous
growth of technology and integration of new and
robust technological achievements in our everyday
lives (Kalogiannakis & Papadakis, 2019). From
health and science, to houses, people are using
technology and computers for progressively simpler
tasks. These robust changes have affected education
and the way educational process happens,
dramatically changing the view of traditional
teaching classes.
Over the last years, an increasing demand for
serious games has developed. Educational systems
around the world, have transformed their processes,
adopting the game-based learning model (Vidakis et
al., 2019; Vidakis, Barianos, Xanthopoulos &
Stamatakis, 2018). As part of the educational use of
ICT, digital games become learning tools, motivators
and generators of curiosity and as a result an effective
means of optimizing student learning and
performance in daily educational practice (Papadakis,
2018).
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3184-1147
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9124-2245
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0726-8627
Researches have concluded that educational
material that is presented through interactive games,
increases learner’s engagement and awareness for the
educational process itself (Kalogiannakis, Nirgianaki
& Papadakis, 2018). It is less possible for a student to
renounce an educational process that motivates him.
For instance, a primary school learner is more excited
to learn historical events through a virtual
environment with amusing graphics, animations and
multimedia, rather than paying attention on the
traditional classroom’s blackboard or reading from
his textbook.
Additionally, as digital games are an important
part of most adolescent’s leisure lives nowadays, they
are expected to become the predominant form of
popular culture interaction in our society. Many
educators see digital games as powerfully motivating
digital environments because of their potential to
enhance student engagement and motivation in
learning, as well as an effective way to create socially
interactive and constructivist learning environments
(Papadakis & Kalogiannakis, 2018).
The development of serious games that present
educational material, can also help educators to create
290
Papadakis, S., Trampas, A., Bar ianos, A., Kalogiannakis, M. and Vidakis, N.
Evaluating the Learning Process: The “ThimelEdu” Educational Game Case Study.
DOI: 10.5220/0009379902900298
In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2020) - Volume 2, pages 290-298
ISBN: 978-989-758-417-6
Copyright
c
2020 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
motivating, in and out of class, educational and
assessing processes and therefore change old-
fashioned exams and tests procedures. Furthermore,
the evolution of portable devices has made it possible
for learners to be part of an educational process from
their homes, libraries and other study or leisure
locations.
Our work focuses on the use of a serious game in
a school class and its impact on student’s knowledge
compared to traditional teaching procedures. Students
were asked to play a 3D interactive serious game
called “ThimelEdu” (Vidakis et al., 2018; 2019).
Through interaction with the 3D environment and its
objects, students were taught about the Greek ancient
theater. The educational material is presented through
text, videos, questionnaires and images while
students can navigate through the material using a 3D
environment.
The rest of the paper is structured in the following
sections: (a) background work presenting basic
features about game-based learning and serious
games, their results on the educational process and
therefore on how students acquire knowledge, (b) an
experiment where the traditional educational
procedure is compared to the game- based learning
model for the subject of the Greek ancient theater and
its findings, (c) .
2 BACKGROUND
There is a growing appreciation that the conventional
approach to the process of teaching does not address
the social, emotional, mental and motivational needs
of the new generation (Papadakis, 2018). The robust
and continuous growth of technology has made
students willing to use different technologies in
ordinary usage. As Prensky mentioned, today’s kids
belong to the category of digital natives, comfortable
with the digital age (Prensky, 2001a). In this
perspective, the Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) are nowadays a trend in the field
of education. The use of computer systems, computer
applications, and ever more smart devices like
smartphones and tablets during the learning process,
has institute new standards in the way that students
acquire and retrieve knowledge. As Prensky stated,
students nowadays have developed assorted
perspectives, in relation with non-computerized age
students, and thus educational process needs to adjust
to the requirements of this digital age (Prensky,
2001a; 2001b). Especially, the popularity of gaming
in the dominant culture of the new generation has
spurred the interest of the educational community,
with several educators and researchers seeking
different approaches for using digital games in the
classroom environment (Kalogiannakis & Papadakis,
2019).
Under those circumstances, the field of eLearning
achieves traction and improvement day by day. The
rationality, as well as the functionality of eLearning
environments, has made it possible for teachers to
provide and deliver knowledge and educational
content to students across the globe, addressing the
problems of distance and time (Gaur, 2018). The
learning process through an eLearning environment
can be achieved either synchronously, where the
educational material is delivered in real time and
educators and students can interact with each other,
or asynchronously where there is no need for
educators and students to be online at the same time
and the material is stored and always accessible
(Hrastinksi, 2008).
However, classic eLearning environments have
shown their own issues. Lack of awareness and
boredom has been observed through monitoring of
students during an educational process with a
classical eLearning module (Erhel & Jamet, 2013).
The information overload, the lack of practice
opportunities, as well as the lack of motivation
present at sometimes, are some of the reasons that a
student can easily and quickly fall behind in an online
educational process. There is a point where the field
of “Game based learning”, can oversee this above-
mentioned obstacle and provide an immersive
learning experience in a virtual environment where
learners can acquire knowledge in a recreative way.
2.1 Game-based Learning
Over time, educators concluded that repeated or
periodical exams do not successfully evaluate a
learner’s grip of a subject and its application. Digital
games are gaining wide recognition as an effective
way to create socially interactive and constructivist
learning environments (Papadakis, 2018). Alternative
teaching methods, like serious games and virtual
worlds, are trying to replace the existing conventional
teaching processes. This is a shift that is going on at
an enduring pace over the past years. For the
eLearning environments, there are needs of
significant changes and they must be capable to
provide new features, in order to keep learners fully
engaged with the educational process. One of those
features is the digital game - based learning, able to
deliver educational material through interactive
games through increased entertaining as well as
relaxing methods (Prensky, 2001b).
Evaluating the Learning Process: The “ThimelEdu” Educational Game Case Study
291
In order to define an educational activity as a
game, Teed & Manduca (2004) proposed the
following:
a) Competition: Each game is consisted of some
essential characteristics. One of them is the
scoring. Players/learners are trying to complete
tasks in order to gain score and therefore are
inspired to upgrade their performance.
Moreover, through games, learners cooperate to
complete tasks that rise through gameplay.
b) Engagement: The gameplay’s graphics,
animations, music together with the appropriate
storytelling, makes learners / players engaged
with the game and excited. Thus, it is less likely
to give up until the whole game is over.
c) Rewarding: Players and therefore learners get
energized when a game rewards them with points
for completing a task.
Based upon those motives, game-based learning
utilizes the use of game mechanisms, in the context
of non-game concepts. Students can easily engage
with gaming environments, that combine multimedia
with different educational materials. Moreover, they
can revise educational material by playing a specific
part of the game multiple times. The concept of game-
based learning was developed with the philosophy of
providing the educational material through an
entertaining and relaxing game, so students can
acquire knowledge, retrieve it and manipulate it in an
appropriate way to solve real world problems
(Mouaheb, Fahli, Moussetad & Eljamali, 2012).
Comparing traditional with game-based learning,
it is clearly noticeable that (a) students’ awareness for
the subject, (b) the ways that acquire knowledge and
apply the subject in the real world are elevated with
game-based learning approach and that game-based
learning heads off a new era beyond the traditional
learning.
Table 1 Comparison between traditional and game-based
learning (Jaypuriya, 2016).
Traditional
Learning
Game-
Based
Learning
Cos
t
Low
p
h
y
sical liabilit
y
Traditional assessmen
t
Deepl
y
en
g
a
g
emen
t
Apply knowledge in real
worl
d
roblems
Feedbac
k
and response
Knowledge acquisition is
b
ased on the learne
r
itself
Learners are willing to learn more and more if the
material is presented in an exciting and interactive
manner instead of traditional paper and white board
ways. Moreover, playing educational games cannot
take place only inside the classroom but learning
sessions can move outside the classroom as well.
Learners can play games anywhere desired without
spatial boundaries. Nowadays, with the rise of smart
devices, cloud computing and game technology, the
development of classrooms and learning sessions
outside traditional classes is an easy task. Games have
incorporated, traditional and innovative assessment
procedures while learners are engaged in assessment
before, during and after the learning session with the
educational game.
2.2 Serious Games
As discussed so far, there is a need for developing
classes that deliver the educational context through
interactive games, on which the whole educational
process will be based. Those games are called serious
games. By definition, serious games are educational
interactive games with primary objective to educate
and train and secondly to entertain (Vidakis,
Syntychakis, Kalafatis, Christinaki & Triantafyllidis,
2015). Industries such as military, health, science,
education and even politics, are using serious games
as the origin of their instructive process. Since this
work is discussing the computerized age, we will
limit our thoughts to the field of “Digital serious
games” in education.
As stated before, game-based learning makes
learners engaged in the educational process and
increases their interest and curiosity about the
educational material. Serious games provide an
interactive environment, consisting of graphics,
multimedia, actions, animations, sounds etc.,
visualizing the educational content in an exciting and
amusing way, rather than the traditional black board
in the classroom (Vidakis et al., 2018). By those
means, the term “Edutainment” has come up.
Edutainment uses principles to link education and
learning with entertainment, changing the classical
nature of the educational process.
Games’ industry nowadays is growing and
provides multiple devices capable for playing games.
From computers, to game consoles like PlayStation
or Xbox, to smart devices, like smartphones and
tablets (Vidakis et al., 2019). In the field of
education, it is easier for learners to be part of an
educational process based on a serious game, since
they are, as Prensky stated, digital natives, as they
have easy access on plenty of the mentioned devices
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(Prensky 2001a; 2001b). Also, the fact that today’s
learners have grown up in a digital and computerized
era makes them familiar with different aspects of
technology and capable to use them fluently.
Serious games consist of five fundamental
elements (Mautone, 2008):
Element-A) Structure and Rules. Game’s structure,
rules and boundaries, allow learners to
face the consequences for adhering to
them. Factors like directions,
interactions, activities, rewards and
penalties, configure an environment that
provides different possible solutions for
different goals.
Element-B) Gamification: Scoring, feedback given
to learners for their pace to reach a goal.
It varies from a straightforward
affirmation that a specific activity or
decision was correct, to information
about what learners need to improve.
Element-C) Tasks and challenges: Different possible
difficulties that learners have to face in
order to complete a task and reach the
required goal. Thus, learners are
motivated to improve their skills and
even more compete with other learners.
Element-D) Instructional Support: Assists learners
how to gain knowledge from the game,
practice and what the learning outcomes
will be.
Element-E) Aesthetics: Visuals, graphics,
animations, storytelling, role-playing
and imaginary stories, excite and engage
learners with the educational material.
However, for serious games to have an added value
on the educational process, they must be coupled with
an instructional strategy that engages, explores,
explains, elaborates and evaluates (Hirumi &
Stapleton, 2009).
Serious games can deliver knowledge via an
amusing environment. Their components enable
learners to interact with the educational material and
gain or augment existing knowledge. The whole
educational process has turned from teacher based to
student based, where students are trying to acquaint
with a subject by their own perspectives.
2.3 Cultural Heritage Serious Games
In the present work, we focused on the cultural
heritage serious games, and more specifically for the
Greek ancient theater and the impact that it has in
students gaining of new knowledge. Places of cultural
heritage are presented to the audience through virtual
worlds and tours, for instance a museum’s virtual
tour. Based on this, serious games are able to engage
audience with the virtual material and the educational
content in an amusing way (Vidakis et al., 2018).
Through the years, serious games have been
developed for and supported mainly by places like
schools, museums and archaeological places, with the
purpose to educate students about cultural heritage.
2.3.1 Games and Tools
eShadow: A 2D collaborative platform that allows
users to use tools in order to create, watch, share
shadow theater plays. Users can also import their own
puppets instead of using the existing ones.
MUBIL: This project aims to deliver, and present
knowledge and content stored in the ancient
assortment in the Norwegian Science and Technology
University, where player is an ancient alchemy
apprentice with a goal to produce a certain medicine.
La Dama Boba Game: Player is an actor and
through puzzles and conversations re-produces the
play “La Dama Boba, El juego”.
Acropolis virtual tour: Developed as a web
application that allows users to explore the
archaeological site of Acropolis in Athens.
The Ancient Theatre: A web site that contains
educational games for students and teachers about the
ancient theatre and its god Dionysus. It contains the
games: (a) “what is hidden under the city?” about the
excavation and rebuild of the Larisa’s ancient theater,
(b) “the celebration of the great Dionysia”, where
users are part of a tour in ancient Athens during the
Great Dionysia and (c) “A modern troupe in the
ancient theaters of the world”, where users can search
around the globe for ancient theaters that being used
till now.
2.3.2 ThimelEdu
In this work primary school students have explored
and interacted with educational material about the
ancient theater, through a 3D serious game,
developed with Unity 3D game engine, called
ThimelEdu (Vidakis et al., 2018). The nature of the
theater studies is a challenge for the educators,
because there is a difficulty in recreating situations
and environments. Visits on sites can be difficult and
sometimes impossible for students and the plays can
be disinteresting to learners. Under those
circumstances the ThimelEdu serious game was
inspired and developed.
The main purpose of the game is to deliver
educational content about the Greek ancient theater to
students, as well as to be a complementary tool for the
Evaluating the Learning Process: The “ThimelEdu” Educational Game Case Study
293
educators who seek alternative teaching ways
(Vidakis et al., 2019). The game is consisted of a 3D
environment of an ancient theater where learners can
navigate and discover building and tools used.
Students cruise through and interact with the multiple
scattered artifacts inside the site. The educational
material is presented through texts, images and
quizzes. Assessment is achieved through the possible
questions presented during the navigation and
interaction with the artifacts (Vidakis et al., 2019).
Gamification characteristics, like score and rewards,
are used to enhance players awareness and
performance (Vidakis et al., 2018). Also, the game
provides full accessibility by adapting its content and
the game experiences, according to each learner’s
profile on the IOLAOS platform, ensuring the most
ideal learning conditions for every learner (Vidakis et
al., 2015).
Figure 1: ThimelEdu serious game (Vidakis et al., 2019).
3 OUR APPROACH
The purpose of the present study was to examine
whether a game-based approach contributes to the
development of students’ knowledge compared to the
‘traditional’ teaching approach. A co-examination of
the effect of additional factors, such as gender and
age, was conducted while assessing the impact of the
two forms of teaching intervention on the
development of students ‘knowledge according the
ancient theater. We sought to examine the following
hypotheses:
H1) The initial knowledge of the two groups will
increase significantly after the intervention.
H2) The knowledge of students taught ancient theater
elements with the ‘traditional’ approach is
significantly less than the knowledge of students
taught ancient theater elements with a game and
is not affected by factors such as gender.
4 METHODOLOGY
4.1 Sample
After obtaining central office permission to conduct
this study in school districts in the region of Crete, we
contacted principals as per our institutional review
board protocol to describe the study and request
permission to meet with early childhood educators to
explain the study and determine their interest in
participating. The study adhered to university ethical
guidelines. A common framework of ethical
principles was adopted across the teaching
intervention. Ethical principles relating to basic
individual safety requirements were met regarding
information, informed consent, confidentially and the
use of data.
The research sample was ethnically and language
homogenous and consisted of 22 students (8 boys, 14
girls) from the city of Heraklion, prefecture of Crete,
Greece. The age of the student ranged between 17 and
17.5 years (M = 210 months, SD = 4.7 months, at the
first time of measurement). The student attended two
classes in a public High School during the 2018-2019
school year. Requirements concerning information,
informed consent, confidentiality and usage of data
were carefully met, both orally and in writing, by
informing the school staff, students and parents on the
purpose of the study and their rights to refrain from
participation. Only children who completed all two
rounds of testing (pretest, posttest) were included in
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the final experimental sample. Students were
randomly assigned to one of two groups.
4.2 Data Collection Instruments
For the evaluation of student’s performance before
and after the teaching intervention, a questionnaire
was specially administered for the purpose of the
current study. In short, the concepts examined by the
questionnaire are identifying parts of the ancient
theatre, understanding ancient theatre architecture,
the role of orchestra, etc. Each of these elements is
represented by a set of questions distributed across
the test.
4.3 Research Design – Procedure
For the verification of the research hypotheses, an
experimental procedure was designed, in which the
sample was divided into two groups, the control
group and the experimental group. The experimental
design included three phases:
a) the pre-experimental control phase, during which
the measurement of the dependent variable was
performed,
b) the experimental phase/intervention, during
which manipulation of the independent variable
took place and
c) the post-experimental control phase, during
which post-control of the dependent variable was
performed.
The research procedure consisted of two stages.
The first stage, from September to December of 2018,
involved the pilot test of the game and the creation –
evaluation of the questionnaire. The second stage,
from January 2019 until May 2019, included the pre
experimental procedure, the experimental
intervention and post-experimental procedure.
Student’s regular mathematics classroom instruction
was not interrupted by the study. In the experimental
group, a computer game was used to enhance the
regular classroom instruction, whereas in the control
group the instruction was enriched with the use of
WebQuest.
4.4 Students Pre-test
The first phase, which was common for the two
groups, took place during January and February of the
2018-2019 school year. In this phase, students were
asked to tackle the questions of the questionnaire. The
evaluation lasted for 10 to 30 minutes, depending on
the performance of each student. Students who were
absent on the days the tests were administered were
not included in the sample.
4.5 Teaching Intervention
The teaching intervention took place between January
and April of the 2018- 2019 school year. It aimed to
develop student’s general knowledge about ancient
theater in general. The teaching intervention was
done by the same teacher in both groups in
accordance with the thematic approach, as defined by
the Greek Curriculum of Studies for Secondary
Education. In the control group, the teaching
intervention was enhanced by using the web for a
structured research (WebQuest), whereas in the
experimental group it was enriched by using a special
created computer game. Students who were absent for
more than two teaching interventions were excluded
from the survey. The second phase of the research
was completed by the end of the teaching
intervention.
4.6 Students Post-test
The third and final phase of the research was carried
out in May of the 2018-2019 school year. During this
phase, each student was examined once again in the
questionnaire. For the proper conduct of the test, the
same examination procedure as the one in the pre-test
phase was followed.
5 RESULTS
Prior to data analysis, we ensured the typical
assumptions of a parametric test such as normality,
homogeneity of variances, linearity and
independence were met before various parametric
statistical tests can be properly used. The data were
analyzed using IBM SPSS 23.0 software, and the
significance level adopted was 5% (p < .05).
5.1 Equivalence Checking of the
Experimental Groups
Initially, the equivalence of the two groups in terms
of the student’s gender was tested. The results, after
applying the Chi-Square statistical criterion, showed
that the two groups did not differ significantly in the
number of boys and girls included, χ2(1) = 0.79, p >
0.05. Subsequently, the equivalence of the two groups
in terms of the student’s age was tested. An analysis
of variance showed that the two groups were
equivalent as to student's age, F(1, 20) = 0.1, p > 0.05.
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295
The one-way ANOVA was also used to investigate
the equivalence of the two groups in terms of the
average score in the questions, which describes the
knowledge of the sample. According to the results of
the ANOVA analysis, the two groups did not reveal a
statistically significant difference in terms of the
performance of student on the questionnaire before
the start of the teaching intervention, F(1, 20) = 0.3, p
> 0.05. Taking into consideration the aggregated
results concerning the formation of the research
teams, we conclude that both groups are equivalent in
terms of: (a) age, (b) gender and (c) knowledge.
6 INFLUENCE OF THE
EXPERIMENTAL
INTERVENTION IN THE
DEVELOPMENT OF ANCIENT
THEATRE KNOWLEDGE OF
STUDENT
6.1 Direct Effects of the Experimental
Intervention in the Knowledge of
Student
The main purpose of this study was to investigate
whether student’s performance in ancient theatre
knowledge increased significantly, as recorded by
their performance in the questionnaire, after teaching
using a special designed game running on computers.
For this purpose, both groups were compared as to
their ancient theatre knowledge in the special created
questionnaire before and after the experimental
intervention, using dependent (paired samples) t-test.
As the results presented in Table 1 reveal, the
knowledge of both groups increased after the
experimental intervention. The difference in the
performance of students in each group during the two
measurements is statistically significant.
To further investigate the first aim of the research
it was considered useful to investigate whether these
two groups differ on a statistically significant level
with respect to the influence of the experimental
interventions. For this reason, ANOVA analysis was
conducted to investigate whether the groups differ on
a statistically significant level. Specifically, the
results of ANOVA showed a statistically significant
difference in students final performance in the
questionnaire between groups, F(1, 20) = 11.73, p =
0.0000. Moreover, the mean of the improvement in
the performance of the students in the experimental
group (21.45) is significantly higher than the mean of
the performance of the control group (15.00).
Table 2: Results of the analysis of the t-test per group.
M SD t-test (df=10)
Game based
approach
Knowledge
Pre-
tes
t
9.64 2.84 -7.49, p=0.000
Post-
test
21.45 4.44
M SD t-test (df=10)
Traditional
approach
Knowledge
Pre-
tes
t
9.91 4.85 -6.34, p=0.000
Post-
test
15.00 4.41
6.2 Effect of Other Factors on the
Development of Student’s
Knowledge
A key question in this study was whether the effect of
the experimental intervention on the performance of
the student in ancient theatre knowledge is affected
by other factors. For the investigation of this research
question a test of the degree of interdependence
between the independent variables was conducted by
using the Pearson product-moment correlation
coefficient. The results indicated that there is no
correlation between the age of student and the
improvement of their performance in ancient theatre
knowledge, r(22) = -.014, p > 0.05. Respectively, to
investigate the effect of the gender of the student as a
differentiating factor in the extent of improvement on
performance in ancient theatre knowledge, a t-test for
independent samples was applied. The results of the
test showed that the effect of gender on the
improvement in the performance of student’s
knowledge was not statistically significant, t(20) = -
0.37, p > 0.05, namely, gender does not seem to
influence in any way the improvement of student’s
performance in ancient theatre knowledge.
Additionally, there was a study of the effects of
more than one independent variable on the dependent
variable, namely the improvement in the performance
of student’s knowledge and the interactions between
them. Initially, the main effects of the experimental
intervention and student’s gender on the
improvement in their performance was examined
through the criterion of factorial variance analysis.
The results showed that the interaction between
gender and the experimental intervention had no
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effect F(1, 18) = 0.91, p > 0.05. Additionally, the
main effects of the experimental intervention and the
age of students on improving their performance were
examined. The results from the application of the
criterion showed that the interaction between the age
and the experimental intervention had no effect F(4,
9) = 11.75, p > 0.05.
7 INVESTIGATION OF
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The first hypothesis (H1) predicted that the initial
performance in ancient theater knowledge of the
experimental group and the control group would
increase significantly after the intervention.
Statistical analysis showed that both forms of
intervention contributed significantly to the
improvement of students performance. As a result,
the first hypothesis (H1), which refers to the positive
impact of both forms of intervention on the
improvement of student’s ancient theatre knowledge
was verified. The second hypothesis (H2) predicted
that the performance of the experimental group and
the control group in ancient theater knowledge would
differ significantly after the intervention, depending
on each form of intervention (game-based approach
or WebQuest). In the intervention, where teaching
with the use of a game was applied, student showed a
higher final performance and a significantly greater
improvement in their knowledge after the
intervention compared to the control group. The
above findings support the second hypothesis (H2).
The third hypothesis (H3) predicted that the
performance of the experimental group and the
control group in ancient theater knowledge would
differ significantly after the intervention, depending
on the use of different forms of teaching intervention,
even after the control of various other factors related
to the development of their knowledge. The
investigation of the interdependence of the
independent variables on the extent of the
improvement in student’s final performance in
ancient theatre knowledge showed that there is no
correlation between age and gender on the extent of
improvement in student’s final performance.
Additionally, investigating the main effects, as well
as the interactions, of more than one independent
variable on the extent of student’s improved
performance in ancient theatre knowledge showed
that the effect of the experimental intervention did not
differ depending on age or gender. Based on these
results, the H3 hypothesis of this study was verified.
8 DISCUSSION
Many educators see digital games as powerfully
motivating digital environments because of their
potential to enhance student engagement and
motivation in learning as well as an effective way to
create socially interactive and constructivist learning
environments (Kalogiannakis & Papadakis, 2019).
The results of this study provide a framework for the
formulation of pedagogical proposals which could
develop students’ knowledge in various disciplines in
secondary education. Of course, technology is not a
panacea. It is not the hardware or the software, but the
combined use of ICT with the pedagogical approach
that has the potential to make a significant
contribution to student's specific knowledge
achievement.
9 CONCLUSION & FUTURE
WORK
To conclude, game-based learning is willing to create
educational processes able to motivate learners and
transform the traditional educational process to an
effective and excited and entertaining procedure
where learners interact directly with the teaching
material (Mawas, Truchly, Podhradský & Muntean,
2019; Dorouka, Papadakis, & Kalogiannakis, 2020).
Serious games are able to increase student’s
awareness about the teaching procedure and
effectively transform knowledge (Papadakis, 2020;
Rosli, Mangshor, Sabri, & Ibrahim, 2017). In the
present work secondary school students taught about
the Greek ancient theater through an interactive 3D
serious game called “ThimelEdu”. An experiment
was held in order to examine if students acquire
knowledge through a serious game, compared with
the traditional learning method.
However, there were limitations on this study that
need to be addressed in future studies. The duration
of the teaching intervention was 13 weeks. Although
it is adequate to test experimentally the effect of the
different didactic approaches, it is not enough to
fulfill student’s needs in the development of their
knowledge to a significantly greater extent. For this
reason, it is necessary to implement a teaching
intervention which will be long enough in duration to
extensively investigate the effect of various didactic
approaches in the development of students’
knowledge. The second limitation of this research is
that the study did not implement a delayed post-test
Evaluating the Learning Process: The “ThimelEdu” Educational Game Case Study
297
to measure whether knowledge gained from a game
or WebQuest assisted learning approach persisted.
Finally, the implementation of a longitudinal
study investigating the effects of different didactic
approaches in the development of students’
knowledge would also constitute a significant
extension of the present study.
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