Systematic Design and Rapid Development of Motion-Based Touchless Games for Enhancing Students’ Thinking Skills

• Main Authors: Ioannis Altanis, Symeon Retalis, Ourania Petropoulou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-01-01
• Series: Education Sciences
• Subjects: technology enhanced learning; Game-based learning; Kinect; Formative evaluation; secondary education; thinking skills
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/8/1/18

During the last few years, there has been a growing interest in students getting engaged in digital game-making activities so as to enhance their thinking skills. The findings of studies that have examined the impact of such initiatives are quite positive, especially concerning the promotion of 21st century skills; however, many students seem to face difficulties in getting a deeper understanding of the game development life cycle. Additionally, students often have difficulties in meaningfully reusing and applying the concepts from various subjects, mainly mathematics and physics, into their game-making tasks or in understanding advanced programming commands while creating their games. The present study presents an innovative game-making teaching approach that suggests a series of steps for the systematic design and rapid development of motion-based touchless games, i.e., games that are based on natural user interaction technologies, like the Microsoft Kinect camera. Findings from evaluation studies in two (2) secondary schools indicate that this approach can increase student motivation, strengthen their computational thinking, enhance their understanding of geometric principles and improve their social skills.