Educational Digital Games Evaluation as a Teaching Support Tool in Academic Virtuality

What is it about?

An era of forced virtuality begins in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This virtuality as part of education 4.0, not as a model but as the immediate application of its existing technological tools and their main trends of innovation and change, allow continuity to the vital teaching-learning processes in the knowledge society. Thus, the need arises to establish a model to evaluate the usability of several supporting technological tools using active learning strategies such as educational digital games (EDG) or videogames for children during this pandemic confinement. This article presents a methodological model applied to a case study for evaluating academic experiences of usingEDG in virtual teaching environments. For this purpose, a pilot plan supporting education 4.0 with gamification is implementedto strengthen early childhood education in public schools in marginal sectors in one of the most populous cities in Ecuador. Utility and Usability factors of a selected series of EDG (identified as MIDI-AM)are evaluated in this context. These applications are used as a complementary tool in the teaching-learning process of children from 4 to 7 years old. Overall, a mixed qualitative-quantitative method wasapplied, starting with an exhaustive literature review on the subject. Then, data collection strategies and analysis wereusedthrough focus groups and online surveys. As a result, factors' evaluation of use and perception of usability that allows proposing improvements in the application of gamification and the production of educational videogames were identified. From the study, six hypotheses were stated,and the proposed research model was validated as a tool to evaluate any EDG in the future academic period as reinforcement of curricular content to create more dynamic and active learning environments.

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Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash