Serious Games. Serious Learning.

James Bonus and James Bonus

Abstract

Education in the United States is muddled in growing pains. Few people question the need for fundamental reform, but there's little consensus on what that reform should look like. One thread that has linked reform approaches thus far is the creation and implementation of new instructional technologies. Interestingly, research has neglected to analyze ways to revitalize textbook learning, which, in higher education, is one of the primary instructional methods encountered by students. Given the intrinsically motivating aspects of most games, it stands to reason that a modernized, "gamified" textbook would promote greater student engagement and motivation to learn from textual material. The purpose of this paper is to theoretically define and construct a gamified introductory sociology electronic textbook, and to propose a study that would test the feasibility of using such a textbook in the classroom, specifically measuring levels of student intrinsic motivation and academic achievement.