Over the past 15-20 years, the video game industry has grown at an incredible
pace. The students entering our colleges and universities, known as digital natives, have
grown up with advanced technology being commonplace rather than luxury. When
looking at video games, we can see elements of instruction designed in them.
Additionally, we see increases in motivation and engagement when users are playing
video games. Therefore, current research has theoretically proposed that video games
designed around educational material can serve as effective instructional tools. These
educational games and simulations are known as serious games. Although there is an
abundance of theoretical data regarding the benefits of serious games, empirical data is
harder to find.
This study attempted to fill some of the empirical data in regards to the benefits of
serious games. The study uses three groups of students in post-secondary education
classes. Each group was given instructional material covering the topic of crop
domestication, but the method of transmitting the material was different (Audio Lecture,
Text Reading, Serious Game). The participants took a pre-test and a post-test covering the
material. Additional demographic information was gathered in order to determine
differences in demographic populations using the various instructional techniques.