Investigating the educational effectiveness of multiplayer online games for children

ABSTRACT

Multiplayer games are becoming an important part of Internet use, and have been the subject of many theoretical and empirical studies. Still, relatively few researches investigate multiplayer Internet games that are designed for young children and for educational purposes. This paper focuses on the educational effectiveness of this class of systems, and introduces some heuristics for its evaluation. We also report an empirical study that involved eighty-five elementary school children and measured the educational effectiveness of an online multiplayer game. We used both learning benefits analysis and empirical assessment of our heuristics, comparing the findings of the two evaluation methods.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.1 Computer Uses in Education
          Subjects: Collaborative learning

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.3 Group and Organization Interfaces
          Subjects: Evaluation/methodology; Web-based interaction

Keywords:
children, collaborative learning, empirical testing, heuristics, inspection, multiplayer game, on-line edutaiment, social interaction