Abstract
This paper presents EscapeCell, a Serious Game to help undergraduate students understand plant cellular biology. Each course chapter is enriched with one mini-game, a gamification module integrated into the e-learning platform and several reminders of the game in the course material. We conducted a study on 117 students to compare their exam results with a control group from last year. We also correlated the collected feedback from the students and usage tracks. This helped us measure the usefulness of specific game elements such as a non-player character that provides help and bonus information modules hidden throughout the mini-games. The preliminary results indicate that the integration of EscapeCell improves students’ learning outcomes in the final exam and that Blob, the virtual tutor, facilitates the usage of the mini-games. Although the bonus information modules do not directly correlate with the final exam result, they show a positive correlation with the scores of the intermediate tests - the multiple-choice questions (MCQs) - taken by the students just after playing the mini-games.
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Acknowledgements
This project was financed by Le Mans Université, France. We specially want to thank the entire conception and development team: Tiphaine GALPIN, Tiphaine INGUERE, Raphaël LALANNE, Fréderic LABRE, Franck VARET and Mohamed Hamza FALIH.
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Liu, YD., Marne, B., Marfisi-Schottman, I., Galpin, T., Caruso, A. (2024). EscapeCell: Serious Game Integration to a University Biology Course on an E-Learning Platform. In: Dondio, P., et al. Games and Learning Alliance. GALA 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14475. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49065-1_2
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