Mid Sweden University

miun.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Game-based Learning for History: Student Perceptions and Preferences
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Mid Sweden University, Faculty of Human Sciences, Department of Education. (CER)ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1984-7917
2024 (English)In: Proceedings of the 18th European Conference on Games Based Learning / [ed] Kristine Kilså and Rajiv Vaid Basaiawmoit, Aarhus, Denmark: ACI Academic Conferences International, 2024, Vol. 18, p. 373-384Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

With the rapid development of games in the 21st century, the panoply of games on history shows a wide variety. Backstories from most historical eras have been implemented in different game genres and modalities. Furthermore, a growing number of studies have pointed to the didactic potential of historical games as learning tools. This study aims at investigating university students' perceptions of gaming and their game preferences, with a particular focus on history. The research question to answer was: "What types of games do history students play, and how can games, in their view, contribute to learning in their subject?" Educational action research was used as the overall strategy in a study where data was collected from five different university course groups in general history at the basic level. Students answered questionnaires with open ended questions about gaming preferences and their perceptions of games. The answers were then analysed in an inductive thematic analysis. Findings show that the students play a mix of analogue board games, digital games and hybrid forms. In the transmedial array of games available, important genres include role playing games, strategy games, quizzes and first-person action games. The students frequently provide arguments for the use of games in history education, and they give reasons why they find a particular game useful for this purpose. They describe how these games have a potential to add value to history education. To some extent, they also discuss how this can be implemented. In conclusion, the authors argue that so-called technology tree games are particularly relevant to learning history from a structural perspective, while RPG:s can strengthen interpretive approaches through a subjective historical experience.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Aarhus, Denmark: ACI Academic Conferences International, 2024. Vol. 18, p. 373-384
Keywords [en]
Game-based Learning, History, Strategy Games, Technology Tree, Role-playing Games
National Category
Didactics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-52781DOI: 10.34190/ecgbl.18.1.2655Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85212941524OAI: oai:DiVA.org:miun-52781DiVA, id: diva2:1904623
Conference
ECGBL 2024
Projects
HEaD - HistoTreeAvailable from: 2024-10-09 Created: 2024-10-09 Last updated: 2025-09-25Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(349 kB)411 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 349 kBChecksum SHA-512
701ada00ac0502efab30e07ad72f23342744966c95d9a648a3cf141cf3e2dace38fd62ed7ebb5d4e48a31b60d5104061f0249786ea76b7b3420c00e5ff9175ba
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Hellerstedt, AndreasMozelius, Peter

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Hellerstedt, AndreasMozelius, Peter
By organisation
Department of Humanities and Social SciencesDepartment of Education
Didactics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 413 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 411 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf