APPLICATION OF COMPUTER EDUCATIONAL GAMES IN HIGHER LEGAL EDUCATION (AN EXPERIMENT EXPERIENCE)

Abstract

The article analyzes the cognitive effect of the use of computer educational games in the future lawyers training at university. The relevance of studying this issue is due to the search for modern higher education of optimal educational practices that allow one to achieve the goals it faces. The authors of the article put forward a hypothesis that computer educational games have a significant cognitive effect. The article describes an experiment aimed at establishing the cognitive result of using a game in the educational process when conducting classes with students of the Faculty of Law from the subjective (students’ opinion) and objective (teachers’ opinion) points of view. For this purpose, in their own pedagogical practice, the authors use the computer educational game “Criminal Case” developed by them, designed to train lawyers’ professional competencies of an investigator. The authors conduct a study in which, using the methods of pedagogical observation, interviewing, questioning, as well as the method of expert assessments, they evaluate the ability of a computer educational game, using the example of the game “Criminal Case”, to train a student the professional competencies of an investigator. The results obtained during the experiment confirmed a high cognitive effect of the use of computer educational games in teaching lawyers, both in the opinion of students, who indicated that they acquired new knowledge, systematization of existing knowledge after training through the game, and in the opinion of teachers, based on objective data from the results of testing students to determine their level of knowledge. As a result, the authors formulate the conclusion that computer educational games have many positive qualities that affect both the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and practical skills, and therefore they can successfully supplement traditional forms of education. The results of the study can be used to study this issue further.