A Physics Learning System Using Gamification for High-School Students

With rapid proliferation of digitalization and compulsion by COVID-19 pandemic, learning formats have been changing from face-to-face to online. Online education enables learners to take courses from anywhere, anytime, but it can also cause some problems for learners who struggle to maintain motivation. In addition, for STEAM education, it is important to engage in hands-on activities, but the ongoing pandemic has made it difficult for students to gather in one place to perform such activities. Incorporating gamification into online education can potentially motivate students and make STEAM education more interactive. On this premise, we have developed PhyGame as a learning system to help high-school students learn Physics. The system includes common game elements such as badges and leaderboards, and interactive simulation of Physics concepts embodying game-like charm. It also includes three modes of learning that allow students to adjust the difficulty according to their own learning levels, and a function that automatically saves learning log. For evaluation, PhyGame was used by students (N=23) at a high school in central Tokyo. The students rated the system on a scale of 1 to 10, and the main results are as follows: (1) Using PhyGame made learning enjoyable (mean score: 7.74); (2) PhyGame provided a good UI/UX (mean score: 7.83); (3) The overall experience with PhyGame was satisfactory (mean: 7.00). Our evaluation results show that interactive and gamified learning systems like PhyGame have a positive impact on user engagement and motivation.