The development and evaluation of an educational board game on basic geotechnical soil characterization

This paper discusses the potential of gamification as a tool for teaching and learning in geotechnical engineering. Gamification involves incorporating elements of gameplay such as challenges, rewards, competition, and cooperation into teaching and learning environments to make the process more interactive and engaging. Although gamification is widely used in many fields, it is still relatively new in geotechnical engineering. This paper presents the ‘Soil Character’ board game developed by the GeoFUN group as an example of successful gamification in geotechnical engineering education. The game focuses on basic soil characterization, including soil classification systems, index properties, and geotechnical characterization tests such as sieving, sedimentation, and Atterberg limits. The paper provides background information on the development of the game, and a description of the game components. The online Portuguese version of the game was tested with eight civil engineering undergraduate students who had successfully undertaken the introductory soil mechanics module. Student’s satisfaction in terms of game design, rules, and gameplay was measured via a questionnaire. Results of the questionnaires showed that the game was well evaluated in all aspects. Student volunteers reported that they felt very motivated, and that they wished they had been able to play the game when they were learning the topic. Thus, results presented in this paper suggest that gamification has the potential to make geotechnical engineering education more interactive and engaging. Exploring the effectiveness of the game in various contexts and with diverse student populations constitutes a key direction for our future research.