Investigation of the Influence of Gameplay Anonymity and Cooperation Mode on an English Vocabulary learning Game

10.6302/JITA.201612_10(2).0003

Jia-Jiunn Lo；Yu-Jun Lin

gameplay anonymity ； gameplay cooperation ； English vocabulary learning game ； English vocabulary learning attitude ； game attitude

Journal of Information Technology and Applications(資訊科技與應用期刊)

10卷2期（2016 / 12 / 01）

31 - 39

英文

Recently, digital game-based learning has got more interest. Its effect is highly determined by the way how students perceive educational games. Students as players may have different perceptions of educational games depending on contextual factors such as gameplay anonymity and cooperation. Anonymous environments hide players' personal profiles, hence decrease social pressure which in turn may influence players' behaviors. The existence of cooperation between players may have impacts on players' behaviors, too. These factors may in turn influence players' learning and motivation in the game-based learning environment. As a consequence, this study investigated the influence of gameplay anonymity for different competition/cooperation modes of an multiplayer English vocabulary learning game. A class of twenty six fourth grade elementary school students were recruited and exposed to four gameplay modes including anonymous/cooperation, non-anonymous/cooperation, anonymous/no cooperation, and non-anonymous/no cooperation. An English vocabulary learning attitude questionnaire and a game attitude questionnaire were completed by the participants. Though there were no significant differences of participants' English vocabulary learning attitude before and after the experiment, the experimental results revealed that the game used in this study is a well-designed digital game-based English vocabulary learning program with both high ＂education＂ and ＂entertainment＂ ingredients. The results also showed that both gameplay anonymity and cooperation did have impacts on participants' attitude toward the game.