Effects of Simulation Games on students' Computational Thinking and Game Experience for Programming Courses in Primary School

There is substantial evidence that incorporating interactive environments for game-based instruction has a significant potential to support the development of computational thinking and programming skills in primary education students. However, it is not clear whether a simulation game (SG) with different user interface elements, created via three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds and visual programming environments to project various problem-solving exercises in a simulated reality, can significantly influence students to think and practice "computationally" their solution plans into code. The current study aims to identify any possible added value of each instructional approach by measuring students' game experience and learning performance. This quasi-experimental study involved ninety participants (n = 90) aged between 10 and 11 years that consisted of two comparison conditions. The experimental group (n = 45) received training using OpenSimulator in combination with Scratch4SL, whereas the control group (n = 45) was trained using Scratch. The findings indicate considerable differences in students' game experience and satisfaction, but no statistically significant difference in their learning performance and knowledge gain was identified. This study provides several design implications for user interface and game elements to inform educational practitioners and instructors about the benefits that each approach can offer students for better knowledge acquisition and deeper disciplinary understanding.