Influences of an inquiry-based ubiquitous gaming design on students' learning achievements, motivation, behavioral patterns, and tendency towards critical thinking and problem solving

In this paper, an inquiry-based ubiquitous gaming approach was proposed. The objective of the study was to enhance students' performances in in-field learning activities. To show the advantages of the approach, an experiment was carried out to assess the effects of it on students' learning achievement, motivation, critical thinking, and problem solving. Furthermore, the students' behavioral patterns were investigated via content and sequential analysis methods. The experimental outcomes show that the approach promoted students' performances of learning achievement and intrinsic motivation; moreover, the students' perceptions of their problem solving and critical thinking were significantly promoted as well. The learning behavior analysis further show that the designated approach stimulated the participants to actively engage in field observation, comparison, and data searching in the context ware in-field learning activity.