Learning and Motivational Processes When Students Design Curriculum‐Based Digital Learning Games

Abstract: This design‐based research (DBR) project has developed an overall gami‐fied learning design (big Game) to facilitate the learning process for adult students by inviting them to be their own learning designers through designing digital learn‐ing games (small games) in cross‐disciplinary subject matters. The DBR project has investigated and experimented with which elements, methods, and processes are important when aiming at creating a cognitive complex (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) and motivating learning process within a reusable game‐based learning de‐sign. This project took place in a co‐design process with teachers and students. The learning approach was founded in problem‐based learning (PBL) and construction‐ist pedagogical methodology, building on the thesis that there is a strong connection between designing and learning. The belief is that activities that involve mak‐ing, building, or programming provide a rich context for learning, since the con‐struction of artefacts, in this case learning games, enables reflection and new ways of  thinking.  The  students  learned  from  reflection  and  interaction  with  the  tools  alone as well as in collaboration with peers. After analysing the students’ learning trajectories within this method of learning, this study describes seven areas of the iterative learning and game design process. The analysis also shows that the  cur‐rent learning design is constructed as a hierarchy supported through different roles as learning designers contained within one another. The study found that the stu‐dents benefitted from this way of learning as a valid variation to more conventional teaching  approaches,  and  teachers  found  that  the  students  learned  at  least  the  same amount or more compared to traditional teaching processes. The students were able to think outside the box and experienced hard fun (Papert, 2002) ‐ the phenomena  that  everyone  likes  challenging  things  to  do,  as  long  as  they  are  the  right things matched to the individual. They were motivated by hands‐on work and succeeded  in  developing  four  very  different  and  meaningful  learning  games  and  game concepts, which contributed to achieving their learning goals.