An Auto Battler Game to Engage High School Student's Understanding of Ionic Bonds in Chemistry

This paper describes the development and evaluation of a serious game to help high school students understand the topic of ionic bonds in chemistry. Chemistry is among the lowest-scoring subjects for high school students due to complex chemistry concepts and syntax difficulties. The novelty of this study is a developed auto battler game that includes specific learning objectives regarding ionic bonds. 27 Danish high school students participated in the evaluation. The evaluation consisted of a knowledge test and a questionnaire with items from the user engagement scale. The findings revealed that the high school students were positively engaged in the battle game. The grand mean for eight engagement items, based on a 5-point Likert scale, was 3.78. Specifically, the participants perceived the graphics and visual elements as highly positive. Further, they were concentrated while playing and were interested in the game. The students provided positive statements in the open-ended comments, including a good, creative, cozy, well-made, engaging, and fun game. However, the learning outcomes were not as satisfactory as expected. In the paper, we outline reflections on difficulties when measuring learning outcomes in game-based learning.